“Every eye will see him, even those who pierced him…” (Revelation 1:7)

Diagnosed with congenital glaucoma at five months old, Italian Andrea Bocelli was only six years old when he began studying the piano. He went on to learn the flute and saxophone and was often asked to sing at family gatherings and at school. Visually impaired from birth – he was totally blind at the age of 12, following a soccer injury. Bocelli, who rose to fame in 1994, is labeled as an opera singer. Today he is known as “the world’s most beloved tenor.” While he can sing arias with the best of them, he has also joined to perform duets with well-knowns Tony Bennett, Sarah Brightman, and Ed Sheeran. Though he may be physically blind, one can be certain he does not suffer from spiritual blindness when you hear his versions of The Lord’s Prayer, Amazing Grace or Ave Maria. In fact, Celine Dion who joined him to perform The Prayer stated – “if God would have a singing voice, he must sound a lot like Andrea Bocelli.”

Spiritual blindness is demonstrated in the fictional story of a girl who hated herself because she was blind. She was hateful with everyone, except her loving boyfriend who was always there for her. She told him – “If I could only see the world, I would marry you.”  One day, someone donated a pair of eyes to her. When the bandages came off following the surgery – she was able to see everything, including her unexpectedly blind boyfriend for the first time. He asked her, “Now that you can see the world, will you marry me?” As the girl stared at her boyfriend – the sight of his closed eyelids was shocking to her, totally catching her off guard. The thought of looking at them for the remainder of her life led her refusal to marry him. Receiving her response, the boyfriend tearfully departed. Days after, he wrote a note to her stating: “Take good care of your eyes, my dear, for before they were yours, they were mine.”

In John 9:1-12 – Jesus confirmed the existence of spiritual blindness when He and his disciples passed by a man who had been blind since birth, as they inquired whose fault it was for this man to be blind. Jesus replied that it had nothing to do with his sins or those of his parents. It was, in fact, an opportunity for God to do a very special presentation. It began as Jesus mixed his spit with some earth, making it into a paste to anoint the blind man’s eyes. He was then told to go and wash in a public pool called Siloam. As the man received his full sight, those who knew him began to question whether this he was really the beggar that they had known and seen all their lives. Then the Pharisees got involved and began to question the man as well. They were furious with Jesus and blamed Him for breaking the Sabbath, being critical of the tremendous good He was doing by releasing people from their afflictions. They knew the Holy Scriptures by heart but did not apply the teachings to their own lives. Filled with their own ego and dreadfully envious of the Son of God who was a threat to their self-elevated positions among the general public – they were truly spiritually blind. Eventually to silence all of the critics – the man voiced that often-repeated phrase, “One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see” (John 9:25).

To be spiritually blind is to not see Christ . . . and not seeing Christ is to not see God. Some are blind to the understanding of who Jesus really is, while others are blind to the reality that we depend on God. Quite often, they are blind to their own sinful condition. Those who are spiritually blind have a distorted view of the important matters of life. They are blind to the evidence of God as revealed throughout His Word and Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul wrote that “Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4). The lives of the spiritually blind are steeped in the things of the world with all its passions, as their eyes are blind to the Spirit of God.  “For the hearts of these people are hardened, and their ears cannot hear, and they have closed their eyes— so their eyes cannot see, and their ears cannot hear, and their hearts cannot understand, and they cannot turn to me and let me heal them’” (Acts 28:27). Jesus came that we might see clearly. We must allow Him reveal to reveal our blind spots and heal our eyes to truly see.

REFLECTION: Are there times when you find yourself resorting to excuses and rationalizations when it comes to your own sinful behaviors? Do you sometimes feel guilty when you read certain passages in the scriptures? How do you work at showing the light of Jesus to others who are spiritually blind?