blind

It’s easy to feel superior, especially as a long-term Christian. After all, there’s only one right way, the way of Jesus, and I’ve been following that way all my life. Surely that gives me better judgment than people who haven’t put in that much time, or have done so haphazardly.

Maybe. But maybe that actually puts me at more risk.

In John 9 you can read the story of one of my favorite miracles done by Jesus, a time when he healed a man of blindness. This man was then examined by the Jewish religious leaders and that quasi-trial descended into farce, with the leaders resorting to insults and name-calling. Then Jesus, who heard about it, found the man and revealed himself as the Son of God, come to take away the blindness of the world.

That’s pertinent to the question of my superiority because of what’s in verses 40-41: “Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, ‘What? Are we blind too?’

“Jesus said, ‘If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.’”

The first question this raises is whether I truly do understand life or whether, like the Pharisees, I’m only claiming I can see. That seems directly related to whether I look at life, and especially people, the way Jesus does. I don’t always, at least not the times when I feel hateful or judgmental or . . . superior.

The next question flows naturally: while claiming to see clearly, do I act the same way blind people do? If so, Jesus says to the Pharisees and all of us with Pharisaical tendencies, then we’re more guilty than they are. It’s one thing for someone to, say, ignore the means of grace (scripture, prayer, good preaching, etc.) if they never thought you could find grace that way. It’s a completely different thing when I opt out of church and never have my own devotions. One of us is guilty of ignoring God and living as if we don’t need him; is it the unbeliever or me?

I remember recently feeling like my boss was holding me to a different standard than everyone else. His reply? “Greg, you’ve been doing this a long time; you know better than they do.” In other words, he wasn’t going to hold the others to a standard they didn’t know about or couldn’t understand. He was, however, going to look for better from me.

Jesus knows that I know and understand what he expects. So is he more disappointed with the person I feel superior to, or with me?