Spiritual Blindness
Scripture Reading: John 9: 35 - 41 (NIV)
Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” “Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.” Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.” Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.” Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?” Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.”
Message: Spiritual Blindness
Thrown out
Jesus heals a man from his blindness
And now that he can see, the pharasees are in a frenzy - how do we find a way to explain the healing of blindness?
The come down on this poor man, taking him aside and interigating him - twice
Instead of appreciating the wonder of this miracle that happened before their eyes (pun intended), they respond to it with their uneasiness of not having the answers
Eventually, when they realize they are not going to find a “logical” explanation for the healing of this man, they throw him out
“We don’t like your miracle stories, get out, we are done with you…”
When we read about the Pharisees, we tend to think about “them” as the antagonists in our Jesus stories - they are the bad guys in the stories
We easily miss that “we” are a lot like “them” in the way we interact with Jesus and our faith
We don’t like it when we can’t explain stuff…
We don’t like it when we are asked to believe in something that is impossible to explain
We don’t like it when we need to trust in God more than we need to trust in our own abilities
And what do we do when we don’t find the answers we are looking for, we throw out… we stop praying, we no longer read the Word of God, we don’t talk about God anymore, we avoid anything spiritual, we go to church and that’s it…
Healing and Blindness as a metaphor
The irony of this miracle is that it speaks to spiritual blindness
Without seeing it, this act of Jesus healing a blind man exposes the spitual blindness of the Pharisees
It is a powerful metaphor of seeing and blindness
It is a metaphor that is always confronting us…
Because it speaks about people who thinks they see, when in reality they don’t
It is a metaphor of missing the point, not seeing what is in front of you
It is also a humbling metaphor, for it is often those who think they have the answers, who are the blind ones
And this metaphor is hugely unsettling, the more you think about it, because it intoduces the possibility that I might be one of those is not seeing what I am supposed to see, missing the point, and being spiritually blind…
My Spiritual Blindness
Today, hearing this discussion spiritual blindness, I need to reflect on my own spiritual blindness
Is it possible that I am not seeing what I am supposed to see?
Here’s some examples of what spritual blindness can be in my life:
- I can become so focussed on the religious things I to earn my own righteousness that I forget how much I need God and the grace of God in my life (Revelation 3:17 – "You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.")
- I can be so focussed on making sense through logic and science that I don’t see that there are things in life that I will never be able to explain (1 Corinthians 1:22-23 – "Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.”)
- I can persue money, comfort, status and pleasure and not see that there are more to life than just earthly pleasures (Matthew 6:22-23 – "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness.")
- I can be selective in what I believe, only subcribing to what suits me and leaving out the rest (2 Timothy 4:3-4 – "For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.”)
- I can be so focusssed on my own feelings and experiences that I don’t see the promises of God and lose faith in the promises of God (2 Corinthians 5:7 – "For we live by faith, not by sight.”)
- I can become so set on literally understanding the Bible that I totally miss the heart of God behind it (2 Corinthians 3:6 – "The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”)
- I can become so obsessed with my own needs that I am unable to recognize the presence and call of Jesus in the poor, the imprisoned, the immigrant, and the suffering (Matthew 25:44-45 – "‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’”)
I am really honest, all of these examples apply to me in some way
In reflection, I need to see the spiritual dimension of life
Find healing with God
How do I become more aware of my own spiritual blindness?
The answer is through engagement
I will become more aware of my spirtual blindness when I engage with God more - prayer, reading God’s Word…
I will become more aware of my spirtual blindness when I engage through listening to the Holy Spirit and to other believers
I will become more aware of my spirtual blindness when I engage with myself and acknowledge that I don’t have all the answers and that I need to grow
I will become more aware of my spirtual blindness when I engage with the world around me with the love of God and not my own interests
Instead of throwing out what is spiritually uncomfortable, I am called to engage
Instead of relying on my own abilities that blinds me spiritually, I need to turn to God with my spiritual questions
For with God, I will be healed from my spiritual blindness! AMEN.
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