Jesus was a busy guy – always traveling, teaching, healing, disputing, miracle-working. Yet he took the time to people watch, to observe human behavior and let that inspire his teaching. We see that in this week’s gospel story: He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny.
From watching these actions, noticing the differences between people, he drew a lesson that he could impart to his followers. Jesus grew up in a system that highly prized sacred writings, that pored over and discussed and interpreted and reinterpreted them. But he was not bound to the learning he could glean from a book or a scroll – he made every encounter a classroom, observing what drew people closer to God and what kept them away.
What he observed that day in the temple was the radical trust of this widow who had no resources to her name, yet put the little she did have, two small copper coins, into play for God’s work. He knew she’d provided a teachable moment, that her example of faithfulness and holiness could be shared. If he hadn’t taken the time to watch that day, he might have missed it. But Jesus did watch, and he listened – how else would he have known the ins and outs of sheep-herding, vine-tending, bread-baking and business management that he used as teaching devices in his stories?
I confess I spend very little time observing other people. In part it’s because I live in the country, more apt to observe herons and deer than other humans. But it’s also because I don’t take public transportation to get to work, or walk city streets. Mostly it’s because I keep my nose in my work far too much. What am I missing? How can I train myself to simply observe what people are doing? Is there something about the way my neighbor mows his lawn, or the fishermen on a friend’s dock that could speak to me of God?
We claim that human beings are made in the image of God – that should make them very interesting subjects for observation, most particularly when they don’t know they’re being observed. Where might you find some time and subjects for fruitful people watching? We could watch with a prayer-line open, asking God, “Show me what you’re seeing in what that person is doing. What do you want me to see?”
God has provided us a wealth of information and insight, thousands of examples both good and bad for how to live and how to trust. Jesus saw an old woman take a leap of faith, though her feet never left the ground. What might you and I see?
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