<p>13:16<em> But blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear- </em>The disciples were so slow to perceive. And yet the Lord could (perhaps gently and smilingly) tell them: &ldquo;Blessed are your eyes, for they see&rdquo; (Mt. 13:16). Yet He later reprimanded them for being so slow of heart to perceive&hellip; Surely He was speaking of the potential which He recognized in them; a potential which He rejoiced to see. Of course we are blind and spiritually obtuse. And yet the New Testament speaks of us as if our blindness has been lifted. In the same way as our Lord sees us as if we are perfect, without blemish, as if we are already in the Kingdom, so he sees us as if we are without blindness. This is how he treated the disciples. He spoke of them as &quot;seeing&quot;, i.e. understanding (Mt. 13:16; Lk. 10:23). But frequently he despaired at their lack of spiritual perception, i.e. their blindness. Yahweh describes His servant Israel, both natural and spiritual, as a blind servant: &quot;Who is blind but my servant?... who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the Lord's servant?&quot; (Is. 42:19). There is a real paradox here: a blind servant, or slave. What master would keep a blind servant? Only a master who truly loved him, and kept him on as his servant by pure grace. Yet this useless blind servant was God's servant and messenger- even though the blind were not acceptable as servants or sacrifices of God under the Law (Lev. 21:18,22)! God uses His spiritually blind servant people to proclaim His message to the world. The disciples, still blind to the call of the Gentiles, were sent out to preach to the whole world! As the Lord was the light of those that sat in darkness (Mt. 4:16), so Paul writes as if all the believers are likewise (Rom. 2:19). Paul points out the humility which we should therefore have in our preaching: there are none that truly understand, that really see; we are all blind. And yet we are &quot;a guide of the blind, a light to them that sit in darkness&quot; (Rom. 2:19). Therefore we ought to help the blind with an appropriate sense of our own blindness.</p>