John 8:31-36
I just read a portion of John, in which Jesus speaks
about truth. He says we will know the truth by simply believing in him.
I want to add another brief text as a way to reflect (you’ll see, there is a pun intended) on Jesus’ comments. The Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13: For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.
What do you see when you look in the mirror? … Are
you happy with what you see? … Most people aren’t happy with the image they
see. The person they see is too heavy or too slim; too tall or too short;
having a bad hair day or having too little hair; too wrinkled or too many zits.
Or, sometimes, we think we are just right, or even perfect.
Beyond our physical appearance, our self-image has
emotional defects as well. We see flaws that are intentionally hidden from
others. We know we have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We know the struggles
we face. But the face we try to project to the world is one of confidence and
perfection; or, we give up and hide from others, knowing they can see through
our defenses to the imperfect heart that lives within us.
Our mirror is shaped by culture. We use other people
as our mirror, and often, we assume we are less perfect in comparison. Except
when we see ourselves as better than the persons we are comparing ourselves to.
We look into a defective mirror. We see the truth dimly, imperfectly.
The Jewish leaders Jesus was talking with were using
a defective mirror. They claimed to have never been slaves to anyone. I guess
they were forgetting the early days of their history as slaves in Egypt, and
Moses and that whole Exodus adventure that formed them into the people they
were. They refused to consider that what Jesus was saying had merit, that he
was speaking the truth.
Our mirrors don’t always tell us the truth, no
matter how we look into them. It’s only when we use Jesus’ eyes that we can see
the truth about ourselves and about others. Jesus’ truth tells us that the
image we see in the mirror is not the image God sees when God looks at us.
The image God sees is God’s own image, adapted to
human form. The image God sees is one of perfection. While we tend to see our imperfections,
our sins, the image of us that God sees is colored with love and compassion and
mercy. Jesus urges us to see ourselves and each other the same way, all of us
made in the image of God. But we don’t, do we?
Here, I could mention all the ways we disrespect and
reject people who are different from ourselves. I could mention all the ways we
are a diverse people and we tend to not trust people who are different from us.
That’s a piece of human truth told to us by defective mirrors. But, we don’t
need to look at society’s differences to find the defective mirrors.
The truth is, there is plenty of disrespect and rejection
within our own families. Our families don’t teach us that our family mirrors
are defective, and they don’t tell us the whole truth.
An example from my own life proves this. When I was
a child, we lived in a suburb south of Chicago. My father was an insurance man,
the kind that ran a debit route. He drove into the city every day to collect
small amounts of cash from clients. By the mid-1950s most of the people living
in the South Side were black.
I have always been proud to know that one of his people
was Mahalia Jackson, the singer. I saw her on the Ed Sullivan Show a couple of
times. Wow! My dad knew someone famous! That she was black never mattered, only
that she was famous for having a wonderful voice.
In contrast, when I was in high school, my mom made
it clear she was of a different opinion. Here’s a direct quote that has stayed
with me my whole life. “You can date a black boy, but don’t you ever think of
marrying one!” I am very proud of my dad. I like his mirror much better than my
mom’s.
We all have broken mirrors that hide the truth from
us. So, how do we wipe the mirrors clean? We look to Jesus who always speaks and
demonstrates the truth. The truth is that when God looks at us, God only sees our
hearts. God only sees us as we were first created, with love, for love. The
ugly parts of us, the parts that come from painful moments and broken
relationships and unhealthy choices – those parts don’t show up when God sees
us.
Jesus says, “Love one another as I have loved you.”
This love, Jesus’ love, will bring us to the truth. God sees us clearly and
loves us dearly. There is no defective mirror in the way.
When we are able to find room for this truth in our
hearts, we become free to love as Jesus loves.
We become free to see that the image in the mirror is
free of the defects and imperfections and sins and ugly stuff that we imagine
ourselves to have.
We become free to believe Jesus, and to believe in
him. Amen
