The Lame And The Blind Need To Get In!

I love reading the Bible from multiple translations. Sometimes, if I want deeper explanations, I’ll go to the Amplified version, or if I want to read the Psalms in a more poetic and traditional setting, I’ll go back to the King James, because this is what I grew up with.

One version I avoided for a long time was the Message. I guess it felt a bit irreverent to me in my early days as a Christian. I know it’s a paraphrase, but some of the language just felt a little too non-Biblical. I’m actually ashamed to admit that now, because I’ve grown to love it, and sometimes, reading from it can help me see familiar scriptures in a whole new light.

That very thing happened a few months back when I was reading about Jesus cleansing the temple in Matthew 21. What a scene that must have been! There were the temple merchants, carrying on with business as usual, selling their doves to those who wanted to make sacrifices, offering loans to people who couldn’t afford the temple tax, … On and on it went, a bit like one of our modern-day markets, probably with a lot of shouting and calling out. It’s amazing to think this was going on in a place designated for prayer and the worship of a holy God, and it’s therefore no surprise that Jesus came upon the scene with righteous anger, and began throwing out everyone who had set up shop. “He kicked over the tables of loan sharks and the stalls of dove merchants. He quoted this text: “My house was designated a house of prayer; you have made it a hangout for thieves.” (Matthew 21: 12-14 MSG).””

We inwardly cheer our Lord as we read this, but it was the next part that stuck out for me. “Now there was room for the blind and crippled to get in. They came to Jesus, and he healed them.” In the NIV, things are put a little differently. Verse 14 says “The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them.” The difference is so subtle it’s easy to miss, but the Message implies that once Jesus had cleared away all the unnecessary rubbish, there was finally room for the blind and the lame to get into the temple, so he could heal them.

As a blind person, I can relate to this from a practical point of view, because I know how difficult it can be to move around a cluttered place. Sometimes, when I am out shopping, I struggle to manoeuvre myself through large crowds, or around such things as street signs, stands placed in the middle of a shop filled with precarious merchandize, etc. I can feel awkward as I stumble about, trying desperately not to cause a scene, move anything, or knock something over. It can make me feel overly self-conscious. I imagine it’s even worse for people using wheelchairs. Narrow spaces or cluttered buildings must be some of their worst nightmares.

We have a lot of things in our church, which is good, because it shows the building is well loved and well used. There are children, so they scatter toys. We have a complicated sound system, so there are a lot of wires and instruments strewn about the stage. All this makes moving around more challenging, but I am grateful to those who notice my struggles, and help me get to where I need to go with very little fuss or fanfare.

In the physical sense, a cluttered church is a sign of life, but in a spiritual sense, we have to be very careful that our churches don’t become so cluttered that the lame and the blind can’t get in. When Jesus cleansed the temple, it wasn’t the physical things he most wanted rid of, but rather what they stood for. The buying and selling was a hindrance to the needy who simply wanted to get into God’s house and receive prayer and practical help. It seems there was a lot of hypocrisy, and the people at the temple had lost sight of why they were supposed to be there.

When people come into our churches today, do we put up barriers to stop them getting to Jesus? And if so, what kinds? Sometimes, I think we can put up the barrier of legalism. If people don’t dress or act a certain way, we are uncomfortable around them. Often, they can sense that, and one visit to church is about all they can handle. They figure if we can’t treat them decently, then our God probably wouldn’t either.

I remember being at a church many years ago where some teenagers came in wearing baseball caps. This went totally against the grain, as wearing hats in church was seen as irreverent, and after putting up with the obvious consternation for a while, the teenagers left, and never came back. Would Jesus really have minded them wearing hats? I think he would have been more concerned with the state of their souls than their attire.

Another barrier we can put up comes as a result of our own sin and shortcomings. We are all living in a fallen world, and although we have given our lives to Jesus, we will still fail him time and time again. It’s how we handle those failures that matters. Do we try and hide them, and put on the shiny veneer of the perfect Christian? When people come into our churches and see that kind of holier than thou attitude amongst God’s people, it puts them off, because they figure they can never meet our expectations and be as holy as we are. Or, they make the mistake of putting us on pedestals, and when they see us fall and fail, as we surely will, they declare all Christians to be hypocrites, and walk away from their fledgling faith.

We, as God’s people, have a huge responsibility to ensure there are no hindrances preventing the spiritually lame and blind getting into God’s house. WE must remove the stumbling blocks, and ensure we don’t become blockades to people’s spiritual development. If Jesus wasn’t afraid of getting his hands dirty, touching people like lepers whom his society declared to be unclean, then we must make it our business to follow his example. We have to be careful our churches don’t become cluttered with attitudes, rules and regulations that are manmade, and prevent newcomers from feeling at home in our midst. We need to appreciate that everyone’s walk with God is personal, so my way of worshipping may be different from yours. Finally, we need to remember that we are all at different stages in our walk. Babies don’t come into the world knowing how to walk, talk and feed themselves, so why do we expect this kind of maturity and understanding from new believers? God offers us grace upon grace, and mercy upon mercy, so why don’t we offer the same to one another?

Jesus wants the lame and the blind to enter his temple so they can receive healing, prayer and support, and as his hands and feet here on earth, it is our responsibility to give it. After all, weren’t we once spiritually lame and blind too?