Jesus Can Cure Our Spiritual Blindness

Is. 29:17-24 & Matt. 9:27-31

Isaiah saw a vision of the future which excited him very much. A time would come when barren land would become fertile, disabled people cured and the poor would be freed from oppressive rulers. All this would begin to happen when God’s Holy One, Abraham’s Redeemer, appeared on Earth.

When Jesus began His ministry, all the ancient prophecies were fulfilled. Through Him, many people were cured of their disabilities and illnesses. Today’s gospel focuses on the healing to two men who were blind. Once they were healed they must have appreciated their sight more than most of us ever do, having lived for sometime without it.

Physical blindness is not the worst kind of blindness. Jesus talked about some people ‘who having eyes do not see’. He was speaking of spiritual blindness. Jesus found this problem far more difficult to correct. We’ve heard the saying, ‘There is none so blind as one who will not see’. In other words, we can have two perfectly good eyes, and we can walk around staring at life day after day and yet be spiritually blind.

We might understand spiritual blindness as being unable to see as God sees. This was the fault that Jesus found in the Pharisees. The physically blind are handicapped but they can make progress with the aid of a cane, a guide dog or the help of a friend or family. In a similar way God uses people to guide the spiritually blind, but sadly even the guides can be rejected and, of course, because we are all sinners our spiritual sight is impaired to some extent.

What is the remedy? We can learn from the two blind men. They believed that Jesus had the power to help them. So this Advent let us approach Jesus and ask Him to cure our spiritual blindness.

Lord Jesus, just as you cured the blindness of these two men, we who are spiritually blind pray, “Take pity on me, Son of David.”