Getting Closer to Jesus: Helen Keller, who, with the help of Anne Sullivan, overcame deafness and blindness to become one of the most inspirational figures in modern history, made this profound observation:
The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.
Of course, Helen was speaking out of her own courageous and overcoming experience, but I wonder if she was thinking about the Pharisees who rejected Jesus’ healing of the blind man in John 9. Truly, those who were experts in the Old Testament Scripture and obedient to it even beyond what it required were truly more blind than the blind man in this story before Jesus had healed. The Pharisees could physically see, but in the realm that counts for all eternity, they would have made a bat seem like a seeing-eye dog.
How sad to be so full of knowledge, yet so ignorant of the truth! How sad to be so close to God yet so far from his heart! How sad to have the respect of the people—or was it fear—and yet be under the judgment of the Almighty!
Though it doesn’t have to be this way, that often happens as people react to Jesus. He came into this world for judgment—according to his own words—but that judgment didn’t take the form you might expect of a judge. Jesus didn’t have to sit behind the bench, hear the evidence, deliver the verdict, and pronounce the punishment; the Pharisees were doing that for him. However, these so-called experts in God’s law were way off the mark in their judgments. In this case, their reaction to what was clearly an outstanding and undeniable miracle of God (John 9:24-34) was to stubbornly cling to the company policy: You can’t heal on the Sabbath!
And Jesus brought the evidence against them to the surface; they judged themselves. They were seeing yet blinded by the truth that was right before their very eyes! How sad.
The truth is, when people are exposed to Jesus—his life, ministry, miracles, teaching, life, death, and resurrection—a reaction is forced. They are forced to make a judgment—but that judgment becomes self-incriminating. How we respond to Jesus does not reveal anything new about Jesus, but it does reveal news about us—either the Good News that we have by faith believed (or are willing to believe) in who he claimed to be, or the bad news that unless we have a change of heart and mind, we will be self-condemned to an eternity separated from Christ.
When exposed to Jesus, if a person finds nothing to desire or admire, then that person has already condemned themselves. But when they see something in Jesus that causes them to bow in awe of his perfect holiness, acknowledge his divinity, and surrender to his Lordship, then they are on the path to eternal life.
So, what is the takeaway here? Perhaps the greatest attribute that you and I can present before God is a conscious awareness of our own spiritual blindness. To humbly acknowledge before God that, because of our own fallen nature, we cannot see, we are on our way to sight. If we long to see the things of God, Jesus will open our spiritually blind eyes just as much as he physically opened the blind man’s eyes to 20/20 sight.
What a gift: To know that we are blind apart from our openness to Jesus. It is only those who once were blind—and know it—that now can see. And see they do! Opened to them through Jesus is the sum of all the grace, truth, and glory of God—and what a sight to behold!
Take the Next Step : Ask God to help you see where you may be persisting in spiritual blindness. Then bring your blind eyes to Jesus for healing. He was pretty good at that, you know—still is!
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