26th Day of Lent
Leaders Who See
"If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit." Matthew 15:14

There is a difference between seeing and having vision.  Sight allows you to see what lies immediately ahead, but vision points to a hoped for future.  It is not where you can see right now, but where you want to see yourself in the future.  Jesus had vision.  He knew that the Jewish dietary laws, focusing on what the Pharisees had interpreted to be clean and unclean foods, were actually getting in the way of knowing God.  The rules, originally intended to help keep a person close to God, had become more important than the relationship with God.  The Pharisees had become blind to their God, and the ones they were leading were also blind- the blind were leading the blind.

Jesus had a new vision.  It would no longer be about following rules and regulations.  It would be about having a heart in a right relationship with God.  It would be about faith actively serving the neighbor in love.  His death on the cross and victory in the resurrection would make this possible.

As we read in an earlier devotion, there are still many false leaders and blind guides in the world.  As today's devotion says, "Keep them at a distance.....Jesus gives himself in love, and then provides a course for the rest of us."  Amen