SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS

Spiritual Blindness

BETHPHAGE A VILLAGE ON THE SLOPES OF THE HILL. OF THE MOUNT OF OLIVES.

PROPHESIED BY THE PROPHETS OF OLD .

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11  Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the world,

Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh;

Behold, his reward is with him,

And his work before him.

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Why did Jesus plan this demonstration? For one thing, He was obeying the Word and fulfilling the prophecy recorded in .

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9  Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion;

Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem:

Behold, thy King cometh unto thee:

He is just, and having salvation;

Lowly, and riding upon an ass,

And upon a colt the foal of an ass.

There were at least three groups: the Jews who lived in Jerusalem, the crowd from Galilee, and the people who saw Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead (). Sharing the news of this miracle undoubtedly helped to draw such a large crowd. The people wanted to see this miracle-worker for themselves.

But the Jews still did not recognize Jesus as their King. What caused Israel’s spiritual blindness? For one thing, their religious leaders had robbed them of the truth of their own Word and had substituted man-made tradi­tions (). The leaders were not interested in truth; they were concerned only with protecting their own interests (). “We have no king but Caesar!” was their confession of willful blindness. Even our Lord’s miracles did not convince them. And the longer they resisted the truth, the blinder they became (.). The first text refers to the coming of the Lord. The second text refers to the approach of the divine King. To truly see Jesus and his truth means more than observing what he did or said, it means a change of identity.