19 Jul We All Have Some Sort of Blindness
John 9:24-34 …they called the man who had been blind and said to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.” 25 He answered, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” 26 They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” And they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from. ”The man answered, “Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. 32 Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” They answered him, “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” And they cast him out.
The same God who created and rules over the physical world is also Lord over the spiritual world. For this reason, there are a lot of things we can learn from the physical world that reveal to us spiritual truths. In the story of Jesus healing the man born blind, there is a parallel between sin and blindness. Both sin and blindness are incurable conditions apart from a miracle, and as a result:
- We cannot see God clearly
- We cannot see others clearly
- We cannot see ourselves clearly
- Religion is the blind leading the blind
The man born blind accepted the fact that he was both physically and spiritually blind. As a result, He welcomed Jesus to heal Him both physically and spiritually.
The religious leaders, however, bitterly denied the fact that they were spiritually blind. As a result, they hated both Jesus and the man whom He healed.
Before we too quickly jump to judge the blindness of the religious leaders, we need to learn from their error and examine our own blindness. The truth is, every one of us has some area(s) in our life where we are blind. No one accurately sees all of their life and character. We see the blind spots in other people’s lives far more easily than we see blind spots in our own lives. So, the issue is not whether or not we have blind spots but rather whether or not we are honest enough to allow others to lovingly help us by pointing out our blind spots as we point out theirs.
As someone with a blind spot, you and I and everyone else can err in one of two ways. One, we can listen to what everyone has to say about us. Two, we can listen to no one who seeks to speak into our lives and character. The blind man, unlike the religious leaders who willingly closed their eyes to Jesus, gives us a better way. He welcomed godly wise counsel into his life and trusted it to point out his blind spots. As a result, the man was born again spiritually with spiritual eyes to see and “worship” Jesus as His “Lord” as the story in John 9 reports.
How about you? Who do you allow to speak into your blind spots?
