Domes - Our Monthly Newsletter
Dunbar UCC
April 6, 2008
Luke 24:12-16, 28-35
Eyes Opened
- How do you know if something is true or not? Harriet Meiers said President Bush is a great leader. Ralph Nader says he’s a war criminal. Which of them sees? Who is speaking truth? Was Jesus the Messiah, as the apostle Peter said? Or was he the devil, as the religious leaders said? Most of the common people believed their leaders. But who saw the truth? And when you think something is true -- how do you know?
- We are told in our scriptures not to be too confident in our seeing. Before Paul was converted, he was one of the smartest Rabbis in Jerusalem, and he was arresting Christians because he thought they were bad. Then he went blind, and realized he made a mistake.God opened his eyes.
- The Gospel of John said that Jesus was the truth of God -- but the people didn’t “see” him. For thousands of years the people worshipped a God who, when he became human, they couldn’t recognize. The Bible claims that our “equipment” for discerning the truth is defective.
- It also claims that only God can fix our eyes. Not will-power, or study, or diet. An eye-doctor can help us to read a newspaper, but can’t give us the ability to perceive what we are reading, or to discern the truth from the lies. The evening news is all slanted. Only God can open our eyes. When Jesus sat with the disciples and broke the bread and gave it to them, their eyes were opened.
- In the movie Scent of a Woman, Al Pacino is a heavy drinking, blind ex-army officer who’s given up on life and ready to kill himself. But a young boy that he’s become friends with tries to stop him. Pacino yells, “Leave me alone! Get out! It’s dark in here! It’s dark in here!” The boy said he wouldn’t leave till Pacino gave him the gun. Pacino said he’d shoot the boy and himself if the boy didn’t leave. The boy yelled back, “Then I’ll die with you!” And suddenly Pacino’s eyes opened. He was still blind, but now he saw as he’d never seen before, even when he wasn’t blind. What happened? I don’t know. But I think the famous hymn is right -- to be blind and then to see is a gift -- maybe the greatest gift God can give us: it’s amazing grace. To have our eyes opened -- to see Jesus and to be able to follow him -- that’s the gift that I want for us. Martin Luther King, Jr., had that gift. It’s the best gift we can have in this life.