David asked to be the “apple of God’s eye” (Psalm 17:8)[1] – literally the "little man of the eye,” the tiny reflection of yourself that you can see in other people’s pupils because you are being watched so closely by that person. David was asking God to be close, to keep an eye on him, to keep him safe from the wicked people around him who are like lions stalking prey. David wanted God to be near him, to focus on David such that his eyes were full of him, and to be for him. Deuteronomy 32:10 uses the phrase this way:

“In a desert land he found him (Israel), in a barren and howling waste. He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye…”

It’s got me thinking about an implication of being God’s ambassadors, God’s representatives. We talk about being the hands and feet of Jesus, going places and doing things on behalf of God that reveals that the Holy Spirit has taken up His dwelling in us so that when people experience us they experience “Christ in us” (Colossians 1:27). I wonder, then, if we are meant to represent God by going into the “barren and howling waste” that is our culture to guard and care for the “little people in our eyes” as well. If people are wondering, “Does God even see me and care?” that question is often answered when God’s people see them and care.

I’ve been thinking about this recently because of some realities of life that have highlighted the Christian burden of caring.[2] When we are so close to people that they are the “little man in our eye,” we weep with those who weep (Romans 12:15) as the move through this barren and howling wasteland – and, well, everyone weeps at some point. We will help each other carry burdens (Galatians 6:2) - and everyone carries burdens. Doing this for everyone is an impossible task that only one person in the history of the world was able to do (let alone do perfectly) and that’s Jesus.

But we, who as humans are God’s image bearers, and who as believers are ambassadors indwelt by God’s spirit; members of God’s body, the church – we must go into the wasteland and get “this close” – and weep for more than our own sorrows and carry more burdens than our own.

But really engaging this can feel…unsettling. There was a reason Jesus’ audience wanted clarification on who their neighbors were (Luke 10:25-37). The Bible says the man asking this question of Jesus was “seeking to justify himself.” I mean, it was one thing to consider your Jewish friends and family to be the neighbors to whom you extended the kind of love Jesus talked about when he summarized the Law, but….

· that Samaritan (Luke 10)?

· That Roman centurion (Acts 10)?

· That tax collector (Luke 19)?

· That prostitute (Luke 7)?

That’s what “friends of sinners” do (Matthew 11:16-19) – and that was a mocking label, not an affirming one. So this tension of the Christian call to genuinely care about others, to be so close that they take up that “apple” spot in our eyes, often places us in tense spots.

· Samaritans were aligned with blasphemy, and caring about them as neighbors made it look like Jewish people supported blasphemy.

· Roman centurions were aligned with the political oppression of God’s people; accepting them into the church could look like overlooking Roman sin.

· Tax collectors were traitorous enablers of economic oppression. Having a meal with them could easily look like enablement.

· Prostitutes were an obvious face of sexual immorality (and often fertility cult worship at that time). Spending time with them looked like you were minimizing or even overlooking their sin.

And yet they were neighbors even though they lived in the wasteland, and at least one of them (Zaccheus) was there by his own choosing. Yet God has his eye on them; they were meant to be in the eyes of God’s people. Their lives demanded the love and investment of Christ’s followers. Wastelands have never stopped Christians, no matter how barren and howling they are.

The God who created us, loves us, and offers salvation to us has a vested interest in His world. It groans because of the devastation that sin has wrought in everything. We collectively groan as a church as we recognize the brokenness that has infiltrated everything God has created. In that shared weeping we represent the Immanuel part of how God is described - God with us, felt strongly because God’s people are present.

What kind of heart should I have for my neighbor? One filled with the kind of love God offered to us.

How do I want to see them? Like God sees them.

Where will I have to go? Into barren and howling wildernesses.

How close will I have to get? Apple-of-the-eye close.

I find myself weeping for and with so many people for so many different reasons right now. There are a lot of people in my eye. A lot of the time, it is close friends and fellow Christians. Life is hard. We try to do it together with empathy and sympathy. It’s also people and parties and organizations that might normally bring out resistance or criticism as I weep with and share the burden of an even broader circle of neighbors, even if their sin has placed that burden on their shoulders or brought about their weeping. Who better to be present with them in that moment than the people of God? Who better to be apple-of-the-eye close than Christians?

I made a list this week of things that reminds me that I have a long and complicated list of neighbors who have been the “little people in my eye” recently. Some of them I see face-to-face; some I must choose to see through media so I can move closer in spirit so that I am ready when I move close in person. Some dwell in the land of promise, some in the wilderness. I must choose not to look away.

· Those who have lost family members to the coronavirus

· those who have lost their business, or for whom poverty and all its implications seems inevitable because we shut the economy down

· the most vulnerable in our society (the elderly, the already sick, those with special needs in group homes) who are hit the hardest by the coronavirus.

· those who have died because hospitals have suspended surgeries and treatments that, it turns out, were necessary.

· those experiencing escalating mental health issues and domestic violence that have occurred during lockdowns

· those paying very real costs – physical, emotional or economic - because doctors, politicians, economists and scientists have been wrong in their predictions and plans

· the doctors, politicians, economists and scientists who have been slandered after just trying their best to help or do their job, and whose imperfection has too easily made them easy to paint as villainous.

· those who are unfairly judged for wearing a mask, as if it means they must be sinfully scared or easily controlled

· those who are unfairly judged for not wearing a mask, as if there are no legitimate concerns or reasons for exempting yourself

· those in churches that opened too quickly and spread the virus (sometimes leading to death) within their own congregation, much to their heartbreak

· those in churches that opened too slowly at the expense of ministering face-to-face with their people (sometimes leading to spiritual shipwreck), much to their heartbreak

I see other “little people” in my eyes. Some of them I see face-to-face; some I must choose to see through media. I must choose not to look away, but to move close in spirit so that I am ready when I can move close in person.

· those who have been innocent victims of violence, discrimination, and even death simply because of the color of their skin.

· those whose experiences have led them to believe that their lives don’t matter in the eyes of others

· those who are so broken that they will hijack the stories of genuine victims so they can play the victim card

· those whose experience has led them to believe that their voice will not be heard and they will not be seen until they march, protest and demand to be seen

· those who hijack the heart-felt cries of protestors with fallen agendas, manipulative exploitation, and callous violence.

· the victims of looting and burning by those who twist justice-centered peaceful means to unjust and violent ends

· those painted with an unjust “broad brush” that too easily allows the few to represent the many

· those whose experience with law enforcement makes them afraid rather than comforted when they see them

· noble law enforcement officers who are unfairly lumped in with the ignoble ones.

· the well-intentioned souls who rightly cry “Peace, peace” - but who align themselves with organizations that will undermine the very peace they desire

· those who don’t realize there will be no truly lasting empire peace or true social justice without a righteous kingdom foundation first in the hearts and then in the systems filled by those with transformed hearts.

But it’s not just current events, right? Lots of people are in my eyes, because they are in the eyes of Jesus.

· those falling away from Christ and his church in the United States

· those unreached or under-reached people here and abroad

· those exploited and used in the making of pornography - and those damaged and twisted in the using of it.

· Those dying of starvation, natural disasters, persecution, and wars

· the lives that are trafficked

· the students who practice shooter drills

· the unborn babies that never see the light of day

· the mothers whose desperate circumstances (and sometimes deceptive counseling) have led them to believe that abortion is not only their best solution but a good solution

· those for whom sexual identity and longings reflect the brokenness of the world rather than the design of it

· those mired in sexual confusion and brokenness who experience shaming and even hatred instead of love, hope and gospel healing

Who is my neighbor? Everybody. We are just looking at the world and asking what breaks God heart. We pray. We intercede. We petition God to heal us and our broken land. We move closer to those who are hurting, because it’s hard to carry a burden from a distance.

This is not limited by party, people, organization, religion, social status…. I went through my list and color coded the people in my eye: red and blue for situations that, fairly or unfairly, are associated with the Right or Left; purple for stuff everyone agrees on. It’s a mix, because everybody is my neighbor.

Who needs to be “the little people” a Christian’s eye? Everybody.

See, we know the power of the gospel. We understand salvation, and healing, and renewal, and grace, and hope, and peace and joy, and the beauty of righteousness. We are outposts of the Kingdom: wherever we go, we take the presence of Jesus and set up camp. And that camp is full of truth, love, and the message of a Creator who is in the business of redeeming broken things. And we can’t do that from a distance.
Choose your analogy: we run to the battle; we go to the fields in need of harvest; we sow the seed of the gospel in every soil we encounter; we love our broken and fallen neighbors just like our neighbors have loved us.

Now….we can’t be equally invested in all of these things. God has placed us in certain places or with certain people or given us certain gifts and oriented our broken hearts in certain directions such that some things will move front and center in our attempts to bring gospel healing to the world. We will gravitate more towards specific causes (with the hope that as the church body works together we're covering our ground as a whole fairly well). We should be careful not to dismiss those in whom God has place a different weight of gospel mourning. Not everybody can or will be in ‘your’ eye they way they are in someone else’s, but everybody should be in the eye of somebody in the church who sees the world with the eyes of Jesus.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

What is your response to knowing that God is so close that you are “the little person” in His eye? Is that comforting? Intimidating? Invigorating?
Have there been times when you have experienced ‘being in the eye’ of God by ‘being in the eye’ of God’s people?
Who is ‘in your eye’ now? To whom might you need to move closer?

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[1] David was asking God to be close, to keep an eye on him, to view him from up close, to keep him safe from the wicked people around him who are like lions stalking prey. David wanted God to be near him and for him. More verses: Psalm 17:8: "Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings". Proverbs 7:2: "Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye". Lamentations 2:18: "Their heart cried unto the Lord, O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night: give thyself no rest; let not the apple of thine eye cease". Zechariah 2:8: "For thus says the LORD of hosts; After the glory has he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that touches you touches the apple of his eye".

[2] Everything in this life that involves human beings saying and doing things that impact another human being matters. We will be held to account for every idle word (Matthew 12:36). We will be held to account for all of our actions (2 Corinthians 5:10; 1 Peter 1:17; Revelation 20:12; Proverbs 24:12). We will give an answer for how we have stewarded everything we have touched in the world God gave us (Luke 12:42-48).