Briefing: How important is your eyesight to you? Law enforcement officers have a special kind of eyesight. We learn to see things the general public does not notice.

Dispatch (Assignment): Read John 9:35-41.

On the Street: Law enforcement officers are trained observers. We are taught to look for signs and symptoms of criminal activity. There are lots of professions that have been trained to observe details and actions a person, not of their field of employment, might not notice. Doctors can ask questions and observe behaviors that allow them to diagnose illnesses. Vehicle mechanics can listen to an engine, check fluids and tell you what is wrong with your car.

As a police officer, we learn to listen to stories, check for inconsistencies and deceptive behavior and hopefully be able to determine if someone is telling us the truth or a lie. Some investigators get trained in the field of Kinesics. Kinesics is a systematic study of the relationship between nonlinguistic body motions (as blushes, shrugs, or eye movement) and communication (Merriam-Webster dictionary).

I know lots of field officers who have never had formal training in Kinesics but are masters of knowing when they are being lied to. It is a skill that officers are able to hone with time and experience.

Spiritual eyesight is similar to these examples with one major difference. You cannot learn or gain this special eyesight without Christ as your Savior. If you are a Christ follower then you have this gift available to you. Like the other examples, you can hone and increase your ability to have greater spiritual eyesight.

When you have spiritual eyesight, you will start to see God doing things in your life that you never noticed before. You can see His hand in everything that goes on around you. This builds your relationship with the Father and puts you on a road to spiritual maturity.

Jesus gives us a great lesson in spiritual eyesight. In these verses we see Him talking with the man He gave eyesight to. Jesus asks the man if he believed in “the Son of Man” and he answered Him, “Who is He, sir? Tell me so that I may believe in Him.” John 9:36 (NIV).

This guy is looking at Jesus but does not yet see Him for who He truly is. Jesus tells the man, “You have now seen Him” John 9:37 (NIV). Once the man saw Jesus as the Messiah he replied, “Lord, I believe” John 9:38 (NIV) and he worshiped Jesus. In John 9:39 (NIV), “Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”

In the next few verses we see a different outcome. The Pharisees laughed at the thought of Jesus calling them blind. Jesus tells them, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.” John 9:41 (NIV). They refused to see Jesus was the Messiah. There was no willingness on their part to be taught or instructed. Since their claim is a misguided notion that Jesus is not the Messiah, and their steadfast refusal to consider they were wrong, they are without excuse.

These Jewish leaders were sent to be the shepherds of the flock of the Jewish people. They were supposed to feed the people the Word of God and take care of them like a shepherd takes care of his sheep. Their denial of Jesus as the Messiah is a terminal sin that only leads to death. Jude verses 12-13 are a prophecy that speaks of the shepherds who lead the flock astray and only the darkest darkness is reserved for them. Hell is the darkest darkness; blindness.

We want to be able to see Jesus as the Christ, the Son of Man, God’s only Son who died on the cross for our sins. See and believe like the man in this story. Then we can truly see and have spiritual eyesight.

Investigational Resources: For more on seeing but not hearing, read Psalm 135:16, Psalm 115:5, Jeremiah 5:21, Ezekiel 12:2, and Daniel 9:18. Another good read about this topic is the book of Jude.

Officer Safety Principle: Spiritual eyesight is crucial to our spiritual maturity and our walk with Christ. It is a significant part of our relationship with God.

from The Gospel of John Through the Eyes of a Cop
©by Charles Gilliland. Used by permission.
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