Seeing But Not Seeing

   Oh, the irony of Jesus’ words when He spoke of those who “seeing they do not see” (Matt. 13:13).  How can someone see but not see?  Jump ahead two chapters to the next occasion when Jesus encountered these blind guides (see also Matt. 23:16-26).

Of the scribes and Pharisees, Jesus said, “They are blind” (Matt. 15:14).  That which they failed to see, that to which they were blind was the truth.Jesus began to diagnose their condition in this chapter when He said, “…You also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition” (15:3).  These men had elevated their man-made traditions above the God-given commandments.

What is a signal that someone has done that?  When a statement can be made that says, “God commanded…But you say” (15:4-5).   There’s a serious problem when a “but you say” follows a “God commanded.”  Jesus told them that they had “made the commandment of God of no effect by [their] tradition” (15:6).  When men follow their traditions, they are blind!

When men dismiss and refuse to be held to a “thus saith the Lord,” they end up “teaching as doctrines the commandments of men” (Matt. 15:9).  They take their own doctrines (their own “bindings” and “loosings”) and present them as if they were the doctrines of Christ.  When men fail to bind where God has bound and loose where God has loosed, they are blind!

How devastating that those who are blind, while their rejection of truth will cost them their own souls, often lead others down the same destructive path.  But, blind leaders only have blind followers, who do not think or act for themselves.  Blind followers put the eternal destiny of their souls in the hands of a mere man.  Jesus described the consequences—“They are blind leaders of the blind.  And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch” (15:14).

As any believer should expect, the devil’s hand is behind this.  In another bit of irony, God speaks of the individual of whom “the darkness has blinded his eyes” (1 John 2:11).  How can darkness blind someone?  It is “those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded” (2 Cor. 4:4). May God help us to open our eyes (and keep them open) to His truth.  May God help us to close our eyes (and keep them closed) to the destructive doctrines of men.  May God help us, like the disciples, to lift up our eyes and see “no one but Jesus only” (Matt. 17:8).

Eric