Perception, the Eye of the Heart

[HKHaugan]

Perception, The Eye of the Heart

'Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.' (Matt.13:14, Jesus quoting Is.6:9)

What we hear, do we understand? What we see, do we grasp its meaning? Perceiving is a heart thing that the mind is challenged to define. Perception will call for a response. That's where we are called to act in faith. Are we hearing by faith and are we seeing by faith?

When you meet someone for the first time, hear what he or she has to say and see how he or she says it; just what is your first impression? That question opens up the issue of perception. What do you perceive? I keep hearing this saying ‘perception is reality.’ How we read what we see is reality for us. It comes in expressions like, ‘I can see it in his eyes’ ‘You can tell by his ‘body-English’’ ‘He doesn’t look the type.’ Then there are those that test perception, “I’m from Missouri, show me’ ‘Put your money where your mouth is.’ All of these indicate the unseen area of life we know is there but have a hard time navigating. It has to do with how we combine mind and heart. We might make a snap judgment. It’s when others want to know what our judgment is that we hesitate. We don’t want to appear to have made the wrong judgment. We want to hear and see again before we ‘jump to conclusions.’ We know our perception needs accuracy so, just maybe, perception is not reality. It is merely the way we see, hear and feel something. That makes all of us perceptive. But what we conclude about what we perceive is the issue. We don’t always get it right. What we conclude about what we perceive may be influenced by self-centered attitudes, opinions, emotions and past conditioning. Thus sin will be the shaper of our perception.

How we perceive is basic to life. Perception and what shapes it are central. Jesus knew this, which is why He taught in parables. It was to secure our perception, secure it from sin. Why? Because perception is a spiritually based ability. He knew that perception is made right when we start with how we perceive Him. Without Him 100% of everything we perceive will be concluded inaccurately. We may come close but inevitably our conclusions will be flawed. That is the reason for His quote from Isaiah 6:9-10, “He said, "Go and tell this people: "Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving. Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed." Here He jars the hearers to face the inevitability of imperfect perception without Him. His being sinless means He has perfect perception and conclusions, a claim it would take His death and Resurrection to prove.

The goal in Jesus’ parables is to redirect the whole idea of perception. He makes Himself central to how we perceive God, life and one another. He wants us not only to see Him but also perceive the reality, the substance and the nature of who He is, what He says and what He does. His presence is not only His body but also who He is inside His body. His motivation is the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of God who is the Perceiver, the perfect Perceiver. What Jesus was inside is what makes Him who He is. His mind, His heart and His Spirit are the embodied reality of God. Everything Jesus said and did---His teachings, observations, parables, miracles, the way He walked, the paths He chose, the people He met, the places He went, the overall movement of His life in the flesh---were the combined facts of the reality of God. Jesus perceived everything perfectly. How we perceive God in Jesus determines how we perceive everything else. This does not mean we get perfect perception when we believe in Him but the Holy Spirit will open us up and begin the process in us to make what we perceive more accurately concluded. Jesus is the perfection of perception, evaluation and response working in balance.

Think about the two men on the road to Emmaus (Lk.24:13-32). There they were walking along with Jesus for several hours and He taught them while they were walking yet they didn't recognize Him. Their perception was operating but they were unable to conclude it was Him until He broke bread with them. They were consumed with despair, disappointment and depression. What they perceived was conditioned by their emotion-based conclusions until they broke bread with Him.

Consider also the condition of the disciples gathered together after the Crucifixion. They were “behind locked doors for fear of the Jews (Jn.20:19).” It was not until the resurrected Jesus appeared to them that they were able to acknowledge the truth about Him. This is when their perception was challenged. It would be transformed at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was given.

Paul in His letter to the Romans confronts the world with this same truth. He tells them in Romans 1:20, “For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” There is no one who does not perceive the vastness of Creation. It is faith that gives us the ability to conclude the God behind everything. Creation itself is the evidence if perceived by faith. Thus our goal is to share our faith to help others without faith have faith to see what they perceive.

Paul was extending the truth that Jesus enabled him to perceive. Paul’s perception was so radically transformed that He vowed His mission would be centered only in proclaiming Jesus and Him crucified. Why?

Five reasons that all have to do with transforming our perception:

First, spiritual reality precedes physical reality giving it meaning and application.

Second, when you see Jesus you see God. The unseen is seen through Jesus.

Third, we were created in His image to have a heart, mind and spirit like Him so that our perception is restored to function spiritually as opposed to sinfully. Thinking spiritually is thinking morally and thinking morally is creatively engaging the world to be reconcile to God.

Fourth, it takes faith to perceive what you see in Jesus. Values, character, the way of life, perfection, rightness, love, compassion, truth, grace, peace all can be 'seen' with the mind, the heart and the spirit.

Fifth, it is the Cross of Christ that enables us to take up our cross, which is putting our complete trust in Him, which in turn brings truth to what we perceive. Our cross is living every next moment by faith in Him.

“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, I once was blind but now I see…….”