Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world. That those who do not see may see. And those who see may become blind.” Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things and said to him, “Are we also blind?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt. And now that you say we see, your guilt remains.”
– John 9:39–41
John 9:39–41 Points Out that the Pharisees Lacked Sight
These verses are really important when you think about different places in the Bible where it talks about people not being able to see and hear the truth of God. It’s exactly what Jesus is addressing here with these Pharisees, these religious leaders, who thought they could see. They thought they knew everything. They thought they knew the way things worked. And, they even thought they knew God. But what they were missing was sight. They thought they could see, but they were blind to their own sin, to their own self-sufficiency and self-satisfaction. To how they were missing the heart of God’s love, and they were missing the picture of God’s love right in front of them in Jesus. They couldn’t see.
These verses cause me to look at my life and to pray for myself, for us, that God help us to see. Help us to see our need for you in every moment. We can’t see rightly without you. God, we are so blind, even to our own sin. Just think about how easy it is for me to get caught up in sin. Not even see it, see how dangerous it is, see how horrible it is. God, I need your grace to have sight, to see, as you see. I pray for this in my own life, I pray for this in other’s lives who are listening to this. God, help us to see our sin as you see it. God, uncover the blind spots, just remove them, that we might see rightly.
This Verse Encourages Us to Pray for Sight to See the Truth
God, help us to see our need for you every day. Help us to see your word, rightly. Help us not to look at it through blinders that miss the truth of it. God, we pray for sight.
And in the process of seeing, our sin, seeing our need for you, we pray that you would open our eyes in more wonderful ways to your grace and your provision for us. And in the process of seeing our need for you, we trust that we will see your love for us in greater and greater and greater ways.
Oh, we pray this, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
