TRUE SIGHT

1 Samuel 16:1-13.   Psalm 23.   Ephesians 5:8-14.   John 9:1-41

True Sight

How many of us have turned to Psalm 23 for comfort in our darkest moments? There is a reason why this particular Psalm speaks to humankind universally. To know that the Creator of everything that exists is a benevolent shepherd helps us face seemingly insurmountable odds in life…especially when whatever it is that we are facing is unfamiliar territory to us. 

When we were children, we used to go to my dad’s farm for the school holidays. In the city we had power in the house all the time…and we had streetlights outside…so there was always some form of light at night. But on the farm, unless there was a moon out, once my dad turned off the generator, it was dark…so dark you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. Now, as we were all familiar with the layout of the house and the furniture, if we needed to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, we could easily find our way without bumping into things or falling over things. My parents would allow us to bring friends along from time to time and, as they were not familiar with the layout, going to the bathroom at night was hazardous. There was many a wet spot on the floor the next morning.

As human beings, we have limitations. None of us know what will happen the next millisecond. In one sense, we all live in the dark. The only reason why we can engage in any form of future planning is because certain things in day to day life are consistent and therefore predictable. These are basic things such as the rising and setting of the sun and seasonal changes. But although we may confidently assume that the sun will rise tomorrow morning, we have no guarantee that we will. This is why it is heartening to know that even the darkest night is as day for God…and, if we are in Him and walk in Him, we can rest in that knowledge.

For this reason, we as children of the light ought to live differently to those who are still children of the darkness. For them, not knowing what lies ahead ought to be scary. They ought to panic when the World Health Organization declares the COVID-19 virus a pandemic. For them any disease is disconcerting as all is unknown territory...the valley of the shadow of death is terrifying as they have no shepherd and they have no light. There is no certainty of a favorable outcome. 

But we, dearest beloved brethren, we who know the one who is light, we know regardless of what happens, He is with us. There is a table of blessing…there is an overflowing cup…there is goodness and mercy…there is an eternal home…all these things are ours if we are in Him and if we abide in Him. 

We only know what can be seen…like God said to Samuel, “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” God sees and knows what we do not…what we cannot. He is the only one to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hidden. Nothing takes him by surprise. To Him there are no unknown entities…no unknown agendas…no unknown conspiracies. He sees all and knows all.

Of course, this does not stop people from pretending they can see. Like the Pharisees in our Gospel story there are many whose darkness is so intense and who embrace that darkness so completely that they prefer darkness to light. In one sense one can understand this as the rejection of spiritual certainties allows them to live life according to their own sets of rules. The moment you bring spiritual certainties into the equation you must abide by them.

And this has become a huge problem for many who approach the Scriptures as they would a buffet table. While the concept of eternal bliss is attractive, the submission to a restricted way of life is abhorrent. So, their approach to the Word of God is the same as that of the serpent in the Garden. “Has God really said?” Rather than allowing Scripture to transform them, they find creative ways to reinterpret it to suit their chosen lifestyle whatever that may be. They recreate God in their own image, as it were. So, while they claim to walk in the light…while they claim to see…they are in reality blindly walking in darkness.

This, of course, poses a problem for them when they deal with those of us who accept that God has indeed said what He has said. My position is simply this. If you are going to embrace Christ, you must be prepared to live like Christ. Christ lived a life in obedience to the plain teaching of Scripture…and if we claim to be in Him, we must live as He lived. We are light in the Lord…we can no longer live in the darkness. We are to carefully determine what pleases the Lord, not what pleases us.

The Jewish leaders in our Gospel story refused to believe in Jesus because He had broken their man-made rules with regard to Sabbath observance. They had reinterpreted the Scriptures in such a way that rules became more important than humans…or more pointedly, more important than what God had really said about the Sabbath. This past week we witnessed this type of “reinterpretation” in an ecclesiastical trial where a biblically faithful man was censured by the church hierarchy for refusing to abide by a synodical decision that in effect went against the plain teaching of Scripture and the orthodox and historical teaching of the universal Church. In essence, what the church did in this case was to call good evil and evil good. 

What has baffled me for years now is why would one wish to embrace Christianity and then refuse to abide by Christian values and norms! There are many other religions out there. Pick whichever you like, but don’t come and rearrange the Scriptures to suit your own agenda and then call me a bigot for accepting the faith as once delivered and received.  

Rearranging the Scriptures would be like our friends rearranging the furniture in my dad’s farmhouse rather than learning the layout before lights out. Adam and Eve tried that approach in the Garden, and you know what that led to! If we are to avoid disaster when walking through dark valleys, we need to walk where the One Who is Light tells us to walk! 

I believe in freedom of choice. You are free to choose whatever you wish to believe. But you are not free to change what I believe and expect me to abide by your changes. I decided long ago to trust in the Lord with all my heart and not to depend on my own limited understanding…I decided to do what He tells me to do in and through His Word…I was and still am determined to find out and do what is pleasing to Him…because I believe with all my heart that this is how we as humans ought to navigate the path we call life. 

I don’t know what waits for me around the very next corner, but I believe He does. So, I want to walk with Him. That, I believe, is true sight. I trust the one who sees all to guide me and to keep me safe. I dare not trust my own understanding. 

Why do I trust Him so explicitly or blindly, as some might say? Because His Word has yet to be proved false. Every time I participate in the Eucharist, I am reminded that God kept His promise. That dark day when sin entered the world because our forebears refused to believe and abide by what He had clearly said, God promised that one day the Seed of the woman would come to set things right again. And He did. Jesus came and paid the penalty for my sin…

Psalm 139 tells me that God saw me before I was born…He saw every day of my life before there was one of them…and yet He still loved me enough to die for me. He saw it all…He knew it all…and yet He still fulfilled His promise. And so, I decided to put my hand in His hand and to let Him lead because between the two of us, He’s the one who sees clearly.

© Johannes W H van der Bijl III 2020