Anyone up for an eye-vision test today? (Stay tuned)

 

The only examples recorded in the gospels where Jesus got irate, if not downright angry with people, were with the leaders of the very people He came to save and yet, they received Him not. (John 1:11) 

They were convinced they had it all figured out. They knew better. They were, in their minds, the ‘chosen ones’ and were waiting on a Messiah to come deliver them, a deliverer who lined up with their theology. This Jesus did not ‘fit’ in their box. And the confrontations He had with them were numerous. He called them ‘blind guides’. (Matt. 23:24). 

“Blind guides”….sounds a bit like a paradox, does it not? Seems that a blind person is the one in need of being led, not doing the leading for all the obvious reasons. Jesus was the one who affirms this idea that the person ‘who walks in darkness does not know where he is going.” (John 12:35)

I think it is safe to say that we are talking about spiritual blindness here. Yes, Jesus opened the physical eyes of numerous people while He was here, and was happy to do so. But just because one’s physical eyes are opened does not automatically suggest they can see spiritually. So how would you know? How does a blind person who has never seen before, know they are actually blind if darkness is all they have ever known? And for that matter, what normal person would make fun of a blind person who stumbled or ran into a door or wall or anything else they could not see?

So what about spiritually blind people? Is it safe to say that a deceived person does not know they are deceived?

In Matt.15, we read where Jesus had been in conversation with quite a mix of people there, trying to explain why those religious leaders had it all backwards. They were more concerned with external matters and religious form when Jesus taught that it is not what goes in to a man that defiles them but what comes out of them, as in - from their hearts. (10-11)

At that point, we read where some disciples came to Jesus and informed Him that the Pharisees were offended by what He was saying regarding all that. (12). Once more, He calls them ‘blind guides’, even instructing to just ‘leave them alone’. (14). But what is interesting in that statement is that Jesus refers to them as ‘blind leaders of the blind…and if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into the ditch or the pit’. 

“Just leave them alone”, Jesus said. You cannot argue with them, as you and I are incapable of ‘opening their eyes’ that they might see. Only God can do that.

So why are they blind? Why is it that they cannot ‘see’? At one point in this dialogue, Jesus turns to His disciples and asks them “Are you also still without understanding?” (16) This is where once again, He steers the conversation back to their own hearts of sin. You do realize it’s always easier to see everyone else’s sin other than your own, yes? Sin blinds our hearts along with hardening them. (Zephaniah 1:17; Heb. 3:13). That is probably why Jesus brought up that point about not trying to remove the ‘speck from your brother’s eye when you have a plank in your own’. (Matt. 7:4-5). He goes on there to say that if we deal with our own ‘sin’, that then we will ‘see clearly’.

So why are people unable to see, spiritually, the truth that Jesus came to bring that was intended to ‘set people free’? (John 8:32-26). Well, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that one, especially when we have the bible to answer that question. The one who has people ‘captive’ and are ‘perishing’ is the ‘god of this age who has blinded those who are perishing from seeing the light of this gospel. (2 Cor. 4:3-4). 

 Think about that: The captor does not want his captives to be set free, so he does his best, working overtime to keep people in the dark. He does, after all, have the whole world under his power of influence according to 1 John 5:19. Well, at least the ones whose eyes have not been opened.

The gospel does that, you know, it brings light as the Holy Spirit bears witness to it. It’s not flesh and blood that enables us to ‘see things’, but the Father who is in heaven …He ‘reveals’ His truth to us.(Matt. 16:17).

At one point in the book of Acts, we see where this gospel is now going to be preached to ‘all the world’, not just to the Jewish people. Jesus had to ‘open Paul’s eyes’ in that well documented case in Acts 9 and set him straight on a few things. He too, had been one of those blind leaders who had a ‘zeal for God, but not according to knowledge’. (Rom. 10:2).

But now Paul will be sent to the Gentiles to preach so that…(are you ready for this?)…so “their eyes might be opened, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.” (Acts 26:18)

So herein lies the big question: How do you convince a blind person they cannot see…because they are blind?

Remember now - a deceived person does not know they are deceived. And if Jesus, along with others in the NT made one thing clear, it was in the last days especially, there would be widespread deception with people being led astray by a plethora of gospels and ‘Jesuses’. Doctrines of demons would take people captive and there would be a great ‘falling away’ and even the ‘wise virgins’ would grow drowsy and fall asleep. (Matt. 24; 2 Cor. 11:2-4; 2 Thess. 2:3; 1 Tim. 4:1; Matt. 25:1-11

Perhaps the reason we were given the ‘light of the gospel’ was not to go shine it in other blind people’s eyes; but to actually turn it inward to expose the darkness in our own hearts…first. Then…we might be the ‘true light that came into this world of darkness’ as we ‘let our lights shine’. And here’s the thing: People who love the light/truth will come to the light. Others… simply will not, as they love the darkness more. (John 3:19-21). His words, not mine.

So about that eye vision test I suggested at the start here today. How might you be able to tell if you are truly ‘walking in the light as He is in the light’? (1 John 1:7). I mean, that is what those who abide in Jesus do, is it not…they ‘walk like Jesus walks’? (1 John 2:6)

And when Jesus was being nailed to a cross, do you recall one of the prayers He uttered while being crucified? -

“Father…forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34)

Why don’t they ‘know what they are doing’? The ‘god of this world has blinded them’.

As I asked earlier…what normal person would get angry with, let alone make fun of, a blind person who is stumbling and running in to walls? They are blind and cannot see. Jesus recognized this and looked upon those who were blind and suffering and came to rescue them. Now admittedly, it was, as we stated here already, those ‘blind leaders’ who were leading the blind further into darkness that He was angry with. And there are a lot of ‘Woes’ pronounced by the OT prophets against those blind shepherds that do this very thing. But let’s get back to all those blind ‘sheep’ that have gone astray that Jesus wants to rescue.

Paul encouraged Timothy that when dealing with ‘blind’ people, that he needed to be patient and gentle with them, not quarrelsome and engaging with foolish arguments. He would need to remain humble with the hopes that God ….would grant them repentance so that they may know the truth, and come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil having been taken captive by him to do his will. (2 Tim. 2:23-26)

So how do YOU…respond to people that are blind and do or say things that seem ‘ignorant’; or even lash out at you? Do you retaliate and fire back at them? Do you take it personally and get all worked up and offended like those ‘blind guides’ did? Or do you recognize their condition as being blind…and from your heart, truly pray for God’s mercy on them given…’they know not what they do’?

The manner in which you answer that question will give you a pretty good idea as the condition of your own vision.

Not much has changed in people since that first time Jesus came to ‘open the eyes of the blind and set captives free’. (Luke 4:18) Seems like there are a lot of religious folks today waiting on the return of this same Messiah to come ‘rapture’ them out of here before things get bad, just like those folks did back then.  We might want to 'clean our glasses' off and rethink some of this.  Just sayin....