On New
Year’s Day I saw in the Frank and Ernest cartoon that one of the characters was
looking at a calendar with Jan. 1, 2020 on it and saying, “Darn! I knew it was
a long shot, but I was hoping I’d wake up today and have perfect eyesight.” There
is no connection of course between 20-20 eyesight and the year 2020, at least
in a literal sense. But in another sense, there may be a vital connection. It
might help us maneuver through whatever the new year brings if we can see
clearly. Especially if we have the kind of 20-20 vision that enables us to see
reality clearly and, as Paul prays in Philippians 1:9, “that your love may
overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine
what is best.”
How can
we gain the kind of 20-20 vision that enables us to determine what is best? The
year 2020 will bring all kinds of tests, temptations, ups and downs, joys and
sorrows, opportunities and challenges. How do we determine what is best?
It may depend on the kind of
glasses we are wearing. What we choose will be determined by how we look at
life. We all look at life through certain lenses. Some have lenses that are
covered with dollar signs and they see everything in terms of how much money
they can make. Others look at life through racist, or sexist, or political or nationalistic
lenses. The ideologies and worldviews by which we live are manifold and many of
them lead to a distorted understanding of reality.
As
Christians, we can choose to look through a different lens – the lens of Jesus,
or what we might call “Christ-colored” glasses. How did Jesus look at life? At
people? Matthew tells us (14:14) that when he saw the thousands of people who
had followed him to a deserted place “he had compassion upon them.” To view
life through the lens of Jesus means to see everything through his character,
that is, through his grace, compassion, love, kindness, goodness, and
integrity. It means to go through life choosing to live as a servant intent on doing
the will of God, the Father.
When
Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper he said to his disciples, “Do this in
remembrance of me.” As we focus on Jesus, our view of life is shaped by him and
we begin to see through the lens of Jesus. He gives us the kind of 20-20 vision
that we need to “determine what is best” as we maneuver through the year of 2020.
Let us focus, therefore, on him who took the bread, blessed and broke it and
said, “This is my body, given for you.” And also the cup, saying, “This is my
blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of
sins.”
