BLINDED BY THE DARK

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James 9:1-41

I don't wear these glasses because I'm trying to make a fashion statement.  My vision is very poor.  The glasses help my physical eyesight, but they don't help with the things that obscure my spiritual sight, like being judgmental.  The only thing that clears it up is choosing to see with the eyes of grace.

"As Jesus walked along, he saw a man who was blind from birth.  Jesus' disciples asked, 'Rabbi, who sinned so that he was born blind, this man or his parents?"  (John 9:1, CEB)

It was believed then and to some extent today, that anyone who was disabled or sick, anyone who suffered tragedy or lived in poverty, was a sinner.  They did something bad to deserve what happened to them.  

"Neither."  Jesus said.  Jesus lead his disciples beyond the cultural bias to seeing this encounter as an opportunity to bring God's unconditional love to their encounter with the blind man.   Rather than allowing them to be judgmental, he reminded them that they were called to bring wholeness and freedom for, "While it's daytime, we must do the works of him who sent me.  Night is coming when no one can work."  (a reference to end times) (John 9:4, CEB)

The Pharisees, however, saw it differently.

"Sinner," they declared to Jesus because Christ healed the blind man on the Sabbath.

"Sinner, they told the man who had been healed, "Because you were born completely in sin, and that makes your parents sinners, too!"

Sinners, " decreed the Pharisees, "All who follow Jesus will be expelled from the synagogue.

Sinners.  Sinners. Sinners.  Sinners.

They were blinded by the darkness of the broken world they lived in and their own sin.

James 4:11-12 warns us that when that happens, we become judges of the law and the One who gave it.  It's like saying. "Our prejudices and biases have more authority than the law of God's Love and God, the creator and source of all goodness and life."  

 When we are blinded by the darkness of this broken world and our own sin of judgmentalism, we cannot see the love God has for every human being.  We do not recognize that each person is created in the image of God, and that Christ died for them, just as he died for you and me.  When we do that, we contribute to human suffering by dehumanizing the needy and the poor, turning them into creatures that do not deserve our love and compassion.

It is only through confessing our spiritual blindness to God and asking for forgiveness that the light of His love and Glory can open our hearts and our minds to others to do the works of Him who sends us."

" Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, “Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.”
                                                                                         Deuteronomy 15:11 (NRSV)

Choose to see through the eyes of grace.







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