Turning A Blind Eye

]“Your eye is the lamp of the body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness.”

Luke 11:34

 

As the story goes, in the midst of a naval battle, Admiral Horatio Nelson put a telescope up to his eye to look for orders from a commanding officer on another vessel.  The problem was that Nelson didn't put the telescope up to his good eye but to the eye that had been blinded earlier in his career. Having made up his mind on the course of action he intended to pursue, Nelson looked through his blind eye for orders that would supersede his, saw nothing, and continued the battle. And from that action has been coined the commonly used phrase, “turning a blind eye.”

The definitions for the phrase include “to ignore something and pretend that you don’t see it,” to choose to ignore behavior that you know is wrong” and “to close your eyes to something.” It may have been in that light that Jesus spoke of a people whose hearts had become so calloused that they had eyes but didn’t see and ears but couldn’t hear. In his book, The Grave Robber, Mark Batterson references a distinction made by Jewish rabbis between a good eye and a bad eye, attributing differences to a person’s attitude towards others. A bad eye turned a blind eye to the poor and to the needs of others. A good eye referred to a person’s ability to see and to seize every opportunity to be a blessing toward others.

 

Whether we are studying the teachings of scripture or learning from an 1801 naval battle, the practice of turning a blind eye is as relevant today as it was back then. We turn a blind eye to situations where seeing a need and doing something about it will cost us something, much like those religious people in the parable of the Good Samaritan. When they crossed to the other side of the road, they were turning a blind eye to the man who had been beaten and left for dead. We also turn a blind eye to sin and to wrongdoing, because we fear that taking a stand for what is right will cost us in relationships and in possible repercussions with others.

So much is said in scripture about our opening our eyes to see, and about God opening people’s eyes but it wasn't spoken to those naturally blind, like Admiral Nelson, but to those whose eyes were closed by choice.  Turning a blind eye is often the far easier of the choices we face but it leaves problems unaddressed, issues unresolved and the needs of others unmet. Let’s be purposeful in living our lives with our eyes wide open to the world around us and to the opportunities before us.

God Bless

Pastor Joe
Gateway Church