{"id":21471,"date":"2020-11-17T09:33:53","date_gmt":"2020-11-17T14:33:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/?p=21471"},"modified":"2020-11-17T09:34:17","modified_gmt":"2020-11-17T14:34:17","slug":"the-burning-eyes-of-the-lord-jesus-christ","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/the-burning-eyes-of-the-lord-jesus-christ\/","title":{"rendered":"The burning eyes of the Lord Jesus Christ"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cHis eyes were like a flame of fire\u201d (Revelation 1:14)<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a Harry Bosch detective story, best-selling author Michael Connelly tells of a murder victim who, while being hanged, had a bucket placed over his head. Connelly explains to the reader that killers who want to dehumanize their victims\u00a0often hide their faces, perhaps blindfold them or in this case, cover their head with a bucket.<\/p>\n

Rapists, he says, will often blindfold their victims or place a pillow over their face.\u00a0 They cannot stand the pain of looking into the eyes of one whom they are destroying.<\/p>\n

The eyes tell so much of what the soul experiences.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Someone asked a medic who had served during the Vietnam war, “How do you handle the constant suffering day after day?\u201d\u00a0 He answered, \u201cNever look a dying man in the eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two\u00a0small, mostly unnoticed,\u00a0insights from Scripture come to mind.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the men who were holding Jesus in custody were mocking Him, and beating Him, and\u00a0they blind-folded Him<\/em>\u2026.\u201d (Luke 22:63).\u00a0\u00a0Of the four Gospel writers, only Luke gives us this detail.\u00a0 Did they cover His eyes so they would not have to look at them?\u00a0 I wouldn’t be surprised.<\/p>\n

And then this one\u2026<\/p>\n

While our Lord was on trial, Peter hung close but when pressed, denied he even\u00a0knew Jesus. \u201c\u2018After about an hour had passed, another man began to insist, saying, \u2018Certainly this man was also with Him, for he is a Galilean, too.\u2019\u00a0 But Peter said, \u2018Man, I do not know what you are talking about.\u2019 \u00a0And immediately, while he was still speaking, a cock crowed.\u00a0And the Lord turned and looked at Peter.\u00a0<\/em>And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had told him, \u2018Before a cock crows today, you will deny me three times.\u2019 And he went out and wept bitterly.\u201d (Luke 22:54-62)<\/p>\n

All four gospels record that Peter denied the Lord three times, all but John says he wept bitterly following this devastating breakdown, but only Luke tells us the trigger that started the tears flowing was Jesus\u2019 eyes fixed on Peter.<\/p>\n

We can only imagine.<\/p>\n

What must that have been like?<\/strong><\/p>\n

What did people think when Jesus’ eyes took in the whole room and stopped when they lit on themselves?\u00a0 How did that feel?<\/p>\n

Jesus\u2019 opponents dared Him to heal a man on the Sabbath. They brought into the synagogue a man with a withered hand, planted him right in front of the Lord, and they waited. And\u00a0watched. \u201cAfter looking around at them with anger, grieved at the hardness of their heart\u2026.\u201d Jesus\u00a0proceeded to\u00a0heal the man. (Mark 3:5)<\/p>\n

Those eyes.<\/p>\n

If the soul is in the eyes, as everyone says and as artists claim, then imagine the eyes of the greatest Soul who ever lived, the very Son of God.\u00a0 What must those eyes have been like?<\/p>\n

In The Revelation<\/em>, John sees the great and small standing before the Lord in judgement.\u00a0 \u201cAnd they said to the mountains and to the rocks, \u2018Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb\u2026\u201d (Revelation 6:16).\u00a0 Was that in order to avoid looking Him in the eye?\u00a0 Those who have fought against Him and resisted Him and persecuted His children will want to avoid those eyes, I\u2019m confident.<\/p>\n

But for\u00a0believers, the\u00a0eyes of the loving Savior are kind and gracious.\u00a0\u201cThe eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His\u201d (2 Chronicles 16:9).<\/p>\n

Lord, let your light, light of your face, shine on us.<\/em><\/p>\n

That we may be saved; That we may have life<\/em><\/p>\n

To find our way in the darkest night.<\/em><\/p>\n

Let your light shine on us.<\/em><\/p>\n

(lyrics to \u201cShine on Us\u201d by Phillips, Craig, and Dean\u201d)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cHis eyes were like a flame of fire\u201d (Revelation 1:14) In a Harry Bosch detective story, best-selling author Michael Connelly tells of a murder victim who, while being hanged, had a bucket placed over his head. Connelly explains to the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lord-jesus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21471"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21485,"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21471\/revisions\/21485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}