Blessed Blindness

In my church’s Bible study on Sundays and Wednesdays, we have been skimming the life of Jesus in the gospels. I find it intriguing to put myself in the place of various people during this time period. Maybe I am in the place of the woman with the hemorrhage in Luke 8. She had this issue with bleeding for 12 years- 12 years of being unclean under the law. She’d tried everything, seen all the doctors and suffered through all their treatments. And yet she only grew worse. Think of what went through her mind when she heard of a man who was healing people of incurable diseases. Or think of the blind man in John 9 and how he had never seen the world in which he lived.

We know that Jesus’ signs weren’t the reason He was here. He had a greater cause that He was fighting for and His miracles were meant to be evidence of His claims. But His signs were very effective to people who needed His help, and strangely ineffective to those who didn’t need Him.

Think of the realizations which came after Jesus’ healing of the blind man. The man himself did not know who Jesus was. But he knew what Jesus did, and in verse 17 said that Jesus was a prophet. He was able to make this judgment because he knew Jesus healed him. v25, 31 Then later on Jesus makes the claim of deity and asks if he believes in Him, and there is an emphatic statement of “Lord, I believe.”

How could this man who was formerly blind and the woman with the hemorrhage have such faith in Jesus, while the religious leaders absolutely could not see it? Jesus says why at the end of chapter 9. He came to save the blind, and judge those with sight.

Unfortunately, some resemble the “blessed” and clear sightedness of the Pharisees. They were pious and good at it. They were set up way too nicely to let circumstances change. They were far too comfortable. So they said over and over again that they did not know where this Jesus was from, and accused Him of lawlessness. And Jesus said that they were blind, were still in their sins, and that they would be judged. Luke 13 tells us that the Father will tell these newly blind men to depart from His presence, for He does not know where they come from.

On the other hand, those who are blind know they are without hope and in need of a Redeemer. They have tried to justify themselves, much as the blind man and his parents must have washed and cleansed and tried to heal his problem. But they discovered that it was hopeless, that there wasn’t anything they could do to fix it. So we know our helpless and weak state. And this is the reason we search out our King, our Savior, and accept His gift. This is our blessed blindness.