We all look. But are we looking in the right places? The idea in the Song of Ascents, at the end of the Psalms, is that we’re always looking around for help.: “I lift up my eyes to the hills—where does my help come from?”
So, what we need to be doing is looking in the right place. This is what Jesus does—especially when he dies on the cross and when he is preached as Christ crucified: “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself.” This is what is happening. This is what Jesus wants—he wants to be looked at; he wants to be beheld.
As Jesus says in Isaiah, “Look to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth.” If you look to Jesus, you will be saved. Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. Everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him will have eternal life, Jesus says later in this gospel.
We may feel this is too simplistic, but the Bible so often speaks in this way. We’re told in Scripture to taste and see that the Lord is good. It’s a matter of simply using our common sense: actively participate and engage with the Lord Jesus Christ. The Hebrew writer speaks in this way—speaking of seeing Jesus, looking to Jesus—as a key descriptor of what it is to be a Christian.
As Isaiah described the coming Saviour, this one brings good news—“Behold your God,” Isaiah says. This is Jesus.
