“They said to him, “Lord, let our eyes be opened.” And Jesus in pity touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered their sight and followed him.”
Matthew 20:33-34 ESV
Thinking through this verse, I pictured the image of a cross in a field. The unmaintained grass and weeds were growing up around the cross. For in this image, the task of maintaining the landscape surrounding the cross was left abandoned. As I walked up to the cross, I was presented two options. I could either focus on the failure of the world surrounding my relationship with Christ or I could focus on my relationship with Jesus.
If this was you, which would you first notice? Would you first notice the grass and have shame that anyone would allow this to happen to the cross of all things? Or would you first notice the cross looking past the outward appearance? The world teaches us to look at the outward appearance first. The wide angle of our surrounding. The world teaches us that we must critique what is wrong in the circumstance rather than seeing past a rough exterior and immediately seeing what is most important. Let’s be honest for a second…the grass has absolutely no impact on the importance of the Cross. The weeds are not harming the cross itself. The weeds cannot reduce what the cross stands for. They are simply roadblocks in our path to salvation.
If we begin looking past the weeds, we can begin to focus on the cross. A change in perspective will change your life, forever.
”The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light,” Matthew 6:22
In this image, the weeds and grown up grass represents our sin. We all have weeds in our lives. We are all sinners (Romans 3:23). But as you begin focusing more on Cross (Jesus) , the weeds (sin) begin to lose their grasp over our lives. Our relationship with Jesus becomes our center focus and we can begin growing in that relationship.
”looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:2
But if you continue allowing sin to be your main point of attention in your life, then you will continue fueling sin’s hold over yourself. Sin will continue to grow and begin to take over, just like a weed. If the landscape around the cross in your life is left unmaintained and continues to grow, the cross begins to become less visible in your life and though not impossible, would require more effort to get back to.
”But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” James 1:14-15
No matter how far you are from God, the Bible is the map that leads you back to the cross
“Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm” Ephesians 6:13
Focus your eyes upon Jesus!