"From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view…" (2 Corinthians 5:16)
Lent is the season of earnest vows and solemn moods. It is the season of mid-week services – perhaps the only time during the year when Lutherans, in any appreciable number, come to church more than once a week. It is also the season for developing a "nonhuman" point of view. Let me tell you what I mean.
In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul describes the fundamental Christian conviction: "We are convinced that one has died for all" (v.14). This is what the Christian faith is all about – and Lent, too. At its heart, it is about Calvary. But then Paul goes on. "From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view" (v.16). Other translations illuminate the idea. "We don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look" (Peterson). "We are careful not to judge people by what they seem to be" (CEV). "So we have stopped evaluating others by what the world thinks about them" (NLT).
The operative word in Greek is sarka, often translated "flesh." Since Calvary, Paul says, Christians should not evaluate anyone "according to the flesh." We will not evaluate from a human point of view – not ourselves, not others. We begin to think, as it were, nonhumanly.
Roughly one-third of the world has yet to hear the Good News: two billion souls. From a fleshly, human point of view, it makes little difference. The two billion can find their own way. They can have their own gods. They can make do.
But Christians will not regard the two billion "by what the world thinks about them." Since Calvary, we begin to regard them as beloved for whom Christ died. We see in them, not what they seem to be, but precious jewels of God’s love and favor. The King has died for them; there is nothing pedestrian or ordinary about them. They are urgently, desperately, incredibly…wonderful.
What if you regarded your own neighbor from such a point of view? No longer as humans regard him or her: a bother and an intrusion that takes up space on your block. What if you regarded him as a millionaire king? What if she were a queen? And what if your neighbors were the beloved of God Almighty? If that were the case, you might go out of your way to serve them. And that is the case.
Our self-perspective changes, too. We begin to regard ourselves as beloved of God. The world may think us nobodies; but we know better. We have been utterly redeemed. We have been made the children and co-laborers of God.
So Lent is more than solemn moods and mid-week services. It is about developing a consistently "nonhuman" point of view.
"One has died for all," Paul said. We will start to think differently, if we believe it. We will start to act differently. It will turn us into "ambassadors for Christ" (v. 20)
"The Way I See It", April 2001
© Copyright 2001 (World Mission Prayer League). All rights reserved.