A Look Can Say
A Lot
A look can say a lot without a word being said. A father rushes into the room after hearing a crash and finds that his children have broken a lamp; and they know just by the look he gives them that they are in some serious trouble. A husband says something rude and out-of-place; and he knows just by the look that his wife gives him that he better apologize. A woman is chatting with her friends during work when she catches her boss out of the corner of her eye; and she knows just by the look on his face that she should get back to work right away. A look can say a lot without a word being said. Especially when the person being looked at knows that they have done something wrong.
The
apostle Peter never would have imagined that he would receive “The Look” from
his Savior because Peter had been bold about his faith from the very
beginning. Remember that Peter was the only
one who asked Jesus to allow him to walk on water out to his Lord. Peter was the only one who rebuked Jesus to
his face when he didn’t agree with God’s plan.
Peter was always the first one to confess his faith in the Lord whenever
the opportunity arose. And on the night
that Jesus was betrayed, Peter was the first one who swore to his Lord that he
would never reject him - no matter what the cost.
But
then, later that night, things to a turn that Peter wasn’t expecting. Judas Iscariot suddenly showed up in the
Garden of Gethsemane with a mob of men and, with a hypocritical kiss on the
cheek, Judas marked Jesus as the one they were to arrest. Peter and the rest of the disciples ran away
and Jesus was surrounded. Then seizing him, they led him away and
took him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed at a distance. But when they had kindled a fire in the
middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with
them. A servant girl saw him seated
there in the firelight. She looked closely at him and said, “This man was with
him.” But he denied it. “Woman, I don’t
know him,” he said. A little later
someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.” “Man, I am not!” Peter replied. About an hour later another asserted,
“Certainly this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean.” Peter replied, “Man, I don’t know what you’re
talking about!” Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter.
Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: “Before the rooster
crows today, you will disown me three times.”
And he went outside and wept bitterly.
Jesus
turned and looked at Peter but there was no reason for Jesus to say a
word. There was nothing left for Jesus
to say. Because Peter knew. He instantly knew what he had done. He remembered the promise he had made, now
broken. And he recalled with Jesus had
predicted despite his own bold claims. And
with the face of the one whom he had just disowned fresh in his mind, Peter ran
outside and cried in misery.
A Look of
Disappointment
I’ve
received “The Look” once or twice in my life.
And I give “The Look” to my own children once or twice a week. But I shudder to think about what kind of
look Jesus could give to me every day. My
unwillingness to do what I know I should do, hesitation to say what I need to
say, my general lack of love for others… I can almost see “The Look” on my
Lord’s face up in heaven every single time: a look of pure disappointment,
maybe a little shaking of the head, the raising of the corner of his mouth, a
small sigh. And although he doesn’t say
a word, I say to myself, “Not again! I
didn’t just do that again, did I? I
thought I was better than that! I
thought I had fixed that problem. I’ve
repented of that sin dozens of times before, I’ve promised the Lord that I
wouldn’t fall into it again, but here I am anyway. The proverbial rooster has crowed and I have
once again failed miserably. I have let
my Lord down. And I have no excuse.”
There is
hardly anything worse than letting someone down you look up to so much. And every day we let the Lord down time and
time again. We have good intentions, we
are determined to stay true, but in the end we can’t follow through. And the rooster crows. And we know.
We instantly know what we have done.
We remember the promises that we have once again broken. And we want to run outside and cry because we
don’t want to have to face “The Look” that our Lord has every right to give us
for being so stubborn and pompous and undependable.
A Look of Love
But if
we do lift our eyes to see Jesus’ face in those times of insufferable guilt, if
we do dare to peek at the expression of our powerful God, we will notice that
there is no anger in his look. There may
be a little bit of disappointment because of what we have done, there may be a
little sadness, but there is also a glow of love in his eyes. Because “The Look” Jesus gives sinners isn’t
one of impending punishment; it is one of unending compassion.
Jesus
looked at Peter after the rooster crowed in the exact same way. It must
have been a look of love and mercy and compassion because even though Scripture
doesn’t elaborate on the specific expression on Jesus’ face at that moment,
Jesus’ subsequent actions tell us very clearly what his attitude towards Peter
was. While Peter ran outside with a
feeling of overwhelming guilt, Jesus walked outside to the palace of the Roman
governor to be declared guilty. While
Peter was wiping the tears from his face, Jesus was wiping the blood from his
face from the beatings and the crown of thorns at the hands of the
soldiers. As Peter stopped crying, Jesus
began dying. And all of the remorse that
Peter had been experiencing, all of the guilt that Peter had been carrying, was
all at once placed upon the shoulders of Jesus as he carried it on the
cross. Which meant that Peter’s
conscience could be soothed; his shame, shed; his guilt, gone. Jesus carried it all so that Peter would
never have to carry any of it ever again.
Your conscience can be soothed - and it
is; your shame shed; your guilt gone.
Because Jesus didn’t just carry those things for Peter. And he doesn’t just give “The Look” to Peter
either. Whenever that rooster crows in
our lives and we become aware of our sinfulness and we are once again thrown
down to the ground by the weight of our guilt, our Savior gives us that same
look of love and mercy and compassion. He
takes the guilt off our shoulders and he gently lifts us up. He then points our eyes to his cross because
on those bloody wooden beams our guilt has already been carried and we don’t
ever have to worry about it again. It’s
true! Even those deep dark sins that no
one else knows about, those nagging feelings of shame that keep rumbling up
inside, those awful self-inflicted humiliations that reemerge year after year,
those moments of disgrace that you can’t seem to shake… they no longer
exist! Jesus has paid the full
price. And as far as he is concerned,
there’s nothing left for you to feel guilty about. “But what about that awful sin!” we cry. “What about those hateful words! What about those nasty thoughts! I still feel guilty about those things!” But what you feel and what is real are
sometimes completely different. And when
we glance up at “The Look” Jesus is giving us, we start to understand why. Because no matter what you’ve done, his look
is a look of love and mercy and compassion.
And regardless of what you may feel, under the gaze of that look there
is no doubt that you are forgiven. “The
Look” of your Savior says it all - without a word being said. Amen.
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