What Do You See?

Matthew 11: 7; Mark 8:18

There was a social occasion on which two men who had been in India for a number of years
were in attendence to share their experiences.
One had gone to India as a wild game hunter while the other had spent years as a Christian missionary.
The hunter was answering questions from the group that had assembled.
As he told about the number of animals he saw, he was interested in telling about the elephants.

After he had told a number of stories about his encounters with elephants, one person asked him
about the work of the Christian missionaries in India.
He replied, " I never saw a missionary the whole time I was there."

The Christian missionary replied very quietly, " You know that's strange.
I was in India 12 years and I never saw an elephant."

So much depends on what we are looking for in life.
In Matthew 11:7 Jesus said to His followers: " What went ye out into the wilderness to see?"
In other words what did you expect to see?

The International Standard Version says:
"As they were leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John. '
What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? ' "

The reed found in Egypt and Palestine was a very tall cane, growing twelve feet high, with a magnificent
blossom at the top, and so slender and yielding that it will lie perfectly flat under a gust of wind,
and then retain its upright position.

Two examples of a reed shaken in the wind is like a boy that cannot say 'No,'
when other boys tease him to smoke, drink or use drugs or go places where he ought not go,
is like a reed shaken with the wind.

John wasn't one to vacillate with the feelings of the crowd.
John called them snakes, and told them to bring forth fruit in keeping with repentance.
They went out into the desert to see someone great.
The one who was greater than any prophet who had ever been.
But he wasn't what they expected, so they failed to see him.

So often people are determined to not to believe anything that they haven't already
made up their mind to see.
Too often what we are determined to see, blinds us to what we must see.

Jesus asks, "What did you go out into the desert to see?"
That is an important question.
Was John like a reed shaken with the wind?
The obvious answer is, "No!"

John was just the opposite; no one could shake his belief.
He was the only one strong enough to oppose the immorality of Herod, and was put in prison
for his steadfastness.
It was all the rest of the Jews who were the "reeds," shaking in fear of Herod!

Are you seeking enlightenment or are you seeking to confirm what you believe you already see?
What we have made up our minds to see can blind us to what we actually see.

One mark of a great person is that he or she can see things others cannot see.

John Ruskin once said that for every thousand men who can talk there is only one who can think.
And for every thousand men who can think, there is only one who can see.

Elizabeth Barrett browning wrote,
" Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
And only he who sees takes off his shoes --
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries."

When you go to an eye doctor to have your eyes examined, he will have you look at a wall chart
with several lines of letters.
He will drop in lenses of differing strengths, and he will ask you, " Can you see these?"
He is testing your physical vision.

You may consult an accountant about your income tax.
He explains the laws concerning it, and then you say, " I see."
This his mental vision or sight of the mind.

A young lady may come home for dinner and try to act completely natural.
She imagines that she is revealing nothing of her inner feelings, but her mother is detecting
a suppressed emotion.
Finally, the mother says to her daughter, " OK, Mary, what is bothering you."
That mother is seeing her daughter with the eyes of her heart.

As a person plans for the future of his life, he makes certain value judgments.
He decides that certain things are more valuable in life than others.
He concludes that honor, character, love and integrity are worth clinging to with all his heart.
He decides to adopt these as purposes for his life, and then work hard to make his dreams come true.
He is confident that if he will fill his life on these great values he will be happy and useful.
He is looking at life through the eyes of faith.

One of the basic differences between success and failure is on this matter of how well you can see.

First, can you see yourself?

It is very difficult to be completely honest with yourself.
Yet, this is one of the basic requirements for building the right kind of life.
It is easy to turn the searchlight on someone else and point out his or her short-comings,
but it's not easy or enjoyable to admit our own weaknesses.

Robert Burns once said:
"O wad some power the giftie gie us
To see ourselves as others see us!"

How honest are you in looking at yourself?
Too many of us are like the lady who said up on one occasion, " I don't understand why people
can't see their own faults as well as the faults of others.
I know that I could see mine if I had any."

An anonymous poet said,
" Just go to the mirror and look at yourself and see what that person has to say;
For it isn't your father, or mother or wife,
Whose judgment upon you must pass,
The person whose verdict counts most in your life
Is the one staring back from the glass."

What about others?
Of all the good works which adorn the believer, none is more important than his spirit toward others.
Jesus had much to say about how we treat others and what attitude we have toward them.
In Philippians 2: 3, 4 Paul said, " There must be no room for rivalry and personal vanity
among you, but you must humbly reckon others better than yourselves.
Look to each other's interest and not merely to your own."

Can you see the good points in others even though that person seems to dislike you?
General Robert E. Lee was once asked his opinion of another officer in his army.
He replied that he thought this man was one of the most qualified soldiers and one of the
best soldiers to be found anywhere.
He was lavish in his praise of the man's loyalty and dedication.

The man said to General Lee, " Did you not know that he has criticized you openly
on a number of occasions, and has said that you are not qualified to be the head
of the Confederate Army?
Why do you speak good concerning him?"

General Lee replied, " You asked me my opinion of him.
You did not ask me his opinion of me, nor of my opinion concerning his opinion of me."

It takes a big person to see the good points in another when when we know this person
does not particularly care for us.
Can you see enough good in people who are defeated to believe in them and have confidence
in their future.
A teen-age girl once said to her pastor, " No one really has any confidence in my ability
to do anything or to be anybody."

Yet, many successful people today can testify that they are successful because somebody
had confidence enough in them to invest money in them or give them opportunity to succeed
to succeed on a job.

Often young people do not need financial aid nearly as much as they need the assurance
that somebody really has confidence in them.
If we doubt them, we may send them to a life of pessimism and despair, but if we believe
in them and let them know that we believe in them, we may be able to lead them
to achieve a victorious life.

" How to the mire and depths did you go?"
I asked of a man who had fallen low;
"How with the hope of victory near,
Did you leave the things all men hold dear --
Honor, and faith, and striving to touch
The stars, the summits men value much?"
He answered: " A near friend doubted me!"

" How did you reach the heights sublime?"
I asked a man who had made the climb;
" How, when the doubts and the failures came,
Did you start anew and play the game?
Steadfast, unswerving, with never a fear,
But stronger in faith from year to year,
When dark temptations assaulted your way
You could bring them forth in the light of day."
He answered: " A friend believed in me!"

There is Someone who truly sees you and knows you, and yet, loves you.
Look to Jesus he is the One who sees you and knows you, and yet, still loves you.

There is life in a look at the Crucified One.
Until we look to Jesus in simple trust, we will never truly see well.
Can you see well?
If not, you have been blinded by the things of the world, and they have shut you off from
the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

" Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace."


Sermon was adapted from several sources by Dr. Harold L. White