looking intently
Something that I noticed a few read-throughs ago was this phrase that is used often in Acts, which the NRSV usually translates as “looking intently”. This Greek word (atenizō) is only used 14 times in the New Testament; 10 of those are in Acts! (I got this info from a great resource called stepbible.org). In some translations (like ESV for instance) “atenizō” is translated simply as “gaze” so it can be easier to miss than the quirkier phrase that NRSV uses.
Now, a caveat before I go into this: a lot of smarter people than me have cautioned against doing word studies for big revelations or to infuse new meaning into words. Plus, just like how in English, the word “bear” could mean an animal or it could mean the verb. The animal definition has no bearing (teehee) on the verb definition. Sometimes we lay people can make similar mistakes with word studies and looking up the Greek or Hebrew definitions of words. I accept this caution and believe where I’m headed with this isn’t faulty exegesis or theology.
This word is used 10 times, shall we quickly go through what they are? Sure, why not :)
When the disciples are “gazing” into heaven after Jesus ascends (1:10)
When a lame man is outside the temple gates begging and Peter stops and “looks intently” at him before healing him (3:4)
After the above healing, Peter makes a speech asking the crowd why they are “staring” at him, “as if it is by our own power or piety we had made him walk” (3:12)
The Jewish council, to whom Stephen is brought shortly before his martyrdom, “looks intently” at Stephen and sees that his face was “like the face of an angel” (3:15)
In the midst of Stephen’s stoning, he “gazes” into heaven and sees the “glory of God”, and Jesus at His right hand (7:55)
Cornelius is visited by an “angel of God”; he “stares at him in terror” (10:4)
Peter recounts to the church at Jerusalem the vision he had before being summoned to Cornelius; he sees a sheet and “looks closely” and sees “beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air” (11:6)
When a magician names Elymas tries to oppose Paul & his companions so the preconsul would “turn…away from the faith,” Paul “looks intently at him” and then causes him to be blind for a time (13:9)
In a similar story to #2, a man who was “crippled from birth” was listening to Paul as he spoke. Paul “looks intently at him” and sees he has faith to be made well, and commands him to stand up on his feet, which he does. (14:9)
Paul is before a Jewish council and this time he “looks intently” at them (as opposed to the council looking intently at Stephen in #4).
What do we do with this? I’m not suggesting there’s some secret puzzle that will unlock a whole new dimension of the book and change our lives. That would be fun though!!! I reject the idea that this word usage is coincidental though - it appears too much (and very few other places in the NT) for that to be true.
So here we are. What do these usages have in common? They all seem to be referring to a seeing beyond the veil, to a new plane of reality, to the spiritual. It seems when this word is used, the seer is peering into the transcendent: either trying to make sense of a miraculous vision or angel or miracle, or looking with a divine discernment at another human, perhaps seeing them for who they truly are. Acts seems to be the book of seeing beyond; the curtain is peeled back and the spiritual is pouring out into the physical. So it would make sense that those filled with or encountering the divine would be gazing at the things they’re seeing.
I am not a fan of trying to scrape together an application just because it feels weird to not have one, but I do want to meditate on its implications for my own life and the life of the people of God. The truth I’m gleaning is this: where the Spirit is working, there is new vision as well. People, whether followers of Jesus or not, are able to see into the dimension of the Spirit and gaze in wonder - if even for a brief moment. Do these moments happen today? What do they look like? Are they meant to be sought after and earnestly prayed for? Or does the lack of this “gazing” mean there is a deeper root deficiency in our faith? Or, is all this “gazing” merely for the short period of the apostles?
I long to encounter an enchanted world where the reality of God pokes through the holes of our atmosphere. I long to look intently at individuals and see them for their faith. I long to be bestowed the gift of seeing beyond as much as possible.
How do I open myself up for it, without demanding of God something this precious?
