Picture the following scenario: your friend is blind, and as he walks through your home for the first time, he continually bumps into your furniture, knocking over picture frames and other decorations.
How would you respond?
I’m 100% sure that you wouldn’t respond by yelling at him about how bad he is at walking, or how clumsy and insensitive he is to your things. My guess is that you would have compassion for him, and even help him navigate his way through your house the next time he came.
Only a jerk would blame the blind for walking into things that they can’t see!
And yet, as compassionate as it might be to help a blind person navigate through his blindness, even that falls short of what Jesus came to do.
The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. (Luke 4:18-19 NIV, emphasis mine)
Don’t misunderstand me. Helping the blind is better than blaming the blind, but it’s not as good as healing the blind. Jesus came to help the spiritually blind recover their sight so that they can once again see the path that He’s called them to walk. Anything less than that by us falls short of the mission of Jesus. Ultimately, we can’t comfort the spiritually blind if we’re not willing to confront their spiritual blindness, and that requires being a compassionate and consistent voice of truth. We must be the ones who show them what they cannot see for themselves because we’re the ones who are no longer blind.
You’ve recovered your sight? Good. Now help others recover theirs.
