Choosing to See

Jesus said to Simon the Pharisee, "Do you see this woman?"

What a silly question!  Of course Simon saw that woman.  He knew her--at least by reputation.  Of course, men being men, it is entirely possible that at some time he had known her in other, more intimate, ways.  But that is another story.

Do you see this woman?  How could he see anything else at the moment!

It is not the act of seeing that is the issue here.  We can choose our seeing.

     We can choose where to look.

          We can choose what we see.

               We can choose how to respond.

                    We can choose.

A woman comes into the house.  She collapses at Jesus' feet in guilt, shame and remorse.  Her tears flow so freely that they drench the Master's feet.  And where does Simon choose to look?  He chooses to look at the past rather than the present.  He chooses to cling to his settled assumptions rather than to allow the evidence of his senses to impact him.  He refuses to allow new input to alter his view of the world.

Simon is a willing victim of confirmation bias.  He has settled on a perspective and has no desire to change that perspective.  The woman is comfortably filed away in the folder labeled "Damaged Goods."  Files are not to be opened, moved or altered under penalty of law.  So Simon accepts the evidence that fits in the existing file.  Other information must, by definition, be false.  So the "Damaged Goods" file gets thicker, even as the woman weeps.

After all, she has the nerve to approach a man directly and in public.  What sort of woman would do that?  Well, we know, don't we (wink! wink!).  She touches his feet with her hands and her hair.  Where will the seduction move next?  They could at least get a room.  And Jesus!  How can he be taken in by this brazen hussy, playing on his compassion in order to get his attention!  If this man had any brains at all, he'd be able to see what was going on.

When we are sure that our perspective is THE perspective, life becomes very simple.  And the people around us suffer from our moral and emotional blindness.  Simon, do you see this woman?  No, no, no--you do not.  You see a construction in your brain that fits the structures you are unwilling to change.

Thus, the power of the confirmation bias.  Simon has chosen where to look.  He has chosen what to see.  When those two choices are made, his response is automatic.

Jesus, of course, makes other choices.  He sees a broken woman longing to be made whole.  He sees the tears as evidence of repentance, not as tools of manipulation.  He chooses to see her as the child of God she truly is and longs to be.  And his response, too, is automatic.

Your sins are forgiven.  Your faith has saved you.

How do I choose my own seeing--the direction, the focus, the evidence and the response?  Can I make different choices, choices that give life and hope?

How do I choose to see myself?  "See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God--and that is what we are" (John's First Letter).