THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD

 

So He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town.  And when He had spit on his eyes and put His hands on him, He asked him if he saw anything.  And he looked up and said, “I see men like trees, walking.”  Then He put His hands on his eyes again and made him look up.  And he was restored and saw everyone clearly.  (Mark 8:23-25)

Apart from Christ, we are in the darkness of sin—blind to the truth.  We grope along to find heaven while walking ever closer to the abyss.  The hymn writer expressed the idea this way: “The whole world was lost in the darkness of sin; the Light of the World is Jesus; like sunshine at noonday, His glory shone in; the Light of the World is Jesus.  Come to the Light, ‘tis shining for thee; sweetly the Light has dawned upon me; Once I was blind, but now I can see; the Light of the World is Jesus.”  Jesus said, “I am the Light of the World.  He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” (John 8:12).  This is the theme developed in our text.  There are two kinds of blindness here—and the former is worse than the latter.  The first is a blindness of the soul and the second of the senses.

There was A SPIRITUAL PROBLEM (8:13-21).  Blind Helen Keller said, “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.”   Jesus rebukes His disciples lack of spiritual perception in saying, ‎“Do you not yet perceive nor understand?  Is your heart still hardened?  Having eyes, do you not see?  And having ears, do you not hear?  And do you not remember?” (v.17b-18).  Jesus had warned them of the danger of false teaching: “the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”  The leaven of the Pharisees was legalism and the leaven of Herod was materialism.  The former was the belief that you had to work your way to heaven, and the latter was the philosophy that you made your heaven on earth.    This is spiritual blindness, and even the disciples were somewhat still in the dark.

But, there came A SYMBOLICAL PROVISION (8:22-26).   In the healing of the blind man, there is an illustration of how God’s light can break into the darkness.

·         There is progression in spiritual insight.  This man didn’t receive his sight all at once.  When the light of truth dawns upon us—it isn’t like a light turning on in a dark room,  but as the sun coming up.  So, we are converted to know Christ, but then all of our Christian life is about coming to know Him more fully—to see more keenly (Phil.3:4-10).  There was a time when Paul was a blind Pharisee.  He had fully digested their leaven.  Then he saw the light and asked, “Who are you Lord?” After coming to faith, there was a desire for more light.  Peter exhorted, “Grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 3:18)

·         There is perfection in spiritual insight.  As this man came to see clearly, so would these disciples eventually.  Paul said in 1 Cor.13:12, “Now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face.  Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.”   Heaven will bring us into the fullness of the light of God’s glory and boundless enjoyment of His infinite Person!