Oct 24, 2019
by Kevin Butler
Glaring at me with a no-nonsense look, she asked, “When was your last eye exam?”
The Department of Motor Vehicles is not known for its sense of humor. But I still joked, “Um, next week??”
I knew that I had botched the vision test to renew my driver’s license. Even after all that studying. Then I remembered, “Oh, I do have my distance glasses with me.”
“Well, why don’t we put them on and we’ll try again,” the DMV worker wearily suggested.
Whoa! There were actual letters in the viewer! I passed, but needed to have the corrective lenses restriction added to the license this time. At my last renewal, they let me squint and squeak by without using those specs that I’ve worn for years while driving.
I definitely need to fix my eyes.
Is that what Hebrews 12:2 is saying? That we need to wear corrective lenses?
Well, spiritually, for sure.
There are so many Bible translations out there. I’m rather partial to the earlier New International Version. It was heavily in use soon after I became a born-again believer, then I learned that a former president of the Christian college I was attending (Houghton) served on the editorial board for the NIV.
In seminary, one exercise we did at our Greek class was to translate a verse or passage, then compare how various Bible versions interpreted it.
The NIV renders Hebrews 12:2 as “fixing our eyes on Jesus” (as does the New American Standard, the Good News Translation, and Phillips). The KJV, English Standard, and Revised Standard say “looking to Jesus.” Fixing our eyes on Him carries the idea that we “keep our eyes” on Jesus, which is how the Holman, Living, Contemporary English, New Century, and Message versions portray it.
After wrestling with the text, our Greek class would read (and sometimes laugh or groan at) other translations on the market. The Amplified Bible was always a treat. It’s like a team of translators wanted to squeeze out every nuance and meaning of every verse—hence, “amplify.” It’s basically a Bible on steroids.
But I think they really nail the meaning of this part of the verse in Hebrews: “[looking away from all that will distract us and] focusing our eyes on Jesus…”
It’s keeping our eyes and heart away from the stuff that can drag us down, and to focus, look, fix our eyes on the Lord.
As I looked ahead to Conference 2020, I had always felt that it should pertain to vision. Several people made that suggestion to me as well.
My first thought was Proverbs 29:18, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” True, but pretty negative for a rallying theme.
It was our son Matthew, a pastor of liturgy in North Las Vegas, who immediately thought of Hebrews 12:2. I’m so glad he did. It’s a positive command to fix our eyes on Jesus, followed by reasons we should do that.
A member of our Conference prayer team, Julia Coleman, forwarded a prophetic message having to do with 20/20 and clear vision. Then she wrote, “We might think that people will get the inference of 2020 being vision, or fixing our eyes on Jesus, a ‘clever’ concoction. The risk of ridicule or contempt for what the Lord presents as His revelatory topic is possible.”
She ended with this prayer: “Lord, I pray that Your Spirit will work in the hearts of Your people and the Body of Christ to receive Your fulfilled promised Word. Perfect our vision, O Author and Perfecter of our faith.”
I believe this is God’s idea for God’s Conference for God’s glory. I am humbled and excited to be part of it. Please join us as we rethink and refocus our vision to see Jesus more clearly.
