If you are like most students of the Bible, or even just casual readers, you probably know by now how easy it is to read over verses in those pages…maybe even nod your head in agreement as you underline it or highlight them…and yet for some reason you really didn’t ‘read it’.

This becomes evident when you have those inexplicable moments where you come across that same verse one day….when it seems to just burst or jump off the page and pierces the deepest core of your heart and mind of understanding. That’s when we lean back in awe and take a deep breath as you ask yourself: “How have I never ‘seen’ that before?”

It’s probably a similar experience that the disciples of Jesus had when they would spend time with Him …and He in turn would ‘open the scriptures to them’, or He ‘opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the scriptures’. (Luke 24:32,45)

Would you please read that last paragraph one more time, and mentally ‘underline’ that phrase ‘spend time with Him’, before opening up your Bible and underlining those two verses, which you may have already marked from previous readings here.

Were you aware who Jesus does this for? He ‘reveals’ His word to those who come to Him and spend time with Him, while He ‘hides’ these ‘mysteries’ from the ‘wise and the intellects’ (Matt. 13:10-15; Luke 10:21-24). That word ‘revealed’ used there in Luke 10:21 comes from a Greek word that means to ‘take the cover or lid off’, implying that until it happens…you can’t possibly see what is ‘in there’.

So when Jesus announced on that day in the local synagogue the reason for which He had come, due to the ‘Spirit of the Lord’ being upon Him, I bet many of us thought that part about ‘restoring sight to the blind’ meant Jesus came to physically heal blind people. (Luke 4:18). And of course He did do that over the span of the next 3 years as He traveled about healing multitudes of people who were sick and afflicted and oppressed by the devil (Acts 10:38; Matt. 9:35). But I hope and pray that you do realize … it was not a ‘physical blindness’ that Jesus came to restore in just a small segment of the population; rather it was a ‘spiritual blindness’ that affected all of us at one time or another.

I bet you know by heart, that last line in the first verse of that beloved hymn, ‘Amazing Grace’, which ends with ‘I was blind but now I see’.

Have you ever given much thought to the implications of what the songwriter was saying in those seven words? Or how about that phrase Jesus uttered while hanging on the cross, where as He looked down on those who had pierced his hands and feet with metal spikes, and others who were taunting Him…and he prayed: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). What could He possibly be referring to when suggesting they ‘know not what they are doing’?

You know…we have plenty of examples in the OT scriptures where God was either voicing His displeasure with man and giving strong warnings of His wrath, or else we read multiple examples where His wrath and anger were on full display; but not so much in the NT. In fact, the only times you hear or read of Jesus getting irate or ‘stirred up’ with anger, was when He was confronting ‘religious folks’ who thought they had it all figured out, what God’s word and kingdom was all about. Jesus seemed to have little patience with them, calling them ‘vipers’ or ‘blind guides’ or ‘hypocrites’ (Matt. 12:34; 23:16,23,33; 15:16)

One time, Jesus even called out a group who thought they were well acquainted with God’s word, feeling ‘secure’ in their spiritual heritage…and Jesus flat out accused them of not even being able to hear or comprehend God’s word because they were children of the devil (John 8:37-44)

So what exactly is this ‘spiritual blindness’ that seems to be ‘a thing’, and who or what is behind it or the cause of it?

Are you familiar with Paul’s explanation to that question found in 2 Cor. 4:3-4, where he makes it known that the ‘god of this age has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe and are perishing…from seeing the light of the gospel’? I’m pretty sure Paul felt confident writing out those words, given what He had been told personally by Jesus Himself. That was the time when Jesus was sending him to the Gentiles to preach the gospel, informing Paul so as to “open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they might receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Jesus” (Acts 26:18).

And who are we told exercises control and influence over this whole world, in 1 John 5:19?

Blindness, be it physical or spiritual…is an interesting and yet tragic reality for many people today, as it leaves them living in a world of ‘darkness’. And yet we know that ‘seeing the light’ is the sign that the blindness has been ‘healed’. But what is really hard to understand…is why would anyone want to continue living in darkness…when there is a remedy for that?

Jesus seems to have answered that as well when He made it public that lots of folks just love the darkness more, and refuse to ‘come to the light’ (John 3:19-20). Care to guess what ‘light’ He might be referring to there? I would submit for your further study that He was speaking about the ‘light of His truth’…found in His word. And if you find yourself resistant to wanting and desiring to come to Him and feed upon His word that you may ‘grow thereby’ (1 Pet.2:2) … you might want to have your ‘spiritual eyes’ checked out.

Darkness has a funny way of creeping up on you and catching you unaware.

“Then Jesus said to them, “A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going.  While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” These things Jesus spoke, and departed, and was hidden from them.” (John 12:35-36)