By Pastor Don Schatz

You Do Not Have to Squint

“So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”

John 12:21  English Standard Version

My grandkids went with their parents to the University of Washington football fan appreciation day a couple weeks ago.  My son sent a picture and asked if we could see the kids.  I zoomed in and found them!  Zooming in, they were quite blurry.  But I could tell one of them had on her Husky cheerleading outfit!

Sometimes we have to squint to see something.  Sometimes we recognize people by their walk before we can visually be certain who they are.  Even the disciples didn’t recognize Jesus walking.  Of course, there was a storm, and he was walking on WATER!  It turns out that context affects how/what we think we are seeing.  Or not seeing.  Spiritually, that is when trust is critical.

The folks who came to Phillip were Greeks, not Jews.  But they wanted to see Jesus.  Oddly, John’s Gospel does not tell us if they got to see Jesus.  That is a head-scratcher for me.  Always has been.  On occasion, I can feel like that strange inclusion in the Gospel that John wrote.  “Let me see Jesus” is a sentiment I can identify with.  ‘But wait, did I see him?  I even squinted!’

“Ah,” you reply, “that’s where trust is critical.”  And you are correct.  We do not have to squint, or use any other technique, to see Jesus.  Faith sees.  That is not a cop out.  Faith sees.  “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction conviction of things unseen” (Hebrews 11:1).  “…we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (II Corinthians 4:18).  “…for we walk by faith, not by sight” (II Corinthians 5:7).  “For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen?  But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience” (Romans 8:24–25).  

Look around you today.  You get to see Jesus.

Copyright Family of Christ Lutheran Church, Colorado Springa, Colorado