01 Jul The Gaze – July 14

By Yosia Yusuf

“Why did he do that?”

Just hours before, Carmelius was assigned by the high priest to arrest a certain Jewish sect leader. He thought this assignment was strange. “Who would make an arrest at this time of night? Can’t it wait for tomorrow? Wait, who? Jesus? I thought he was a good man? Oh well, the high priest must have known something I don’t.”

“My ear! My ear! Help!!!” Carmelius screamed in agony as the sword cut off his right ear. The world was bleak and all he could felt at that moment was pain. In a fraction of a second, hundreds of different scenario of shame entered his mind. He’ll be forever known as the one ear servant and his disability will throw him to the bottom of the status ladder. “This is the end” he thought.

Then he began to feel a warm glow in his ear. Instead of a misery, what he saw in front of him was a man who gazed at him deeply and his left hand was on Carmelius’ right ear. As Carmelius looked into the face of the man, he felt peace. He can’t explain what’s happening but he never felt more loved than he was. The gaze of the man pierced through his agony and engulfed him with a sense of hope and love. Before he knew it, his ear was restored.

“Why did he do that?” Carmelius asks himself as he sees Jesus stripped down naked and forced to carry the cross. Carmelius was in the garden to capture Jesus but why did He healed him? Then Carmelius closes his eyes and begin to recall everything that happened in the garden. Suddenly, something struck him. The gaze. He opens his eyes and quickly looks at Jesus’ face. It’s as if the heaven has preordained that moment, the very second Carmelius looks at Jesus, Jesus is gazing at him. It’s the same gaze that he saw in the garden. It is not a gaze of misery; it is gaze of joy.

How can one who endured so much pain be filled with joy? How can I have that joy in the midst of persecution?

“looking to Jesus, the founder and the perfector of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God”