See no Evil
Monkey Business • Sermon • Submitted
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· 123 viewsWhen faced with evil what will we do? Will we gaze at it with it's false beauty or stare at the author of our faith Jesus? Only one gives hope and gives us the satisfaction for eternity.
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Transcript
The three wise monkeys are a Japanese pictorial maxim, embodying the proverbial principle "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil."
Ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius quote: "Look not at what is contrary to propriety; listen not to what is contrary to propriety; speak not what is contrary to propriety; make no movement which is contrary to propriety."
Mizaru, (don't see) who sees no evil, covering his eyes
Kikazaru, (don't hear) who hears no evil, covering his ears and
Iwazaru, (don't speak) who speaks no evil, covering his mouth
Last Sunday, we learned how to overcome hearing evil, not by ignoring it and praying it disappears, but rather by listening to the voice of God and giving our ear to him. That is the technique on how we become a Kikazaru monkey.
And even though it's beneficial to know how to overcome hearing evil, we cannot simply remain here. Remember, we were created to live in harmony with God. He designed our inner being to become the fragrance of truth, beauty, and goodness. Sadly this purpose was shattered when we fell into sin, so God the Father sent his Son Jesus Christ into the world to restore what was lost and empower Christians through the power of the Holy Spirit to become what he designed to be in the beginning.
God is calling you to master the other two proverbial principles. He is challenging us to become Mizaru monkeys and learn how to cover our eyes from evil.
But how can we accomplish this? Living in a broken society makes it appear impossible to shield our eyes from immorality and wickedness; the media we consume online, on television, is saturated with lust, greed, and ungodly desires. Everywhere we turn, we witness violence, abuse, and tragedy, and most importantly, sin. So, unless we're going to live under a rock and hide, there is no earthly way we cannot witness evil in the world.
Yet, there is living hope for us to experience freedom from witnessing evil and taking it into our inner self. Jesus never asks us to do something unless he is willing first to do it himself. As God took on flesh and dwelt with humanity, Jesus took up the principle of "see no evil." But God did witness wickedness and immorality, yet remained sinless. Christ ate with sinners, thieves, prostitutes, religious leaders, and at humanity's worst, the people who he came to save nailed him to a cross and left him alone to die. Jesus encountered and faced off with evil; however, he never let it into his heart.
It is impracticable to be immune from seeing evil, but through the life of Jesus, we, through God's help, can live in a way that seeing evil does not contaminate our soul. But why does seeing immortality and wickedness impact our soul? Why do we need to guard our eyes against corruption in the first place?
The sermon on the mount describes our spiritual health varies on what you see. The physical material world impacts our spiritual reality if we let it in. What we see on tv, social media, in-person affects our inner being. The eye is the primary organ that takes in light but in this illustration. Christ illustrates how if our vision (what we see) is harmful, then the rest of the body will be impacted by it.
Matthew 6:22–23 (ESV)
22 "The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
What you internalize, consume with your eyes can affect your spiritual health. Many people don't understand the severity of what they see impacts their minds. You become what you see! That's why a Mizaru monkey closes his eyes when evil abounds. This monkey gives no second to seeing something that can harm them physically or spiritually.
But it, not the act of seeing that harms us. Like I mentioned earlier, Jesus saw immorality and wickedness, but he remained sinless. The bible describes what it means to see evil in a different sense.
Apostle John, the disciple of Jesus, writes where every type of sin comes from in the world.
1 John 2:15–17 (ESV)
Do Not Love the World
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
All the world's sin can be bound up into three passions, desire of the flesh, eyes, and pride. John says not seeing the evil that is the sin, but it's the desires or, it could be said, the stare that pull us into the spiritual pit of despair, when the darkening of the eye becomes rusted shut when we stare at evil and let in our lives. Seeing something is passive, but staring and imagining greed, lust, and violence is when we take on sin.
The desire of the eyes happens when we covet our neighbors' good, lust over another individual who is not our spouse, or when we give our eyes over to things that do not give God glory. The biggest lies are eyes train us that these things provide us with joy and happiness. But in all actuality, it distorted the truths, beauty, and goodness with a mirage.
So what should we be doing when evil comes when I'm online, watching tv, or out in public. We should be a Mizaru monkey. "See no evil," and actively seek out what God wants for our lives, truth, beauty, and goodness.
We have to make up our minds before we encounter evil. Satan doesn't take time off. This is why Jesus could always see but never give in to the desire of the eyes. He chose the Mizaru life and fixed his eyes on God.
Psalm 101:3 (ESV)
3 I will not set before my eyes
anything that is worthless.
I hate the work of those who fall away;
it shall not cling to me.
Does that sound passive or active? It's my responsibility not to set or stare at anything worthless. And realizing if you do sin, confessing it to the Lord and know it does not have to cling to your life.
When your eyes feel tired from fighting, know who goes before you and ask God to help you stare at what is righteous online, tv, and in person so you can become everything God created you to be. Before we can overcome, we must ask God to help us give us clean eyes and repent of what we are taking in daily.
Psalm 119:37 (ESV)
37 Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things;
and give me life in your ways.
But before we can repair our eyes, we must learn more about ourselves? What are my temptations to staring at evil? Certain shows, videos, people. The best method of removing the eyes desire to cut it off or provide a way to protect yourself from evil.
Matthew 5:29 (ESV)
29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.
Christ is not talking literally, but he is serious. We need to protect our vision and not stare at evil and let in our hearts. If we can't control it, we need to get help. It is good to know where your temptations come from and do everything in your power to reduce them. But remember God has given you the power to overcome, he is not going to leave you alone.
1 Corinthians 10:12–13 (ESV)
12 Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. 13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
The only way we can genuinely close our eyes to evil is to look up rather than fixing our vision on earth's things. I am to look up to Jesus.
2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter 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.
You will always keep staring at the bad until you start looking at Jesus. Christ wants your life to be filled with truth, beauty, and goodness. When we look at him daily in faith, we will only see heaven shining on us.