Blind Leading The Blind (Luke 6:39)

 


Thursday, February 20, 2025


Psalms 114; 115

Genesis 29:1-30

Luke 6:39-49


Observance: William Grant Broughton, first bishop of Australia (d. 1853)


Blind Leading The Blind (Luke 6:39)


Jesus concludes his Sermon by making sure we don’t get a big head. Isn’t he so good at predicting human nature?


The first difficulty to overcome in our walk of discipleship is to live up to his teachings. He has set before us the ultimate standard to try and reach. But he hasn’t set it for us in the expectation we will never get there – with diligent prayer, Bible study, and fellowship with believers, we will get ever closer (keeping in mind, of course, that perfect blessed righteousness only comes after the resurrection). Jesus knows this, and so he concludes the teaching with these words on pride and hypocrisy.


It would seem that the issue we need to be aware of, and so avoid, is that overcoming sin in our lives can make us proud. And while we should be helping one another grow deeper in faithful living, we should never get a big head about ourselves. A good way to re-align ourselves is to remember our Master, and how he treats us.


Jesus could have been proud and overbearing – he is perfect, after all, and we are very wicked. But he treats us so gently and patiently that it is heartbreaking when we begin to get a sense of how very good to us he really is.


He finishes his teaching with this well-known image of the two houses. The one built on sand is the one which is built on our own pride. The one built on the rock is the one which is built on the words of Jesus. Pride, and Jesus – they are polar opposites. A proud man leading miserable sinners is like the blind leading the blind; but our Lord Jesus is humble, with his eyes wide open.


Where is the pride hiding in your heart? Do you want it gone? How will you allow Jesus to remove it for you?


Lord, Lord, our Teacher and our Master, from whose lips come the words of the wisdom of God: incline our hearts to your teaching, so that we may be humble not only in our actions but in our very being.

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