What Would Jesus Do? Seeing Compassion in Full Color | In Color | Chad Belew

We are going to walk through this up until Easter. So it should be fun. I think we got

things figured out here. Alright. Hey, raise your hand if you're in here if you wear glasses.

Raise your hands if you're over 40. I just wanted to, because I think you guys, I'm looking

for some support here. Something strange has been happening to me as of late. My eyesight

is betraying me. I don't know what it is. Like I've always needed glasses. Funny story.

I didn't know I needed glasses until I went to get my driver's license at 16 years old.

I was at the DMV and you have to stick your head on this little thing. You guys know it

and read the lines, the letters. And so I did that. Read it flawlessly. And the lady goes,

"Cool. What about the left side?" I was like, "What do you talk?" I read all the letters.

She said, "No, no, no. You missed the left side." And so I put my, and I had to, my dad

tells it because he was there like laughing at me. But I like leaned in and I like kind

of leaned my head over. And there were letters on that side of the screen that I didn't see

for. Apparently, I have a lazy left eye that just hangs out with my right eye but doesn't

do anything. It follows it. It learned like stay in line but it doesn't do anything. And

she was like, "You can't get your driver's license. You need glasses." I was like, "What

are you, no, I don't. I see just fine." And the problem with that is I do see just fine

because my right eye has just learned to be in charge. And so when I read when I do it,

I'm fine. Well, I used to be. Like, I had glasses for a little while. I did contacts

which I hate touching wise. But then I ran out and insurance wasn't covering it. And

I can see fine. No, I don't have anything on. No, I can see fine guys. Sorry. When I went

to the military, they saw that I needed glasses. And they issued me the goggles, the glasses.

They called them birth control goggles because nobody wants to have children with you anywhere

in those. I never wore them. I don't even know where they went. Never wore them. I was

fine. I can shoot things. I was good. But as of lately, there's one thing that I really

have a problem with right now. It's when we go to a restaurant and it's dimly lit for

ambiance and vibes. And then they hand me a menu. And I started looking at the menu. And

I can see the title of things. Like the other night, we went to Barbara row to go eat.

Molly and I were there. I'm going to eat some pizza. And she was like, you pick. And I picked

a pizza. And she's like, not that one. And true story. So we went back. I was like, just,

you pick one. And she's like, no. Like, just pick a pizza. Eventually, I was like, look,

please pick a pizza because I cannot read the ingredients on this menu. And I don't want

to be the guy that does the flashlight yet. Like, I will revert to using the screen of

my phone. Just so people can't see me. I have not gotten to the point where the flashlight

is going to be the thing. Not quite. But I don't know what's happening. I don't know

why people use like eight point font on menus. The issue is when I finally do put a light

on it, the good news, I guess, when I finally do put a light on it, everything changes.

The menu, all of a sudden, has letters on it that are visible. Now, the menu didn't change

when I put the light on it. The words were always there. But suddenly, I can see them

more clearly because my eyes needed light. And this is this like remarkable thing that

happens with vision is you need light. The light doesn't like create this object or these

letters on the page, but it does reveal what's there. If you walk into a dark room, if you

walked in here and it was completely dark, you would run into some chairs. You wouldn't

see them. They were there. You just didn't see them. So when the lights come on, the

chairs were still there, but now you can actually see them. In fact, to the point where you can

start making out different aspects of the chairs, what they look like, colors, our eyes

need light to focus. And this is what my eye doctor is telling me. Like your issue is not

that you can't really see. It's that your eyes are just getting old, which was rude.

And then it's hard for them to focus, especially in lower light. Details get lost when you're

in low light. You don't see everything. If it was kind of dark in here, you can kind

of see you. You may see people. You may see that Mottie has on her coveralls today and

looks cool, but you don't know that they're not burnt orange, a different kind of orange

because we don't wear burnt orange in my family. But you may not know that. You just

know she's kind of got a darker cover all on. You don't know the color because color

needs light. Your eyes need the light in order to make that out. And I think when I go through

the Gospels and I read through Scripture, there's so much said about seeing and vision

and eyes and what the eyes do. And Matthew 6, Jesus says your eyes are windows into your

body. If you open your eyes wide and wonder and believe, your body fills up with light.

If you live squinty-eyed, like you're trying to read a menu in greed and distrust, your

body is a musty seller. If you pull the blinds on your windows, what a dark life you will

have. If you don't see, the eyes are this necessary thing to be able to be windows into

your body, to be able to see what is happening around you. And I love how in this passage

it says, if you open your eyes with wonder and belief, because it talks about the idea

that there is wonder in our lives. Apparently, eyes and vision are a big part of this Christ's

life. I think it might be one of the reasons that Jesus says that He is the light. He came

to help us see more clearly. Sometimes when we think about Jesus as the light, or we've

heard the stories of the lightness shines and the darkness and things will not be hidden.

It becomes very negative. I'm going to get found out. I don't think this is what's happening.

I think Jesus is saying, no, no. In order to see more clearly, I came to show you what

that looks like and be the light of what humanity can actually be when humans are being there

best selves. So maybe the issue for a lot of us and for what's just everything going

on is not that the world has gotten darker. Maybe sometimes our vision just needs some

recalibrating. And I think that's what Jesus calls us back to. Last week we talked about

attention. If you were here, there was a video I showed you, people passing a basketball,

told you to count how many passes the team in the white shirts passed. And in the middle

of them passing the ball, someone walked in wearing a gorilla outfit, beat their chest

in the middle of the video, and then walked off. And half of you didn't see the gorilla

because you're so focused on counting the passes. And that's a psychological study that

has happened for a long time that happens every time. Half the people will not see the

gorilla because they're trying to count the passes. Those of you I talked to afterwards

that said you did see the gorilla, you had no idea how many passes did it work. You gave

up. Your focus had to be on something. Psychologists call it the "attentional framing." Think about

framing in a way of when you go to buy meat at HEB and you pick up some beef and it says

it was like 80% lean. What's the wording on it? 20% fat. 20% fat. Just led with that.

You'd be like, I don't want that. But the 80% lean sounds real good. That's the framing

of something where we're leading, we're trying to get you to focus on the good, not necessarily

the 20% fat. Same thing happens in our lives when we're looking at things. We are framing

our attention on certain aspects and certain things. When we place our attention on shapes,

we can perceive them, we understand what they are. Paul talks about in the law, if you are

focused on the law, then the law will bring up more sin. That's because if you focus on

rules, you will notice violations. If you focus on danger, you're going to notice threats.

If this is your focus, then you're looking for danger, you're going to find threats.

If you focus on compassion, you might start seeing suffering. It's two people witnessing

the same moments and having completely different perceptions of what's going on, because they're

looking for two different things. Seeing things is really important. I think this is what Jesus

came to show us. I'm going to show another little illustration. I'm going to move this

so you can see it. Jaden, can you do me a favor? Don't hate me. Can you run home? Amazon just

delivered some packages and it was something I ordered for service today. What's wrong?

Thank you. Thanks. Such a good child. Modial pay for gas. Not really. She said no.

All right. We're going to do an experiment. Let me mind your way. I might be. I'll get

up in a second. There's this picture. Beautiful trees. You guys see trees? We see the red

color. Anybody in here color blind? I don't want to call you out. Color blind. Color blind.

We're going to look at it. Who's at the slide? Daniel. Go to the next image. You see the

shapes. You see what's happening. Keep looking at it. There's going to be a black dot that

opens up on the center of the screen. You're going to stare at that black dot until I tell

you to change it. Stare at the black dot. Focus on the black dot. It's -- no, I'm not hypnotizing

you. It's going to take a few minutes. Not minutes. A few seconds. Stare at it. Keep

looking at the black dot. No, nothing's going to jump. It's not scary, I promise. Keep looking

at the black dot. Ten more seconds. Keep looking at the black dot. Do not move your focus. Daniel

will change the picture. Now blink and look at the picture. Okay, go back to the oversaturated

one. Stare at the black dot. This shouldn't take as long now. Stare at the black dot. When

I say keep staring at the black dot and we change it, keep looking at the black dot. What

do you see on the screen right now? A black and white image. What did you see on the screen

for a split second? A fully -- a full colored image. Look, we're not playing a trick on you

on slides, right? There's not an image on there that's full color. What your brain is

doing is it has seen the colors. It's seen what this is supposed to look like. The original

picture has the colors in it. Go back to the original one. Your brain sees this and knows

this. You know trees are green. This makes sense, sky is blue. Your brain is taking all

this information in. We go to the next one. There's a lot to this, but the sky is orange.

If you look at a color wheel, blue and orange are opposite of each other. What it's doing

is you're staring at the orange and it's really reinforcing the colors that you saw. Using

opposite colors on the color wheel, we go to the next one and you see color in the image

because your brain knows that it's there while you're focused on the focal point. The minute

you blink or you move your eyes around, this goes back to black and white. It's wild, right?

Our brains and our eyes do incredible things for us. This matters because the point of

this is seeing color in light or darkness, keeping you safe. I think the guy's name is

Andrew Steele that does this experiment. You can find it on YouTube. It's really cool.

It is a couple of different ones. But while you're staring at that point, you're focused.

And when it changes to black and white, your brain remembers what you saw before. Maybe

for a split second. But it remembers what it's supposed to look like. I think for me, I think

this is how the life of Jesus works for us. At times in our lives like we see in the gospels,

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, we read through these stories. We see what Jesus is doing,

how he treats people, how he reaches out to the outcast, how he sits with people he's

not supposed to sit with, how he loves people, how he protects people. We see the love and

compassion that Jesus is showing through the gospels. It's like we're seeing humanity

in full color. I think this is the beautiful picture that we get from Jesus. It's love

and action. It is the life of Christ. We talk about the perfection of Jesus. And there's

some interesting points to this perfection. Like perfect in what way? Did he always follow

the law? Well, we see a few times. We'll look at a story today. No. He didn't follow the

law. Wait a minute. What does that mean? Am I saying Jesus wasn't perfect? No, no, no.

I think Jesus was the perfect representation of what love looks like. And it's the colorful

image that we see in the beginning. It shows us what humanity can be at its best. Jesus

shows us this. What humanity, protecting the outcast, loving those that we've been told

or unlovable. We see the full picture of what humanity is supposed to look like. The next

four weeks, we'll talk about the last few weeks of Jesus's life as he heads to the cross.

And we're going to see some things that happen in his life where he is making really important

statements. Not just through words but through actions. He's making statements to show us

that we've looked at who God is through human lenses. We've looked at God and said how does

this work? And all we can see is black and white. It's right and wrong, in or out. Everything's

been narrowed down to very specific certainty. And Jesus comes along and says, no, no, no,

you've missed it. Let me show you what it's supposed to look like. And we see this. We'll

go through it the next few weeks. There's a small story that's tucked in the gospel

of Luke that I think really reveals something about the person of Jesus and why he came

but what he is trying to do and show us. It's in the last few weeks of his life. And so

you're going to see how he challenges some things. There's this moment of what I would

say and call like an awe moment where people get to see Jesus in all his love on display.

And you see we kind of get a glimpse into how they process it. But if we aren't careful

when we read this story, we'll miss it. So we're going to look at it today. Luke tells

us that Jesus is teaching in a synagogue on the Sabbath. It's Luke 13 verse 10. On a

Luke 13:10

Sabbath, Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues and a woman was there who had been

crippled by a spirit for 18 years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all.

When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, woman, you are set free from

your infirmity. Then he put his hands on her and immediately she straightened up and praised

God. 18 years, 18 years this woman had been crippled. Jesus comes in and he's teaching

the synagogue on the Sabbath and this is later in his ministry. So I'm sure the synagogue

is packed because this is Jesus. This is the teacher that we've all wanted to hear. Luke

says that she'd been bent over and couldn't straighten up. Which means for nearly two

decades, her view was almost just of the ground in front of her. Maybe she could look up a

little bit, but she had no full view of everyone around her. Imagine living like this. Never

making eye contact. Always aware that people are noticing. Always aware that you don't

quite fit. In the ancient world, suffering like this often came with stigma. People frequently

assume that a physical ailment, physical suffering, some form of pain or visible suffering for

someone, it must be connected to sin. Either their own sin or their family's sinned and

so this is the outcome of that. We see it in the Gospels, we see it in John, the disciples

asked Jesus like, we're talking about the blind man, they're like, who sinned? This man

or his parents? This is the view of what this woman would have been seen through. So she

likely carried not just physical pain, but probably carried like this quiet weight of

shame, suspicion, because synagogues in that time, like imagine this happens, like in the

synagogue at that time, men and women were separated. They didn't sit together like

us heathens. They were separated. The men would be in the front, women would be in the

back, maybe against the walls. So this woman, not only is she a woman, but she's crippled.

So she's another rung down in the societal ladder. She's bent over, partially hidden in

a crowd. She's listening, trying not to draw attention to herself, but Luke tells us something

simple and powerful. Jesus saw her. Before the miracle, before anything happens, Jesus

sees this woman. He's staying at the front, he's teaching, he sees this woman. Imagine

this moment Jesus calls you out. Like you're just trying to hide out. Like people already

look at me, make fun of me. I don't need this. Jesus calls her. I come forward. Room full

of people turning to look at this woman who probably moved slowly down to Jesus. In the

back of the synagogue, she's walking down the center of the room. How many people were annoyed

how slowly she was walking? I didn't come here for this. I came here to listen to Jesus.

How many people were mad that she was even in the synagogue? Because if you were handicapped

at that time, there were times where you were not allowed to even be in the synagogue because

you were considered unclean, because you had sinned or someone in your life had sinned.

So there's probably some people in there who were like, she's not even supposed to be here.

Here she comes. Says that Jesus places his hands on her and says woman, you are set free

from your infirmity. Luke tells us that she immediately straightened up and she began

to praise God. So many things happening here in the last weeks of Jesus' life. He's calling

a woman forward in the synagogue. In a patriarchal system in the days of Jesus, this is not okay.

Calls her up, heals her, and it's the Sabbath. I don't know if you guys know this, but under

the law, you're supposed to keep the Sabbath day holy, which means you don't work. You

don't lift a finger. You're not allowed to. You're supposed to come to the synagogue,

listen, and relax. Sounds amazing. But something crazy happens. This woman gets healed. 18

years. This people probably knew who she was. She gets healed. And then someone gets mad

at Jesus. Right after she's praising God. Verse 14 says, indignant because Jesus had

healed on the Sabbath. The synagogue leader said to the people, there are six days for

work. So come and be healed on one of those days, not on the Sabbath. You got six other

days to just, you can mosey on over here, get healed. But the Sabbath, that's not what

this is for. Why are you, what are you guys doing? We got Jesus here today. This is the

set. You can't work on the Sabbath. This synagogue leader says, indignant, not because

the healing is wrong, because he says you can come six other days to get healed, but

because it happened on the Sabbath. And suddenly, the room is split between two ways of seeing

the same moment. Because if you're a good Jew, you've learned this growing up. What

the Sabbath is a rule and we keep the Sabbath holy. The religious leader, he's so focused

on the rule while Jesus is focused on this person. Same event, different attention, different

perception, different focus. Do you feel this tension? This religious leader is contradicting

Jesus himself in the synagogue. He quotes the law. The Sabbath is supposed to be kept

holy a day where no work is supposed to happen. Jesus knows this. So Jesus quotes the law

back to him. He says, you didn't finish the statement. He says, you hypocrites. Doesn't

each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give

it water. You see, in the law, it says you're not even allowed to do this. In fact, it specifically

says this about your ox and your donkeys. You don't even, they're not even allowed to

do work. So you can't even untie them to take them somewhere to do something. And he says,

hold on, you hypocrites. You already do this. You break the Sabbath by taking your ox and

your donkeys down to get water. And really, what he's saying is you already make some

room for some compassion here. You bend the rules when it benefits your animals, which

really it benefits you, right? Because my animals are doing work for me. So you'll

bend the rule when it benefits your animals. But somehow you've lost the ability to see

compassion when another human being is suffering. You're so focused on the rule that you're

missing the suffering. And then Jesus says something remarkable. He says, then should

not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, when Satan has kept her bound for 18 long years,

be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her. And this phrase matters. Daughter of Abraham

in this phrase is huge. She's not considered that. In fact, most of Scripture just talks

about sons of Abraham. So to even put daughter here is pushing it. But then to call someone

a daughter of Abraham who law and culture would tell us is sinning or has sinned. And

this is why she's like this is another statement where Jesus is naming someone and labeling

someone something that society says they are not. He says, she's part of the family. She's

not a problem. She's not a disruption. She's not a rule violation. She is family. She belongs.

For 18 years, the world had trained people not to see her, but Jesus did. And suddenly

the whole room has to see her again. He shined a light on him. Now they're seeing in full

color what they'd always seen in black and white. And Luke tells us something fascinating

about how people responded. When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated. But the

people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing. They're like, Jesus finally

said what we've been thinking. Like we've had this, right? The leaders feel exposed.

The people feel relief. Because many of them had quietly wondered about the same thing.

Why can't we do this? We know this because even another time Jesus does a teaching where

he says, hey, if your kid falls down a well on the Sabbath, are you not going to save

it or your animals? Are you not going to save the kid on the Sabbath? Yes, because the life

matters more. And he actually goes on to say that the Sabbath was made for man, not man

for the Sabbath. The idea was Sabbath is, hey, we need to rest. It is good for our bodies,

not to be a rigid rule that says that you cannot love or care or show compassion to someone.

Thanks, bud. I think you sped. Just kidding. He always does. He's like his dad. Like, think

about like, why would helping someone ever be wrong? That like this crowd is like, this

makes sense. But yeah, we've thought that before. Why would compassion need permission?

And suddenly Jesus says out loud what many of them have probably felt for years. For

many of us, moments like this have happened in our own journeys. Some of us grew up, let

me see if it's in here. Hang on.

Oh, my God. There's so many packages. Oh, my God. There's another bag. You guys are

up with these? Who remembers these? And the frog bracelet. Who has one right now? Who's

wearing one? Oh, wow. No good Christians in here. Oh, it's tracking. No, I'm just kidding.

Okay. W W J D. What would Jesus do? We wore them on our wrist as a reminder to follow

the example of Jesus. But as we grew older, some of us began noticing moments where the

answers we were given didn't quite line up with what Jesus had done, what we'd read about.

We saw people who were hungry, but were told it wasn't our job to feed them. We saw marginalized

communities being attacked, but we were told not to stand up for them. They're not part

of us. We saw families fleeing violence arriving at our borders doorstep, surviving unimaginable

hardships to get here. And we're told there's someone else's problem. They need to go back

where they came from. And something inside of us quietly asked the question we had been

taught since we were kids. What would Jesus do? And the answers didn't always line up.

Sometimes a framework we were given didn't match the compassion that we saw in Jesus.

And when that happens, something shifts. And all moment begins to take place. Because suddenly

you see something clearly that you couldn't articulate before. Maybe you witnessed compassion

in action. Somebody actually loving on someone that you were told you're not allowed to do.

Someone standing up for another person. Someone restoring dignity where it had been denied.

And something inside of you says that looks like Jesus to me. It's like seeing color return

to an image you thought was black and white. Maybe it's for a split second, but you see

it. And once you've seen it, you can't quite unsee it. After the confrontation ends, Luke

tells us that Jesus continues teaching. In your Bible there's a new heading, but it continues.

All this happens. Leaders leave. People are sitting here and then Jesus asks, what is

the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to? It's like a mustard seed, which a man

took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree. And the birds perched in its

branches. Again, he asks, what shall I compare the kingdom of God to? It's like yeast that

a woman took and mixed into about 60 pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.

It permeated the whole thing. And he tells these parables. What is the kingdom of God

like? He says it's like a mustard seed. It's a small little seed that grows into this huge

tree that birds get to perch in and have safety and have cover. It's like yeast that it's

this little bitty piece of yeast in 60 pounds of flour, but it can permeate the whole thing.

Which makes you wonder if everyone in that room suddenly realized something. They had

just witnessed this mustard seed moment. They saw it happen. They were in awe. Something

changed. This is what we thought this was about. And the entire room had to reconsider

what the kingdom of God might actually look like. Maybe the kingdom of God doesn't begin

with these grand revolutions and these big things happening across the country or these

massive revivals. Maybe it begins with moments of awe. Like moral acts of kindness between

two human beings. Remember awe-inspiring moments happen. One of the main ways that we experience

is through moral acts of kindness, you caring for another person. Moments where we witness

compassion so real that it forces us to rethink everything we thought we understood about God,

about people, about ourselves. Has anybody else gone through this in your journey? I know

I have. Moments where someone chooses kindness when the system expects indifference. Or moments

where someone restores dignity where it has been denied. Those moments may feel small.

But Jesus says they're like yeast and dough. Once they enter the system, they change everything.

Maybe the world isn't as gray as it sometimes feels. Maybe the color has been there all

along. Maybe what we need most is to keep our eyes fixed on the one who helps us see clearly.

Because when we do, we begin to see what Jesus saw. People. Beloved. Daughters and sons of

Abraham. Human beings carrying the image of God that are just looking to belong and be

loved and be cared for. And when that happens, love becomes the most natural response in

the world. Because when you see it, the mustard seed begins to grow. You want to do that too.

Then you felt good. And love begins to grow. So, what would Jesus do? These got us in a

lot of trouble. Because they actually showed us what he would do. And then when we push

against the system the same way Jesus did in the synagogue, people get mad. But Jesus showed

us what love meant and how it works that people matter more than any rule. The compassion

matters more than any idea that love is always the answer. So, what would Jesus do? He would

love others well. And that's why every week we say, Arsenal, go love well. It's who you're

made to be. So, this week, go do that. But if you want, grab a WWJ D bracelet. Because

I think they matter. And it can be a reminder that we are part of the rebellion. Because

that's what Jesus was. He was a rebel. And his guiding force was love. So, let's go do

that skill of love well. It's who you're made to be.