October 29 Reflections

As water reflects a face, so a man’s heart reflects a man. ~Proverbs 27:19

Do not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the Word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does. ~James 1:22-25

Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man, “unclean.” For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man “Unclean,” but eating with unwashed hands does not make him “unclean.” ~Matthew 15:17-20

What if the only way that you had a clue about what you look like physically came from the reflection of yourself that you could see, in a stream or brook as you stooped to take a drink? How clear would your vision of yourself be? What if you lived in a world in which everyone around you knew your appearance better than you yourself and that was just normal?

We take mirrors so for granted today. We have mirrors on the medicine cabinets in our bathrooms, full length mirrors on the backs of bedroom doors and little compact mirrors that we can carry around with us to check our appearance before we enter a room. We are very aware of our physical appearance today. Mirrors today are made of clear glass with special highly reflective silver painted on the back.

In ancient times, the best that could be done for mirrors was highly polished brass, that gave a cloudy reflection at best, and everything was tinted yellow. Mirrors have certainly improved over the centuries, from only seeing our reflection in a body of water long ago to what we see today in our modern ones. While it is true that we are much more aware of our physical appearance today, it still may also be true that others see us better than we see ourselves!

Yesterday, we talked about how we usually behave better in public than in private. The funny thing is, no matter how hard we try to hide it, there’s no denying that the private attitude can still seep through and, sometimes, we are the only ones deceived into believing that we are hiding it. “As water reflects a face, so a man’s heart reflects a man.”

For example, let’s take the Pharisees that Jesus was constantly butting heads with. The Pharisees knew the law and were consumed with keeping it, but Jesus compared them to cups in which the outside was clean, but the inside was not. In their law, actually their man-made law that served as a hedge around the original ten commandments, the true follower was to perform a ceremonial washing of the hands before eating. This wasn’t like the way we wash our hands today. It was a ceremonial affair of dipping the fingers in finger bowls between courses so that the foods would not be mixed together. They had the performance down well, but what they said, in conversation, as Jesus talked with them, reflected to Jesus, and everyone, the truth of where their heart really was in actuality.

They were the men that James talked about who would look into the true law about as well as you could look into a piece of polished brass and then forget what they saw, or read, and just get on with the day. They didn’t internalize what they learned about themselves. It did not change their behavior to do better. They spent more time looking at others and finding the flaws because other people’s flaws were easier to see compared to their own flaws only seen through polished brass, or a pool of water, or your own heart. The flaws were visible to others, but the Pharisees couldn’t see themselves clearly.

“The man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.” His heart will be on display as one who is striving to please God and take his faith seriously. He is intent on working out his own flaws because he sees his reflection in the clear truth of God’s Word and when he looks there and sees reflected back at him the heart of Jesus, and compares that to his own heart, he knows that he has work to do to come closer to reflecting Jesus. He knows that he has his work cut out for him. There is no time to pick on the speck like flaws of others. Instead, he picks the logs out of his own eyes because he wants to become more like Christ.

Just as in Solomon’s day, when others were more familiar with your appearance than you would have been, the heart may also be better known than you realize. Jesus said that what we do and say comes from our hearts and that is what has the potential to make us unclean. It’s our words and behaviors that are on display to others. Do we reflet Christ, or our sin? If we don’t know, then perhaps, those around us could tell us, if we dare to ask. Our community of faith can help us know the truth.

Prayer: Father, search me and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Song: Open the Eyes of My Heart