“Those who cannot see”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Thursday, May 4, 2023
Luke 6:39-49 (Forward, p. 6) CEV p. 1065
Spiritual blindness is commonly mentioned in the Scriptures—that is, those who cannot—or will not—see. We find several instances of this in today’s passage:
a) Near-sightedness: not being aware of their own inadequacies in terms of sight, either in terms of being totally blind themselves or in having some serious impediment to being able to see adequately.
Here Jesus pictures two scenarios. The first is of people who are actually blind, literally or figuratively. That means that they simply do not see where they are going and can neither help others nor navigate the hazards and obstacles themselves.
The second image is of a person with a serious sight issue, here described as a log or a mote. It means, on a spiritual level, that there is some sort of prejudice, attitude, hidden agenda, worldview, training, education, experience or perhaps something from their upbringing that simply ‘gets in the way’ of these people seeing adequately and clearly;
b) A lack of perception as to one’s own words and actions, that is, being unable to see correctly how they are relating to others around them. Here the danger is more insidious, perhaps because it is less visible or apparent, at least to the people in question. They might not realize, might not see, that their speech or behaviour betray an inner problem, a problem of the heart, a problem of their innermost. They might not realize that they are manifesting characteristics of a bad tree, ‘bad fruit’, whereas for those around them it is painfully obvious.
c) Short-sightedness: not being able to see the deficiencies or weaknesses of their current plan. Those who built on the sand could only see how much faster, easier and simple that method was. However, they failed to take into consideration the fact that their building would not stand up to the pressures or storms of life.
Whereas, those building upon the rock, upon solid foundations, knew that their structures would stand, would last, no matter what. And here Jesus makes the matter most explicit and straightforward: He says those that hear His word and obey it are those who build a right. All the others, those that don’t hear His word, or more importantly, don’t obey it, are short-sighted and doomed to failure.
Sightedness is so crucial to us in a physical sense that even very young children are tested if there is any question at all about their ability to see. But, what about us spiritually? Time spent in the Scriptures and in prayer is a particularly good resource—at least, if we are open and ready to hear what they have to say. But that doesn’t stop us from being spiritually blind—some of the most spiritually blind people were those who spent a lot of time in prayer and Bible study—simply because their ‘minds were made up’. So this is where having a soul friend, a spiritual advisor or a spiritual counsellor can be of such great help. Such a person can help us see where we have been unable to see on our own.
Forward notes: “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit; for each tree is known by its own fruit” (verses 43-44a).
“Our previous home had two old grapefruit trees, but our family doesn’t enjoy grapefruit so we composted the fruit for the first couple years. We were committed to eating some of our annual harvest, so we finally tried a new dessert recipe: we took some grapefruit, coated the wedges in sugar, and caramelized them. It was only then that we realized that the fruit was so overwhelmingly bitter that not even caramelized sugar could make it edible.
“We asked about nurturing the trees back to health and were told we were too late; decades of neglect cannot be undone. This is a message that would have connected with Jesus’s audience. Tending plants was included in Jewish law as an act of worship (Leviticus 19:23-25), and Jesus’s audience would have known that it is the gardener, not the tree, who’s responsible for the quality of the fruit. We should be grateful for Jesus’s reminder in John 15 that God is a faithful gardener who tends to all those who remain in him. That is the only way we will bear good fruit.”
MOVING FORWARD: “Have you considered planting a garden? Offer a prayer at each step, asking for strength and wisdom to bear good fruit (and vegetables!)”