Someone once said, “There is no worse blind man than the one who does not want to see.” This saying is typically spoken of a person who is in denial and refuses to accept the reality of their situation. In truth, it is an excellent description of an obdurate person. It is simple to visualize these words as a portrait of a man with his eyes shut, claiming to be medically blind. It is comical to imagine this person going to a doctor for a cure, when all he needs to really do is open his eyes. Yet, it is curious to realize how often this has this been the case in human history. During His tenure on earth, the Lord frequently spoke out against the Pharisees’ hypocrisy displayed in their preference of following the tradition of the elders instead of the commandments of God. This the Master would do in the presence of the people to dispel the Pharisees’ hypnotic and misguided influence over them. Thus, when His disciples informed Him on a certain occasion that this took place that “the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying” the Lord replied: “Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch” (Matthew 15:12-14, emphasis added). Unquestionably, the Lord Jesus had made several attempts by this time to open the eyes of the Pharisees, but they vehemently refused. Therefore, the Redeemer describes them as blind not because they could not see the truth; they chose to turn a blind eye to the truth. It must be understood that in this Scriptural example, Jesus equates spiritual blindness with deceit. Of these wicked men, the apostle Paul warned that “evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived” (2nd Timothy 3:13, emphasis added). The description provided by Paul is curious because it fits in well with our description of a person in self-denial. According to biblical lexicons, the word used for evil is the Greek word ponēros and one interpretation refers it to being physically diseased or blind (Thayer, G4190). The second descriptive word implemented by Paul is impostor, and its Greek counterpart, goēs, refers to either a wailer, a howler, an enchanter, or a deceiver (Thayer, G1114). So in essence, Paul is putting forth an image of a diseased man who feigns to be healthy and is highly contagious. Unarguably, what makes this person a threat to the public is not his disease, but his refusal to accept treatment for his malady, thus spreading his infection to everyone who comes into contact with him. This also links with the Great Physician’s figure of a blind man leading another blind man into a ditch. One refuses to accept that he is infected and the other is unaware of that person’s infection. Refusing to accept the truth of the situation, only worsens the outcome for all parties involved. For this reason, a quarantine not only becomes necessary but it also becomes an act of mercy. It has been stated throughout this entire series that the purpose of separating (i.e. quarantining) the false teacher from the rest of the church is to restore him back to the truth. To allow the false teacher to continue to promote his false doctrine is to allow a very sick man to willingly infect others. Behold the cruelty of doing nothing when these situations arise. Behold the reason that motivated the Lord to publicly unveil the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and their erred understanding of Scripture. The Savior’s intended purpose was to cure the Pharisees of their spiritual disease, but also to stop the disease from spreading to the rest of the people. Never was the Lord motivated by misplaced anger or hatred, although often this was erroneously interpreted. Let us remember that in another instance, when He stood in front of Jerusalem, the Lord wailed “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate” (Matthew 23:37-38, emphasis added). This example given to us by Holy Writ is one that must always be emulated when a fallen brother must be withdrawn from. Observe that the Lord Christ exclaims that He “often” attempted to prevent Jerusalem’s obliteration, but they belligerently rejected His protection. Christ, therefore, lamented greatly for them, but separated Himself for He concludes “for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord” (Matthew 23:39, emphasis added)! The magnanimity of the Lord exudes in this phrase. Although He predicts their looming doom and informs them of His departure, He also grants them an opportunity to reconcile with Him. However, it should not and cannot be ignored that this could only be possible if there was a genuine change in them. The Lord manifests their repentance by demonstrating the difference between their current (at that time) rejection of God’s prophets with what should be their future acceptance of His disciples preaching to them in His name. We must learn of the Master’s mercy toward those who held Him as an enemy. Despite being despised and humiliated by them, He always allowed the doors of reconciliation to remain open. He revealed to them the error of their ways and made it know to everyone as a warning of their contagious spirit, but was always ready to embrace them in His loving arms once their spiritual gangrene had been completely healed. When He had to quarantine those false teachers, indeed He did it for the protection of those who had not been contaminated; however, He did it for their own health and protection as well. Any good doctor will tell you that a patient who is separated from the public is done so more for his own well being than for the threat he presents to the public. Thus, when a beloved brother falls prey to Satan’s delusions and is deeply infected by false doctrine, we must often try to open his eyes so he can see the truth. If he repeatedly denies that he is spiritually sick, then it becomes necessary to separate him from those whom he can infect. Yet, we must remember that this decision is primordially to fully restore the fallen brother to his spiritual health. When this is practiced in this godly manner, it truly becomes a merciful quarantine.
