A Single Eye
Dear High Street Family,
Just before Jesus challenges those gathered for the Sermon on the Mount to Seek Ye First the Kingdom, He tells an short, strange parable:
“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” (Matthew 6:22-23)
This parable isn’t about optometry.
Nor is it merely a moral teaching about not watching certain movies or avoiding certain media.
It’s a revelation that gets at the one-thing through which we see everything.
Jesus is revealing that when we get the one-thing right, then everything else falls into place.
When we set our eyes on the Father we intake a Light that actually illumines our lives.
And He also says, when we’re divided, anxious, pursuing multiple self-contradictory goals, we live in a sort of factured light…
“But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” (Matthew 6:22-23).
We can be in the world and miss God.
We can be in the light He created, and yet live in a world of our own making.
He will say, “Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.” (Matthew 6:31-32)
We still see the world. But we perceive it without God in it.
We can accidentally use our eyes to edit out God from His world.
And we end up seek after whole bunch of other things, and miss the one-thing.
We see.
But we miss Him.
And as we know, that sort of “light” is really very dark.
A spiritual darkness that can drive us to despair.
For Jesus, it all begins with the one-thing through which we see everything.
“One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in his temple.” (Psalm 27:4)
“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33)
Jesus wants to heal, purify, and bring wholeness to the filter, the one-thing through which we see everything.
Do we really want to make seeking Him our one-thing?
Are we able to put down our many anxious thoughts and sub-priorities, just to gaze on Him?
Will we give Him our eyes?
Let’s seek Him together on Sunday, and see what He might do, "
Pastor Dave
PS. if you need a place to engage this today, come tonight from 6:30-9pm to the sanctuary for the first worship night of our “Four Fridays in July” of Regional Worship and Prayer at High Street. We’re praying that there will be spiritual momentum built over the next four weeks as we pray and worship together.
It will be a presence-led time of live worship, heart-felt sharing, prayer, and connection with God and one another. This is a place for you and for us as a regional Church to meet with Jesus. A place to set your gaze on God. To experience His love afresh. And to go deeper with Him alongside others. See you there!
