Having eyes that see and having ears that hear—being able to perceive God’s perspective correctly—is a huge issue to God. It is a theme addressed in our text today.

Misperceiving is easy to do. You can probably think back of examples where you’ve seen or heard something incorrectly. Song lyrics are a common place where this can happen.

• In the Beatle song, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (I know this dates me), the line “the girl with kaleidoscope eyes” has been misheard as “the girl with colitis goes by.”
• Or the line from the Creedence Clearwater song, Bad Moon Rising, “there’s a bad moon on the rise,” has been misperceived as “There’s a bathroom on the right.”
• And a line from the U2 song, Bullet in the Blue Sky—“I can see those fighter planes”—has been misinterpreted as “I can see those spider veins.”

We all misperceive.

When Jeff’s sister got married, our son Nate (who was 3 at the time), was to participate in the wedding ceremony. He was to be the ring bearer. All seemed to be going smoothly until right before the wedding when he adamantly said “no” to participating, as only a 3-year-old can do, and there was nothing we could do to make this happen.

It was only years later, when we brought up this less than happy time, that he told us the reason he was so adamant in his refusal: There was no way that he wanted to dress up like a bear and to have to wear a bear suit. That’s what he thought a ring bearer was all about.

When I was young, I constantly heard my mom referred to as a widow. My father had died and my mother hadn’t remarried, and so folks spoke about her as a widow. Well, my only other reference to this word was the black widow spider, and I had a hard time understanding how being a widow like my mom was connected with this spider that could bite and hurt people. Not a positive association.

Well, this morning’s Scripture speaks to our not seeing and perceiving correctly and even speaks to misperceptions about a widow. Turn with me to today’s Scripture Lesson: Luke 20: 27-21:6

In the hearing of all the people, Jesus said to the disciples, " Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at the banquets. They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation."

Jesus looked up and saw rich people putting their gifts into the treasury; he also saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. He said,

Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them; for all of them have contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on.

When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, Jesus said,

As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.

Today’s text is best divided into three sections:

• the verses about the scribes,
• the verses about the widow and
• the verses about the temple.

And, it isn’t a coincidence that Jesus speaks to all three of them together. In each case, Jesus appears to be with his disciples but is speaking in a way that the larger crowd is invited to listen in.

What does Jesus want us to hear about the scribes, the widow and the temple? Let’s first look at the words of Jesus about the scribes.

Usually Jesus lumps scribes and Pharisees together. Here he speaks specifically about the scribes. Scribes (some translations use the term “lawyers”—the words are interchangeable here) were teachers and interpreters of the Hebrew Law, the Torah, part of our Bible.

Scribes usually held the beliefs of the Pharisees, but were also those who held the responsibility of preserving and interpreting and teaching the Law—the body of experts on the Law. As such, they wore fancy clothes, robes, as a mark of their status. And they loved the attention they got with their status-greetings in the marketplace, best seats in synagogues and at dinners. And they drew attention to themselves by their long prayers.

Jesus is not shy about his disdain for the scribes’ behavior. He even goes on to say that they devour widows’ houses. What this means is not totally clear, but there are a variety of possibilities. It could mean:

• they accepted payment for legal aid to widows (even though such payment was forbidden)
• that if the widow’s husband left an estate, the scribes, as guardians of the widow’s husband’s estate (women weren’t allowed to hold property) possibly cheated widows out of what was rightly theirs by stealing from these estates.
• they simply abused the hospitality of these women, eating at their homes all the time.
• they took money from widows promising prayer on their behalf.

Whatever Jesus meant by devouring widows’ houses, it isn’t exactly a compliment… What’s the point Jesus is trying to get across here?

Notice how Jesus is not speaking to the scribes themselves, calling them to change. Rather, he is speaking to those who are observing the scribes—it is to these folks, the crowd, that he is giving a word of warning: “BEWARE.”

He is warning them that the way they see the scribes is misguided. Apparently the crowd has been inclined to look to the scribes as religious authorities because of their outer, seemingly righteous behavior. Jesus sees differently.

A possible current day application of this might be our tendency to ascribe undue authority—be it religious or otherwise—to folks we see, who from the outside appear to be successful or powerful. We give them authority because of their fame or outward appearance. The crowd saw the scribes as righteous. Jesus didn’t. Jesus sees more clearly.

Now Jesus turns to the rich people putting their gifts into the treasury and the poor widow putting in her two coins—Lepta coins—which took a bunch just to make one cent in value. Jesus comments that the rich gave out of their abundance while the widow gave out of her poverty—all she had to live on.

The word used here for life/live is a word that could either mean the property/possessions one had, or could simply mean one’s life as a whole. In any event, the widow gave her all—all she had.

It is clear Jesus is making a contrast between the rich and the widow. But there are a couple of different ways to read what Jesus said about the widow:

1. A more recent understanding of the text is that Jesus is commenting on the corrupt religious system of the scribes. The scribes that he just criticized for devouring widows houses, would teach the widow to give to the temple system, and when she does, she loses everything she has —kind of like the corrupt TV evangelists that take advantage of their poor viewers, taking their money to serve their own selfish ends. That is one way to see the text.
2. The more traditional interpretation, however, is that Jesus is honoring the widow for her amazing generosity – she gave all she had, - in contrast to the rich who simply gave out of their excess, their surplus.

Whatever viewpoint you take—the traditional view, where Jesus affirms the widow’s generosity, or the newer (what I call the corrupt TV evangelist interpretation), one thing is clear: Where the crowd is seeing the rich, it is Jesus who is seeing the widow.

In Jewish society at that time a widow had no status. A woman’s status was connected to her husband and to her ability to have kids. A widow had neither. Plus, given some teaching that a premature death could be a result of sin-a widow had to deal with the ostracism that came along with the premature death of her husband.

A widow didn’t have the right to manage her husband’s estate (if there was one); remember it was the scribes that managed the estates left by their husbands. It was a disgrace to be a widow. We see that in the story of Ruth in Old Testament. Widows usually lived off the handouts of others. They were outcasts in society.

But we know Jesus took widows seriously, especially as we read the Gospel of Luke. Widows are mentioned in this gospel more than anywhere else in the Bible:

• Only in Luke do we hear about Anna, the widow who was in the temple praying when Jesus was born.
• Jesus raises from the dead the widow’s son at Nain.
• Jesus tells a parable regarding prayer, using the story of the persistent widow constantly asking the judge for justice.
• In a series of illustrations, Jesus mentions the Old Testament example from I Kings of Elijah’s visit to a widow at Zaraphath.

Jesus wants us to remember the value of the widows.

The poor widow has the attention of Jesus. In contrast, at the temple, folks were enamored with the rich – their attention was on the wealthy.

Again, perhaps a current day application might be the attention we give to the big donor—those who give lots of money, those at the top of the charity giving list for Hurricane Katrina victims.

We too, tend to see the rich and their giving, and are inclined to admire their apparent generosity. We often miss the generosity of the poor. In fact, we often miss seeing the poor altogether. Jesus saw the poor widow. We need to remember that Jesus sees more clearly.

After this, Jesus then speaks to folks about the temple building. After hearing people rave about how beautiful it is, he basically says,

You may think this is so great, but it isn’t going to last. All this will be destroyed.

Not exactly affirming their delight in the temple building…

The folks at the temple were enthralled by its beauty. They saw the temple as a permanent dwelling place of God. Jesus saw the temple as temporary, soon to be destroyed.

Now, at first blush, this looks like merely a difference in seeing the temple as either permanent or soon-to-be-destroyed. But there is a deeper meaning at work here in what Jesus says and what Jesus sees.

When the people see the temple as permanent, they aren’t just thinking about the building. They are seeing the temple as representing the whole religious system that centered on the temple. A system where:

• Membership was exclusive – only Jewish men could enter the inner court of the temple.
• The temple was the only place where sacrifices could be made for the forgiveness of sins.
• The temple was the exclusive place where God’s presence dwelled and God’s presence was mediated to the people only through the priests.

When the people see the temple, and they believe it will be permanent. This is what they see.

When Jesus sees the temple, and sees that it will be destroyed, he sees a dramatic change in the way people have access to God:

• Forgiveness of sins would no longer through the temple system; it would now to be through Christ himself in his death and resurrection.
• God’s presence is no longer to be mediated through the priests in the temple, but would now be present and accessible in Christ through the Holy Spirit
• God’s presence would not only be in the temple, but would now be fully made present and visible in Christ Jesus himself.

Unlike this temple system, the new way to God is not exclusive but inclusive. The new way does not turn anyone away. It is all-inclusive.

I think this is how this passage links to the prior verses about the outcast widow–the new inclusive way includes even the ignored outcast widow. All these verses underscore the contrast of Jesus’ view of the temple and the crowd’s view.

Most fundamentally, Jesus sees himself as taking the role of the temple. Jesus is the new temple. I think this is vividly seen when Jesus in on the cross and the curtain of the temple tears in two. The old system is over, destroyed. The crowd believes the temple is the permanent dwelling of God. Jesus sees the impermanence of the temple system.

Perhaps a current day application might be our attempts to look for meaning and security in the impermanent institutions or long- honored traditions in our own lives.

• Do we seek a kind of salvation in political stability or power?
• Wall Street trading?
• Or even through the long honored belief in the Protestant ethic of hard work and doing good?

The crowd saw the temple institution as the way to God. Jesus knew that the temple system was being replaced. Jesus sees more clearly.

What do these three teachings of Jesus—on the scribes, on the widow, and on the Temple—all have in common? How are they connected?

I think that in all of them Jesus is showing us how he sees differently than the people, differently than the crowd surrounding him. He sees the scribes, the widow and the temple from a vastly different perspective. The people didn’t see things clearly. Jesus did.

Seeing God’s truth clearly, God’s perspective matters to Jesus. Early on in his ministry, Jesus tells his disciples to "go tell John the Baptist what you see and hear: the blind receive their sight…” He uses “seeing” as an indicator of understanding God’s perspective.

Jesus also speaks of “not seeing” as an indicator of misunderstanding or not being open to God’s perspective. Those who hear his parables and don’t get their meaning as Jesus says:

“Look but do not see, hear but do not understand.”

When his disciples don’t get the meaning of the feeding of the 4,000, Jesus says to them :

“Do you have eyes and fail to see?... Do you not yet understand?”

Jesus wants his disciples then and wants his disciples now to see what is going on in the world from God’s perspective; to have God’s eyes to perceive our lives.

In our text, the people thought the scribes were the righteous ones. The people were impressed with the rich. The people also thought the temple was God’s permanent dwelling. They didn’t see their surroundings like Jesus did. Jesus saw the Scribes as unrighteous, his attention was drawn to the poor widow, and he saw the whole temple system would soon be gone.

We need to ask ourselves:

• What do we see?
• How do we perceive the daily stuff of our lives?
• Does our seeing align with God’s perspective?

Do you see your job as God does? Do you see your money as God does? Do you see your relationships as God does? Do you see your failures, your successes, as God does? Do you have the sight of Jesus?

One thing we need to be about as Christians is seeing as God sees. Unfortunately, this isn’t always easy….

How do we do it?

First off, we need to remember that this is a process—it doesn’t happen all at once. It isn’t that when we become Christians we immediately see everything from Christ’s perspective. This seeing process happens over time. Remember Paul says we now see in a mirror dimly—only when we see Jesus face to face, will be have complete knowing and understanding.

Now, we also shouldn’t go to the other extreme–saying,

"Because I can never fully see, I’ll just stay where I am. I’m stuck and can’t change."

God longs for us to grow in seeing life as God sees it. Hopefully, in our response to God’s love for us, we seek to grow to be more like God. We sometimes refer to this as becoming “Christ-like,” and being “Christ-like” means seeing our world like Christ sees it.

There are lots of ways this happens, but I’d like to talk about three approaches that I’ve found helpful in my attempts to see like Christ. These are practices that have been part of the Christian life through the centuries. And, in speaking about them, I’d like to discuss specifically how and why they can help us see more like Christ. The three are:

1. Scripture Reading
2. Praying in Community
3. Corporate Worship

Scripture Reading
In Luke 4, before Jesus began his public ministry, he was alone in the desert and heard the voice of evil telling him what to do to show that he was the son of God. The things Satan said were things the world values. They were the kinds of things the world might say to any of us who want to prove our worth: grab the attention, be powerful and influential, go after material goods.

Each time these words were spoken to Jesus, however, he responded by quoting Scripture, quoting God’s perspective on the words spoken. Jesus heard the voice of evil and responded with the word of God.

If we want to see our lives like God, then we need to know God’s Word, God’s perspective on living:

• What matters to God.
• Who matters to God.
• What God likes and dislikes.
• What breaks God’s heart.
• What causes God joy.

As we hear the stories, the teachings, and the prose of Scripture, as we read it and let it sink in, we grow in knowing God’s perspective.

Example:
Years ago, our older son Andrew played high school basketball. He went to Ballard High, and initially he was at the old Lincoln High School, before its remodeling was done and obviously before the new Ballard High building was built. Not many folks wanted to go to Ballard High at that time—it was much smaller and, consequently, didn’t have as much parental involvement which means, to be blunt, not as much money for extra-curricular activities.

Andrew’s team wore hand me down uniforms that didn’t always fit. The team played in a ratty gym—and we Ballard fans were a bit of a motley-looking bunch ourselves, not all neat and tidy.

As fans we were a bit loud and not always very suave and proper. I’ll never forget the game played in the Lincoln gym where the opposing team walked in from a district and school that had a lot more money than Ballard did. The guys all had matching sport coats, pants, shirts and ties, along with matching sport bags.

When they came back out in their uniforms, they even had their names printed on their jerseys. (And this wasn’t even varsity. I think it was the freshman team.) Their fan base, too, looked quite perfect—neat and tidy. And I immediately despised them. I can’t tell you how much delight I was getting as Andrew’s team started to beat them. I wanted so badly for Ballard to put these rich perfect looking folks in their place.

While I was basking in such thoughts, a verse from Psalm 101 I had recently read popped into my mind.

“A haughty look and arrogant heart I will not tolerate.”

Now as much as I wanted to project that verse on the enemy team and fans, I realized I was the arrogant one in my anti-elitism. I wasn’t exactly seeing these folks from the opposing school as God saw them. It was because I had exposed myself to Scripture, having read that Psalm earlier in the week, that I was able to see this about myself. Knowing Scripture helps us see as Jesus sees.

Praying in Community
Praying with others is also helpful. Knowing Scripture isn’t enough. After all, the scribes were experts in the Jewish Scriptures, yet had some problems.

It is easy to read Scripture and let it reach your mental capacities, but not let it sink to your heart. That is where communal prayer, praying with others, comes in.

A second way of helping us see as God sees is praying in community. In communal prayer we come before God with others, primarily seeking God’s perspective on our lives—be it in events in our world or events in our own individual lives.

Many times praying alone isn’t enough for me. This is especially true when there are things in my life that are emotionally overwhelming. I can’t see very clearly in those time—my vision is sketchy at best.

However, when I bring it to others, to my home group, to a friend, and ask them to pray along with me, it isn’t unusual for this prayer time with them (be it in the prayer time itself or conversations with others after prayer) to provide me with a way of seeing that I hadn’t been able to do on my own—a way of seeing that is in sync with God’s way. Praying with others helps us see as Jesus sees.

Corporate Worship
Third, I think one of the main reasons God set up corporate worship, to be as it is, is to remind us to see life as God sees it. Much of worship is simply remembering who God is and how God sees life.

We are a forgetful people. We easily lose our vision and quickly see the stuff of life just like the rest of the world around us. Corporate worship reminds us of what is true, what is lasting, what the picture of life looks like from God’s perspective.

Example: Today is the anniversary of 9/11. I will never forget that morning. Jeff and I were at a SPU faculty retreat at Camp Casey on Whidbey Island. When the news of the event came in through portable radios and through cell phone conversations, our day’s events changed. We all drew together as a worshipping community and worshipped. We sang hymns, we prayed, we listened to God’s word. I can’t tell you how powerful that was for me. In the midst of such tragedy and evil, I was able to get a glimpse of God’s perspective.

If I would have been home, I’m sure that I would have been glued to the TV set, watching over and over the familiar footage of the towers coming down: the chaos, terror, seeing it all through the eyes of TV commentators. I’m sure, knowing me, my reaction would have instantly been one of fear, pulling inward, being defensive, thinking of my own and my family’s safety and security.

Instead, I was with other Christians worshipping. I was reminded that there is a different way of seeing this awful tragedy. Yes, sin exists. Evil happens. But God calls us to something besides fear and defensiveness.

In worship, we remember God’s love and hope for all. We are reminded that God sees all pain and sorrow and grieves with us. We remember God is our ultimate security and promises a day when justice and mercy and safety will fully reign.

Simply being with other Christians that morning, worshipping the sovereign God who loves us all, helped me let go of seeing 9/11 totally through the world’s eyes: through eyes of fear and defensiveness, and instead I got a glimpse of seeing from God’s perspective.

Simply showing up for worship, being present to God in worship enables us to see as Jesus sees.

Jesus longs for us to see as he does. In our text Jesus saw the scribes, the poor widow, and the temple differently from the people around him.

May we, with the help of Scripture, praying with others, and- participating in corporate worship-grow in having eyes that clearly see.

Let’s now pause a moment to quietly bring ourselves before God, opening ourselves up to faithfully respond to The Word spoken this morning. Let’s pray….

Help us God, to have eyes that see clearly.