SEEING BEYOND THE CARNAL AND NOT BEING
SO QUICK TO JUDGE
I’m reading the chapter about Giotto in Vasari’s
book on Renaissance artists. At first glance, I wrote Giotto off as a very
primitive artist, especially compared to Michelangelo, Raphael, and some other Renaissance
artists whose works I knew better and really liked. But I decided to stop
judging Giotto so negatively and take a closer look. I found a great website, wikiart.com,
and I was so elated when I saw how he could communicate so many facial
expressions and different body positions. This was many years before the discovery
of how to use perspective and other techniques of realistic figurative
painting.
I spent all afternoon just looking at
many of his paintings and blowing them up so I could get a closer look at the
wonderful details. I thought about how important it is for us to stop judging things
so carnally. When it comes to people, if we always believe our first
impressions, we’re probably looking carnally and not seeing the truth.
Jesus never did this when he lived as
a man on earth, and he doesn’t do it now. He judges if God shows him something.
We need to look at people the way Jesus does. Like it says in 1 Samuel 16:7: “But the Lord said unto Samuel, ‘Look not
on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused
him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh
on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.’”
We can see in the Old
Testament many examples of how God chose many people with physical, mental, and
emotional issues to be witnesses for Him. Moses had problems with anger; Jacob had
a bad leg and limped. God chose four cast-out lepers to save the whole city of
Samaria. God is not concerned about anything we may consider a negative carnal
characteristic. He is only concerned about what’s in our hearts. If people want
to serve Him, He’ll show them how.
In New Testament
times, people often criticized Jesus for his interaction with regular people. Zacchaeus
was one of those. Zacchaeus was a Hebrew but he was a chief tax collector for
the hated Roman government. Not only that, but he was over-charging his own
people and getting rich off of the illegal profits. It’s interesting that his
name in Hebrew is translated “pure,” and that’s how Jesus saw him. We see the
story in Luke 19: 1-7:
“And Jesus entered and
passed through Jericho. And, behold, there was a man named
Zacchæus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich.
“And he sought to see Jesus who he
was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature. And he
ran before and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him: for he was to pass
that way.
“And when Jesus came to the place, he
looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, ‘Zacchæus, make haste, and come
down; for today I must abide at thy house.’
“And he made haste, and came down, and
received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all murmured,
saying that he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner.”
Jesus didn’t judge Zacchaeus by the
way he looked, how short he was, by the money he had, or by any other standard,
but only that the man really wanted to see Jesus. So, Jesus went to spend a
little time with the man at his house.
Have you ever had Jesus come to your
house? He will if you want him to. Just ask. You may think I’m crazy, but Jesus
has come several times to our house in the evenings to just hang out and be
with us. That’s what he did with Zacchaeus, and he even tells us in Revelation
3:20: “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock:
if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and
will sup with him, and he with me.” We can take that literally as
well as spiritually. When he comes to our house, he brings a peace that
fills the whole living room. Jane says that everything just always feels sweet
when he arrives. And he doesn’t even care that we’re in our pj’s or are having
a bad hair day. He doesn’t care about any of that carnal stuff at all.
As it turns out, it seems Zacchaeus
was deeply moved by the consideration Jesus showed him: “So then Zacchaeus stood up and solemnly declared to the Lord,
‘See, Lord, the half of my goods I [now] give [by way of restoration] to the
poor, and if I have cheated anyone out of anything, I [now] restore four times
as much (Luke 19:8AMPC). Four times as much was a greater restitution than the
law required (See Num. 5:7: “Then they shall confess their sin which they have
done: and he shall recompense his trespass with the principal thereof, and add
unto it the fifth part thereof, and give it unto him against whom he hath trespassed.”
When I first looked at Giotto’s
paintings, I only briefly looked at a very small photo and quickly dismissed it
as primitive, and not that great. But at a closer look, I saw his heart and his
tremendous talent. The heart and talent is what Jesus sees, and it’s what God
sees. Let’s walk in the image of the Lord and remind ourselves to see people
like he does.
Love, Carolyn
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