The Look of Love

Mark 10:17-21 And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is, God. Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother. And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth. Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.

The look of love, eyes of love, nowadays this is a very famous face, it is a very used emoji, if I tell you look of love, you immediately imagine this expression; a face with hearts instead of eyes.

"The eyes are the windows of the soul" a well-known phrase, very true.

During the first seconds that we observe someone, often, our eyes adjust directly to their eyes, when we look into the eyes we try to decipher who they are and what their intentions are. The eyes, often communicate truths about people and about their souls.

The eyes, are part of the body and facial language, they express what words often silence.

If we sit in front of a person and ask them how they feel and they smile at us, maybe if we look into their eyes we can see that that smile is not real, because that look does not really backup that smile.

Looks are part of non-verbal communication and teach us many things about others.

A look can be interpreted in many ways, but it can also convey many feelings and emotions.

We have this saying a look speaks more than a thousand words, some people that only by seeing the look that they have, you can already tell what type of personality they have; just by their look, only by their eyes, some have murderous looks, the person might not say a word, but with their look you’re already dead, there are friendly looks that don’t need to say anything, but only by the looks you already know that that person is very friendly, their spirit is very good, a sweet look. Sometimes a look makes us think that the person is so easy and simple to talk to. When you see someone with an angry look, you think it is better not to approach him/her; this man, this woman, has a face of few friends, better not tell them anything, just look at their angry face.

Looks say many things about us, they give us away when we are sad, angry, in love, worried or tired.

By the looks that people make, by the looks that we make, others can judge us and say what we’re like.

Did you know: The Bible says that Jesus expressed love to many people; healing them, dying on the cross: these were acts of love. Maybe there are other texts, but this is a very special text because it is not generally said that Jesus looked at a person and loved him. This is not generally said. Jesus looked at this young man with a look of love. I want him to look at me like that, how many would like for Jesus to look at us with his gaze of love?

I really like the story we just read in the word of God, it breaks my heart whenever I think about it, for years I’ve thought about this. This story is not only found in the book of Mark, it is also found in Matthew and Luke, John is the only one Gospel in which the story of this young man is not found. There is something very interesting in this story, Matthew and Luke wrote most of the story, but they didn’t mention something that Mark mentioned, Mark was the only one who put; Then Jesus looking at him, I love him. 

Mark said something that in my opinion is very important; Mark wrote the reaction, the gesture that Jesus Christ did towards this young man, and the gesture of Jesus was a look of love.

 And for me the look of Jesus is worth even more than a thousand words.

What draws my attention to this story and the look of Jesus Christ is the following; Jesus already knew that this young man wouldn’t want to follow Him, that it would be very difficult maybe even impossible to leave everything he had to follow Him, Jesus knew this young man wouldn’t be able to give what He asked for.

You, when people don’t do something that you wanted them to do, your look will show anger, or your look will be sad, you will feel bad because you asked something from them and they didn’t do it, and when you see them you might feel anger or resentment towards them. But Jesus Christ, knowing that this young man would not follow him, did not change his way of looking at him, Jesus looked at him with love even though this young man would reject him.

Jesus will love us even knowing that we will not be faithful to him and that many times we will not even be able to leave what we have to follow and do what he asks of us.

The biggest demonstration of what I’m telling you is the following; Jesus died for all the world, even knowing that not everyone was going to follow him. Jesus has loved you and looked at you with love in spite of your sins. Jesus has looked at you even when you haven’t been able to leave the bad habits, or the wordily fashion trends that you like… Yes, you might come to church, you act well, but you’re still not able to leave the things that have you tied down, however in spite of all that that Jesus looks at you with love.

You are a good person, but that will not save you, you have something that is taking you away, you have something that prevents you from serving God correctly, yes, you move well, you have fulfilled the commandments according to you, but you have something that will not save you, your good works will not save you, you have to walk away and follow Jesus completely.

"Leave everything you have, I do not want your money, I'm not interested in your position, I'm not interested in your studies, if I wanted to I would say follow me with your belongings, but I do not want them, what I want is your heart and I will do something new with you." Jesus.

The love of Jesus is not a selfish love. Today in this world, the type of love that we see is selfish, it is conditional, if you do not give something the other person will tell you; you do not love me enough. But Jesus shows us that love must be unconditional; whatever happens, whatever you decide, I love you, Jesus does not want us for what we have, he loves us for what we can have in Him.

This young man didn’t understand Jesus' love, he thought it was difficult, he said; “no, all this my parents have given me, I have everything, Jesus has nothing, I am going to live as a poor man, I will lose my privileges.” And even though he had Jesus' look of love in front of him, he still did not accept that love and decided continue with his life.

If you do not recognize the love of Jesus you will continue to sin. The only way to stop sinning is leaving everything and recognizing the love of God if you don’t, you will continue living the same. But if you recognize his love you’ll be able to leave everything and you’ll say; I will follow you.

But if God loves me, why does he ask me and tell me to leave certain things? God is love and God disciplines who he loves.

And the story continues, the young man decides to turn around and leave, Jesus let him go, do not think that Jesus will beg for you to stay, loves you, and loves us, but he will not insist or force us, even if he looks at you with eyes of love, he will not insist, it is a decision that you and I have to make.

If you want to follow him, the apostles told him; we have left everything to follow you, what are we going to receive? Jesus said they will receive 100 times more in heaven; if you follow him you will be blessed, but if you do not follow him Jesus will not beg you, it will be our problem.

The truth is that Jesus has looked at each and one of us this way, more than 2,000 years ago Jesus looked at us all with this look, on the cross of Calvary he saw us with love.

There's a song that starts with a few words, that really hit me every time I hear them, and what this man says are these words, he put himself in the shoes of a Roman soldier, and he started talking as if it was him:

"It was really impressive to hear his last words on the cross, whenever this man spoke strange things happened ... I saw many people who were healed by him, although it was forbidden for us, Roman soldiers, to talk about these things, I was standing next to that cross, and the truth is that I did not want to be there because when I turned to see Jesus, his look made me feel and think that I should be in his place, he did not see me with hate but in spite of the great suffering and his expression of agony he looked at me with love and I still cannot understand why he said words like; Father forgive them because they do not know what they are doing ... on the inside I told him; Come on, if you are the son of God why do.’t you come down from that cross, if you say that you have no sin, why are you dying for sinners and present them just before your Father, I believe that you are the only righteous one.

Suddenly I realized that my body began to tremble. Because he seemed to listen to my thoughts and while his blood was running through his disfigured body he told me with his eyes: IF I DONNOT COME DOWN FROM THIS CROSS IT IS FOR MY LOVE TO YOU"

What will you do? Will you leave everything that God is asking you to leave for him? It's the least we can do, don’t you think?

Abner Garcia.

Translated Abby Salgado.