Blindness
Helen Keller lost her sight and her
hearing when she was 19 months old. At the age of seven, she met her first
teacher and lifelong companion Anne Sullivan. Keller recalls her childhood this
way:
“Gradually I got used to the
silence and darkness that surrounded me and forgot that it had ever been
different until she came — my teacher — who set my spirit free.”
Then, one day Jesus came. The blind man heard that someone kneel close to him and gently spit on the ground. He then felt gentle hands rub the clay paste on his eyes and heard the voice, saying, “Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam.” As he washed in Siloam, his eyes were flooded with light. Then he could see! Perhaps first he saw his own reflection, then water, ski, trees, people’s faces. Perhaps then he ran to his house and shouted out, “I can see!”
Spiritual Blindness
What’s even more amazing is that later
this man received “spiritual eyes” as well as physical ones. He recognized
Jesus as the Messiah and said, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshiped Jesus. But
ironically, people around him who had physical sight turned out that they were
living with spiritual blindness. In this story we meet three different groups
of people spiritually blind with different reasons.
The first blind group is his neighbors. Soon after the man’s eyes were opened, the whole town was buzzing. His neighbors asked each other, “What happened? Isn’t this the man who used to sit and beg? Or is it someone like him?” The man kept saying, “I am he!” But they kept asking him, “Then how were your eyes opened? He clearly answered what happened again and again. But they were still doubting. So finally, they took the man to the Pharisees for further interrogation. Doubts had blinded their eyes.
The Pharisees are the second group spiritually blind. They kept asking how the man had received his sight. He kept answering what happened to him. But they didn’t believe it. Their eyes were closed because of their ignorance and pride. They said to the man, “This man [Jesus] is not from God, for he does not observe the Sabbath.” According to the tradition of the elders, rubbing the mud on the eyes on Sabbath was considered as work. What total ignorance! They didn’t know God. They didn’t know God’s character. They didn’t know God’s sabbath. But they insisted, “We know what we are doing,” “We see.” Charles Spurgeon rightly said,
It is not our littleness that
hinders Christ; but our bigness. It is not our weakness that hinders
Christ; it is our strength. It is not our darkness that hinders Christ;
it is our supposed light that holds back his hand.[1]
So Jesus said to them, “If you were really blind, you would be blameless, but since you claim to see everything so well, you’re accountable for every fault and failure” (v. 41 MSG). The eyes of the Pharisees were closed because of their pride.
The third group spiritually blind is the blind man’s parents. Actually, they were firsthand witnesses. But when they were called to testify before the Pharisees, they passed the responsibility to the son because of fear, saying, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind, but we don’t know how he sees now, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him. He is old enough to speak for himself.” They were afraid. They had let fear blind them.
Spiritual Blindness Today
We may have a 20/20 vision. But we
may not see well spiritually because of our doubts, unbelief, ignorance, pride,
and fear.
I belong to several different clergy groups. One group consists of deeply conservative members both politically and theologically. They listen to Fox News and get information from the websites like the Daily Caller and Breitbart. They read books written by conservative pundits or popular conservative ministers. Another group that I am part of is fairly progressive. They subscribe the New York Times, listen to NPR News, and watch PBS. They often visit websites like Vox, the Atlantic, and FiveThirtyEight for in-depth study. Each of them from both groups is brilliant and sincere. Each one knows his or her stuff. What is striking is how little each one knows anyone else’s stuff. In other words, they live in their own small closed world. Their eyes are closed because of fear, pride, ignorance.
I am not an exception. I am one of them. God has been nudging me, challenging my perspective, and stretching my mind especially over the past three or four years. I grew up in a theologically conservative Korean Methodist church. There had been some struggles here and there along the way, but overall my theology was working well to see and interpret the world around me until the pandemic broke out in 2020. Then the death of George Floyd. Then presidential election. And now homosexuality issue in the UMC. Now I am more aware of my own ignorance, my fear, my prejudice and pride than before. So now I practice wide reading, and wide listening. I subscribe Christianity Today, but also reads Christian Century and Sojourners. I listen to The Russell Moore Show podcast as well as The Soul of the Nation with Jim Wallis.
Recently, Joyce attended a local pastor licensing school. As part of a class activity, there was a Q & A session with Bishop Peggy Johnson. Joyce asked some questions and talked about the challenges the local churches were going through because of the homosexuality issue. After this, Bishop Johnson graciously sent Joyce and me her newly published autobiographical book, The Ever-Expansive Spirit of God: For All Who Feel Left out. Joyce and I thanked her via email, and she replied this way:
“[This book] describes how I worked
with people on all sides of the debate around homosexuality. I did not succeed
in making peace. It is a difficult thing. The best we can do is agree on Jesus
Christ and love on people.”
“Lord, I Want to See”
Today we are surrounded by many
troubles within and without. But we are not crushed, because God is still
with us. Once Elisha and his city Dothan was surrounded by the enemy. Elisha’s
servant found this and was terrified, “Alas, master! What shall we do?” Elisha
replied, “Don’t be afraid, for there are more with us than there are with
them.” Then he prayed, “O Lord, open his eyes that he may see.” Then the LORD opened the servant's spiritual eyes,
and he saw; the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around
Elisha (2Kg 6:17).
The Apostle Paul offers the same
prayer for the Christians in Ephesus. At that time some of them in the Ephesian
church felt a lack of purpose, some felt a sense of poverty, some suffered from
a feeling of powerlessness. So Paul prayed. He said to them, “Friends, I pray
that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know the
hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance
he has given to you, and his incomparably great power for you who
believe” (Eph 1:18-19).
I need this prayer. Have you ever
felt or talked to yourself, “I am purposeless. I am not enough. I am
powerless”? Then, join me in this prayer. Do you resonate with the blind man’s
story, the neighbors’ unbelief and doubts, the parents’ fear, the Pharisees’
ignorance and pride? Then, join me in this prayer.
so that I may know the hope
to which you have called me,
the riches of your glorious inheritance
you have given to Christians,
and your incomparably great power
for us who believe.
Lord Jesus, help me
to see.
Open my eyes to know you as I
have never before.
Open my eyes to see all people as you see them. Amen
[1]
R. Kent. Hughes, John: That You May Believe (Preaching the Word) (p.
262). Crossway. Kindle Edition.
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