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The DEEP

You Don't Just See With Your Eyes

Emotional capital matters.

John 9:13–17

They brought him who formerly was blind to the Pharisees. Now it was a Sabbath when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. Then the Pharisees also asked him again how he had received his sight. He said to them, “He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.”

Therefore some of the Pharisees said, “This Man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.”

Others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them.

They said to the blind man again, “What do you say about Him because He opened your eyes?”

He said, “He is a prophet.”

“They” at the beginning of this passage refers to the blind man’s neighbors. Why would they take him to the Pharisees?

Well, they’re the ones who have known this guy for a long time and so know that this a true stop-your-heart miracle. They’re excited and want their leaders to see the wonderful news and get excited too.

They never dreamed that some obscure, contrived Sabbath rule could overrule such a clearly supernatural sign. Making mud on the Sabbath doesn’t feel much like work and isn’t expressly prohibited in scripture.

And notice that only some of the Pharisees think the mud prohibition takes precedence. Despite a presumably perfectly uniform set of beliefs and doctrines, they don’t reach a uniform conclusion.

Some were simply more open-minded than others.


What the closed-minded Pharisees did wrong is something we all tend to do wrong.

Most people’s ability to be open-minded is affected by how much they’ve invested in their current position. A Pharisee who had merely memorized this Sabbath rule would be more open-minded than a Pharisee who was involved in writing it (or even one who had published it or defended it).

No one likes to be wrong. Some Pharisees had a lot of emotional capital invested in that rule. It isn’t easy to just let it go, even in the presence of overwhelming evidence.

Red Barber once said, in declining to make a Super Bowl prediction, “I’ve learned that you don’t just see with your eyes.” He understood that his prediction would influence his observations. As an old school journalist, he had been taught that neutrality doesn’t come easy. That can only be achieved (or even approximated) through the careful and diligent avoidance of all the things that can bias our judgement— even our eyesight.

They should chisel Barber’s quote over the entrance to every journalism school in America.


These Monday—Friday DEEPs are written by Mike Slay. The Saturday DEEPs are written by Matt Richardson. To subscribe to all the DEEPs click here:

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The weekly study guides, which include the Monday–Friday devotionals plus related questions for discussion or meditation, are available for download here:

https://www.ailbe.org/resources/itemlist/category/91-deep-studies

Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ESV stands for the English Standard Version. © Copyright 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved. NIV stands for The Holy Bible, New International Version®. © Copyright 1973 by International Bible Society. Used by permission. All rights reserved. KJV stands for the King James Version.

Mike Slay

As a mathematician, inventor, and ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church in America, Mike Slay brings an analytical, conversational, and even whimsical approach to the daily study of God's Word.

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