The Blind Leading the Blind

by Edwin Crozier

In Luke 6:39, Jesus told them a parable. “Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit?” (ESV).

Then He made two applications.

First, a disciple will never be above his or her teacher. When I am fully trained, I will only see as well as my teacher. If I choose a blind teacher, I will be blind myself and will follow my teacher into the pit. Certainly, this explains why we need to choose good teachers and mentors in our present life. But even more than that, it explains why our main teacher needs to be Jesus Himself. We need to be in His Word and let Him guide us. Then we will escape the pit.

Second, and this one we often miss as an application of the initial parable: as long as I have logs in my own eye, I will only ever lead people into the pit. When I have a log in my own eye, I am blind. I can try to take specks (or logs) out of others' eyes. However, I will only damage them further. If I wish to help people find life, I must begin by removing the logs from my own eyes.

To be clear, when Jesus spoke about logs and specks, He wasn’t merely talking about hypocrisy. Though of course, that would be an example of a log protruding from my eye. The point was not that the log bearer is doing the same thing as the speck bearer, but bigger. The point is, when I have something blinding my vision, whether hypocrisy, pride, ignorance, sin, and so on, I will not be able to help my brothers and sisters with even the smallest of issues.

Don’t follow the blind. Don’t linger in blindness. The blind will only lead the blind into the pit. But Jesus will lead us to life.

Praise the Lord!