Who’s the Blind One Here?

I was reading today in John 9. Jesus was walking away from the Temple and Pharisees who wanted to stone him when he saw a blind beggar, somewhere near the Temple.

This man had been born blind. He’d never been able to see. Jesus made clay and put it on the blind man’s eyes then told him to go wash in the pool of Siloam. The man obeyed. Once the blind man washed his eyes, he could see. 

Something struck me about the story that I’d never noticed before. 

None of the blind man’s neighbors knew who he was when he could see.

They thought he might be that guy who had been blind but they had to ask each other about it. Some even said, “Nah, it isn’t him but someone who looks like him.”

So I ask you, Who was really blind in this story? The man? or his neighbors?

What about you and I? How many times do we notice those around us? I don’t mean observe their existence but really see them.

This blind man had been begging among his neighbors. They hurried past him without noticing him. How often do we see the needs of the people around us? Do we notice them? or do we hurry on by?

The truth is, the needs of those around us aren’t always visible to the naked eye. It’s easy to walk past people without seeing their needs because they look so normal, so much like us.

But then there is the woman at the grocery store with all of her small children. She’s clearly struggling just to get through the check-out. It’s easy to focus on how long it’s taking her to get through the line and not on the fact that she is so distracted by her children that she feels like she is losing her mind.

There is the elderly man on his walk around the lake. It’s easy to see he is going slower than you are. You look for a way to get past. What you can’t see is that he’s taken this walk for the last 50 years with his wife and this is the first time he’s taken it without her.

There is the single mom at the park whose child acts out over and over again. You pull your kids over to another area of the playground. You don’t want the poor behavior of the child to cause your children to act out. You don’t notice that the woman and her child need someone to overlook the behavior and just play with them and talk to them.

You see the business man at the airport engrossed in his work. It’s easy to see he’s successful. What’s harder to notice is that he feels like a fraud and a failure every day of his life.

Have you ever just taken a moment to step back and see? Not just look at people in passing, but really see them? 

Then, once you’ve seen people, what are you willing to do about what you see? Are you willing to make a difference in their life like Jesus did?