Observation: It's a dead giveaway in John's Gospel: the people who claim the most expertise are in fact the most out of touch. The Pharisees, Nicodemus and other "authorities" are always saying "we know," "we see," etc., Which invariably signals to the reader that they don't. Here again: "we are not blind, are we?"
Application: I preached this weekend about how the biggest red flag that you're about to get yourself into trouble is when you are feeling so supremely and utterly confident that you're right, you're the good guy, you're in so much better shape than another person or group. "If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, 'we see,' your sin remains."
At the same time, it's too easy for me to fall into the other ditch: to doubt everything I think, which makes it impossible to take action. What we see in the Fourth Gospel over and over is that the overconfidence in oneself--claiming to "know"--is bad, but placing confidence in Jesus--believing--is good. That's the ideal. Not knowing for sure, but going forward as best we can anyway, because while we acknowledge we are blind, we trust God can see.
Jesus, I am blind to the future, to my destiny, to what lies on the long road ahead of me and how I will deal with it. Give me trust to just start walking with you anyway, just for today, and commend tomorrow to your care. In your name I pray. Amen.
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