What immediately attracts attention about these words of Christ is his description of the Pharisees: “blind leaders of the blind.” Those were sharp, striking words of condemnation. There was no qualification and no concession. Jesus said nothing redeeming and made no attempt to weigh any good over against the evil. Simply, “blind leaders of the blind.”

There was something else that made those words so striking: the ones about whom the Lord spoke those words of judgment.

They were the leaders of the church. They steered the church as representatives of God’s will for the people of God. Even more, the Pharisees were the most highly trained and most well-educated Jews. The Pharisees were prominent in the minds of the people, the leading lights of the theocratic kingdom of God. The Pharisees were leaders in the church, in society, and in Jewish culture.

Remember how knowledgeable the Pharisees were. They knew their Bibles well, as well as so many commentaries on the Bible. They knew their theology. They were doctors of the law. They knew the Old Testament, cover to cover and backwards and forwards. They could expound and apply scripture. They could bring scripture to life. They were charismatic. They could present. They were skilled in public speaking and could hold people’s attention and garner their respect. The Pharisees were impressive.

How impressive they were in the synagogues and in the schools! Wherever the Pharisees went, they were surrounded by an aura of honor and dignity. The common people fell to respectful silence. The people constantly solicited the religious opinions of the Pharisees. Their gatherings in the councils were deeply impressive. As the Pharisees paraded into the councils, each one taking his seat with great gravity, reverence would steal over the hearts of the observers.

The Pharisees’ advice carried the stamp of divine authority. Their councils were understood to be assemblies of the holy, which would surely and infallibly express the will of the living God of heaven and earth. Approval by the Pharisees was considered the sunshine of heaven and their disapproval, the outer darkness of hell.

Such divine disapproval the disciples felt penetrating deep into their hearts, disapproval caused by the teaching of their Lord and master. How could he say such things about the highly-respected leaders of the people? Because the disciples held the Pharisees in high regard, the Lord found it necessary to speak his very striking words of condemnation.

The Pharisees were not worthy at all.

“They be blind leaders of the blind.”

Jesus’ words were necessary. They were necessary to strike hard, shattering blows upon the deception employed by the Pharisees, which ensnared those who followed them. The esteem, respect, and honor held by Jesus’ disciples had to be broken into pieces. Appearances had to be dissolved and masks torn off.

The Pharisees were not enlightened, knowledgeable, wise, and understanding. They were in truth blind fools.

Such words are necessary today, as necessary as they were when Jesus spoke them to his disciples.

Still today, there are these outstanding, adored, honored, and esteemed religious leaders. Still today, they are venerated in their fellowships. Still today, their opinions are sought and rested upon as divine revelation. Still today, they gather in their holy assemblies. They gather in their colleges, colloquiums, and conferences. They gather in their presbyteries and general assemblies, in their classes and synods. They gather with great honor and dignity in the convocations, calling on the Lord’s name and seeking his guidance for their assemblies. They steer and guide their denominations with the understanding that God is leading them.

Such is the way of men, a phenomenon common in both Roman Catholicism as well as in much of Protestantism.

But what is so highly esteemed among men is lightly esteemed in the sight of God.

The judgment of Christ continues to sound: “They be blind leaders of the blind.”

Who will see? Who can see?

These blind leaders have many blind followers. Who would be so foolish as to follow blind leaders? Only those who are blind themselves. Indeed, they are blinded to the truth of God’s word, the only light. In that light, the light of Jesus’ words themselves, these blind followers would so easily be able to see that their leaders are not worthy at all to be followed and instead should be abhorred and shunned.

But the followers of the blind do not see and cannot see. The followers are blinded by the so-called light of men. They are blinded by outward appearances. They are blinded by the splendid appearances of their leaders and the leaders’ apparent religiosity. The followers are blinded inwardly by the pride of man that always esteems external, superficial appearances rather than the things of God and his sovereign, glorious kingdom. They must in that blindness despise Christ crucified, the meek and lowly savior, who saves sinners who cannot save themselves. In their blindness the followers look for the majority in number and the influential in power. The majority and influential are the ones who must be right. The few and despised cannot be right.

What blindness is evident at present in the blind leading the blind!

See the blindness of false doctrine, the false doctrine of good works obtaining blessings and fellowship in the covenant of grace. See the false doctrine of communion with God that is conditioned on what regenerated, elect believers do. See the false doctrine of faith that cannot be passive, of what a man must do if he would be saved. See the false doctrine of Christ being only a partial savior, leaving part for the Holy Spirit to do and another part for man to do. See the false doctrine of grace that is available to man to use or not to use, as his responsibility. See the false doctrine that denies total depravity, the old man of sin always present in believers until they die.

See the blindness that must distract from the above false doctrines whenever they are brought to light. Observe the distraction that there are all kinds of true things being said in sermons and articles, not just what is controversial or even false. Observe the distraction that only evil people took note of strange and confusing things said from pulpits and brought those things to the attention of consistories, classes, and synods. Observe the distraction that what is preached from pulpits to congregations does not really matter, but only decisions of synods matter. Observe the distraction that protests and appeals are too long, written in language that is too strong and in a strident, shrill tone. Observe the distraction of charging protestants with heresy, slander, and schism. Observe the distraction of majority vote and the Spirit’s guidance of broader assemblies.

There is another blindness of distraction that pretends fresh breadth and new inclusiveness but takes attention away from the doctrine of grace alone and Christ alone as the source of all salvation. Good works are fruit, but they are more than fruit. Gratitude is only one motive for good works, but there are other motives too. New ways of looking at good works are conveniently being discovered and prominently featured. Motives for good works are multiplied, supposedly in the interest of holiness, obedience, and more good works. In truth, however, these new motives and views do not add. They subtract. Gratitude suffers, being pushed more and more out of view. Good works as the fruitfulness of faith in Christ are neglected in favor of legalism. As gratitude for grace is diminished and good works as fruits of faith are placed in the background, true holiness of heart and good works that truly glorify God are not fostered but must wither.

But there is another, similar blindness of distraction that is far darker and far more perverse. Sovereign grace is neglected in favor of man’s responsibility and accountability. What God’s grace accomplishes effectually according to his will is placed in the background, made into a mere footnote. In the foreground is what man is enabled to do by that grace. Attention is distracted from the head to the members, from the bridegroom to the bride, from Christ to believers. The bride becomes enraptured with what she has and what she does. Forgetting the divine giver of all that she has as good, she becomes enamored with herself. Faith becomes the believer’s act of believing over against the God in whom he is supposed to believe. Good works become the actions and doings of the believer, his gifts to God rather than God’s gifts to him. The clay no longer wants to be clay in the hands of the divine potter. The workmanship begins to ignore the worker. Self-centeredness pushes out God-centeredness.

All these distractions are not the distractions of mere magicians’ tricks. Nor are they just the clever distractions of those wishing to avoid proper, biblical scrutiny. But the distractions are the expressions of simple, self-centered pride, which makes the distractions so easy to promote and follow.

This was the pathway of Israel’s apostasy, according to Ezekiel 16 (see also Ezek. 17). This was the pathway of the Babylon of Revelation 17. This is the pathway of Satan to his downfall, as described in Ezekiel 28. This is the great evil of using the very gifts of God to deny him as their source.

All grievous blindness.

All the blind leading the blind, and the blind blindly following the blind.

All condemned by the light.

Condemned to destruction. “If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.”

This ditch of which Jesus spoke is not the ditch of antinomianism. Nor is it the ditch of legalism. From those ditches there is always hope of recovery by the gospel of grace alone without works, the grace that both justifies and sanctifies. The blind and their followers are condemned to the ditch of complete destruction, the abyss of the condemnation of hell.

It was before that yawning, fiery abyss that those words of Christ brought his disciples. His disciples had to be brought to face the sobering end of the blind leading the blind.

The disciples had to see that end of the blind not merely for the sake of understanding it, but also because the disciples carried that dreadful disease of blindness within themselves. Their savior had to save them from themselves by warning them. He had to warn them of their own tendency to gratify themselves, to triumph over others, to consider themselves superior in their own wisdom and discernment, and to be blind followers of the blind. All that Jesus said to them about the blind following the blind and both falling into the ditch was to warn his disciples against themselves.

“Let them alone.”

Those words caught the disciples in their tracks of following the way of the blindness of the Pharisees and their blind followers. Jesus’ words had to stop the disciples in their tracks, to turn from that way and to follow after their Lord, the light of the world.

How many ways there are blindly to follow the blind! The prince of darkness has many temptations at his disposal to entice Jesus’ disciples to ignore his sharp words of warning and condemnation.

There is the temptation of accommodation. Yes, there are still the people of God among the blind. Look at Nicodemus. Look at Joseph of Arimathaea. Yes, there is still a great deal of truth in what they say and write. Yes, mistakes were made, but they will work themselves out. Yes, the older ones are messed up in so many ways, but the younger ones can be counted on to straighten out the messes. Yes, things are basically on the right track.

There is the temptation of the ability to answer or to engage in debate. So easy it is to show from scripture, the creeds, the confessions, and the Church Order that there is so much wrong and so little right. A host of good motives present themselves. Is it not good to keep trying to correct the denomination? Is it not helpful to try to bring about the desperately needed repentance and reform? Isn’t there a moral obligation to open the eyes of the blind?

There is the temptation to use history. Surely, these must remember their own history that they have been taught in school, have read about in books, and have discussed in society meetings. If only they could be reminded of their own history, they would see how the present so sharply contradicts history. Similar is the temptation to use the force of sound doctrine that is still presented somewhat, although compromised. Perhaps, if sound doctrine were repeated enough or strongly stated enough, more would open their eyes to the dreadful compromise that cries out for heartfelt repentance and true, thorough reformation.

What is the specific evil of these temptations offered by the prince of darkness?

According to the word of Christ, the blind are moving. The blind are leading the way. The blind followers of the blind are moving after their blind leaders. Ever nearer they draw to the ditch of their destruction.

The evil is that the disciples of the Lord fasten their eyes on the blind leaders or the blind followers. The evil is that the disciples simply lose their own orientation, their own sense of where they are and where they need to be, orienting themselves instead to the blind and their movements. In efforts to communicate with the blind, disciples of the Lord might accommodate some of their blindness with concessions. Those accommodations their own depravity also favors. In their desires to empathize with the blind, these disciples might decide that the light of the truth is too harsh. In trying to untangle the ever-growing knot of teachings and doctrines, these disciples might become entangled themselves. In seeking to lead the blind out of the fog of confusion and error, they run the frightful risk of getting lost in the same fog.

The depths of that evil and the necessity of those sharp words of the Lord become most evident when the occasions for his warning to his disciples are considered.

The occasion was, first, the sharp words spoken by the Lord to the scribes and Pharisees.

7. Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,

8. This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.

9. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. (Matt. 15:7–9)

Jesus’ words had a demonstrable effect on the scribes and Pharisees. So great was that effect that it made a significant impression on Jesus’ disciples. They felt obligated to call the Lord’s attention to that effect. The disciples’ words can be understood to have the force of a rebuke of Jesus, for the record of Matthew 15 declares, “Then came his disciples, and said unto him…” But it is especially what they said to Jesus—“Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying?” (v. 12)—that became the second occasion for his warning to the disciples.

Offended!

So their Lord had to answer his disciples.

To be sure, he had to answer them with an explanation of the Pharisees. His explanation, however, would not be any less offensive. He had to first speak to the Pharisees about the doctrine of reprobation. “Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.” Second, Jesus had to speak to the Pharisees about their blindness, according to their reprobation. “They be blind leaders of the blind” (vv. 13–14).

But the Lord drove his explanation with all its force not against the Pharisees but against his disciples. “Let them alone.”

No longer look to those leaders, the blind leaders of the blind. Disregard them. Be not moved by their impressiveness, their eloquence, their charisma, their accomplishments, or their followers. Neither be moved by their smiles or frowns. Know that especially their offended disapproval is a particularly fearful snare. Leave them alone. Let them keep their offenses.

How necessary it is to take note of this warning of our Lord in the present! We live in a time when respect of persons and the fear of man are so dominant. So much of what motivates us and controls us is what others think about us. In circles of state, society, and church, our acceptance and places in them depend on what others think of us. At exactly the same time, figures of authority and control wield incredible power. The smiles and approvals of the influential and those in authority form the ground of all acceptance. Withdrawal of those smiles and approvals of men means banishment. Offense has become a powerful tool of manipulation and coercion.

Let them alone!

Let them all alone, and follow Christ alone! He alone is the truth. He alone is the freedom from all blindness. He alone is the freedom from the offense of the blind. He alone gives his blessed grace for the only acceptance that counts—acceptance with the living God, the life that is everlasting fellowship in the light of heaven.