Bacon, Eggs and God

Blind

He answered and said, Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see. 

One thing I know… The previously blind man stated the facts as he knew them. What is required of a witness is to testify what he knows and no more. Thoughts, theories and opinions will only hinder the evidence and render it worthless. Had the man attempted to reason with the learned Pharisees they would have outdone him. He did not speculate about the mode of his cure, because he knew nothing about it. And so it is with spiritual illumination. It transcends our reason. It is accomplished in different ways. Sometimes we know the time and instrumentality; sometimes we do not. The main thing must always be, one thing I know, it happened to me.

Then said they to him again, What did he to thee? how opened he thine eyes? 

The proud and arrogant religious crowd sought to suppress the man’s conviction by their supposed superior knowledge and position. They believed themselves to be the heaven-appointed leaders of the people and guardians of morality and were judging that Jesus was a sinner. They believed that Jesus had broken the Sabbath by manufacturing clay and spreading it over the man’s eyes. Consequently, there could have been no such thing as a miracle and they were adamant that the man had better confess himself a deceiver and Christ an imposter. To all this, the healed man speaks. He answered them, I have told you already, and ye did not hear: wherefore would ye hear it again?

Look at the Pharisees. They heard enough, surely, to be convinced, but they were afraid of the conclusion; hence, they sought to extract a contradiction from the healed man. Men love darkness… is the testimony alike of Scripture and experience. People are more anxious to have the truth on their side than to be on the side of truth. The mind does not turn to the truth as the flower turns toward the sun. I have never been very optimistic of dislodging men from a theology which shelters them in their sins or in separating them from corrupt dealings in which they are gaining wealth. And the more truth you put before them, the more they will hate both you and it.

Errant leaders want to maintain an illusion that the truths of the Scriptures are something shadowy and impalpable. They will speak positively about those things that can be placed on a table, seen and touched, but to talk of strong and weak faith, high and low hopes, knowing whom you have believed, etc., will cause them to label you as a fanatic.

Then they reviled him, and said, Thou art his disciple; but we are Moses’ disciples. We know that God spake unto Moses: as for this fellow, we know not from whence he is.

Carnal leaders are very apt to trust in, and be proud of, the dignities and privileges of their position; yet, they are often strangers to the principles of their position. These Pharisees had before boasted of their good parentage; being of Abraham’s seed. They boast of their good education, We are Moses’s disciples; as if these would save them. Proud men scorn to be taught, especially by those whom they see as their inferiors, but we should never think ourselves too old, nor too wise, nor too good, to learn.

There are those also who, like the Pharisees, shut themselves up in the cells of traditional systems, claiming infallibility; so that when the truth confronts them, they must choose between it and their traditions. And how many dogmatically shut their eyes to the light, whilst at the same time refusing to permit others access to the word of truth; truth by which they might be led to the light? They deviate from the key of knowledge; thus, choosing the darkness and becoming willfully blind. Such is the blindness of many so-called Christians who do not desire to be enlightened by the truth of the Scriptures, because they are not willing to accomplish the duties which this enlightenment would demand of them. I thank God for those whose hearts are open to the word and fracture the walls of errant teaching. These who are walking on the path that Jesus walked, go, following the divine command, unrestrained by supposed infallible systems.

Christ’s mercies are most valued by those who have felt the want of them; those that have been blind and now see. The most powerful and lasting affections to Christ arise from actual interactions with the Lord.