Thursday, March 7, 2013 - 3:15 pm

Reading John 11 & 12 today, I'm reminded how, as Jesus talks about in John 9:39-41, those who think they can see can be really blind in many ways. In chapter 11, Jesus had just brought his dead friend Lazarus back to life, and the reaction of those who supposedly knew God's wisdom best was not belief, but backlash based on their fear of losing the status quo. Verses 47-38 show that well: "Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin. 'What are we accomplishing?' they asked. 'Here is this man performing many miraculous signs. / If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.' " Because of holding onto the way they wanted things to stay so tightly, they closed their eyes to who Jesus was, effectively blinding themselves. You can see the futility of their thinking in chapter 12, verse 10: "So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well". This is the man Jesus has just raised from the dead, so I guess they're betting He can't do it again? That's not incredibly astute reasoning, to my mind. The only reason for this that makes sense to me is that once they closed their eyes and minds to God's truth, God allowed them the consequences of that choice, until they were unable to see the blatantly obvious. John 12:37-40 says it well: "Even after Jesus had done all these miraculous signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. / This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet: 'Lord, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?' / For this reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere: / 'He has blinded their eyes and deadened their hearts, so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn - and I would heal them.' " This last phrase shows the depths of God's heart for reconciliation. It's as though He's saying, "If you truly don't want to see, then I won't make you see, but if even now you would turn to me, I would open your eyes again so you could see." I don't want to be so caught up in the status quo, and the things of this life, that I become blind to God's truth. I believe that the more I turn to Him, the more He opens my eyes to truly see. My desire is to continue in that sight, and never turn away from the one who has given my vision to me.