What the Blind Men See

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Reveling in sanctimony, blinded by the beam in our own eye
Either that or we’re staring at it right in the face
And we’re choosing not to see it
That we have been conditioned to the comfort of the lie

“The Fable of the Times,” The Arcadian Wild

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Have you heard the story of the blind man who saw what those around him could not?

In John 9 Jesus heals a man born blind. I have written about this beautiful miracle before, but as I read the passage again this morning something entirely new stuck out to me. After the man’s healing, the Pharisees call him twice to bear witness to his healing.

During the second meeting, the Pharisees tell the healed man that they do not know where Jesus comes from. The man replies with the following…

“Why this is an amazing thing! You do not know where He comes from, and yet He opened my eyes. […] 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.

– John 9:30 & 32-33

The blind man – whose entire life revolved around his lack of sight – knew his need and was given sight. The Pharisees- whose lives were consumed with self-righteous passion and earthly sights on fleeting things – saw only what they already had and were blinded to all which they lacked.

Jesus willed the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the childlike to understand. Tis the paradox of the Christian faith! We must first know our depravity.

There is a lie which feasts off our lowly human hearts: we believe we are capable of seeing. Essentially, we have fooled ourselves – or Satan has convinced us, rather – that we have healed our own deafness with the silly tunes we play.

However, Jesus says otherwise. He says we must first be blind.

For He wills us to see what the blind men see.

The Blind Men See Deepening Darkness

How are we to love a Light we do not think we need?

This was the trouble of the Pharisees: they were comfortable in their darkness. Therefore, Jesus told them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains” (John 9:41). These religious men believed they saw clearest out of all the people in their time. And yet, they were the most blind! For they were blind to their blindness.

We are all prone to this sin, in some way. Like the Pharisees, we become so accustomed to following God’s principles, following God’s statutes, following God’s ordinances, etc. that we forget to simply follow God.

If all truth is God’s truth then even the unbeliever can follow many of God’s principles, statutes, and ordinances. Indeed, this is part of the spiritual walk; however, this is not the essence of the spiritual walk.

“For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the Fountain of Living Waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

– Jeremiah 2:13

This passage Yahweh spoke to Jeremiah is incredibly powerful. The purpose of a cistern is to hold or collect water. Yet, God tells Jeremiah that their cisterns are broken. Instead of seeking God to do the rebuilding and the renewing in their lives, they were, essentially, repairing themselves with their own hands. The result? They had all the instruments indicative of water…but lacked water.

We would, surely, be awful liars to claim we do not also do this. How often do we prepare our heart as a dwelling place for God – exhausting our energies on human attempts at holy tasks – only to forget to invite God to dwell there.

This is what it means to be blind to our blindness. It is to slowly – through the sly whispers of this earth’s broken rhymes – begin to forget that we are sinners.

We must acknowledge the darkness of the times.

We must acknowledge the blindness which plagues our souls.

For He wills us to see what the blind men see.  

What the Blind Men See, the “Seeing” Miss

While the blind men – those who are aware of their lacking – are able to turn to God with the understanding that they need Him, those who are stuck in earthly sights see no need for their only need. This is the tragedy of the lie. This is the heartbreak of this earth’s lowly fate.

We choose our blindness. Because, for this short time, it is more comfortable than the knowledge of the Holy which we cannot, of ourselves, attain. Close your eyes and picture the many faces you meet daily. Imagine them with shackles. Imagine them with dust on their faces and burdens on their backs.

Now imagine them with all these things…but smiling. Imagine them talking to other smiling prisoners. Imagine these smiling prisoners slowly, but steadily, walking towards a deadly cliff.

This is the world.

Tis teeming of smiling prisoners who are so often unaware of their fate because the prisons have become normal and easy and comfortable – for now. But not for always.

God delights to free. It is the world which refuses to delight in freedom.

In the same way, God delights to heal the sickness of our land, but we must first know that sickness!

We must see that we are blind. We must fervently seek to see what the blind men see.

Sight Enough for the Journey

As John Calvin so beautifully expressed, the Sun’s brightness has already been determined. He is Brilliant. He is Light. Do we crave it? Do we long for sight? We must pray for the strength and conviction to.

Let me give you a glimpse of what blind men see. For even those of us who believe can easily forget what it means to be a seeing blind man.

The blind men see the ugliness of the earth’s temporary king. They see the lie of the crafty serpent and begin to understand “That he was a murderer from the start” (John 8:44). But even more than this they see the Author of Life.

They see that they have “A beautiful inheritance” (Psalm 16:6). And they see hope. They see that they are welcomed to come as they are; they need no longer live in fear of what the world might say. They are given freedom to walk in the Light – to bear boldly the infirmities which led them down pathways of grace – because the Eternal King has already told them that His Light is enough in their blindness.

The blind men, truthfully, do not see much.

But they see enough. Enough to give them reason to hold fast to the Keeper of Light. And that faith is enough to see them through the darkness. It is enough to spur them onward, upward.

Because the blind men know they need not find their way alone. They are guided by the Light. And He will see them Home.

That is what the blind men see.

For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.’

– Matthew 13:15