We are so used to the blind being healed in Jesus' ministry that we forget how rare such a thing really was, even in the miraculous ministries of Moses or Elijah or Elisha. There was the occasion in 2 Kings 6 where Elisha prays for his assistant and he is given supernatural vision to see that the Aramean army besieging his city is surrounded by an angelic army. In that same account Elisha blinds the eyes of the Arameans so that they are rendered harmless and then when they are captured he opens their eyes. But this is the only recorded incident in the Old Testament.
We also have the testimony in Psalm 146:8 that the Lord is the one who opens the eyes of the blind.
Then Jesus comes as Messiah and Lord. Opening blind eyes becomes habitual with him. It is a Messianic sign. Isaiah prophesied that with the coming of the Messiah, the eyes of the blind would be opened (Isaiah 35:5, 61:1). Opening blind eyes is part of his inaugural sermon in Nazareth when he quotes Isaiah 61. It is part of his testimony to John when he sends word from prison to see if Jesus really is the one. And here in Luke it becomes the capstone for Jesus' miraculous ministry, the last miracle we shall see before he goes to the cross. The other evangelists record others, but Luke chooses to close his narrative with this one (18:35-43).
Those who are spiritually blind will hand Jesus over to death. Luke continues the theme of blindness in his second volume, the Book of Acts, where that spiritually blind disciple of those who crucified the Lord, Saul, is literally blinded by the Light on the Damascus road. The result of that conversion will be that Saul/Paul is healed of both kinds of blindness and he shall be the one to bring the Light of Jesus to the Gentiles.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
The Lost of Luke 15
Notice how Jesus tells the three examples of losing and finding in Luke 15. In the first instance, a shepherd who loses one sheep out of one hundred goes to a lot of trouble to find that single solitary sheep.
In the second the scope is narrowed somewhat. Now it is one coin out of ten. The woman cleans the house till she finds it.
But in the third parable, the one about the Lost Son or the Waiting Father, the loss is down to one out of two or one out of one. From the Father's perspective, he loses one son out of two. From the elder brother's perspective he has lost one brother out of one, but he is insensitive and blind to the loss. From the perspective of the younger brother, he not only loses his relationship with his father and his brother, he also loses himself. And he must come to himself before he can come back to his father. Even in the far country, the younger son has already begun to find what he lost when he thinks about good and kind his father is, even to his servants and hired hands.
In the second the scope is narrowed somewhat. Now it is one coin out of ten. The woman cleans the house till she finds it.
But in the third parable, the one about the Lost Son or the Waiting Father, the loss is down to one out of two or one out of one. From the Father's perspective, he loses one son out of two. From the elder brother's perspective he has lost one brother out of one, but he is insensitive and blind to the loss. From the perspective of the younger brother, he not only loses his relationship with his father and his brother, he also loses himself. And he must come to himself before he can come back to his father. Even in the far country, the younger son has already begun to find what he lost when he thinks about good and kind his father is, even to his servants and hired hands.
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