by Pastor David Troxler

Scripture: Matthew 23:13-26

I was raised in a household headed by a blind man. My dad, a diabetic, lost his eyesight and his lower legs to the disease when I was growing up. Despite that handicap, my dad had an uncanny ability to see people for who they truly were. He knew if I wasn’t being truthful (as happens when teenagers push boundaries). He also demonstrated that ability when his pastor put him on the church board nominations committee during my college years. My dad could appropriately judge a person’s character from his limited wheelchair-bound blindness.

Jesus has strong words however for the supposedly sighted leaders who fail in their responsibility to lead people properly. Jesus has in mind those leaders whose first objective was to maintain their power. They protected personal power by fashioning others into little models of themselves. In the Lord’s words, “they become twice a child of hell” as the leaders themselves.
My dad had no power left. His understanding of leadership was one of sacrifice and humility, something he lived daily. Dad could see things clearly from that position.

Jesus challenges the leaders of that day—and today—to give more attention to the most important things: to JUSTICE, to PEACE, to FAITH. His challenge is to stop giving all their attention to the little things that were of no consequence when considering the big picture.

The way the hypocritical leaders maintained power was to keep those following them focused on insignificant things and blind to what mattered. Instead, by playing semantics, by emphasizing trivial things over weightier matters, or by merely cleaning up the outside for appearance but neglecting what was inside were all tactics to distract from the truth.

What bothers me is this: If my dad in his blindness could understand that, why can’t more of us with good eyes see the truth?

Lord Jesus, give us eyes to see what is most important and fashion each of into Your instruments for justice, peace and faith. I saw You do that in a blind man who was confined to a wheelchair. If you can do that for him, You can do that in each of us. Amen.