Back in 2010 the Lord made alive a passage of Scripture in Mark which resulted in my departure from the local assembly. At the time I thought I was being led away from the church because they were blind and I wanted to see. I was filled with desire for Jesus but also filled with pride.
Years of darkness and depression followed. Sure Jesus showed me many truths during this time. I have unlearned so many things…but one thing has still remained hard to remove…the log in my eye.
That passage was
Mar 8:22 Then He came to Bethsaida; and they brought a blind man to Him, and begged Him to touch him. Mar 8:23 So He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town. And when He had spit on his eyes and put His hands on him, He asked him if he saw anything.
Mar 8:24 And he looked up and said, “I see men like trees, walking.”
Mar 8:25 Then He put His hands on his eyes again and made him look up. And he was restored and saw everyone clearly.
Mar 8:26 Then He sent him away to his house, saying, “Neither go into the town, nor tell anyone in the town.”
Being a blind Christian is of course an oxymoron. But sadly many of us are blind even though we claim to see. As we grow we realise that we only see in part and still have many areas of blindness.
The brother in the story above saw men like trees…and after being healed he could see all things clearly, especially people.
The One who laid hands on his blind eyes does “not judge by the sight of His eyes, Nor decide by the hearing of His ears” (Isa 11:3b) In other words this Jesus could see all things clearly. He had no log in his eyes.
One time Jesus said
Joh 9:39 And Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind.”
Joh 9:40 Then some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these words, and said to Him, “Are we blind also?”
Joh 9:41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see.’ Therefore your sin remains.
This is an amazingly revealing truth!
Jesus did not judge by the sight of his eyes or the hearing of his ears…and yet he came into the world for judgment. How can Jesus say in a manner that it is better to be blind for then you have no sin….than to say we see?
Jesus Himself judged no one. This is how He is. Jesus in and of Himself did not judge anyone. Therefore in a very real sense He was blind.
He said..”If you were blind you would have no sin…”
Joh 8:15 You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one.
Joh 8:16 And yet if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent Me.
Judging according to the flesh is judging by the natural senses and reasoning. Trying to decide things about a person or circumstance by intellect and body language and posture and the whole host of natural signs. This may be okay in some situations like Forensic work but is not coming out of the spirit of God.
Jesus was in a sense Himself a blind man..and as such He had no sin. He saw no sin in Himself(and there was none). He saw no sin in others either(even though it may have been there).
Contrary to that if I say “I see, then my sin remains.” John 9:41
This reveals the religious pride we can have when we receive revelation that others around us have not yet been given. I see but you don’t see. Or like the Pharisees said to the man who was born blind…
Joh 9:34 They answered and said to him, “You were completely born in sins, and are you teaching us?” And they cast him out.
These high and mighty religious Jews seemed to have forgotten that all of us are completely born in sins. They had an air of superiority about them. They looked down their noses at others. They regarded themselves as above others and without sin. They had a huge log in their eyes causing them to be hypocrites.
These Pharisees were proud of their efforts at keeping Moses Law–even though Jesus pointed out that they did not even keep the Law.
Joh 7:19 Did not Moses give you the law, yet none of you keeps the law? Why do you seek to kill Me?”
The very same thing happens with us Christians. I had received that passage from Mark’s gospel about allowing Jesus to heal my blind eyes and immediately Pride twisted it around as if to say--‘God wants you to leave the synagogue where they are all blind. You see, they don’t…how can those blind people help you to see!?’
Even though I wanted to see, it was for self promotion that I wanted it. Therefore for years I have sought the Lord Jesus, and sometimes He has shown me things and I have grasped those things and used them to promote myself as someone who sees. Therefore my sin remains. What sin is that? Hypocrisy…the very worst sin if there is such a thing.
That is why Jesus said “Judge not, that you may not be judged; Mat 7:1(wnt)
The problem with being a hypocrite is that we are always judging ourselves by the flesh. If we as Christians do not live in grace towards ourselves, but instead judge ourselves as sinners in attempt to motivate ourselves to be “better” Christians, then we set in motion a horrible cycle.
This cycle of judgment causes us to be trapped in an ugly miserable existence even though we have Jesus in us. We tell ourselves that we see, that we are not like other men…we have Jesus! Yet we have no love or peace or joy in our daily experience. Jesus does us no good. We live in Christian Hades with torment and parched mouths and dry hearts.
Judge not.
To do that we must take the log out of our eye.
Mat 7:5 Hypocrite, first take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly how to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye.
The beam in our own eye is this attitude and imagined belief that we are right and others are wrong. The beam in our own eye is also living under the weight of the Law.
When we think we are only accepted by God if we are perfectly obedient then we cannot help but judge ourselves. In judging ourselves as unworthy we then judge others as unworthy too.
But Jesus thankfully takes blind men by the hand and leads them out of the village. He begins a work to remove the plank from our eyes so that we can see as He sees. He sees all things including you and me through the perfect LOVE of the Father.
There is no fear in His love.
1Jn 4:16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
1Jn 4:17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.
1Jn 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.
Fear involves torment.
Living under the weight of the law—I must obey God to make Him pleased with me —keeps the fear intact…keeps the log securely planted in our eye….keeps us in a place of judging self and judging others as defective.
John says we have known and believed the love God has for us. This is what it all comes down to doesn’t it? Knowing and believing the Love He has for us. I confess I do not know anything about His love. I can intellectually say, by my knowledge of the Scriptures, that God loves me….but do I know that He does?
I am 55 now. I have been with Jesus since 28. I still do not know His love. I want to with all my heart. That is all I can do.
It is a choice everyday to believe the love God has for me. I believe therefore I speak. So every day, we can speak the truth of what Jesus our saviour has done for us. He traded Himself for us. He so loved you and me that He was willing to give us His life to be our own life.
I receive His life, that loved life today. I receive the gift of being blind and deaf so that I do not judge. Blind and deaf to the faults of others….blind and deaf to my own shortcomings.
I receive the sight of Jesus!
Who sees me in the Father’s love. Sees me one with Himself in the bosom of the Father. Sees me held in the loving heart of our mutual Father…me in Jesus, Jesus in me, us in Father.
I also receive the fact that I can not change myself to be better…but that while I was blind He loved me…while I was dead He made me alive…while I was His enemy He died for me….while I was sick He healed me.
