“Like the Blind Leading the Blind.” - Wed 6th June

It’s a memorable scene – the men of our family stood puzzling over a DIY task. Heads being scratched, brows furrowed, tools and components strewn over the floor and a clear tension in the air as pride meant that nobody would accept defeat (particularly as the women looked on.)

I’m not sure who it was that made the fateful suggestion which saw the “furniture” fall apart and the tension broken with a flurry of bad language – but I think it was Nana that summed it up – “It’s like the blind leading the blind.”
Matthew 15:12-14 Then the disciples came to him and asked, "Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?" He replied, "Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. Leave them; they are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit."
Jesus used this phrase to warn his disciples to avoid the “religion” of the Pharisees which was founded on their own traditions and not the word of God… He rebuked them with Isaiah’s prophesy, “These people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”

The challenge of this phrase isn’t about incompetence (be it DIY based or otherwise), rather it’s about religiosity – a trap we can all fall into. (How often, I wonder, do we go through the motions of the Christian life, conforming to the Churchy sub-culture we’ve got used to – without connecting with the living God and living life out of our relationship with Him?)

The thing is that if we’re living like a blind guide then we run the risk of leading others away from God, rather than to him. A sobering thought.

Take time to repent of areas of your own life where you recognise that to be the case and remember that God’s word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path.