Worship Opportunities

I’m flashing back to the early 90’s for a minute. I have to give Russ credit for the reminder of stereogram posters because they came up in a recent conversation we had, and then I thought of them when I was reading Luke 18 last week. 

If you were around in the 90’s, you might remember a quick trend in stereogram art. We had an entire store in our local mall dedicated to selling them while the trend was blazing. 

If you’re not familiar with them, this is a type of art that, at first glance, appears like a random “noise” of colorful dots, images, or tessellating patterns. But beyond the chaos, hidden within the 2d print, was a 3d image that required you to look at it in a certain way to create depth in an otherwise depth-less picture. 

To find the hidden picture, you’d stand close to the poster, then slowly back away, trying to examine it as if you were looking through it. Crossing your eyes sometimes helped. 

Then suddenly what was intended would come into focus. A pride of lions running across a savanna. A ship out at sea. A field of sunflowers. Or, my personal favorite, and my middle school wall decor, a pod of dolphins jumping through ocean waves.

The interesting thing about a stereogram is that the image in the artwork was always there, whether you could see it or not.

Does life ever feel a little like this to you? Unclear? Chaotic? Noisy? Do you ever wonder if there’s any shape that’s hidden in the nonsense?

As I said, I was recently reading Luke chapter 18 and then couldn’t stop and kept reading through the end of the book. I was struck by how many times Jesus told His disciples about His impending death and resurrection, but they just didn’t get it. (Then I thought of how many things I can repeatedly hear and just not get… like parts of the book of Revelation!)

Luke 18:31-34 accounts for the third time He tells them these things (the others being recorded in 9:21-22 and 9:43-45). At this point in the narrative, Jesus and His disciples are approaching Jerusalem. 

Here’s what Luke writes:

Then he took the Twelve aside and told them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem. Everything that is written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished. For he will be handed over to the Gentiles, and he will be mocked, insulted, spit on; and after they flog him, they will kill him, and he will rise on the third day.” They understood none of these things. The meaning of the saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.  (Luke 18:31-34)

As Luke records the events, betrayal, and tragedies leading up to Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection, things still seem to be so fuzzy to the now 11 disciples. Even when the women who saw Christ’s empty tomb brought a report to the apostles, 24:11 says, “But these words seemed like nonsense to them, and they did not believe the women.” At least Peter ran to the tomb and was amazed. Was he beginning to understand?

Luke then goes on to record events of that same day as Jesus walked alongside two men on the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus.

Together they were discussing everything that had taken place. And while they were discussing and arguing, Jesus himself came near and began to walk along with them. But they were prevented from recognizing him. (Luke 24:15-16)

Luke tells us they had an expectation for Jesus: “But we were hoping that he was the one who was about to redeem Israel.” (Luke 24:21) The events that happened didn’t line up with their expectations, so they had questions.

Oh how I can relate!!!

Jesus walked alongside them for roughly 7 miles, interpreting “all the things concerning himself in all the Scriptures” until they approached the village where they were going, and they urged Him to stay with them. It was there when they stopped, reclined at the table with Him, and “he took the bread, blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him…” (Luke 24:30-31). 

(Pause for a second and think of other “broken bread” moments!) 

These men then go tell the Eleven. Again, Jesus Himself stood among them, the 3D picture was right before their eyes, and even His disciples still doubted. Only when He showed them His hands and feet, ate some fish, then explained what was written about Him in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms, THEN “he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.”

The Word. The Bread. The parables. All the Scriptures. The disciples didn’t need a different story, they needed Christ to open their eyes and minds to understand the picture that was already there. Christ used these things to reveal what… WHO… was right in front of them. In His time, in His way. 

We certainly don’t have any promises from Scripture that we will always have clarity on this side of heaven in our own baffling circumstances, but I love it when He does give us little 3D glimpses that He is at work. 

What we do have certainty of is that the Lord is ever-present, Scripture is trustworthy, and He can open our eyes to see Him more clearly even when life looks like a lot of dots, squiggles, or tessellating patterns. The picture might not always make sense, but what peace we can have knowing the Artist. 

***Disclaimer- I don’t know what is hidden in the stereogram above! Can you see it?