Jesus Goggles

I love myself. I know that sounds a bit egotistical and self-centered, but I don’t mean it that way. I simply mean I care about me. So do you – you care about yourself and you should. Each of us possess a love and sense-of-care for ‘US”. That’s okay. There’s nothing wrong with that. One day the religious zealots of the day set out to trick Jesus with their question, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus promptly and confidently responded, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” See, there it is. Straight from the mouth of Jesus, “'Love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus knew we loved ourselves. He didn’t say there was anything wrong with it. What he did say however, was that we were to not only love ourselves, but to LOVE OTHERS just as much.
Okay, it’s one thing to love myself – I mean that’s easy – I’m very loveable. But now you want me to love others too? Do you know ‘others’? I mean come on; some of them definitely aren’t like me. A lot of them don’t look like me. Many of them don’t think like me. A lot of them don’t like to do the same things I do. Many of them are different colors. Some of them are from other countries. A whole bunch of them don’t sound like me and many of them don’t even speak the same language I do. Jesus probably didn’t understand that, right? I mean He probably thought everyone would be just like me – same shape, size, color, nationality, language, value system, gift mix, personality, and I’m sure he had no doubt that everyone would, of course, be a University of Georgia football fan.
We all know that’s not true. Of course Jesus didn’t think we’d all be alike. And no, I’m sure he didn’t simply assume that everyone would be as ‘naturally’ loveable as me or you. Jesus knew there would be great diversity among his children. He knew that some would be easy to love and that some would just be, well, just plain hard-to-get-along-with. There was no disclaimer on Jesus’ statement. There was no footnote that gave us permission to ignore those who didn’t conform to our way of thinking. Jesus simply said that we were to, first and foremost, love God with everything that we have – all of our brain-power, all of our muscle-power and all of our heart-power. Then, he went on to remind us that we were to love others, just as much as we love ourselves – no exceptions stated.
So how do we do it? How do we love others as much as we love ourselves? I’m not talking about those that are like us; they’re easy to love. No, my question is, how do we love those that are hard to love – those that grate on our very last nerve – those that always say the wrong things, wear the wrong clothes and call us right in the middle of dinner – how do we love those that aren’t exactly like us ? I’d like to answer that question as simply as possible – in one word – JESUS.
Okay, I know – I just made it sound easy – like I know how to do it and I always do it right. Well, allow me to go ahead and bust that bubble. Let me share with you, up front, that I fail everyday when it comes to loving those who are difficult to embrace. I mean I want to love them. I try to love them. Then they go and cut me off in traffic, break in line at the movie theater or wear their pants just a little too low. Maybe they’re too loud or not loud enough – maybe their hair is not a natural color or they have earrings in places other than their ears. Maybe their car is sporting a door that is, interestingly, a different color than the rest of the vehicle. Or maybe their way of life and thinking doesn't match up exactly with mine.
There are lots of things that can trigger negative responses in our brains. When an experience takes us out of our ‘comfort-zone’ we will typically go on the defensive very quickly, and when that happens, loving others becomes quite a challenge. When those negative responses are triggered – when the fortress walls of our ‘comfort-zone’ are breached, it is then that we must turn to Jesus.
We must make a conscience effort to adjust our vision so we can see through His eyes – so we can see the value in everyone. We must be intentional about asking ourselves, “How does that person see me?” “How would I expect them to treat me?”
It’s remarkable what we see when we look at things from our own perspective. It’s even more incredible when we take the time to look through the eyes of our Lord. When we look at others as Jesus does, we don’t see different colored skin, we don’t see ridiculous clothes, we don’t hear languages that we don’t understand, we don’t see tattoos or too many body piercings, we don’t see rich or poor, we don’t see old or young, we don’t hear different tastes in music and our focus is not the geographic location of homes. What we will observe, when we see as Jesus sees, is that each person, everyone we come in contact with, is a loved and cherished creation of God – a person created in His own image.
Loving others isn’t always easy. Jesus never said it was. In order to love others as Jesus loves each of us we must be intentional about seeing them through His eyes, not our own. That takes work, that takes time and that takes intentionality.
Jesus ended his response to the religious leaders that day by saying, “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Jesus knew that when we love God with every ounce of who we are and when we can love others with the passion and zeal with which we love ourselves, then everything else will fall into place. Following Jesus and living a God-honoring life is easy when we know and exercise that kind of love in all that we do. No it’s not easy to achieve. It is a process. No we’ll never get it 100% right as long as we live in this fallen world. But it is a worthy goal. It is something that we should all, as followers of Jesus, aspire to. It should be more than a goal. It is a commandment from our Lord. It is a commandment that we cannot ignore. It is a mandate passed down from Jesus Himself and it must not be disregarded.
I don’t know about you but I think I'll put on my ‘Jesus-colored-lenses’ - my 'Jesus Goggles' and take a look at the world around me. It’s amazing what I can see – people more like me because we’re all made like God!

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27)