Are You a Door or a Window?

“Sir, we would like to see Jesus.”

John 12:21b

I am the youngest child among my siblings.  As such, my sisters would tell you, I was spoiled.  I liked to be the center of attention.  There were many instances of “Hey, Look at me.  Look at me!” coming out of my mouth.  In fact there were times when I would be goofing around in the middle of the family room, trying to get everyone to watch me rather than the TV.  I must have done a good job because my sister would get really annoyed with me.  That’s when I first heard the phrase, “Wayne, you make a better door than a window.”  In other words, “Get out of the way.  We can’t see the TV.”

I think that there are also moments when that is true of us spiritually – when you or I make a better door than a window.  When we make life all about what we want… when we put ourselves at the center of attention… when we become selfish, self-centered…   I heard recently of one Pastor who in his sermons and classes and emails spends a lot of time talking about him and almost never mentioning Jesus.  I remember one church member who would do anything for you.  But he always had this need to point out to everyone the nice thing he had done.   There are times when I can become very negative about things, or very critical of others because things aren’t being done the way I would do them, or the way I think they should be done.   Again and again, I have seen people pout when they don’t get their way - threaten to quit a ministry or leave a church unless they get their way.   At such moments when we shine the spotlight on ourselves, when we make ourselves the focus of attention, we get in the way of people seeing Jesus. We make ourselves into a door, or wall rather than a window. 

Nothing could be sadder.  After all you and I cannot win salvation for anyone.  We cannot restore people to a right relationship with God.  We cannot purchase forgiveness for anyone.  We cannot prepare a place in heaven for anyone.  Only God can do that.  People don’t need to see and be impressed with us.  They need to see and know God.  They don’t need a door.  They need a window.

That is just what God has provided.  Remember when Moses asked God to show him His glory.  The Lord wouldn’t let him see his face, only His back.  The Lord said to Moses, “You cannot see my face, for man shall not see Me and live.”  Why?  Because God is holy and we are sinful.   So what did God do?  He provided a window through which we could see Him and know Him.  That window is Jesus Christ.  “No one has ever seen God,” John writes in His Gospel, “but God the one and only who is at the Father’s side, He has made Him known.”  In order that we might see and know Him, God hid Himself in the flesh and blood of Jesus.  He came down to our level, entered our world, became one of us.  “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have beheld His glory, glory as of the only Son who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”  If you want to know God better, than get to know Jesus better.

Those Greeks who came to the disciples in John 12, making the right request.  “Sir, we would like to see Jesus.”  Do you know where I first read those words?  I got up into the pulpit at my home church to preach for the first time.  These words were typed out and taped there for only the Pastor to see.  “Sir, we would like to see Jesus.”  What a great reminder of why I was preaching a sermon – not so people could be impressed with me… but so that people could see Him.  That’s what God seeks from all of us – that we would be windows through which people could see Jesus.  So He puts His Spirit in our hearts.  He puts to death pride, selfishness and self-righteous in us.  He washes away our sin with His forgiveness.  By all of that He daily seeks to make your life and mine to be better windows that doors. 

So, I have a challenge to you my friends.  Find a spot and put these words where you will see them daily.  I am going to go write down and tape them in the pulpit here at Fishers of Men – “Sir we would like to see Jesus,”  We need that reminder daily of just exactly why God places people into our lives and us into theirs… We need and they need to see Him!