Luke 7:44 – “Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, ‘Do you see this woman?’”
Author and pastor Chris Webb writes:
“Jesus asked, ‘Do you see this woman?’ The truth was, of course, that Simon the Pharisee had seen a great deal. He had seen the sinner at his door. He had seen the nature of her offense against propriety, whatever that had been. He had seen her intrusion into his circle, his world, his unsullied company; her disgraceful behavior; her unbridled grief; her extravagant offering of perfume.
And based on all he had seen, he passed a fearful and ferocious judgment on her in his own heart.
But the one thing he failed to see was the woman herself—this wayward but beautiful daughter of Eve, corrupted yet still bearing the likeness of her Creator. He failed to see her pain, her sorrow, her fragile hope.
He saw, so he thought, everything—but in the end proved blind to the only thing that mattered.
The compassionate life is, first and foremost, personal. It must be rooted in genuine, direct relationships, not nebulous issues. We cannot love causes. We can only love people—and this love is the root of all real, enduring justice and peace. As we walk in the footsteps of Jesus, we need to learn to see.”
There is a depth of wisdom and lived experience in those words. We cannot truly love a cause, a system, a campaign, or even a vision the way we are called to love a person. And yet, how often do we fall into that trap?
The religious leaders in Jesus’ day looked at people through the lens of their brokenness. They would have reduced the woman at the well to nothing more than a string of failed relationships. They saw a prostitute and labeled her immoral. They saw a man with leprosy and kept their distance. They saw an isolated, deranged man in a cave and saw only a demon. They didn’t see the pain. They didn’t see the story. They didn’t see the person.
But Jesus did. He always did. He saw past the shame, the lifestyle, the stigma. He saw beloved sons and daughters of God—wounded, but never worthless.
May we learn to see and love like You, Jesus.