The Blind Leaders

Jesus spoke a parable to them: “A blind man cannot guide a blind man, can he? Will they not both fall into a pit?” (Luke 6:39).

Who are the blind leaders in this scripture? What were they to see and hear in Messiah’s day? The leaders of Israel closed their eyes to the truth and afterward, in Jesus’ day, presumed to declare their superior discernment in pronouncing Jesus a sinner (John 9:24). In the controversy which arose upon this, Jesus declared that he came into the world both to give sight and to make blind. The Pharisees promptly asked, “Are we blind also?” The Lord’s response is striking: “If you were blind, ye would have no sin; but now ye say, we see, therefore your sin remaineth.”

There are none so blind as those who won’t see. The Pharisees evaded their duties to their parents and so made void one of the ten commandments. Jesus very severely condemns their meaning, by which they put the doctrines of men in the place of God’s law. They were astute enough in argument but perverse in their ways; and a blindness of heart and mind had overtaken them. They cleansed the crockery they used at a meal, but were unconcerned that the food that they ate off that crockery had been obtained by graft and fraud.

The world is full of such ‘blind’, where presumption is not bounded by the desire to ‘lead the blind’ but extends even to the endeavour to direct those who can see. It is the ‘word’ to which people are blind and deaf (Isaiah 29:18). It is the knowledge of God that is lacking on the earth. Men are keen on matters of medicine, science, arts, commerce and even literature; but not on the true knowledge of God.

If we cannot discern that the world is ‘blind’ and ‘deaf’ and is ‘deceived’; then it proves that we ourselves are ‘of the world’. If anyone fails to examine self, he is blind and, seeking to teach, is ‘a blind leader’ (James 3:1). Jesus by restoring the sight of the blind, proved that he was the Messiah. “The blind receive their sight” was one of the evidences given to the disciples of John the Baptist in response to his question from prison: “Art thou he that should come? Or look we for another?” This confirmed the message of the prophets (Isaiah 35:5; 42:7; Psalm 146:8).

Isaiah speaks of blind people that have eyes (Isaiah 43:8). In them was fulfilled the prophecy of Zephaniah 1:17. What a truly spoken parable. What a lesson it contains for us in the brotherhood today.

Bro Gordon Ochieng

Bro Gordon Ochieng (Madiany, Kenya)