The Blind Man and The Narrow Way
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Intro
Intro
I grew up in Sacramento. We had two seasons. Hot and fog! For months in the summer you wouldn’t see a cloud.
Then in the winter months thick fog often keeps you from seeing across the street.
One was not seeing because it wasn’t there. The other was not seeing because what was there!
I’m sure we’ve all been at the place when God calls us to something, or for something, and we can’t see the there there.
No matter if you are straining to see what seems to be missing, or what you know you need to see is hidden behind so many of life’s distractions, todays passage will help us see the key to clarity of seeing, knowing, and following God’s will and plan for our lives.
Pray
14 But the disciples had forgotten to bring any food. They had only one loaf of bread with them in the boat. 15 As they were crossing the lake, Jesus warned them, “Watch out! Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod.”
16 At this they began to argue with each other because they hadn’t brought any bread. 17 Jesus knew what they were saying, so he said, “Why are you arguing about having no bread? Don’t you know or understand even yet? Are your hearts too hard to take it in? 18 ‘You have eyes—can’t you see? You have ears—can’t you hear?’ Don’t you remember anything at all? 19 When I fed the 5,000 with five loaves of bread, how many baskets of leftovers did you pick up afterward?”
“Twelve,” they said.
20 “And when I fed the 4,000 with seven loaves, how many large baskets of leftovers did you pick up?”
“Seven,” they said.
21 “Don’t you understand yet?” he asked them.
22 When they arrived at Bethsaida, some people brought a blind man to Jesus, and they begged him to touch the man and heal him. 23 Jesus took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. Then, spitting on the man’s eyes, he laid his hands on him and asked, “Can you see anything now?”
24 The man looked around. “Yes,” he said, “I see people, but I can’t see them very clearly. They look like trees walking around.”
25 Then Jesus placed his hands on the man’s eyes again, and his eyes were opened. His sight was completely restored, and he could see everything clearly. 26 Jesus sent him away, saying, “Don’t go back into the village on your way home.”
Jesus and His disciples left the Pharisees who refused to see who Jesus was. As they leave those who wont see, Jesus addresses those who don’t see, the Disciples. they weren’t prepared for the quick departure so had not readied the supplies. They didn’t pack lunch!
Finally, they come to the one who can’t see.
As we consider those three states - wont, don’t, and can’t - consider which would be easiest to correct.
Wont Refuses
Wont Refuses
Wont:
Has all the faculty to be able to
Has the information to understand
Lack the will to acknowledge
The state that has the least preventing seeing is the one who wont. But if any of you has ever engaged in arguing with someone on social media knows, a settled mind is a terribly hard thing to change!
“Here are the facts.” That should prove the point. Convince the skeptic. Win the argument. But it doesn’t. Even Jesus can to the point of giving up on changing hearts that refused to be changed!
The first thing we need to see to follow God’s will for us is:
Submit to His Authority.
Submit to His Authority.
Don’t Confuses
Don’t Confuses
Don’t:
Has the faculty to be able to
Lacks the information to understand
May/may not have the will to acknowledge
Those who don’t see don’t lack desire, and they don’t lack ability. They lack information. Or understanding. This is a person in process. Do we chide a child who can’t do algebra, we train then from their current level toward that goal.
This is where I think most people live in their faith. Looking for incremental growth and change. It is a necessary part of the process, but it’s not all.
The second thing we need to see to follow God’s will for us is:
Pursue His Guidance.
Pursue His Guidance.
Can’t Is Hopeless
Can’t Is Hopeless
Can’t
Lacks the faculty
Lacks the information
Has the will, but no ability to pursue it
Can’t is the hardest case. No facility. No ability. No information. But only unfulfillable desire. Frustration and futility.
Here is where Jesus makes His point. This is where He give hope and meaning. This is the application for the disciples who were confused on the boat. They had certainly submitted to His authority. They were pursuing His guidance. But why were they still missing it?
Let’s take a closer look.
Jesus is teaching his disciples about warning signs that prevent walking in the Kingdom of God. Those signs are described by blindness and sin.
And they are personified by the Pharisees and Harod.
15 And he cautioned them, saying, “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”
He calls both warning signs Leven - or the rising of bread. This was symbolic of sin in the use of bread for any religious connotation in Israel. This is the precise reason Lords Supper crackers are so unenjoyable!
Two warnings in two opposite ends of the spectrum - Pius Pride, and Licentious Living. Jesus taught that either attitude would cause them to fail to see God’s purpose and plan.
But the disciples, apparently free from either of those attitudes were still short of what they needed.
12 “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
13 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
There is a path to God’s Kingdom available in our lives that is constrained on one side by pride and on the other side by sinfulness. But the path straight ahead is blocked because we are broken.
We talk about the Kingdom of God. But I think we might be shaky on exactly what that means. There was a definition for the Kingdom of God in the second discipleship book we are going through.
“The Kingdom is the range of God’s effective will where what He wants done is done.”
That’s a great definition. How do we do the will of God? Jesus already taught two things that prevents us from doing so: Pride in OUR righteousness and a disregard for any righteousness.
But they needed something else. WE need something else. Jesus takes them to the object lesson of the blind man. This is the answer to Jesus hanging question at during the boat ride: “Do you not yet understand?”
So we get back to “Can’t is Hopeless”
As Jesus brings the attention to the blind man, there are four applications that answer the question, give them and us hope, and shows the path forward to the Kingdom of God.
Fundamentally broken
Blindness was separation.
No way to self-correct.
Nothing to do but beg.
The question is, who will you beg to? Family? The government? Your employer?
Or as another blind man did, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
Transformed By Jesus
We must cry out to be transformed. Not informed. Not motivated. But transformed.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
But once we are saved, we don’t start doing God’s will even regularly at first. And it is something we struggle with our whole lives
Transformation is an ongoing condition.
Process of restoration
Transformation is resteration.
For us to be doing God’s will, we must be moving. Traveling down that narrow road is not a description of years, but of a pull and active movement towards that mold of transformation.
There is a prototype we are being formed into. That is the image of Christ. His very life is our target.
Are you crying out to God to help you continue making progress?
Don’t fall into the trap that says I need Christ to be saved but I can manage myself afterwords.
Do not return to the place of your brokenness!
If our standard is Jesus, there is a waring to avoid looking at the wrong goal.
Jesus warns the blind man not to return to the city he spent time begging in. Not to go back to the people who only knew him as a drain. Don’t return to the provision of your brokenness!
That’s not you any more!
How are we to understand our new destination if we are listening to the old direction?
Destination Transformation.
Destination Transformation.
I’ve spent time on construction sites, some of you have too. Sometimes, there are many revisions of building plans. I’ve been on jobs where there are two or three updated plan set a week! If you aren’t working off the correct set of plans, your building the wrong thing! Sometimes you even have to tear everything down you’ve built and start over because the plans have changed.
If you are looking to anything other that Jesus, you are building the wrong thing! How much effort do we expend building the wrong thing?
I spent 20 years in secular work after I knew God had called me to more. I perused ministry, but God didn’t open those doors for me. So I built the work I did do around His call and direction.
If the worlds plans called for crass talk and braggadocios pride, I sought to follow God’s plans of humility and hard work. I did my best. There are some areas I excelled in, and other I willingly pointed out how others were much better than I was.
If the worlds plans called for advancing my career at the cost of family and ethics, I sought God’s plans to see that work as a servant of a greater calling.
We ALL have a greater calling. We are ALL called to make disciples, to be salt and light, to not be conformed to this world but be transformed into the image of Jesus. We can ALL set that set of plans in front of us and build our lives on them.
Because the plans the world has is NOT for your benefit, but for your destruction. Brothers and sisters, Jesus yearns for something better for you. So do I. And I pray you do to.
Pray