Eyes Like Jesus

INTRO STUFF

Some of your students just got back from a mission trip last week where we went to Portland to serve with the organization Doing Good Things.

While we were there, we served in different areas in Portland with the goal of helping the houseless and understanding houselessness.

Now, I realize that the term “houseless” is not normal. I promise I haven’t gotten all PC on you, but in talking with people in Portland, I (and I think some others on the team) noticed that the term homeless might remove some of the dignity as a human that homeless people might have. I’m happy to talk to you about it later, but for now, I’ll probably use both terms interchangeably.

Here’s the breakdown of what we did this last week.

Tuesday: We got to Portland and did some training on teamwork, evangelism, and briefing on some of what we will be doing.

Wednesday: We started with walkabouts, which are when we would go out in groups with resources and talk to houseless people. Then, in the evening, we started what’s called the urban plunge, which is when the director talked about what it would take to become houseless, and then we were “evicted.” We each got three items to take with us, and then we had to live as a houseless person. We stayed in a mock emergency shelter at a church that evening.

Thursday: We were kicked out at 6 AM (the normal time that homeless shelters close) and had to figure out how to live as a houseless person. We were in different groups and did different things, but some of the biggest difficulties were finding bathrooms (which is nearly impossible) and trying to stay warm and dry. At about 4 PM, we all finally met back at the church and went out to do what’s called “Night Strike” which is a big resource and food event for the houseless.

Friday: We did a park clean up with an organization and then did a different resource and meal fair for the houseless.

Saturday: We did one final walkabout, and then headed back to Chehalis.

And so, to talk about their experiences, we have three students who are going to come up and share a bit about what happened with them on the trip.

Questions:

What was one challenge that you experienced while on the trip?

What was one thing you learned?

What did God show you about yourself or the houseless?

How did your perspective on houselessness and the houseless change?

Sermonette.

This is not a political message.

Houselessness is a “hot-button’ topic. Everyone has an idea as to how to “fix” or “solve” it, and people will lob insults at eachother when talking about it like cruel, enabler, soft, unforgiving, or lazy.

Today, we are not going to solve anything. I don’t believe that my job as a minister of God’s Word is to tell you what to think.

What I do believe, however, is that we must investigate in the Bible as to how we are to look at people. Not CNN, not Fox, Facebook, Twitter, or anywhere else. We must ask, “What does God want me to do?”

So, my hope with this entire thing we’re doing today is to try to grow all of us in the ability to see people like Jesus does.

Big Idea: We must have eyes like Jesus.

And so we must ask, how did Jesus look at people?

As the Imago Dei.

God says in Gen. 1:26-27 “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

We were created in the image of God.

That means that all of humanity is created differently from the rest of creation! We were created to be able to have a relationship with God that is unique, different from anything else.

And so, when we look at people, we must look at them in the way that Jesus sees them, individually created with something of the divine image in them.

Even when it’s muted or mutilated by sin, Jesus still saw people as sacred!

We see that in Luke 23:34 “And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments.”

Even when people were so defined by their sin that they would kill the Son of God, that very Son calls for forgiveness for those who are crucifying Him!

This is one of the reasons we are against abortion! We cannot in good conscience attack and mutilate a carrier of the image of God, and so we shouldn’t look with contempt on those who still old that image, including the houseless.

With Compassion.

Matthew 9:36 “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”

The feeling or emotion, when a person is moved by the suffering or distress of another, and by the desire to relieve it - New Oxford Dictionary.

When Jesus looks at people, He looks at them with compassion.

He doesn’t see a mass of people that we call humanity, He sees individuals in desperate need of the grace of God.

And when we see people, we should look at them with compassion.

Not as the summation of their faults or flaws, not as an unproductive member of society, not as the result of sin, but as a creature created and loved by God.

I must look at people with compassion, because Jesus looked at me with compassion on the cross.

I don’t deserve the forgiveness of God, and yet He gave it to me because He loves me.

If I can’t give compassion to others, then what am I doing with the compassion given to me by God?

Now What?

I’m not going to tell you what to do, because that’s not my job. I’m not the Holy Spirit.

But, I would ask that you earnestly ask the Lord to illuminate in your heart what to do.

You don’t have to give money to everyone you see, but maybe you could make eye contact and talk to a houseless person like a person. Give them the dignity they deserve as a human.

James 1:27 “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”

We are to love the poor and the oppressed, because we were poor and oppressed because of the weight of our sin, and Christ loved us enough to die.