Clear Eyes

My wife went through a time when her eyes were doing some weird things. After going to the eye doctor, she came home and said, "I have cataracts in both eyes." She was scheduled for eye surgery, and after putting up with a patch on her eye after surgery, she was able to see clearly. She used the word "amazing" because it was truly "amazing" to have limited vision, and then suddenly, after a procedure, she could see with 20/15 vision. Her eyes were limited, but then she could see clearly.

It is similar to how we go through life thinking things are one way, and Jesus offers a clearer, "new" way. We can see things differently or clearly, and then our vision for life improves in a fantastic way. The woman at the well was a Samaritan and the Samaritans were hated by the Jews because they refuted the Jewish way of looking at the coming Messiah. The Jews believed the Messiah would come to Jerusalem, where they worshipped. The Samaritans believed the Messiah would come to another mountain or place called Mount Gerizim. They claimed that Mount Gerizim was where Moses intended for the Israelites to worship, so the rift between the Israelites and the Samaritans was very intense.

Jesus did not let that rift or the fact that the Samaritan woman was a woman stop Him from showing her the way to salvation. Her significance in scripture is very strong because He revealed to her upfront that He was the Messiah that she and her people were looking for and that Messiah was now talking to her. Jesus told her He knew about her past and present living conditions and that astounded her!! She went back in the village of Sychar and told everyone about Jesus and many came and believed, and they were Samaritans. This shows just how much God's love is for everyone who comes to receive it and not just for a chosen few. The following scriptures tell the truth of this encounter Jesus had with the Samaritan woman and how her eyes were opened to see the truth of who He was.

John 4: 13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” 17 “I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” 19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” 25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” 26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

We live in a world with spiritual cataracts, and the vision of this world can look great one day and terrible the next. Pure truth from God's Word represents the surgery that needs to take place to remove those cataracts and clear up our vison. The Psalmist wrote these words in Psalms 119:18 Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law. The Law of Moses was given to Moses by God to "help" all who followed it, but in man's weakened and sinful condition, the Law only caused death. Jesus, the Messiah, came to take away the penalty of that sinful condition, and we can see clearly how to live the life that God requires and show us how to live. The Jewish leaders of Jesus' day missed Him being the very Messiah they had longed for because their eyes had those spiritual cataracts, and they rejected the surgery needed to see more clearly. If my wife's pride had kicked in, she would have rejected the very surgery to help her see good again, and she would have wandered around the rest of her life without being able to see things clearly.

Our world promotes this unwillingness to follow the instructions of God's Word, so they continue to walk around in darkness with compromised vision and a compromised life. In 1 John 1 the writer speaks to the subject of living in darkness, or compromised vision. 1 John 1: 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. God is the eye surgeon of our hearts and makes us right through the blood of Jesus so we can clearly see how to live our lives. To reject Jesus is to reject the correct way of looking at life. There is fruit that is realized in the midst of this life change. Paul wrote the following words to the church at Ephesus. Ephesians 5:8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth,

When we are born again those old things of the flesh are to be gone and the new life in the Spirit is to take over. The Holy Spirit and God's Word leads us to see more clearly every day and then the light of Jesus is seen and made more evident to all who come in contact with us. My wife told one of her friends about how good she could see after surgery, and it prompted her friend, who was having the same problem, to decide to get her eyes "fixed." When Jesus changes our life, we get the blessing of telling others about how our eyes were opened, and then they have the opportunity to see more clearly, too, by being born again. Then they can see with clear eyes too.

Today's Message,

David Warren