John 9:39-41
Jesus then said, "I came into the world to bring everything into the clear light of day, making all the distinctions clear, so that those who have never seen will see, and those who have made a great pretense of seeing will be exposed as blind."
Some Pharisees overheard him and said, "Does that mean you're calling us blind?" Jesus said, "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."
Scripture quotations from The Message. © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress, Colorado Springs, CO. All rights reserved.
You may have witnessed a young child get by with something for which you would have been “given the business” in “Leave-It-To-Beaver-speak.” You may have even asked your parent or the person in charge, “Why doesn’t he/she get in trouble for that?” The answer may be… “Because he/she doesn’t know any better.” You can forgive a toddler for dropping your precious dish and breaking it far easier than you can forgive a teenager who is rough-housing and acting irresponsibly.
In the same way, if someone knowingly tells a secret, you may feel angry or betrayed. But if someone walks into a room and innocently “spills the beans”… unaware that they are not supposed to tell… you might feel upset, but you can’t direct your frustration toward that individual… because it’s not really his/her fault.
When it comes to our relationship with God, we are the Pharisees in this passage. Let’s be honest, we claim to have it all figured out. We think we know who the “saints” and “sinners” are… and we are pretty sure we don’t fall into that last category. Our church is the best… we know more about the Bible than the next guy… and in many instances, it’s our way or the highway. And we think we have our relationship with God sewn up, too. We are so good… we go to church each Sunday… we even go sometimes on Wednesday night. We sing in the choir, and we go on mission trips… and we are active in our school and community. We’re such good people.
But at the same time, we don’t care one whit about the guy down the street. We haven’t noticed who else came to church, much less bothered to ask about that guy who used to sit next to us all the time and hasn’t been there in months. We don’t call or visit the sick, help the poor and needy, or even take time to check on our own elderly relatives. We’re so busy being good Christians! We have our hands full serving God in our own way… and looking really good doing so!
What we don’t see is that we are the rough-housing teenager. We are wielding our faith like a light saber, and then we want God to forgive us when we break something or hurt Him or some of His children. We want God to pat us on the back and say, “It’s okay… I know you didn’t mean to neglect others. I know you were too busy to care about the homeless and the hungry or speak kindly to people you meet. I understand that serving on a church mission team is far more impressive than tutoring little kids after school. You were exactly right to make that big donation to the community projects fund… no wonder you didn’t have a spare dollar to help that young mother pay her grocery bill. So what if she had to put back a few jars of baby food!”
I’ve probably overstated my point here, but let’s be honest… we get so caught up in making a show to God and others that we sometimes forget Him completely. We think we know what God wants better than He does, and we never bother to ask Him… much less listen. It’s time to humble ourselves before God and say, “I am truly blind. I don’t really see what YOU see… but I want to. Open my eyes to YOUR truths… YOUR plans… YOUR will for my life… and show me how to truly serve you.”
We are indeed accountable for every fault and failure unless we honestly and humbly surrender to God… put our shortcomings, selfishness and self-serving behaviors at the feet of Jesus, and ask Him to forgive them all. What are you seeing these days? Are you blind to your own shortcomings… or to the true will of your Heavenly Father? Have you let God expose you as blind, so that you might really see? Isn’t it time you did?
©2011 Debbie Robus
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