Now open your eyes and watch this.”. Spiritual Blindness Lenny Ports Mark 10:46Now they came to Jericho. What He could have told them was, “It’s nobody’s fault. They happened to meet one day, and each was so excited to meet someone else who had been healed. Never! “I just can’t believe it!” she gasped as the doctor lifted the bandages from her eyes after her recovery from delicate surgery in an Ontario hospital. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen, Christ is risen! You are ignorant of why I am here in the first place. Listen to the question again: Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? I read a story the other day about two blind men who had both been healed by Jesus. In one sense, blindness is a matter of perspective. Think about the story of Mary Magdalene at the tomb on Easter morning. The message of Scripture is that those who know that they are spiritually blind and seek more to know God will receive spiritual eyesight. In John chapter 9 Jesus healed a man who had been born blind. Spiritual Blindness is the inability of a person to understand, perceive, grasp, comprehend spiritual truth. At the end of the tenth chapter of Mark, Jesus and his disciples pass through Jericho on their way to Jerusalem. But those who do not respond to the light that has been given to them are described in Ephesians 2:1-2 as dead people due to their sins. High Beams Have you ever had the experience of driving down a dark road at night, come to the crest of a hill only to be blasted by the brilliant high beam ...read more. At the same time as it contrasts physical blindness that can be healed, with spiritual blindness that cannot. We do not want to cram for our final exam. Luke 4:18. Turn in your Bibles to John 9. Spiritual blindness is a condition created by selfish desires (covetousness) and it prevents us from seeing the spiritual reality of the events and circumstances of our lives. We’re blind and unable to see the beauty and worth of Christ in the gospel, and a miracle is required to save us, which 2 Corinthians 4:6 says only God can give by shining into your hearts. Length: 18:17, Sermon on the Sunday of the Healing of the Blind Man (Acts 16:16-34; John 9:1-38). We are looking at … That cynicism simply poisons whatever goodness is really happening. Because that’s the way Jesus healed me; that’s the way he does it!”, Then the second man began to get angry. Let us remove that by whatever way possible. So that cynicism—we have to be able to recognize these things in ourselves. John 9:1-41Spiritual Blindness. If nothing else, by reading those daily readings that are on the calendar. They happened to meet one day, and each was so excited to meet someone else who had been healed. Most of them were probably very good and devout men who spent a lifetime devoted to their faith and trying to keep it pure. I remember when my father had retired, and I will be perfectly honest with you, I would say my father read the scriptures occasionally, and certainly he provided the sermons and would prepare for the sermons, but I do not think he was necessarily a student of the scriptures. It was the day of rest. A woman named Rose Crawford had been blind for 50 years. It could also be misunderstood, in the way it is presented. I just want to read a couple of verses to you from the Gospel of Matthew. If we do not open our minds and take the time to learn the truth, we will never learn it by osmosis, especially in this society. The third cause of our spiritual blindness is this hardness of heart. 47 And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" Lack of faith may also shut the eyes of our hearts. If we have that cynicism in our heart, we will never be open to the truth, we will never be open to that love and that light that God wants to give us. She says that this story points out a very important question for us to consider. Anger can render us blind, hence the saying, “a blind rage.” Pain, trauma and grief may make us blind. It is a universal human condition. Sermons at St. Nicholas: Willful Spiritual Blindness (John 9:1-38) Sunday of the Blind Man - Sixth Sunday of Pascha Roads From Emmaus: Sermon May 20, 2012 (Sunday of the Blind Man) In this Sunday of the Blind Man, Fr. In other words, they posed the question in such a way, not to be open to any other answer. Check out these helpful resources The understanding will come if you are open to it, and if you want to put the time into it. Have you even heard of it? In this passage we are going to encounter two very different types of people. We are blind to it. It is a universal human condition. I have a definition of Christianity. W. Clarkson. But sometimes I let my self-important, pharisaical nature make me think I’m God. “And that’s where virtue comes in, and that’s when we want to gain more, and more knowledge. Let us remove all ignorance, and all cynicism, and whatever stones and hardness that are in our hearts. Our passage today is John 9. Resources to inspire you — and your congregation! Jesus’ mixing dirt and saliva and spreading it on the man’s eyelids was work. They want him to tell them that Jesus is a sinner, or somehow has gotten his power from someplace other than God. We are very fortunate in this parish. And it is – it is not a superficial blindness; it is a profound blindness. We try to follow the rules and get a handle on what it is God wants from us. They talked about the wonder of sight, the color of flowers, the glory of sunrises, the faces of children and grandchildren. They think they know, but they do not. Again, if we want to have a fulfilling spiritual life, we have to do the things that are necessary for us to be open to this truth, and so in this context of speaking about spiritual sight, if we do not want to be spiritually blind, let us look out for these three things: The first one in the Gospel reading that is presented to us is ignorance. Spiritual blindness is a condition in which we are completely blind to the important matters of life or we have a distorted view of them—much like a color-blind person. Copyright © 2005-2021 Ancient Faith Ministries, Inc.All Rights Reserved. INTRODUCTION: Charlie Boswell was blinded during World War II while rescuing his friend from a tank that was under fire. I am not here to say this man sinned, or these parents sinned. John's account of the healing of the man born blind is certainly a sign, for it points to Jesus the Healer and Light of the World. 1 Corinthians 2:14 - This means that to a spiritually blind individual, spiritual things are unreasonable and meaningless, and such individuals cannot benefit accordingly. Being spiritually blind, they are perishing (2 Corinthians 4:3-4; Revelation 3:17). Every human being born into this world, since the fall of Adam, has been born spiritually blind. I am so thankful that we don’t have Pharisees around today. Right or wrong, I have in my mind what constitutes Christianity. I pity them. It’s been very helpful, not only for sermon work but in leading Bible studies using the analysis of the text.”. But the man says, “I don’t know if he is a sinner. The Blind Leading the Blind. Sometimes that is our attitude. Jesus is speaking in this gospel, and he is explaining why he speaks in parables. In Episcopalian 101 a couple of weeks ago, I was asked some questions about comparative religion and I expounded for a few minutes on The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints. I know enough about God, I know enough about the church. W hat is spiritual blindness?  Instagram, RSS & iTunes     They were so sure of everything – that God did not work on Sundays, that Moses was God’s only spokesman, that anyone born blind had to be a sinner, and ditto for anyone who broke the Sabbath; that God did not work through sinners, that God did not work on sinners, and that furthermore no one could teach them anything.” (Barbara Brown Taylor, The Christian Century(March 6, 1996) p. 260). The Pharisees thought God could not work through sinners or on sinners. Notes. How did Jesus open your eyes?’ And the man answered them, ‘I told you already and you did not listen. He is a good person. We endeavor in this paper to explore the four causes of spiritual blindness and their effect upon those gripped by it. They talked about the wonder of sight, the color of flowers, the glory of sunrises, the faces of children and grandchildren. The disciples asking this question of Jesus is the start of a multi-part story here. He makes it difficult.” Why would we want to make it difficult on God to change us? Spiritual Warfare Spiritual Blindness Satan. We are in a sermon series reading through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, penned by his disciple, John. As he prepared for his final journey to Jerusalem, Jesus repeatedly told the disciples what awaited … His neighbors would have shunned him out of fear of having the religious police target them. Then we get the wonderful interaction between Jesus and the blind man. The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted…. We are now in the sixteenth chapter of Matthew. That which is the best feature in physical is the worst in spiritual blindness. Pharisees were often found following Jesus. He says that those who are spiritually blind do not know where they are going. John 9. Here is one example out of my life of many examples. But He did it and so we get the rest of the story. But this hardness of heart—again, if we are unwilling, as God says, to replace our heart of stone with a heart of flesh, God will never be able to manifest His work in our lives. We should never put ourselves in the position where we say, you know what? But what does it really mean? Thanks be to God that today those Pharisees aren’t around, huh? Sin blinds us to God’s truth and to our own need for God in our lives. The recovering of sight to the blind. They talked about the power of having seen the face of Jesus. Why does Jesus teach in parables? :I have met people spiritually blind who have no vision of what God can do for them or what they can do for God. Spiritual blindness deceives the person into believing there is nothing wrong with them and that their view of the world is correct and true. Spiritual blindness is the greatest bondage there is. So, in our hearts, and in our minds, I think, unfortunately, sometimes we approach God and we approach church, with our preconceived notions. Although now the man was physically able to work for the first time in his life, no one would hire a man who had been excommunicated by the religious authorities. "It must be very bad to be blind," we say; probably we but faintly … No one does. We walk through our daily lives tripping over addictions, stumbling into relationships … I was reading this week in kind of a random fashion, and I came across an interesting little account. Temporary Blindness. So, in the gospel reading, in the second and third verse, it says, “And his disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘Neither this man, nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.’”. 47 And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" And on the Sabbath one was allowed to do no work at all. Do you also want to become his disciple?’ Then they reviled him and said, ‘You are his disciple, but we are Moses’ disciples. That’s the dumbest thing I have ever heard! But those who do not respond to the light that has been given to them are described in Ephesians 2:1-2 as dead people due to their sins. God didn’t make this man blind as a punishment. So we might say, “This is the Sunday of the healing of the man who was born blind, and the non-healing of the Jewish leaders, who remained blind.”. It is enough to get familiar with it. Author: Philip Sloat, Pastor of Franklin and Macon UMC’s in Nebraska. This section begins with the healing of a blind man (8:22–26) and ends with the healing of a blind man (10:46–52). I implied that God could not work through Mormons. But each time they looked, they saw nothing – they saw with the eyes of religious authority, not with the eyes of faith. Click here for more information. It does not mean that we have to be naïve, it means that we have to be open to the truth. Or maybe we read an article about somebody that did some bad thing, and therefore, we always keep the church, and God, at a distance. In The Magician’s Nephew, a novel from C. S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia series, Narnia is created when Aslan—the lion who represents Jesus—sings it into being. God wants me to see the world, and the person sitting next to me, with new, bright, spiritual sight. So let us not be cynical. On a global perspective, the biggest problem the church faces today is blindness to what Jesus Christ has done. Spiritual blindness has always been a problem from the beginning of the church. So as we are going about our week, let us think about this Gospel reading. We’re blind and unable to see the beauty and worth of Christ in the gospel, and a miracle is required to save us, which 2 Corinthians 4:6 says only God can give by shining into your hearts. For the two previous Sundays, and including this Sunday now, we have been speaking about how to have a fulfilling spiritual life, and today I want to talk about the gospel in terms of this idea of spiritual sight. Jesus and the disciples see the man, blind from birth and the disciples want to know whose fault his blindness is. Jesus tells his listeners that neither the man nor his parents had caused his problem – meaning that their entire line of questioning was wrong. READ 1 John 2:11. It is a promise that if we humble ourselves and admit our spiritual blindness, we will find the light. So I want to talk, in this Gospel reading, about three causes of spiritual blindness. Those people who were faced with the signs and wonders of God Incarnate in their lives and yet couldn’t see who and what Jesus was. He might have done a little bit of good, but look at all that bad he did.” And we tend to not only look at the church in that manner, but we look at everything in that manner. SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS. “What if it IS God and I don’t believe?”  Who’s blind now? 4:4 INTRO. Spiritual blindness is the greatest bondage there is. Blindness Spiritual blindness is a common malady. Now, today’s gospel reading is not a parable. Date preached: 17 May 2020. It occurs inside. It was like they were wearing dark sunglasses making them blind to the things of God. TRY SERMONWRITER! When he was 50, Virgil underwent surgery and was given the gift of sight. November 25, 2018 By Mark Holland. But simply to read it is, I think, the most important first step. “The eyes of fallen men may be anointed with the eye-salve of spiritual comprehension , and they may see themselves as they really are—poor, and miserable, and blind, and naked. Matt. But it was at thi… Hymn Lists, By The Rev. The entire next section is framed around spiritual blindness. The Pharisee’s Blindness (John 9:40-41) 40 Those of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these things, and said to Him, “We are not blind too, are we?” 41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains. These bookends are about physical blindness, but the stories in the middle are about spiritual blindness. It has to be said, at the very beginning, before we look at the text itself, that spiritual blindness is a universal malady.

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