Seeing and Believing

Isaiah 53:1-12                      John 12:37-50

Seeing and Believing

Lucy Edwards lost her vision at the age of just 17. As you can imagine, at first, she struggled to come to terms with her profound loss, but that did not stop her from pursuing a career in the media world. And then, at the age of 27, she did something rather remarkable. She embarked on what she described as a life-changing Safari in Kenya, where she used her remaining senses to rebuild her memories of what she was hearing, smelling, and touching. The conservationists helped her by describing in detail what the animals looked like, how they moved, what they were eating, and how they were reacting to her presence. 

Now the reason I just told you her story is that while Lucy is a person who is blind, she is also a person who is determined not to allow this disability to stop her from ‘seeing’ the beauty all around her. While it is true that she is unable to see with her physical eyes, she resolved not to resign herself to a life in darkness, believing that she could make herself see again and, in so many ways, she did and does.

In stark contrast to a woman committed to overcoming the impossible, we have those who saw Jesus do so many signs and yet they still did not believe in him. Despite the logical and the obvious, they persistently refused to believe that Jesus was who he claimed to be. You need to remember, that these people had witnessed first-hand, amongst other things, the healing of a man born blind, the raising of a decomposing corpse, as well as the fulfilment of numerous biblical prophecies. They had also heard the teaching of Jesus and could easily have compared what he taught with what they knew the Scriptures said, just like Lucy compared what she heard, smelt, and felt with what she could remember when she did have sight. But they did not do that, did they? They had eyes but did not see…they had ears but did not hear. 

Now, this was not a new concept in biblical history. Remember the Pharoah in the Exodus? We are told repeatedly that his heart was hardened…the agency of the hardening seemingly both God and Pharoah himself. In Exodus 10:7 Pharoah’s servants are driven to despair by their king’s refusal to listen to reason. “How long shall this man be a snare to us?” they cry out in exasperation. “Let the men go, that they may serve the Lord their God. Do you not yet understand that Egypt is ruined?” They were amazed by the Pharoah’s stubborn resistance to the obvious. Jesus likewise was often driven to distraction by the blindness of his listeners. “O faithless and twisted generation! How long am I to be with you?” he once asked his disciples. “How long am I to bear with you?”

And then there are similar statements made about God’s people in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and other prophets. Rebellious people, blind people, deaf people. Having said that, I cannot help but wonder how many times he has made similar statements about us. We have the truth as they had the truth. We have his Word and they had his Word. But do we believe it? Really believe it? Or more importantly, do we do it? 

It is interesting to note that John tells us here that this rejection of the truth was a fulfilment of what had been foretold by the prophet Isaiah. In chapter 53:1 the prophet wrote: “Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” And then John added another quotation from Isaiah 6:10 “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn and be healed.”

With these two quotations, John seemingly draws back the curtain to reveal the real reason behind the illogical blindness of these unbelieving Jews. The first passage John used here is considered by many to be the messianic passage. Isaiah 53. As one reads through that passage one cannot help but ask how anyone could read it and miss the vivid description of Jesus’ life and ministry. But John gives us the answer. They could not see or hear because God had blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts to prevent them from seeing and understanding. 

In Matthew 13:10-17 the disciples asked Jesus why he spoke to the crowds in parables. In his answer, Jesus quoted the very same verse John used here, prefacing the quotation with this statement: “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.” It appears that access to heaven is not a matter of human choice, but rather a matter of divine decree. 

You see, God controls all things, including the hearts and minds of human beings. As Proverbs 21:1 says: “The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will.” Even our words are subject to God’s order. An interesting and, in many ways, a humorous example is Balaam who on numerous occasions in Numbers 23 admits his inability to say anything not ordained by God. “How can I curse whom God has not cursed,” he said in verse 8. “And how can I denounce whom the Lord has not denounced?” 

Think about what that means concerning anyone or anything trying to curse you. 

Again, in verse 19, Balaam said, “God is not a man that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfil it? Behold, I received a command to bless: he has blessed, and I cannot revoke it.”

So, it would appear that the unbelieving Jews rejected Jesus because it was preordained by God for the purpose of his glory. The same can be said about the plagues in Egypt. The hardening of Pharoah’s heart led to the Egyptians knowing that there was but one true God and that was the God of the Hebrews. (Exodus 9:15-16; Romans 9:16-18) If God had not repeatedly hardened Pharaoh, there would have been no lengthy series of plagues, nor the Red Sea crossing, and consequently, there would have been no proof of God’s supremacy. Likewise, if the Jewish leaders had not rejected Jesus, he would never have been crucified…but the crucifixion of the Lamb of God was preordained before the foundation of the world which includes those who would be guilty of his murder. (Revelation 13:8)

But there is another side to this coin that we must acknowledge if we are to be true to Scripture and that is while it does say that God hardened Pharoah’s heart it also says that Pharoah hardened his own heart. Paul also flips the coin over when he says in 2 Thessalonians 2:10&12 concerning those who are perishing “…they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore, God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” If we place these passages, and others, side by side, it seems that divine hardening and self-hardening are intertwined. Is God’s action primary and initiatory or is his action based on the refusal of a human being to love the truth and so be saved? 

Clearly, Christianity is the most reasonable faith and should be understood by all reasonable people, but without the discerning ability given by the Holy Spirit, no one can truly find God and respond to his revelation purely employing human reason. Jesus said that there was only one sin that could never be forgiven and that was the sin against the Holy Spirit (Mark 3:22–30; Matthew 12:22–32) because it is only through the Holy Spirit that we can understand and respond to truth. Reject him, quench him, grieve him, and you are rendered unable to see what is plainly true. It is the wilful blindness of some that is unpardonable.

So, the answer to the question of who hardens the heart, God or people, seems to be both, but who is primary and who is secondary ought to be left well alone in the realm of mystery. Like the end of time, this is something our Father alone knows for certain.

But John reveals in verses 42-43 that there is another level to blindness than outright rejection…this is a blindness that acknowledges sight and yet succumbs to blindness because of fear. These men, despite concluding that Jesus matched the biblical criteria for messiahship, refused to confess him for fear of losing face, because “they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God”. Peer pressure can render some people blind if they value their position, their power, their popularity, or even their traditions more than they love the truth.

In “Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus”, Nabeel Qureshi recounts his struggle to accept Jesus due to the strong ties he had with his devout Muslim family. He felt torn between his love and loyalty to his family’s belief and his growing conviction about Jesus. This internal conflict was a significant part of his journey towards embracing Christianity. In many cultures, there is a strong expectation to always look, act, and be like everyone else. For instance, to be Japanese means one is a Buddhist and a Shintoist; it's an inseparable part of the culture.

So, once again we see the interaction between revelation and reason. A person may be able to correctly deduce that what Scripture says is true, but unless the Holy Spirit makes it possible for that person to respond, they will not because they cannot. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:14, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”

Also in this passage, John reveals to us the acceptable measure of surrender to the Lord. It is either all or nothing at all. Jesus said that a man cannot serve two masters. (Matthew 6:24). If we are not with him, we are against him. (Matthew 12:30) This competitor for our allegiance can be either love for praise or self-love or a love of material things…whatever this love is it is a rival, and the Lord God will not tolerate any rival. (Nahum 1:2) There can be no compromise. He is either Lord of your life or something else is…

One of the major stumbling blocks for the unbelieving Jews was that they could not comprehend that Jesus and the Father were one. In verse 44 Jesus made it clear that to believe in him was the exact same thing as to believe in the Father. Stated the other way around, to not believe in one is to not believe in the other. Then in verse 45, Jesus said that to see him was to see the Father. This was the same message he would deliver to Philip a day later when Philip asked him to reveal the Father to them. “Have I been with you so long,” Jesus said, “and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” In other words, Jesus is the full revelation of the Father…if you want to see God, look at Jesus.

Then in verse 50, he said that to hear him was to hear the Father. “What I say,” Jesus said, “I say as the Father told me.” There is no division in the Word. Jesus is the final revelation of the Father. As the author to the Hebrews said in his opening chapter, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.” (Hebrews 1:1-3a) Jesus was the revealing light of the Old Testament…the images and prophecies all come to life in him. Obviously, the patriarchs and prophets who foretold his coming did not see him with the same clarity with which he was now revealed, but there is no argument between the testaments. Jesus emphatically stated that he had not come to abrogate the Law and the prophets but to confirm and fulfil it. There is only one God, one word, one truth…

The fourth and final thing Jesus touched on here was rejection. To reject him was to reject God the Father. If they are one, then it goes without saying that to deny the one is to deny the other. The mystery of the Trinity has been a stumbling block to many, not just to these unbelieving Jews, and will, no doubt, continue to be a source of discomfort, but Scripture neither defends nor seeks to prove the doctrine…it simply presents it as truth.

But what is interesting here is that Jesus does not present himself as the judge here, but rather his words. It is the words Jesus spoke that will judge those who have chosen to reject him. The words of Jesus were the words of the Father and therefore what he said did not contradict what had been written…even some of the leaders saw that although they would never admit it for fear of embarrassment on one level or another. 

And therein lies the tragedy in this passage. Before them stood the God they thought they believed in. Before them stood the Word they studied and strove to observe. And yet, when they met him face to face and when they heard his voice, they could not see him nor hear him. They were blind and deaf. They would not recognise him because they could not. 

What does this mean for us as we seek to make Jesus known to those who do not yet know him? It means that we should not feel poorly about our evangelism strategy if people do not respond positively to our message. After all Jesus said and did they still did not believe, not because Jesus presented the message deficiently, but because they were blind and deaf. They could not believe because their hearts were hard. Nothing has changed. People still don’t hear because they don’t want to hear. But you are still to sow the seed of truth, regardless of the ground that it falls on. You may sow, another may water, and yet another may reap, but it is God who grants the growth. 

Shall we pray?

© Johannes W H van der Bijl 2024