To See or Not to See

Jesus said that he came into the world to give sight to those who were blind, and to take away the sight of those who see (Jn. 9:39). He was talking about spiritual sight, not natural sight, as he went on to explain to those present (Jn. 9:40,41). Nothing has changed; whenever truth from heaven is manifested to anyone, it is going to move them in one direction or the other. A person will either with honesty of heart follow the conviction brought about by the truth, or through a lack of honesty they will find a reason as to why the truth they have heard is not really the truth. In fact if someone is not willing to conform to the truth they’ve heard, that very truth will leave them with no choice but to actually contort themselves spiritually into a totally unnatural state of mind and spirit. A stark example were the Pharisees and Sadducees who refused to conform to the truth presented by Jesus. Because they deceived themselves and proclaimed Jesus to be a deceiver, they we’re completely contorted into something as far from a natural human as anything could be. This was clearly manifested by their continual anger and madness over Jesus healing desperately needy people of terrible physical afflictions on sabbath days (Mk. 3:1-6; Lk. 13:10-14; Lk. 14:1-4; Jn. 5:1-10; Jn. 9:6-8,16,26-28,33). Then they were exceedingly grieved when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead and restored him to his mourning loved ones, after they had grieved his death for four days (Jn. 11:43,44,47,53). But this madness was most notably manifest when at a later time they were minded even to put Lazarus back to death so that the miracle could be erased from the people’s minds (Jn. 12:2,9,10).

Anyone who would actually be incensed with anger about someone in a miserable condition being completely healed and made whole, truly is as far from their natural design as they could be. And of course these same people further confirmed the contorted state of their minds and spirits by having the holy Son of God put to death as a criminal. Jesus also manifested their spiritual insanity after healing a woman who had been physically bowed over by an infirmity for eighteen years, and the ruler of the synagogue reviled Jesus for the deed. He said in response to the ruler’s words: “Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering ? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day? And when he had said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed” (Mat. 13:15-17). And I have personally seen and heard people today contort themselves and their perception of everything around them, upon having God’s revealed truth presented to them with godly sincerity and a peaceable spirit. It is always, as it was then, done by those who say, “We see” (Jn. 9:41). God’s pure truth is the most simplistic of all things, but only to those who are totally honest with themselves, and are willing to have things God’s way, rather than their own way (Prov. 8:8,9; Prov. 14:6). Those who do not love that simplicity will surely complicate themselves as much as needed in order to defy something that is presented to them in simplistic truth. As I often say, nothing ever changes. Amen.