Use your imagination and see the expression on Jesus' face; see his eyes; see the expression when he looks at you.

I. Jesus sees you and all the people in the world; he sees every sparrow that falls to the ground.

A. We know that God watches over us, but now we have Jesus with a face and with eyes looking at us.

B. We look in a mirror and see ourselves. If we see ourselves as Jesus sees us, it can be very scary.

II. When we see ourselves, we feel a sense of guilt at what we see.

A. God looks at us and says he will judge us.

B. We never really do anything wrong, but we always get caught.

III Jesus looks at us not just to look at our sins, but to look out for us, to protect us as we protect our own children from harm.

A. Most important of all, he looks at us because we are important to him.

B. He is looking at us because what we do matters to him. He loves us, and he wants our lives to be filled with joy.

JESUS LOOKS AT ME

Christmas is about Jesus. In this Advent season, we have been thinking about the face of Jesus. We have been thinking about what Jesus may have looked like. In the first sermon of this Advent series, we talked about Jesus as the image of God, how Jesus was a revelation of God and more than that. Jesus revealed also what God had in mind when he created human beings. We have a revelation of what it means to be a full human being, inclusive of all humanity. In Christ there is no male or female, no Jew or Gentile, no slave or free, but all are made one in Jesus Christ.

The second sermon was about the tear on the face of Jesus. Jesus was the Messiah who was predicted by the Prophet Isaiah, the Messiah who would be "a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief" (Isaiah 53:3a).

Last Sunday we talked about the smile on the face of Jesus and how Jesus was able to affirm the goodness of life, to enjoy life. He told us to go the extra smile.

Today, the fourth Sunday in the Advent season and the last sermon in this series, you are invited to look upon the face of Jesus one more time and to see Jesus look at us. Use your imaginations and picture Jesus' face---see his eyes and the expression on his face when he looks at you, when he looks at your neighbors, and when he looks at me as well.

Jesus is not just anybody. Jesus is Immanuel (God with us). The very essence of the Christmas message is the word Immanuel. When Jesus was born, God himself drew near. He came to us in this baby Jesus. Through him, we are able to see that which is unseen. God has always been able to see his creation. In Genesis, we read that after God had created the world, he looked at what he had done, and he saw that it was very good. God is observant and notices everything there is to know about you and about your life. We have known that that is true about God, but we have not been able to imagine God looking at us until the incarnation, until Immanuel, until Jesus came. Now God has a face. Now we can look at Jesus looking at us. Have you ever looked at yourself in a mirror? How important it is in terms of self-identification to be able to see ourselves. We continue to look into mirrors in order to identify who we are, to get acquainted with that person. We look at ourselves looking at ourselves when we look in a mirror.

In the Tokyo subways, large numbers of people have committed suicide by jumping in front of trains. As a way of combating suicide, authorities have erected mirrors across from the platforms in the subway stations. It has made a difference. There have been fewer suicides because people look into the mirrors and see themselves. How important it is in terms of self-consciousness and self-identification to be able to have the capacity to look at ourselves looking at ourselves. More than our looking at one another, more than our looking at ourselves, God looks at us, and in Jesus we can see God looking at us.

Now that can be scary because then we worry about being found out and being punished or rejected because of the persons we are. All of us feel guilty when we think about the thoughts we have had and the things we have done. We probably do not want anyone else in the world to know all of that. Yet, here is One who is looking and sees and knows everything there is to know about who we are.

There is a story about a man who had problems with fellow residents in a large apartment building. One day he came into the apartment building and pushed the buttons that turned on all the intercoms, and he yelled out, "All is known!" It was reported that in the next week, 50 percent of the people left town.

We have all felt that way. All of us have a sense of guilt. That is why we are so defensive whenever anyone criticizes us. When we think of someone’s looking and knowing everything there is to know, it is a very frightening thing, especially when you go to the scriptures and see some of the things Jesus has said. "But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea" (Matthew 18:6). And then Jesus adds that anyone who does these things to the little ones, the poor, the handicapped and to those who are not able to defend themselves, is in big trouble. "See that you do not despise one of these little ones; for I tell you that in heaven their angels always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 18:10). Their angels are very close to the throne of power and grace. So you have to be careful what you do when you are dealing with these little ones. Remember, God is looking. We never do anything it seems, but we always get caught.

But isn't it good that things are this way? When a person is able to have the conviction that he or she is being regarded by another, then that person has what we have come to call a "conscience." A few years ago, the suggestion was made that we should empty out the prisons and employ one parole officer for every person who was released from the prison system and that parole officer would just follow that one person. Well, if you know that Jesus is with you all the time and that he's always looking, you have your own private parole officer. You are going to behave yourself and be a good citizen. When people do not believe that, they do not have anything to lose because they think they can get away with things.

Scripture is clear about that. It says that Jesus is not only our lover, but also our judge. At the end of time, he is going to come to judge the quick and the dead. I do not think that is really the basic heart of the gospel. I think the heart of the matter is that in Jesus we can look at him looking at us. When we see ourselves through Jesus' eyes, then we judge ourselves. That is the important thing, to see ourselves being seen by Jesus.

Far more important than that, Jesus is looking at us, not just so we will judge ourselves and feel badly and not be able to enjoy life and be free, but rather Jesus is looking at us so he can look out for us. Parents and babysitters look out for children, help protect the children. There was a woman who had been taken in adultery and Jesus saw what was going on. The people were going to stone her to death, and Jesus said, "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her" (John 8:7 KJV). Everyone turned and walked away because everyone had sinned. Jesus is always looking out for us, not just looking and judging, but looking to care and to protect.

He looks at us because we are important to him. The point of this whole message is that what we do with our lives matters to Jesus. The way in which we relate to other people matters to Jesus and to God. Do we treat other people with justice? Are we generous to our employees, to our family, to our neighbors? Are we encouraging? It matters to Jesus. All of us need to have someone like that looking at us. We do what we do because it matters to somebody. Now most of us have such a small level of serf-consciousness that we do not even know the identity of the person for whom we are doing what we do. But psychiatrists and psychologists tell us that what we do is done to please some other person in our lives.

God has come to us in Jesus, and in the Resurrection he continues to be with us. He cares about our well-being. He loves us and wants our lives to be filled with joy. He wants our lives to be filled with significance, and Jesus knows that will be the case to the extent that we do things that are caring and loving and responsible. All of us who are Christians yearn to hear, "Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much; enter into the joy of your master" (Matthew 25:21).

There was a woman whose husband hated Christmas. He hated not the real Christmas, but the commercialism of Christmas. You buy gifts for people who do not need anything, and you cannot decide what they want. Finally, not knowing what you should buy, you just buy anything in order to give something for Christmas. He was resentful of that. He felt guilty because many people in the world had so many needs. He was continually talking to his wife about that concern. He told her that he did not want her to give him anything for Christmas. Shortly before Christmas, they went with their three children to watch their oldest son participate in a wrestling match with a poor, inner-city church team. Their son's team had all the latest equipment. They had wrestling shoes, helmets, and uniforms. They took on the other team and beat them in every match. After it was over, the husband had tears in his eyes and said, "That's terrible. Those poor kids. I wish they would have at least won one match, because this is going to take the heart out of them." He worried about those kids for so long. The next day, his wife thought of an idea. She went to the local sporting goods store and bought wrestling shoes, helmets, and uniforms for the whole team and sent them to the inner-city church anonymously. On Christmas morning, when the husband came to see what Santa Claus had brought, on the tree was an envelope. When he opened it, he read a little message of the special gift his wife had given to him that Christmas. His face lighted up with a smile, and tears came. He was so happy! It was the most wonderful Christmas he had ever had. For many years, they celebrated like that. Every Christmas morning there was the envelope, and every year she found some new thing. Then while still a relatively young man, the husband got cancer. It raced through his body, and he died. When the next Christmas came, the wife was so torn and so wrapped in grief that she could hardly put up her Christmas tree. Somehow she managed. On Christmas morning, when they went to the tree, there was her envelope! More than that, unbeknownst to any of the others, all three of the children had done the same thing. There were three more envelopes on that tree!

Do you think that the husband was there to see what they had done for him? I do not know whether he was there or not, but Jesus was there, and Jesus looked at that family and said, "Well done, thou good and faithful servants."