Blind Like the Pharisees

1 Samuel 16: 1-13
John 9: 1-41

It is getting closer to Easter and therefore, closer to the time of Christ’s betrayal by Judas. The stories about Jesus are becoming less about the miracles he performs because most people seem to have made up their mind about him. They seem to either love him or hate him. Jesus is an amazing person in many ways, not the least of which is the response people have to him. Once you get to know Jesus, there is no middle ground – you will both love and adore him as your Savior or you will curse his very name just as the Jewish leaders did.

This whole passage in John 9 deals with blindness of varying degrees and so does 1 Samuel 16. We have a man that is blind from birth and the disciples want to know if his blindness is caused by the sin of the parents or the blind man. Back then, it was often thought that if your child was born with a disease or defect it was because the parents or child had done something to displease God.

But instead of giving in to these kinds of superstitions, Jesus tells them it is not sin that have caused the man’s blindness and then proceeds to heal him. This is where the story becomes really interesting. When the man comes home from washing his eyes and he can now see, everyone around him acts blind. They look at each other and ask, “Isn’t this the man that was blind?” and even though the man says, “Yes, it is me!” they continue to look at each other in bewilderment and say that he only looks like the blind man. They refuse to believe what their eyes are telling them.

These men and women have become blinded to the truth. They thought they knew the blind man and so when he was acting differently, when he became something they did not expect, all of a sudden they could not recognize him. We, too, think we know things about the people we encounter in our lives. We expect them to act, walk and talk a certain way and when that changes we are confused. Even when the people in our lives have changed for the better, we may find ourselves missing the old Sallie or the old Martin because that was the Sallie and Martin that we knew.

When the Pharisees learned of this blind man, they asked him to come forward. He did so, gladly telling them how Jesus had healed him on the Sabbath. Some of the Pharisees thought Jesus was evil, but still others could not believe anyone who heals someone could be evil. So much confusion over one blind man that was no longer blind. No one was happy for the man, no one wanted to celebrate with him. Instead, they dwelt on how this could happen rather than rejoicing that it had.

We often get caught up the why’s and how’s and therefore’s of life and we also forget to celebrate. We forget to take each day as it comes, the miracle of waking up another day whether we are in good health or not. We forget to thank God for the people we meet in our daily routines. We forget that the job we have and the home we have built, the car we drive and the family we love are possible only because God created us.

The Pharisees are a stubborn lot of people and they decide to have the man’s parents come and prove the man standing before them was truly blind at birth. This is where it gets even more interesting. The parents admit that this man is there son and still the Pharisees refuse to believe. They are so blinded by their hatred of Jesus that they cannot accept anything as real even after many people have testified to the truth.

Does it make you wonder if you could ever be that blind to the truth? I guarantee you that you have been at sometime in your life you have seen the truth and turned away, not recognizing it. This is the human condition, to be skeptical and full of doubt. We are not a faithful people, not even us here in the churches who claim to be Christians. Our faith is not ours, it is God’s. We are only faithful because Jesus Christ helps us and provides us with strength. We need to be more careful about what we claim as truth, what we are so sure we know is right and wrong. The Pharisees were sure they were right, and they crucified our Lord.

The only one in this passage who is not blind, ironically enough is the once blind man. He states the obvious truth; that a sinner could not do what Jesus has done. Now let us journey to 1 Samuel 16 where Samuel is about to anoint one of Jesse’s sons as the new king. Jesse has many fine sons - tall men, with muscle and strength, men with honesty and integrity as their backbone. But Samuel finds out that the kind of man a human would pick to be king is not the man God would pick. Instead, God picks the youngest and least noticeable of Jesse’s sons. God picks the one who knows how to tend sheep, the one who has the patience to shepherd dumb animals all by his self and keeps them safe. God picks the one who knows what it is like to be alone, to be weaker than others, the one who is the least among many.

There is hope in the idea that God picks the runt of the litter. He picks people who are last in gym class, the ones who are made fun of for their glasses or strange clothes, he picks the ones who don’t make it to college, and He picks the mom with three kids who supports them by being a waitress. None of us are beneath God’s notice. God is not blind to who we are, unlike human beings. Humans are often blind to the truth of a person’s character, but not God.

If something changes about us, we may confuse those people who think they know us the best, but we never confuse God. God always knows us, and the Lord always cares for us. The only thing we need to do is to keep our eyes peeled for the truth. We need to keep our eyes on Jesus Christ. You see, when we look at people through the lens of Jesus Christ, we don’t notice the little things, but we see what is important. We see that even if a person changes their hair or clothes, if they talk with an accent or get a different job, that the only thing that matters is who they call their Lord and Savior. What matters is how the person treats you and others.

The worst thing that can happen to any of us is for us to become spiritually blind. When we stop seeing the world through Christ’s eyes, we have lost the most important part of being a Christian. We have lost contact with God. The one thing that is most important in a Christian’s life is maintaining a relationship with God. When we lose our connection to Jesus Christ, we can no longer see with clarity. We too will ask dumb questions like, “Could this truly be the blind man even though he says he is and his parents say he is and his friends say it is he?” We too will turn away from God and what God wants for us if we do not keep our focus on Jesus Christ.

The way we keep our focus, the way we keep from being blind like the Pharisees is to pray to God, read scripture daily, ask questions and to take time to think about your life and what God has done in it. On Wednesday I told you that human beings hate to self-reflect, but it is an important part of spiritual life. How can you answer the question of where to go next if you don’t pay attention to where you have been?

Jesus came into the world so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind. The blind are those who do not care about God, do not care about knowing Jesus Christ. Jesus came into the world to bring light to it, so that all may see who he is in truth. Those who think they see, think they know everything are often blind to the truth. That is why when the Pharisees scoff at Jesus and say, “What? Are we blind too?” Jesus replies it would be better if you were blind because then you would not be guilty of sin. The Pharisees should have seen Jesus for who he was – the Son of God – but they were blind. So Jesus tells us, be wary if you consider yourself educated and insightful because even you may not recognize the truth just like the Pharisees did not.

It is better to be blind like the blind man and then be given sight by Jesus Christ. So I will caution you this week to not be too quick to think you know the truth, but instead to pray to God and ask Him to show you. Do not depend on your own eyes, but depend on God’s eyes. Do not think all human truth is God’s truth because no one knows the mind of God except God Himself.

Amen.