March 1
Bible Reading: John 9:35-41
John 9:38-39, “He said, ‘Lord, I believe,’ and he worshiped him. Jesus said, ‘For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.’”
Technology has worked in amazing ways to allow us to see things we couldn’t previously see. A CT scan can allow a medical professional to “see” what’s happening inside someone’s body. With a light microscope we can see something as small as 500 nanometers (that’s 1,000,000,000th of a meter and about 200 times smaller than the width of a human hair). On the other end of that spectrum, a new telescope has broken the record for the farthest astronomical object ever seen (some 13.5 billion light-years from earth).
But apart from divine intervention, man has no ability on his own to “see” the truth about God. The hard-hearted religious leaders had witnessed the same as everybody else. They had observed and heard about Jesus’ miracles. Jesus genuinely healed the blind man. The man stood before them, boldly testifying to the truth of it. But they had already made up their minds about Jesus and were thereby impervious to the truth. Though they could see with their eyes, their hearts and minds remained blind.
As with any malady, the first step to resolution is admitting that there is a problem. One does not apprehend spiritual truth with superior intellect or cleverness or any kind of human machination. It is God who opens blind eyes, and He does that for those who approach him in the humility of child-like faith, even as Jesus declared: “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will” (Luke 10:21).
I cannot imagine how hard it would be to live without the ability to see. But the spiritual blindness of the Pharisees reminds us of the eternal ramifications associated with an unremedied spiritual blindness. “Jesus said to them, ‘If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains” (John 9:41).
She was a hospice patient when I started in my role as hospice chaplain, but she’d been averse to a chaplain visit. A nurse made a deal with her. What if he came one time with me, and then you can decide if you want him to return. I returned and soon discovered that she’d never been to church, never read from the Bible, and knew nothing about Jesus. In our subsequent visits, I shared truths about how Jesus came to save us from our sins. Her sight wasn’t very good, so I got her a large print Bible, but the print wasn’t big enough, so I exchanged that one for a giant print version. I asked her to read from the gospel of John, answering two questions: 1) Who does it say Jesus is? 2) What does He want for you to do? She read John, then Acts, and then kept on reading. The nurse was with me the day she prayed, trusting Jesus to forgive and save her. She died not long after, but not before God opened her eyes to Jesus.
If you’ve got eyes to see, you are blessed! Praise God for it! If you don’t, turn to God with child-like faith, asking Him to open your eyes to the truth!
OPEN MY EYES, THAT I MAY SEE
Open my eyes that I may see
glimpses of truth thou hast for me.
Place in my hands the wonderful key
that shall unclasp and set me free.
Silently now I wait for thee,
ready, my God, thy will to see.
Open my eyes, illumine me,
Spirit divine!
Open my ears that I may hear
voices of truth thou sendest clear,
and while the wave notes fall on my ear,
ev’rything false will disappear.
Silently now I wait for thee,
ready, my God, thy will to see.
Open my ears, illumine me,
Spirit divine!
Open my mouth and let me bear
gladly the warm truth ev’rywhere.
Open my heart and let me prepare
love with thy children thus to share.
Silently now I wait for thee,
ready, my God, thy will to see.
Open my mouth, illumine me,
Spirit divine!
LookingtoJesus 