Learning to See

"Do you not say, 'There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest'? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest." (John 4:35)

This verse contains a number of things that caused me to want to research them more closely. I wanted to know the time of year mentioned here relative to the harvest Jesus spoke about and I also sense deep significance in the instructions of Jesus to lift up the eyes and look on the fields.

With a little checking on the internet I found that the wheat harvest generally occurs during the month of May and the barley harvest about a month before that. So depending on which one of these He was thinking of here it would likely mean that this event occurred somewhere around January or February. Given the position of Israel in the Northern hemisphere that would also imply that it is highly unlikely that it was very hot as we have often assumed even though this story took place in the middle of the day. It might have been warm but not blazing hot like it could have been in the summertime.

The more important things that I am seeing in this text are along the line of the vision problems that I share with the disciples in this story. Already it has been made clear that they were very slow of heart to perceive the reality of the kind of food that was most important to Jesus. Now Jesus has to try to get them to realize that they also have eye problems as well. Their spiritual eyes do not yet seem to be connected to their brain and their heart; they are far too used to only perceiving life using the physical senses and interpreting everything through earthly logic instead of living relative to the spirit realm.

But the whole purpose of being a disciple of Jesus is to live in a training process where one learns from a mentor how to live and perceive and relate in ways that are not seemingly natural to other people. The word disciple itself is closely associated with the word discipline. Unfortunately the word discipline has too often been mistaken for punishment because of misuse of the word in many homes, so it creates a negative connotation in the minds of many people. But true discipline in its original form is really the teaching and training of a person's mind and heart to develop habits of self-control and good interpersonal relationship skills. And part of that training is to raise a person's awareness of how to properly engage and use their own spirit in connection with the spirits of others around them as well as with God's Spirit.

When we use the term spiritual, it is unfortunate that this word carries with it so much false baggage in our minds. Many people think of things that are spiritual as having to do with the external exercises or doctrines of religion. Spiritual and religious are often assumed to mean the very same thing, but in my own mind the differences between these two terms is growing farther and farther apart. To me, religion is much more descriptive of the counterfeit of true spirituality; religion involves primarily the external trappings and routines and enforcements and rules created by men and inspired by the deceiver to keep the mind and heart distracted from having a vital connection spiritually with the heart of our Creator and Redeemer and Father.

Jesus came to this earth to unmask these deceptions about God, to expose the emptiness of religion and to reinvigorate true spirituality to humanity so that we could begin to see. If we choose to see properly we can then begin to cooperate with heaven in restoring the unity that was lost when sin blinded our sight. We have been so damaged by the assumptions and effects of sin in our thinking that we often do not even appreciate the immense importance of using spiritual aspects of our makeup that parallel the physical organs of our body. But these spiritual organs are far more important, albeit much under-utilized, than the physical organs that we value so much.

So Jesus patiently works with His disciples through situation after situation to begin to raise their awareness of other capacities within them that they may have been oblivious to up to this point in their life. He is introducing them to the reality that there is food that is far more important to their welfare than the food they are used to thinking about. Now in this verse He is telling them – and us – that there are eyes available for our use that we may never have been aware of before but that are far more important to look with than the physical eyes that we are used to thinking about.

The act of looking is much more than simply staring through the eyes to see what may be in front of them. When I looked up these words in the Greek I found that Jesus was saying to look intently, to perceive, to closely examine something. It implies that one is failing to engage the mind or heart sufficiently to become aware of what is transpiring right in front of you. It is a wake-up call to shift gears in our head and to look at something very differently than we are used to doing. It is learning to use our heart and to see things from heaven's perspective instead of our perspective.

I also wonder about the significance of the fact that Jesus used two expressions here. First we are supposed to lift up our eyes and then we are to engage our mind much more carefully to analyze and process properly what is coming in through those eyes.

If I am supposed to lift up my eyes in order to perceive something, then by implication my eyes must be looking down to start with. What does this really mean? What do I need to become aware of that is preventing me from being able to see what Jesus seems to see so easily? Why is it that I feel nearly as blind and confused as these disciples at times when Jesus says there are things in plain sight that I feel confused about? What is it that is keeping my spiritual eyes distracted that is lower than what God wants me to focus on? The direction that my eyes need to travel – up – implies that presently they are used to looking too low. Maybe if I could get a better sense of orientation then I might better understand which direction is up according to heaven's way of viewing things.

Jesus told His disciples to lift up their eyes before they could see what He was feeding on, what He was so thrilled about, what was bringing Him so much satisfaction and joy and what was really happening. And while the disciples were mulling that over, possibly staring at the ground or each other and wondering just how to process these words, the text says that people were pouring out of the town on their way to encounter a man like no one had ever seen before. While they were standing around grasping for clues as to what Jesus was talking about, off on the horizon the literal picture was taking shape that Jesus was trying to draw their attention to.

Here were grown men who had been tagging around with Jesus for some time now already, standing in a state of confusion and largely oblivious to the stupendous reality of who Jesus really was while a whole city full of people were energized with excitement to meet a man who could read hearts and provide something that they were all craving deep in their souls.

It is sad that it often seems that those who have the most difficult time perceiving and appreciating the incredible power of Jesus to energize and bring life to the soul are those who appear to be closest to Him externally. People who have been brought up from infancy in a religious, pious environment, who have been trained all their lives in schools to amass many facts about God and religion, who have memorized Scriptures for years and can produce answers to nearly any question put to them – it is the people who have the longest history and background in religion that often have the hardest time opening their hearts to embrace what Jesus longs to give them the most.

I am one of those people.

Given that, one of the most exciting parts about this story is the fact that Jesus never rebuked His disciples in this story for their inability to use their eyes very well but He kept mentoring them patiently, loving them unconditionally and living before them the kind of prioritized life that would show them how to live a life that measures with the life of God. According to this story it may appear that the Samaritans in some respects were able to enter into a fuller spiritual response far more easily and quickly than were the Jewish disciples of Jesus. But Jesus kept His disciples close to Him anyway and in the end they finally began to get it. And John especially, the one who wrote this story himself, was one who seemed to finally begin to grasp the real intents and desires of Jesus for him even more than most of the others, which is exactly why he included the stories and teachings that he chose to compile this gospel.

Father, I confess that I am very inept at using my spiritual eyes, and even when I think I do I may not do very well at appreciating what they are seeing. Teach me too, to lift up my eyes from the low level things that preoccupy my imagination and attention. Teach me to discern between what should be beneath my notice and what is truly important to dwell on. And when I finally begin to actually see what You want me to look at, help me to know how to value and appreciate and appropriate what I am seeing, to perceive with my heart and not just my intellect. Train me and mentor me as You did with John who finally begin to deeply know Your love for him and then reflected it so well in his letters and relationships. I want to know Your love and Your presence in my own life personally and intensely. I want Your presence in me to attract others to want to know You because of how they see Your love transforming my life. Use me to glorify and amplify Your reputation.