Several years ago, I used SeeJesus’s The Person of Jesus (Student Edition) study in a youth group Sunday school class. I was struck in the lessons by the concept that Jesus had a pattern of first seeing people and then moving toward them in compassion and love and doing something for them. Once you notice this pattern, it’s hard to miss.
John 9 opens: “As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth.” Others begin debating about this man, as if he’s a theological problem to grasp, but Jesus sees this man, treats him like a human, and has compassion on him.
In the account of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, Jesus encounters Mary after Lazarus’s death. We read in John 11:33-35, “When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to him, ‘Lord, come and see.’ Jesus wept.” What Jesus saw moved him.
In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus encounters a widow who has lost her only son: “As he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, ‘Do not weep.’ Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, ‘Young man, I say to you, arise.’ And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.” (Luke 7:11-15)
It’s all over the place, and it has helped me understand Jesus’s interactions with others in the Gospels. It captures his ability to see past the surface to the pain, struggles, and stories. It shows us how he sees and attunes to people and their needs.
So, all of this was in my head when I heard a sermon on Luke 7:36-50 a few months ago at RYM’s Youth Leader Training. In this passage, a woman has anointed Jesus’s feet, and the Pharisees around him are bothered by this, thinking: “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner” (v. 39).
Jesus goes on to tell a parable about forgiveness. Then, while still talking to Simon, Jesus turns his body toward the woman, and asks Simon, “Do you see this woman?” (v44).
He’s not just asking if Simon’s eyesight is working. It’s an invitation for Simon to change his orientation and align it with Jesus’s. Jesus sees this woman, and he’s asking others to see her, too. He’s going to move toward her with compassion, and he’s inviting others to do that, too — to not see her as a problem, or as an “other,” but to see her dignity, imagine her experience, and appreciate what she has done. And he’s doing this in the midst of a society that treated women horribly, that didn’t see women well.
Jesus’s question has stuck with me as I’ve been researching and writing on women in youth ministry. In a sense, what I’m getting to do is join Jesus in asking, “Do you see these women?” As I bring their experiences and challenges to light, I hope to help women in youth ministry and those who work with them to understand what it’s like: to help us see them and the parts of their experience that are distinct from men’s. And my prayer, of course, is that we would then be moved in compassion to do something about these challenges.
Because Jesus saw women and treated them with compassion, and the early church was a warm and welcoming place for women in contrast to their culture, it’s no wonder that women flocked to the early church. Today, there are many secular workplaces that are leaps and bounds ahead of churches in building a culture of welcome and support for women. But what if we could make the church the best place for a woman to work?
In order for that to happen, this question is a good place to begin: “Do you see this woman?”