The Power of Seeing and Being Seen

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2 Kings 2:1-12, Mark 9:2-9,2 2 Cor 4:3-6 NRSV

Are any of you wondering why this elephant is here?

It’s the elephant in the room. The literal elephant.

Are there metaphorical elephants in the room? Something that seems obvious but no one is seeing it or talking about it?

What is the elephant in the room?

(Assuming answers will be different) Were you surprised that we have different elephants?

Why? Because we see and perceive things differently.

Have you ever felt like you were the elephant in the room?  Like you were not seen?

In the story we read from 2 Kings, there is a “company of prophets”[1] that only speak all together, and they  have insight, or prophetic vision. (This picture is what I think a company of prophets might look like today.) 

In today’s reading, the company of prophets are like the chorus in a Greek tragedy- they point out the elephant in the room.

In verse 3, the group of prophets from Jericho come to Elisha and asks him, “Did you know that the Lord is going to take your master away from you today?”

Elisha answers, “Of course I know but be quiet about it.”

Elisha already knows but doesn’t want to talk about it. So that’s the elephant.

After they cross the Jordan and are away from the company, Elijah talks about it. He said to Elisha, “Tell me what I may do for you, before I am taken from you.”

Elisha is hoping that Elijah will pass on the prophetic spirit that Elijah has from God, so Elisha asks for a double portion of Elijah’s prophetic spirit. (Super-Size it, please.) Maybe Elisha is feeling like he’s not up to the task and thinks some extra spirit will be needed.

Elijah says, “If you see me go, it will be granted.” (v10)

And then when the chariots of fire and whirlwind take Elijah away, Elisha DOES see it, a sign to Elisha that he gets what he asked for. Elisha sees and then he tests whether he can do what Elijah has done.  He picks up Elijah’s cloak and strikes the water with it, the waters part.

Seeing Elijah go, and then parting the waters like Elijah did, prepare Elisha to carry on with the work ahead.

[2]Later on, in 2 Kings 6, when Elisha is living in the city of Dothan, the city is being attacked by an invading army. Elisha’s assistant sees that the army has the city surrounded and is terrified, but Elisha says, “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them” (verse 16). But the assistant is still afraid. So Elisha prays, ‘Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.’ Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around the city.” (verse 17).

The implication is that the horses and chariots of fire had already been there, but not in the physical way that everyone can see.  In this vision, Elisha’s servant is enabled to see that they are not facing this challenge alone. When we are able to see people and situations with spiritual vision, we can be strengthened and encouraged, as we;;.

Nanette Sawyer, a pastor in Chicago, tells about a time when she experienced something like this.  She says,

“I remember once walking with a friend on a path around a lake, having one of those difficult talks. My heart was breaking. But suddenly I felt another presence walking with me on the side opposite my friend. It felt like a tower of warmth rising up beside me, a comforting presence that shifted my perspective. I thought of Jesus, of the way he comforted children and even the disciples at times. Was he with me there in my moment of sorrow?

“I imagined myself responding by taking his hand—I literally squeezed my own hand into a fist as though grasping another’s hand. It felt like a victory to perceive this company, this companion—to remember that I was not as alone as I had felt in that moment. Metaphorically, Jesus took my hand and raised me up. He raised up my spirits and gave me a glimpse of a future filled with hope. Sometimes what keeps us going, what begins the healing of our broken hearts, is not feeling alone.”[3]

Today is traditionally the day we remember the transfiguration… When Scotty used the wrong coordinates and almost beamed up Jesus.[4]

Nah, just kidding.

… It’s when Jesus went up a mountain with Peter, James, and John, and while they were there, the disciples saw Jesus standing with Moses and Elijah, and they saw Jesus transfigured before them, ³and his clothes became dazzling white, like no one on earth could bleach them.

He was sparkly, like people at a Taylor Swift concert.

Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, “This is my Beloved Son; listen to him!” ⁸Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus. (Mark 9:2-3,7-8) 

Peter, James, and John were given a glimpse of the glory of God in Jesus.  It’s really hard to explain this mysterious scene beyond that.  Some say we aren’t meant to.

Peter, James, John see Jesus transfigured and  this vision strengthens their sense that Jesus is not an ordinary prophet.  The vision alone might have been enough, but then God speaks to them, and they become part of what’s happening.  They aren’t just irrelevant spectators.  God sees them.

When Peter wrote about this years later, he says, “We saw his majestic splendor with our own eyes when he received honor and glory from God the Father. The voice from the majestic glory of God said to him, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.” (2 Peter 1:16-17)

Peter says, “We ourselves heard that voice when we were on the holy mountain.” (2 Peter 1:18)

Not surprisingly, Peter vividly remembers the sight and the words they heard.  It was a dramatic and moving experience, and Peter tells us that it confirmed for them the words of the prophets who had spoken about the messiah (2 Peter 1:19) and gave them greater confidence in those words, confidence they would need in the days and years ahead.

Later on, in Matthew 13, the disciples ask Jesus why he speaks in parables. Jesus told them it was so that those who wanted to see and hear would be able to, but those who did not want to see or hear wouldn’t understand.  Jesus tells them, “But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. (Matt 13:16)

Spiritual sight is a blessing, a gift, but at the same time a burden and a challenge. How much do we really want to see and know? How much do we want to be seen and known?

We’ll see as we follow Peter through Lent over the coming weeks that Peter and the disciples wrestled with this themselves, especially on the night Jesus was arrested.  Someone sees Peter and recognizes him as a follower of Jesus, but Peter denies it because he’s afraid.  It will take some time before Peter is ready to be bold about being a Jesus follower. 

What beliefs or ideas do you deny because you’re afraid? 

Sometimes what holds us back is that we think we already know what we need to know. In our reading from Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians today, Paul is trying to explain how some people’s perception of him is wrong.[5] Paul is arguing with those he calls “super-apostles” in 2 Corinthians 11:5 (and throughout chapters 10–13), a sort of “company of prophets,” rival missionaries whose authoritarianism and desire to lord it over the church were attractive to some of the people in Corinth. In the passages we read today, Paul refers to these rivals as the “apistoi,“[6] the “unbelievers.”

Those “unbelievers” don’t believe Paul is worth listening to. Paul sees this as a cosmic challenge. Paul has a supernatural vision of the world in which powers and principalities rule the world, including sin and death (Eph. 6:12, Gal. 3–4; Rom. 5–7). In today’s passage, Paul uses the phrase “god of this age” (2 Cor. 4:4 NIV; “god of this world” NRSV) to describe these powers that have clouded the mental vision of his rivals so that their minds are not able to perceive the truth of the gospel as Paul preaches it.[7]

But Paul knows the power of God’s glory, God’s light, and our faith to overcome lies, greed, selfishness.

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made His light shine

 in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge

of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 4:6

Light shining in our hearts, the light of knowledge, enlightens us and reminds us that Jesus said, “With God all things are possible.” I don’t think that’s meant to encourage us to have magical thinking, but rather to be more aware of our own shortsightedness.  We get stuck in dead ends and dark corners, but God’s light, God’s glory overcomes the darkness.

Often that God light comes through people who are able to see us and our situations more deeply, and give us encouragement and hope. (Kind of like the song…”to know know know you is to love love love you, and I do.”)

New York Times columnist David Brooks, in his book How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen, says that human beings need recognition as much as they need food and water.[8] Brooks says he set out to research and write this book for a variety of reasons, including spiritual ones, because…

“Seeing someone well is a powerfully creative act. No one can fully appreciate their own beauty and strengths unless those things are mirrored back to them in the mind of another. There is something in being seen that brings forth growth. If you beam the light of your attention on me, I blossom. If you see great potential in me, I will probably come to see great potential in myself. If you can understand my frailties and sympathize with me when life treats me harshly, then I am more likely to have the strength to weather the storms of life. . . In how you see me, I will learn to see myself.”

George Bernard Shaw wrote, “The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that’s the essence of inhumanity.”

Jesus told us to love one another, but instead sometimes we make people feel like they’re the elephant in the room, like they don’t matter or don’t exist, whether we mean to or not.  But when someone perceives something in them that they themselves weren’t able to see, or when someone understands exactly what they needed in a particular moment, that understanding, that seeing, shines light into their lives and brings joy and hope.[9]

That’s the power of seeing and being seen that we have through the Holy Spirit, through the light of Jesus Christ shining on us.  We take that light with us, and it strengthens and encourages us as we walk through the weeks of Lent, and helps us grow in our ability to know one another and our God more and more deeply.

Thanks, God.

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