How can you teach a blind person to see? You can’t. A blind person must leverage other bodily senses to approximate the experience of seeing. For example, a teacher might put a blind person’s hand on something cold and say, “This is what blue looks like.” Or, they might put their hand on something hot and say, “This is what red looks like.” I’m not a professional, nor am I especially gifted in this area of teaching, but I hope you get my point.
A blind person’s perception of the world is different than a seeing person’s in the sense that their experiences are gained through a different lens (side note: I’m not suggesting blindness implies a lack of fullness, just making a plain point about perceptions – I certainly don’t want to offend anyone here). As a result, a blind person navigates the physical world differently out of necessity. We might say that the shell of a blind person’s reality is different since they internalize visual experiences differently than a seeing person.
In the absence of sight, a person must utilize other senses to approximate some understanding of physical truth. There’s no real equivalent to sight. The same goes in the spiritual realm.
Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.”
Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.
Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”
This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.
— John 9:39-10:6
Jesus used our understanding of sight quite often in His teachings. In John 9:39, He said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” This requires a little interpretation to understand what He was getting at, in context. “Those who do not see” is a reference to humble people who understand their own spiritual blindness prior to salvation. God gives grace (in this case, sight) to the humble (James 4:6). “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). On the flip side is the arrogant person, who supposes they don’t need supernatural sight imparted to them on the premise that they already possess said sight. Jesus referred to this group as “those who see.” However, spiritual blindness is the result of arrogance, as in, “they become blind.”
Imagine a physically blind person suggesting they see the world the way a seeing person does. That’s an impossibility given the simple fact that they cannot see shapes, colors, depth, etc. (Again, I’m not suggesting a less fulfilling life, just making an obvious statement about physical abilities). This is tantamount to a spiritually blind person suggesting they can see what God hasn’t granted them sight to see.
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.
— 1 Corinthians 2:14
Jesus explains to His disciples why the arrogant couldn’t understand His parables.
Then the disciples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.
Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says:
“‘“You will indeed hear but never understand,
and you will indeed see but never perceive.”
For this people’s heart has grown dull,
and with their ears they can barely hear,
and their eyes they have closed,
lest they should see with their eyes
and hear with their ears
and understand with their heart
and turn, and I would heal them.’
But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”
— Matthew 13:10-17
On that note, Jesus spoke plainly about the peril of spiritual blindness.
He also told them a parable: “Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit?”
— Luke 6:39
I’ll end the way I started this blog. How can you teach a blind person to see? You can’t. But God can! “Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God’” (Mark 10:27). The miracle leading up to the great lesson in John 9:39 involved a man blind from birth (analogous to all people being born spiritually blind). This story was undoubtedly the seed of the familiar first stanza in John Newton’s famous hymn, Amazing Grace:
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now I am found
Was blind, but now I see
Newton was hardly the first to pen, or subsequently sing, the climax of his hymn. It’s been the beautiful words of the blind man, on whom Jesus performed His miracle, that have echoed throughout human history ever since.
[The blind man whom Jesus had given sight] answered, “Whether [Jesus] is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”
— John 9:25
Love in Christ,
Ed Collins