Diagnosing Spiritual Near-Sightedness: There is a “spiritual eye condition” that allows people to see small things clearly while being blind to big things.
- Matthew 27:6.
- References in Matthew to clear “eyes”: Matthew 6:22-23, 7:3-5, 13:15-16.
- We are going to go with that “vision” metaphor this morning.
- There is a spiritual blindness that allows people to do great evil in God’s name. There is a spiritual “eye condition” that allows people to be meticulous about certain small things while being oblivious on many big issues. We see an example here in our passage.
- Verse 6 is simply amazing in the impaired vision that it represents.
- The chief priests have hired perjured witnesses and plotted murder, yet in the midst of all that they are meticulous about following their rule that “blood money” could not be put into the Temple funds.
- This rule arises from Deuteronomy 23:18, which stipulates that income from prostitution was not to be brought into the Temple treasury to pay a vow. This is because the Lord detests prostitution. From that rule, the religious leaders had extrapolated rules that included the command that “blood money” couldn’t be put in the treasury.
- So the religious leaders are meticulous in obeying this tiny made-up religious rule while actively in the act of conspiring to murder an innocent man.
- For our purposes this morning, we use the idea of near-sightedness.
- Near-sightedness is the eye condition where someone can see clearly the things that are close to them but things far away are blurry. For this sermon, we’ll talk about seeing the small things (like a petty rule) and being unable to discern the big things (like the big picture of what God is up to).
- They have a horrible case of spiritual near-sightedness – they see clearly this small thing right in front of them while simultaneously being blind to the larger evil all around them.
- What is this spiritual “eye condition” that allows them (and so many others) to live this way without seeing the hypocrisy and evil? How can someone be so meticulous about meaningless religious trivia while being blithely obtuse to the evil and hypocrisy of their religious actions? How can someone’s spiritual awareness be so off? How can they so easily miss the forest for the trees?
- In a way, it’s easier when you have people who are doing evil and they know what they’re doing is wrong.
- That is not the situation here. I think it’s more sincere delusion than knowing hypocrisy.
- I believe these people deeply and wholeheartedly believe they are doing God’s will. I believe they think they are God’s representatives. I believe they are sure that God is pleased with their efforts. All of that makes this situation much messier and much more dangerous, because never do people do evil more boldly and enthusiastically than when they do in God’s name.
- I wish we could study this idea this morning as a historical idiosyncrasy. Sadly, though, this spiritual near-sightedness is just as prevalent today as it was back then.
- A clear example that’s been in the news lately is Westboro Baptist Church and their uncivil protests at military funerals. They clearly are misguided on multiple levels.
- Most of us, though, would protest: “I don’t do that!” Let’s look at some examples today of situations where an American Christian might be zealous on keeping a small rule while being oblivious to the larger picture.
a. Someone is mad at seeing a believer reading a Bible because it’s not the King James Version.
- Isn’t the big picture that the person is reading the Scripture?
b. Someone is eager to show their zealousness for God by voting to leave their denomination over some relatively minor theological disagreement.
- Isn’t the big picture that Christ wants the church to be one?
c. Someone will only worship in a church where only hymns are sung (or only where praise choruses are sung).
- Isn’t the big picture whether God is being praised?
d. Someone is quick to condemn a non-believer’s sinful action.
- Isn’t the big picture that God wants to see them redeemed?
e. Someone argues that real believers will love God enough to show up for three services a week.
- Isn’t the big picture of the Christian life more than sitting for an hour three times a week?
f. Someone trashes businesses in December because their employees aren’t saying “Merry Christmas.”
- Isn’t the big picture the rampant materialization of Christmas that we’re participating in by being in that business in the first place?
g. Someone breaking fellowship because the pastor interprets Revelation differently than they do.
- Isn’t the big picture living a life that is always ready no matter what the future holds?
- What drives this kind of behavior? Why is it so prevalent?
- There are a host of contributing factors:
a. Our love of increasingly fine dividing points for our theology.
b. Our arrogance at being right.
c. The burden of having to stand for God against the “bad people” out there.
d. The insufficient holiness (to our judgment) of those who disagree with us.
e. Seeing those who disagree with us as the enemy to be defeated, rather than P.O.W.s to be rescued.
f. God doesn’t verbally speak these days, so someone has to fill the spaces.
g. People presume our motives are pure because we keep invoking God’s name.
h. The public’s ignorance of the Bible means that few have the knowledge to question our viewpoint with Scripture.
- In addition to those times where we don’t know we’re being near-sighted, there are also times where we catch a little glimmer of understanding, but actively choose not to work to correct our vision. We don’t want the full knowledge that it would bring.
- It’s possible that the fact that the chief priests referred to this as “blood money” means they were in a small way aware that this had been an iffy undertaking. Perhaps not, but I wonder.
- Some examples:
a. (A petty one) I know I’d be grossed out if I really knew what goes into fast food, so I just don’t think about it or research the subject.
b. Your spouse makes a comment that hints at a hidden unhappiness, but you don’t follow up.
c. Your kid spends quite a bit of time online, but you don’t look into what he’s looking at what he’s looking at.
d. God speaks to you in a sermon about your selfishness, but you quickly move your mind onto other thoughts.
e. Your finances are shaky, but you just stay focused on the fact that there is several thousand more available on your credit card.
Checking For Spiritual Near-Sightedness:
- Obviously this is something that none of us want to be guilty of. What are some diagnostic questions that can help me avoid these mistakes?
1. Am I ok with an open-ended commitment or do I want a set of rules to follow?
- One of the beauties of having a set of rules making up your religion is that you can see clearly up front what areas of life are going to impacted. You know what’s on the table and, by omission, what’s off the table.
- By contrast, the idea of following Christ is a much scarier, more open-ended commitment. There are no up-front guarantees of where you’re going or what issues you’ll be dealing with. Of course, we should be able to rest in our trust in the goodness and wisdom of Christ, but often that’s easier said than done.
- When we focus on rules, it makes the path clear, but the result a mess.
- This is because rules make it neat and clean what we’re supposed to be doing, but rules don’t lead to closeness to God or personal holiness.
- It’s worth long consideration that the chief priests were being careful and conscientious about their handling of the silver, yet their “obedience” was wrong-headed and counter-productive.
- In contrast, when we focus on following Christ, it makes the path messy, but the result is clear.
- The path is messy because we don’t know where exactly He’ll lead or what is ahead, but the result is certain: Christlikeness.
- A further problem is that once I have these obscure and mostly irrelevant rules, then the rest of the areas of life are open to me doing what I want to do and sanctioning my actions with the belief that I’m doing God’s will. That is an invitation to disaster.
Part of the open-ended commitment is that I will regularly be confronted with spiritual issues I previously hadn’t given much attention to.
- As I walk with Christ, I am going to find myself changing the way I think. Christ is so much wiser than I am. If I’m growing over time, I’m going to be gradually shedding the childish thoughts I began with and coming into deeper awareness of who God is and what He’s doing in the world.
- The list of rules that a church might come up with (spoken or unspoken) is likely to focus on issues where we already have things under control. We tend to demonize the sins that we aren’t regularly doing. (See, for example, the decline in discussing divorce as a sin as divorce has become more prevalent within the church over the last fifty years. In its place we’ve substituted homosexuality.) This allows us to fairly quickly come to a place where we’ve got our “sin” under control (or more accurately, the sins on our list of rules).
- Actual obedience that comes from walking daily with Christ inevitably leads to issues and sins being brought up that you weren’t even aware were there at the beginning (or only had the faintest awareness of). There are sins in my heart right now that I am not mature enough to even realize are there.
- This is the reason why true ongoing maturity will bring it with it new challenges as God cleans us in ever-deepening ways. As we become more like Christ, there will be new issues within our hearts to deal with. Actual obedience is going to bring up a host of issues over the years that we hadn’t even thought about at the beginning or had convinced ourselves were not a big deal.
- If I haven’t had a new challenge in my spiritual life in a long time, that’s a really bad sign. If I haven’t had God working on a new area in my spiritual life in a long time, that’s a really bad sign.
- To put it another way, if God hasn’t kicked your butt real good lately, you may want to check your spiritual life. Either (a) you’re Jesus and are already perfect, (b) you’re in a short season of rest, or (c) you’re not paying attention.
- This open-ended commitment is one of the reasons that we have been given the Spirit.
2. Am I “growing spiritually” because I know more Bible stuff or because I look more like Jesus?
- Many churches define spiritual maturity in terms of how much Bible you know. This creates an environment where people’s knowledge is divorced from their behavior. Someone can know a lot about the Scripture and be considered a pillar of the church even if their actions show little indication of Christlikeness.
- The Bible is a wonderful book and is given to us that we might grow in spiritual maturity, but that growth is not defined by knowledge per se. Rather, we want to use whatever knowledge we gain from the Word to help us become more like Jesus.
- Another way this manifests itself is that if spiritual maturity is defined in Bible knowledge, then there is a reward to be had in focusing on increasingly minor, technical issues.
- Some people are impressed by a “mature believer” holding forth on the most obscure of details from the Bible. That is deemed to be a sign of deep maturity since it represents “deep knowledge” of the Bible.
- In truth, though, that usually just fosters pride in that person’s heart and an increased likelihood of division within the church.
- We need to look at our lives and honestly evaluate: Am I looking and living more like Jesus than I used to?
3. Am I better at “fitting in” with my church or “standing out” in my world?
- Often we consider ourselves to be in fine shape spiritually because we fit right into our church culture. Everyone has a leather Bible; I have a leather Bible. They all listen to K-LOVE; I listen to K-LOVE. They show up for church three times a week; I show up for church three times a week.
- Unfortunately, this “fitting-in” is usually concentrated on outward things. It allows just about any reasonably aware person to fit into the congregation.
- True spiritual growth, though, is about what happens on the inside. When this happens, my life begins to stand out from those around me, especially given how far the world’s values are from the Kingdom’s. When I notice myself questioning the world’s values and regularly standing apart from “business as usual,” I’m probably heading in the right direction.
- Further, the “fitting in” within the church receives positive social feedback. You’re welcomed in – you’re treated as an insider. “Standing out” in the world comes without that positive social feedback. That means if we’re continuing after it, it’s far less likely to be for questionable reasons.
- You shouldn’t evaluate your maturity based on the standard that your church has put forth for “normal” behavior.
- Rather, you should go to the Word with open eyes and ears and discover what Christ says the Christian life should look like.
- Another way to put this: Am I looking around or am I looking up?
- Another way to put this: If I know that U.S. church culture is off-track, then it’s not a good thing if I totally fit in with it.
4. Am I ok with others’ walk of faith looking different than mine?
- Everyone’s walk of faith is not supposed to look like mine. They have different personalities than me. They have different weaknesses than me. They have different stresses in life than me. They come from different cultures than me. They exist in different cultures than me.
- In addition to that, who’s to say that the way I’m doing it is right in the first place?
- There is a reason that the Bible leaves a whole host of issues open. Paul goes into great detail in Romans about disputable matters and the need for each of us to recognize that each believer is accountable to God, not us.
- The Bible is silent on a lot of issues. We should not be adamant where the Bible is silent. Certainly we want to find the best way to deal with a particular issue for our lives, but that doesn’t give us the right to take our answer and make it normative for everyone else.
- Examples:
a. “A real Christian would never drink a beer.”
- Maybe my culture is such that a Christian drinking a beer socially would cause someone to stumble, so I don’t do it. But that’s not to say that a believer in another country might be perfectly fine drinking a little (although not getting drunk).
b. “A real Christian would never go a rated R movie.”
- There may a movie that gets that rating, not for gratuitous sex or violence, but because it deals with mature themes (not unlike the Bible does).
c. “A real Christian will read the Bible every day.”
- What about the illiterate believer in a Third World country?
d. “A real Christian will show up for Sunday evening worship.”
- What if a young mother and father get so little time with their kids that Sunday evening family time is precious time?
- In all those cases, it’s not that avoiding alcohol, shunning R-rated movies, reading the Bible daily, and going to Sunday evening worship aren’t all beneficial to your spiritual life. It’s that just because it’s good for you doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s beneficial or required for every other believer.
5. What things raise my spiritual indignation?
- You can tell a lot about someone by looking at what gets their attention and gets them mad.
- If you tell me what gets you worked up, I can probably do a pretty fair job of discerning whether you’re a Republican or Democrat, politically active or unaware, American or foreign, Baptist or Pentecostal, etc.
- For many of us, the things that really bother us, that we consider worthy of a “Can you believe” when we’re talking to a friend on the phone, that makes us stay tuned for the next segment, that makes us click on the link, reveal our pettiness.
- If I’m hopping mad over the “war on Christmas,” but not the least bit bothered by everyone around me blindly pursuing the American Dream, that’s not a good sign.
- If I make a comment to my spouse in the car when I see someone mowing their grass on Sunday, but not when I hear of women trapped in sexual slavery in Asia, that’s not a good sign.
- If I’m ready to call the pastor over a change in the music at church, but not to call my neighbor to invite him to worship, that’s not a good sign.
- If my heart is broken over my favorite football team’s loss on Sunday, but not the anemic state of the church in America, that’s not a good sign.
- “Let my heart be broken with the things that break the heart of God.”
- When I think of the things that raise my ire, are they worthy of that emotion?
Conclusion:
- Are any of these in your life this morning? Are you dealing with spiritual near-sightedness?
- If so, resolve this morning to want to see all of God’s truth.
