Reflecting the Face
of Jesus
1 John 3:16-24[1]
Mirrors have an interesting place
in our world. It seems that as long as human beings have been aware of their
appearance, there have been some kind of mirrors. And yet, the mirrors we have
used to look at ourselves have always to some degree distorted the image they
reflect. For example, the image we see is opposite from what others see; right
and left are reversed. But as most of the ladies will doubtless know, and
perhaps some of the guys too, the kind of lighting can make a huge difference in
the way we appear in a mirror. If the lighting is too harsh, we can look pale,
washed out, almost ghostly—or some might say ghastly. Yellow lighting softens
our features, but if there’s too much yellow it can make us look ill. The plain
truth is that mirrors do lie!
But more than the simple mechanics
of reflection and lighting is involved here. Because the image we “see” in the
mirror is significantly influence by the assumptions we make about our
appearance. The same person may look young or old, depending on what details
you notice. At the same time, some may see themselves as overweight, while
others see themselves as too thin, and there may be very little difference in
their actual body shape. Mirrors tend to reflect back what we believe about
ourselves. Those assumptions we make about ourselves make all the difference in
the world in what we see in the mirror and whether we like what we see or not.[2]
Mirrors don’t give us a true image.
In a very real sense, I think our
Scripture lesson from 1 John addresses the issue of the way we present the
image of Christ to those around us. Earlier in this passage, the Elder says,
“This is the message you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one
another” (1 Jn. 3:11). It seems very clear that the way we reflect our faith is
by showing the love of Jesus to those around us. I think that’s his point in our lesson for
today: “We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to
lay down our lives for one another” (1 Jn. 3:16). Loving others in the same way
Jesus loved us is the way we reflect our faith. It is the way we reflect the
face of Jesus to others.
Now, love can be something hard to
define. Think about it: how do you really describe love? The Scripture lesson
describes the kind of love that we are to show one another in terms of “laying
down our lives for one another.” That’s getting specific. But I find it
particularly interesting that the Scripture lesson goes even further.
Reflecting God’s love to others takes place when we have the means to help
someone in need and we help them. As the Elder puts it: “ How
does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or
sister in need and yet refuses help?” (1 Jn. 3:17). And so he concludes, “ let
us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action” (1 Jn. 3:18).[3]
We may find this kind of language
shocking. We’re much more used to talking about loving others in terms that are
feeling-oriented. Love is equated with being nice, or having a kind way of
relating to others. I’m not sure we’re used to the very tangible way in which the
Scripture speaks of loving others—actually sharing what we have with those in
need. And in fact, having the ability to share and refusing to do so raises the
question as to whether we have truly experienced God’s love. Now, of course, in
our world we have to use good judgment in this. We have to discern whether what
we are doing is actually helping someone or hurting them. But it seems very
clear that reflecting the face of Jesus to the world around us has specific
implications for how we relate to those around us.
If this is the case, I have to
wonder whether we truly reflect the face of Jesus for the people in our world. Do
we truly reflect Jesus’ mercy and compassion for those who are hurting, who
perhaps have fallen through the cracks, or have done something terrible that
they regret? It has become almost a
cliché to say that we are the only face of the Christian faith that some people
will ever have. We are the only ones who
can show them God’s love and mercy and grace. But since that may not be natural
or even comfortable for us to do, how can we learn to reflect the face of
Jesus?
I think we start by learning to
love one another the way Jesus loves us all.[4] That
can be pretty hard to do sometimes. But I’m not talking about how we feel
towards one another. I’m talking about making a commitment to relate to one
another with the love that Christ has shown us.
I think this kind of love begins in the family of faith.[5] One of the reasons why we’re called to
community is so we can learn to “lay down our lives” for one another just as
Jesus laid down his life for us. And so loving one another means making a
commitment to live the Christian life in this community with one another. Making
that kind of commitment to love one another is how we learn to reflect the face
of Jesus to those around us.
I think this kind of love takes
the same kind of commitment that we bring to a marriage or to a family. In a family, we love one another through
thick and thin, through joy and pain, through fighting and hugging. We stick with each other, we forgive each
other, we let each other off the hook, we work at seeing things from the other
point of view, we support and respect and treat one another with dignity.[6] When
we can look at one another from that perspective, then we can share the love of
Christ with one another. Then we can reflect the face of Jesus to those around
us.
[1] ©2015
Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Alan Brehm on 4/26/2015 at Hickman
Presbyterian Church in Hickman, NE.
[2] Cf.
Henri J. M. Nouwen, Here and Now: Life in
the Spirit, 17, where he points out that the “oughts” we cling to “keep us
feeling guilty about the past” and the “what ifs” keep us worried about the
future, and both keep us from fully experiencing life in the present moment. Cf.
also Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation,
34-35: “All sin starts from the assumption that my false self, the self that
exists only in my own egocentric desires, is the fundamental reality of life to
which everything else in the universe is ordered.” But he also points out that
such a “false self” cannot help but be an illusion, which leads to our
disillusionment with ourselves and with life. Cf. also Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace is Every Step, 64-67, where he
discusses this phenomenon in terms of what the Buddhist tradition calls “internal
formations.” He says (p. 65), “Our
conscious, reasoning mind knows that negative feelings such as anger, fear, and
regret are not wholly acceptable to ourselves or our society, so it finds ways
to repress them.” Instead, he encourages us to become aware of them and simply
observe them with kindness.
[3] Cf.
Raymond E. Brown, The Epistles of John,
474. He makes it clear that this is the definition of “laying down our lives”
for each other. In this, he says that the Elder “is not holding up a new moral demand; rather he is reaching
into the heart of Christianity’s Jewish heritage” (cf. Deut. 15:7; cf. Lk.
10:25–37; Jas. 2:15–16). Contrast I. Howard Marshall, The Epistles of John, 195, and Stephen Smalley, 1, 2, 3 John, 195, both of whom claim
that it is unclear what the Elder means by this. Brown points out that the
reason this sharing of goods was so important is because the New Testament
suggests that the churches of the First Century were for the most part
relatively poor and depended on the charity of members with means to supply
basic necessities of life (cf. Lk. 6:20–22; Acts 2:44–45; 4:32–37; 1 Cor.
1:26–29; 11:17–22; Jas. 1:9; 2:3, 6, 15–16).
[4] Cf. G.
C. Berkouwer, The Church, 96, where
he says that the expression of Christian fellowship both in spiritual and
material terms is “a plain understanding of the gospel—in other words, an
understanding of the Church as the one body of Christ. … Because He laid down His
life, we have come to know love (1 John 3:16), and everything is founded in
that.” Therefore he concludes that it is impossible for the heart to “be closed
to our brother’s need if it is open to the love of God.”
[5] Cf.
Henri J. M. Nouwen, Turn My Mourning into
Dancing, 83: “the community is the place where we continue to let the world
know there is something to rejoice about in this new life together.” Cf. also
Jürgen Moltmann, The Way of Jesus Christ,
263, where he says that love that “spends itself and surrenders itself” is the “immanent
power of the resurrection” in our lives here and now.
[6] Cf. Paul
Tillich, Love, Power, and Justice,
84-86, where he articulates that love’s “first task” in relationships is to
listen; then it is to give, whether respect or self-sacrifice; then it is to
forgive. Cf. also Nouwen, Turn My Mourning into Dancing, 75: “Your
love for others can be unconditional, without a condition that your needs are
gratified, when you have the experience of being loved,” i.e., by God.
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