There are some similarities between physical and spiritual blindness. Jesus points out a few here.
The man born blind wasn’t being punished for some sin. In fact, Jesus claims that he was born blind so that he could be healed on this very day. It makes me wonder what difficult and imperfect things God has allowed in my life so that he might receive glory by restoring them at the right time. It isn’t up to us to determine when or in what way God will act, we have only to be patient and trusting that he will restore us at the right time.
Jesus certainly healed everyone who came to him, and in this case he heals someone he “happens” to be passing by. It makes me think about the people who have injuries or illnesses that we pray for. This fellow was blind for a reason, and he wasn’t going to be healed until Jesus passed by and healed him. That was God’s plan and I don’t think it was open for discussion. No amount of prayer was going to produce sight in this man until Jesus walked by. I’m not sure we can apply that to our situation today, because we have the presence of the Holy Spirit with us, and that changes the equation dramatically. However, if we are to assume that God still works in the same way (and we have no reason to suspect that he doesn’t) then it stands to reason there are people out there who will not be healed until a specific time, for a specific reason. There’s nothing wrong with praying for their healing, I don’t think God would be upset with that. But wait, there’s more:
If we are truly dead to self and alive in Christ, if the presence of God has control over our thoughts and actions and it is his Holy Spirit that guides us everyday, then we can know if this person is meant to be prayed over and healed today. We have the mind of Christ. It’s one thing to pray and ask God whom we are familiar with but don’t know intimately, to heal a friend. It’s another thing to see a person through God’s eyes and know what God has planned for them in that moment. The latter will produce a bold prayer offered with confidence and authority. My experience is that I am not always this close to the Lord, but when I am, I have confidence that he will do what I am seeing him do in my thoughts…which are actually his thoughts.
Spiritual blindness compares to physical blindness is that both of them leave us stumbling around, bumping into things, creating injuries and drastically decreasing our effectiveness. The pace is somewhat slower for the blind, the opportunities are a little more limited. Blind people don’t drive cars or play ping pong. Spiritually, there are a variety of things we cannot do when we are blind, the most important of which is choose what path we want to walk on. In order to follow Jesus, we have to be able to see him, and that’s where the Holy Spirit comes in. The Spirit gives us enough sight before we are saved to recognize the error of our ways and to see Christ for who he is. Whether or not we accept that and follow him will determine if our sight is temporary or permanent. If we operate in our new sight and confess our sins and become obedient to him, then we receive new sight…which by some miracle God continues to improve as we follow him. The more we are surrendered and obedient, and the longer that we follow, the more we learn of Christ and the better we “see” him.
Those who are spiritually blind will always reject our testimony and be confused by our actions. They simply cannot see what we can see, so our conversation and actions don’t make sense to them. Rejecting Christ has made them spiritually blind, and if they remain in that condition, they will die in their sins and miss heaven. Hell is a terrible place to spend eternity, but it is the only other option to heaven. You can either see and behave like someone who sees, or you can be blind and stumble around and hurt yourself….and probably others. By the way, even though they have chosen to remain blind, those who harm others because of it will have to answer for that sin.
One other verse jumps out at me today: Verse 41 “If you were blind you wouldn’t be guilty”. What? Everyone is guilty. No one is going to stand before the King of Kings and say “I didn’t know” or “No one told me, I wasn’t aware” and get a pass into heaven right? This verse by itself seems to testify to the opposite. According to this, anyone who is “blind” isn’t guilty. Here’s where I think the catch is: Because God’s grace “goes before” salvation (we call it prevenient grace) it gives us enough sight to see Jesus. We have enough sight to make a decision to follow Christ. Everyone is exposed to him in some way before they die. Perhaps their encounter will be unconventional, maybe they won’t use the same words that I use, but they will somehow see that Jesus is the Son of God and the one and only pathway to heaven. The blind man who was made to see eventually had to confess faith in Christ to receive his spiritual sight.
Perhaps this thought could be used to explain why we believe very young children and the unborn enter into heaven, even though they haven’t confessed
Christ.
Reflectively,
PR