Living Stones – Thursday, December 7, 2017
Who’s blind?
John 9:39
And Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind.”
The story of the healing of the man born blind takes many twists and turns through the entire chapter of John 9. As the man whose eyes were opened encountered people, first his neighbours, and then the religious authorities, we find that, rather than enjoying his newly received sight, he is caught up in disputes with the community and the ‘church.’
First, his neighbours start an argument among themselves about whether he was indeed the man born blind or not. He establishes to them that he is indeed the man. Then the religious leaders dispute the claim that he was born blind and his parents have to come in to give evidence that he was. Finally, an argument starts about whether Jesus is who He said He is or not.
Somewhere in there, they missed the opportunity to celebrate the opening of his eyes. Somehow they got around to every issue except that a blind man could now see and that should bring praise and worship to the God who heals.
It turns out that a part of the problem is that we don’t truly understand blindness and sight. I struggle sometimes in relating to persons who are blind. At one time, a blind lady attended the same church I did. And, naturally, we all wanted to help her, help her up the stairs, help her to get home and all the basic stuff that you’d want to do for someone who is blind. She, however, wanted us to know that she was independent and capable. She could get the bus on her own and get to church and she could, with her cane, find her way around. That made the relationship difficult sometimes because I was never sure when to help and when to just let her be.
I wanted to get into her mind but I couldn’t. I would sometimes close my eyes and try to walk around my house to find my way from one spot to another, trying to imagine what it is like for the blind. I recognise that its easy for me because even though my eyes are shut I have very clear pictures in my mind about the location of things.
This week, while working on these meditations on the blind man, I stumbled across an old video of Stevie Wonder singing at the funeral service for Gospel Legend Andraé Crouch. In his comments before singing, Stevie said something that has baffled me all week, he said, “for me seeing the world, visualising in my mind what is going on, sometimes is such a heartbreak.” How is Stevie, blind shortly after birth, seeing the world? How is he “visualising” what is going on?
The lady from my old church and Stevie wonder have reinforced an important principle. A working set of eyes is a tremendous blessing and all of us who can see should be forever praising for that. However, working eyes sometimes don’t mean that we are not blind. True blindness is a failure to see who God is and what He is at work doing.
Jesus, as usual, turns matters upside down in His conversations with the religious leaders when He met the formerly blind man again. As a result, people with a very good pair of working eyes look at Jesus and asked Him if they were blind. Then some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these words, and said to Him, “Are we blind also?” John 9:40.
Sometimes it is our sight that makes us blind. We are so distracted by the natural world, so caught up by the shapes and the colours that we fail to see in the spirit and appreciate what God is doing. What God is doing with us, through us, and around us in others and events.
Another singer, the blind José Feliciano, probably best known to most of us through his best-selling Christmas single, “Feliz Navidad,” released a song in the 70’s titled “Come down Jesus.” In the song, José is imploring Jesus to come down and see how mankind is destroying the beautiful creation with ugly construction while humanity still suffers all around. Its an early plea for environmental responsibility and concern for humanity long before the world discovered the green industry and economy. In the song, blind José tells Jesus the following – Come down Jesus / Come down I pray / You won’t believe / All the things you’ll see today. Who’s blind here?
“Hear this now, O foolish people, Without understanding, Who have eyes and see not, And who have ears and hear not:” Jeremiah 5:21. The well-known saying that “there are none so blind as those who will not see” seems to have been a take-off from this statement in Jeremiah. Just like the Pharisees asked Jesus if they, with their seeing eyes, were the ones who were blind, so too we need to look for true blindness in ourselves and others.
When Jesus said to his disciples, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.” The end of the matter was not the man receiving his physical sight, it was that the man and everyone around would receive their spiritual sight. The glory of God was revealed in him that as a result those around would glorify His father in heaven. Unfortunately, that took some time. The man eventually worshipped Jesus, the Jews took a little while longer to come around.
Jesus said “the night is coming,” we should get sight quickly.
Think on these things:
- How good is your eyesight, when last did you have your eyes checked?
- Are you so focused on the natural world around you that you don’t see beyond it into the realm of the spirit?
- Are you able to see what God is at work doing in your life, or that of your family and others around you?
Prayer focus:
Let us pray today that, we would be less distracted by the natural world around us and focus in the spirit.
In His Grace
Pastor Alex
