When the blind see and the seeing remain blind.

When the blind see and those who see are blind.

Matthew 12:22-29

“Then a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute was brought to Jesus, and He healed him, so that the mute man spoke and saw…But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, ‘This man casts out demons only by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.”

 

            Physical blindness is challenging; spiritual blindness is devastating.  When physically blind, we cannot see the physical world around us. Instead, we are enclosed within the shades of darkness. Yet, even for the blind, there are ways to connect with the physical world around us.  We can still use our other senses, touch, smell, hearing, etc., to connect with the world.  We may not see the beauty of a rose, but we can still smell its fragrance and feel the softness of its petals.  However, a spiritually blind person can no longer connect with the spiritual world.  The spiritual world becomes lost and untouchable.

            Recently, I was talking with an individual as I was taking a picture of the beauty of the sunrise.  Although we had met before, in our conversation, it quickly became evident that he did not know that I was a pastor.  As we were talking about the beauty of the sunrise, he started to lament how he could not believe that those “religious people” could believe that this was the work of a creator and that this all happened in 7 days.  The fact that the stars that we can see were millions of light years away proved that the universe was not the work of a creative God but the accident of some big bang that happened billions of years ago and led to the evolution of the earth.  He could see the beauty of the sunrise and the physical colors, but he was blind to the spiritual world in which God exists, and God creates both time and space and light.  

            Such was the case of the Pharisees.  They saw Jesus heal the Blind and mute man; that was undeniable. But because they were spiritually blind, they could not know that it affirmed Christ’s divine nature.  Instead, they attributed it to the world of Satan, the product of the power of evil forces who freed the man from his demonic possession to gain a following.  However, Christ pointed out the absurdity of their argument.  If Satan and demonic powers were casting out demons, they were engaged in a civil war, thus fighting against one another. They could see the physical effects of the miracle, but because they were spiritually blind, they could not see the spiritual truth it conveyed.

            Even as Christians, we are often spiritually blind.  We see the events in our world and our lives and circumstances, and we attribute them to man's work or the product of chance and luck.  We attribute our success to our abilities and events as being in the right (or wrong) place at the right time (or wrong time).  What we fail to grasp is the work of God amid our circumstances.  We have physical sight but are spiritually blind.  When we start to have a spiritual presence, we begin to see that there is never anything arbitrary, and events do not happen just because of good or bad luck. Morality becomes nothing more than popular consensus rather than divinely established. Instead, we begin to see the work of God, and he orchestrates the events and circumstances of our lives for his divine and perfect purpose.  When we have spiritual sight, we no longer gaze upon the beauty of a sunrise; we gaze upon the beauty of a God who displayed his glory in the sunrise.  Today, as you go through your day, ask God to give you a spiritual sight to see his handiwork around you and in the events that happen.  When we open our spiritual eyes, we may be surprised to see what he is doing.