In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Matthew 9:27-35
At that time, as Jesus passed by, two blind men followed him, crying aloud, “Have mercy on us, Son of David.” When he entered the house, the blind men came to him; and Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They said to him, “Yes, Lord.” Then he touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith be it done to you.” And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly charged them, “See that no one knows it.” But they went away and spread his fame through all that district. As they were going away, behold, a dumb demoniac was brought to him. And when the demon had been cast out, the dumb man spoke; and the crowds marveled, saying, “Never was anything like this seen in Israel.” But the Pharisees said, “He casts out demons by the prince of demons.” And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every infirmity among the people.
In our Gospel reading today, we hear how our Lord healed two blind men, restoring to them their sight. Later in the same passage we are told how He also healed a man who was possessed by a demon and unable to speak. The Fathers remind us that just beforehand in Saint Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus had healed the woman who had suffered from a flow of blood for twelve years and raised from the dead a young girl.
Put all these together, they point out, and we have a remarkable display of power. Our Lord has cured people of disease, deformity, demon possession, even death itself. And yet the response of the Pharisees is to declare that He does all this by the power if the Prince of demons. They see good works done and believe they are done for an evil purpose. Crazy talk, to use a modern phrase; for as Jesus Himself tells us, a house divided against itself cannot stand. Demons do not war against demons. Demons do not do good deeds. It is not in their nature. It is anathema to them.
And yet the religious leaders persist in this belief. As our Lord tells us elsewhere in the Gospels, there are none so blind as those who will not see. These men will not see the good that Jesus does as good. They will not accept His miracles as the work of God. They are jealous for their own spiritual authority; and as a result they have become spiritually blind.
Spiritual blindness is a recurring theme throughout the Gospels. It is essentially a thing of the will, where people refuses to accept the truth of what is set before them, refuse to believe Who Jesus says that He is, even though they have the witness of Holy Scripture itself by way of the prophecies fulfilled in His life, the witness of His great teaching – remember how the crowds declared they had never heard any man speak like this – and the witness of His great miracles, mighty acts of power that made plain His Divine nature and authority. They ignore the evidence because it does not suit them to accept it.
Spiritual blindness, of course, is not limited to the days when Jesus walked the earth preaching and teaching. We have much of it in the world today. And we have it inside the Church also. It is not something that religious people are immune to. As our Gospel reading shows, and the Gospels make clear throughout, among the worst detractors and persecutors of our Lord were the Pharisees, men who were deeply, deeply religious.
So, before we start pointing our fingers at others and wagging our fingers at them about their spiritual blindness, we must consider our own. We must recall what our Lord had to say about such things, about removing the beam from our own eye first before concerning ourselves about the mote that is in the eye of another.
Such work is not done alone. Speak to your confessor, to your spiritual father. Read the Scriptures, the Fathers of Church, the writings of the saints. And above all, pray to God that you may see clearly, clearly enough to walk the path that leads to Salvation, clearly enough to help guide others along it also. Amen.
The Holy Orthodox Order of St George the Great Martyr works tirelessly to help those in need. We focus particularly on our brothers and sisters in Christ who live in the Holy Land and those who suffer because of their Christian faith. However, we strive to help all in need. Funds are desperately needed at this time to help those facing the horrors of war in Gaza and Lebanon and Syria. Please help if you can by making a donation to the Order. And please keep all those who suffer in your prayers. Thank you and may God bless you.
