Today's Daily Lesson comes from John chapter 9 verses 35 through 41:
35 Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he found him, he said, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’* 36He answered, ‘And who is he, sir?* Tell me, so that I may believe in him.’ 37Jesus said to him, ‘You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.’ 38He said, ‘Lord,* I believe.’ And he worshipped him. 39Jesus said, ‘I came into this world for judgement so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.’ 40Some of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him, ‘Surely we are not blind, are we?’ 41Jesus said to them, ‘If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, “We see”, your sin remains.'
"We see through a glass darkly," St. Paul said. And he who thought he could see about as well as anyone! But God humbled him. God blinded him. And the road to Damascus he was blinded by the light, and his loss of sight began his gain of soul. He was humbled; and through the experience he was changed.
The other Pharisees in today's story aren't so humble. They think they see the world so clearly. They think they know who exactly a sinner is and why. They think the blind man must be a sinner -- he or his parents. They have no idea that somebody could simply be born a certain way without judgement or accusation from God.
Their sightedness blinds them. And morally speaking, their ableism disables them. And, as Jesus says, because they say, "We see," their sin remains. For they are too blind to see even the log in their own eyes.
We pray today for a deeper humility. We pray to see our own sin. We ask to be made aware of our own physical and moral ableism. We ask to see. But first we need know we need to stop seeing everything so clearly.
It's the road to Damascus, a route that will bring us to our knees, and the beginning of a more humble and kind way. May God send us there.
Ryon Price is Senior Pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.
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