Seeing Without Eyes

“For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind.” John 9:39

A recent news item on Carolina News 14 reported about a woman who with a help of a medical device can now see without her eyes.1 The news report cited some call her bionic woman, others call her a medical miracle, but Cherri Robertson calls herself a “robo-chick”. Robertson lost her sight in a tragic accident, but this device helps her see not with her eyes, but with her brain. The technology works by a camera attached to the glasses that sends signals to the computer which stimulates electrodes in the brain through a cord that attaches to the head. The technology is still in its infancy but gives great hope for the future of the blind. While it is another example of scientific breakthrough, at another level science has simply revealed what philosophers always knew. Seeing is not simply a matter of the eye.

In the ninth chapter of the Gospel of John, is a description of a fascinating encounter of a man born blind with Jesus who restores his sight. The religious leaders cannot accept this very well, and after an investigation and an interesting debate, throw this man out of the synagogue. Jesus finds this man and reveals Himself as the Son of God, and this once blind- now seeing man worships Jesus. Then Jesus, in the presence of the incensed Pharisees makes this startling comment, “For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind.”

A man who had been physically blind from birth had received physical sight by trusting Jesus. That was a miracle. But the real miracle was what that man saw with his heart. He saw Jesus as the Messiah and worshipped Him, while the Pharisees who thought they saw, could not see Jesus for who He was. What Jesus was simply revealing is that seeing is largely a matter of the heart! The eye may be a tool, but the mind and the heart are what really see. If the heart and mind are corrupted, physical sight is no better than blindness.

I had always wondered about this particular event, and many other similar ones (and there are quite a few) where Jesus would do a marvelous miracle and the religious leaders would completely miss it. After all they were not predisposed to not believing in miracles as some people are. Nor were there any reasonable logical or other credibility problems in the miracle itself. They rejected the revelation because they had already rejected Jesus in their hearts for other reasons. They were blind in their hearts, and in the prophet’s words, “seeing they could not see”! It is really the posture of the heart that blinds the mind. Dr. Ravi Zacharias, in his article, “Thinking with the Eye”, quotes the poet William Blake

"This life's dim windows of the soul,
distorts the heavens from pole to pole,
and goads you to believe a lie,
when you see with and not through the eye."

Dr Zacharias then adds, “we are intended by God to see through the eye, but with the faculties of conscience and reason. Now we see with the eye, devoid of a conscience. No wonder the soul of our nation is in trouble.”2 How is your sight? Have you checked your heart lately? I pray you do not reject Jesus because you see with the eye, and not with your heart.

Danesh Manik

References
1. “New device allows woman to see, even without eyes”, 3/31/2006 By: Ivanhoe Newswire (http://rdu.news14.com/content/top_stories/default.asp?ArID=82612)
2. “Thinking With the Eye”, Ravi Zacharias. (http://www.rzim.org/slice/slicetran.php?sliceid=133)

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