Jeffrey C. Long

1Sa 16:1 And YHWH said to Samuel, How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go. I will send you to Jesse of Bethlehem. For I have seen a king for Me among his sons.

1Sa 16:2 And Samuel said, How can I go? If Saul hears, he will kill me. And YHWH said, Take a heifer of the herd in your hand with you and say, I have come to sacrifice to Jehovah.

1Sa 16:3 And call Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do. And you shall anoint for Me whomever I name to you.

1Sa 16:4 And Samuel did what YHWH said, and came to Bethlehem. And the elders of the town trembled at his coming and said, Do you come peaceably?

1Sa 16:5 And he said, Peaceably. I have come to sacrifice to YHWH. Sanctify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice. And he sanctified Jesse and his sons, and called them to the sacrifice.

1Sa 16:6 And it happened as they came in, he saw Eliab and said, Surely YHWH’s anointed is before YHWH.

1Sa 16:7 But YHWH said to Samuel, Do not look on his face, nor on his height, because I have refused him. For I do not see as man sees. For man looks on the outward appearance, but YHWH looks on the heart.

When John Barrier walked into his bank to cash a $100 check and he asked the receptionist to validate his parking ticket. Even after mentioning that he was a “substantial depositor,” Barrier’s request was refused.

Barrier felt his appearance—dirty construction clothes—contributed to his treatment. He thought the bank manager looked at him like he’d “crawled out from under a rock.” Barrier contacted bank headquarters with his complaint. When no one returned his call, he started emptying his account, $1 million at a time.

According to Barrier, “If you have $100 in a bank or $1 million, I think they owe you the courtesy of stamping your parking ticket.”

Elisa Tinsley, “Bank gets $2M Lesson,” USA TODAY (2-21-89, p. 1A)

We all have a tendency like Samuel or this bank teller to judge people based on external factors. We do it when we think poorly on the man using food stamps to buy a bag of cheetos at the store or look up to the well dressed successful businesswoman. A new TV show celebrates the lead character named “Ugly Betty” but I can tell you when I was in high school all of the popular students were good looking.

John Ortberg has spent some time flying around the world and sees the separation of first class passengers from coach as an illustration of how we have a tendency to include and exclude people based on external factors.

“On almost every flight, once the plane is under way, a curtain gets drawn to separate the two compartments. It is not to be violated; it is like the Berlin Wall or the veil that separated the Court of the Gentiles from the Holy of Holies in the temple at Jerusalem. The curtain is a reminder throughout the flight that some people are first class and some aren’t. Those who aren’t first class are not to violate the boundary. They can’t even see what’s going on behind the other side of the curtain.

The first-class passengers are served gourmet food on china and crystal by their own flight attendants; those in coach eat snacks served in paper bags with plastic wrappers. The first-class passengers have room to stretch and sleep; those of us in coach sit with a proximity usually reserved for engaged couples in the back row of a movie. The first-class passengers have flight attendants bring them moist Towelettes for comfort and personal hygiene; those in coach have to sit and stew in their own facial sweat.

Ortberg shares the following story by way of example: “On a recent flight, a voice came on the intercom system, telling us that because of new security measures, the attendants were not allowed to fasten the curtain. But the airline wanted all of us in the Court of the Gentiles to know that we were not allowed to use the facilities in the Holy of Holies, even though there was one restroom for eight people up there and two restrooms for several hundred of us (mostly children under six who had been drinking Jolt Cola the whole flight) on the other side.”

Let the curtain stand for a tendency deep inside the fallen human spirit—the tendency to exclude [based on external factors]

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John Ortberg, Everybody’s Normal Till You Get To Know Them (Zondervan, 2003)

When Samuel had been called by God to choose a new king for Israel he was tempted to judge by external appearances. This was apparently an important enough factor for Samuel to have mentioned it in his description of Saul in 1Samuel 9:2 “Saul was a young and handsome one. And there was not a man among the sons of Israel more handsome than he, being taller than any of the people from his shoulder and upward.”

It is widely believed that a contributing factor in the 1960 presidential election between John F. Kennedy and then Vice President Richard Nixon was the first airing of a presidential debate on television. They afforded the first real opportunity for voters to see their candidates in competition, and the visual contrast was dramatic. In August, Nixon had seriously injured his knee and spent two weeks in the hospital. By the time of the first debate he was still twenty pounds underweight, his pallor still poor. He arrived at the debate in an ill-fitting shirt, and refused make-up to improve his color and lighten his perpetual “5:00 o’clock shadow.” Kennedy, by contrast, had spent early September campaigning in California. He was tan and confident and well-rested. “I had never seen him looking so fit,” Nixon later wrote.

In substance, the candidates were much more evenly matched. Indeed, those who heard the first debate on the radio pronounced Nixon the winner. But the 70 million who watched television saw a candidate still sickly and obviously discomforted by Kennedy’s smooth delivery and charisma. Those television viewers focused on what they saw, not what they heard. Studies of the audience indicated that, among television viewers, Kennedy was perceived the winner of the first debate by a very large margin.

http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/K/htmlK/kennedy-nixon/kennedy-nixon.htm

We want our leaders to be good looking. To be successful. Because we project our own longing to be good looking… to be successful on them. We live our lives through our heroes or celebreties. This is why we are inspired by leaders who captivate our imagination this way. I watched Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I believe” speech on Tuesday while subbing for speech. He inspired a vision in his audience. They saw in him and in his words something that they desired for themselves. That was why he was so dangerous.

God’s estimation of us is in stark contrast with how we judge.

Rom 2:11 says “There is no partiality with God.”

Literally this means: “For there is no respect of faces with God.”

This phrase comes from Deuteronomy 1:17 which spoke to how judges were to handle cases brought to them.

“You shall not respect persons in judgment. You shall hear the small as well as the great. You shall not be afraid of the face of man

A place that you want to be sure there is no partiality is in the courtroom. The last people you want judging you based on your stature or looks are the judge and jury. This is why one of the first things a good lawyer does is dress up his client in good clothes even if the client doesn’t own any. Because of the natural tendency to judge according to outward appearances some Greek laws ordered that the judges should give sentence in the dark where they could not see men’s faces.

It would be too easy to be influenced in their decisions according to the outward appearances. Better to not even be able to see the defendent.

Deu 10:17 counters this describing Yahweh as “God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, the mighty, and a terrible God, who does not respect faces

For God does not see as man sees. For man looks on the outward appearance, but YHWH looks on the heart.

Jesus demonstrated that we are not to judge by outward appearances when he told the parable of the prodigal son that we heard read today. And in Mark 12:14 the people say about Jesus “Teacher, we know that you are true and you care about no one. For you do not look to the face of men, but teach the way of God in truth.”

But The Bible goes farther then describing God as not a respecter of men. We are called to imitate God and not be a respecter of faces either.

2Co 5:16 says So now we know no one according to flesh

We don’t judge people based on fleshly appearance. Or fleshly accomplishments.

In fact, Paul is bold enough to say that people of that time once knew Jesus according to flesh… judged him according to outward appearance and stature. But now they no longer did.

Gal 3:28 says There is no more Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no more male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Teenagers today probably have a better understanding of this. A somewhat new development in youth culture is the elevation of the ordinary person as the replacement of the successful and beautiful. Jocks and cheerleaders are no longer the center of the universe. In movies like Napolean Dynamite: The heroes are Napolean and Pedro who are not outwardly good looking or successful. They are extraordinarily ordinary. A little weird maybe. But in the end Pedro is voted ASB president and Napolean wins the talent show. Youth don’t always listen to the most popular music. Or wear the most popular clothes. There is a celebration of individuality. Very different from when I was in High School.

If we no longer judge people according to external factors, How then do we know people?

2Co 5:17 If any one is in Christ, that one is a new creature; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

Albert Barnes says “Since the death and resurrection of Christ, which has broken down the middle wall of partition, and has taken away all distinction of men, we know, we esteem, we value no man on account of his carnal descent, and fleshy privileges, as being of the Jewish nation, a descendant of Abraham, and circumcised as he was; or on account of their outward state and condition, as being rich and honourable among men, or on account of their natural parts and acquirements, their learning, wisdom, and eloquence; nor do we make account of the saints themselves as in this mortal state,

We know each other as a new creature. Being a new creation should mean that we see the new creation in each other. We no longer see the external. We see the work that Christ has done in us. We know each other as we will be in the resurrection. Old things have passed away. All things have become new. We should see Christians not just for who they are but who they will become. No longer what they have done but what they will do. We should no longer see the old man in each other. Now we see Christ in each other.

This not only transforms our Christian relationships but our nonChristian ones as well. Jesus said, “in as much as you’ve done it to the least of these, you’ve done it unto me.” When we are with non Christians we need to serve them as though we were serving Jesus. To see them as Christ sees them, not as the world sees them.

We need to put off seeing through the lens that the world sees. To stop seeing people through the externals of race, job, sex, work, or good looks. And see through the eyes of Jesus. To see the new creation. To see people as Jesus sees them.