To See Or Not To See – A Parable

In the land of Egypt where there is only darkness, all are born without the ability to see clearly. As the children grew into adulthood, their vision would become worse until at the end of their lives they forever stepped into eternal utter darkness, worse than the darkness of Egypt itself. For centuries there was no permanent cure for this malady. There were some practices that would ease the tension of living in the darkness without the ability to see clearly, but these were only temporary remedies.

One day a very rich wise man left his comfortable home and gave everything he had to find a cure for the lack of vision among the people. He devotedly worked hard and against much opposition. In the end, he accomplished his life’s purpose and the cure was ready. Because of his heart’s compassion for the people of Egypt who could not see clearly, he made the potion free to anyone who asked for it. He left the responsibility to distribute the formula for the potion to a particular fellowship of societies. These societies were to take the cure to people near their own headquarters.

A certain society was delivering the cure to people in their part of Egypt. A day came where there would be hundreds of children gathered together in one place. There was a church in the city that was giving the children food and hair cuts. There would be doctor and dental services offered as well. The opportunity was presented to the society by an outsider who knew about the service to the children. It would be a very good thing to get the potion to the children.

The society agreed that this was a great opportunity. The idea was that the society would load the potion into a train. They would make sure there was enough for the children and their families. The idea was almost intoxicating. The children would be cured. They would go home to their families with the potion and their families would receive the cure as well.

However, there was one obstacle standing in the way of distributing the potion for lack of vision to the children. According to the representative of the society, this would cause problems for him. It seems that about ten years prior to this time of service to the children, there was a bitter disagreement. The leader of the church offering help to the children and the leader of the church where the representative of the society attended had a quarrel. In order to keep from risking trouble in his relationship with his leaders, the representative of the society who had control of the cure for lack of vision would not take the potion to the children.

As a result, the tragic truth is that as long as the bitterness continued between these two powerful leaders of these two churches, the children of Egypt would not get their cure and neither would their familes. Because of someone else’s unending quarrel the families of this city would have to continue living in the obscure darkness of Egypt without hope of getting the cure.

The moral of this story is where there is needless quarreling there are innocent others who are reaping the results. — The end.

Sadly, this is one of the things we are dealing with in our city here. The issue is that these children who are being ministered to in the physical could get the benefit of receiving a New Testament in Spanish to take home with them. They and their families could be fed spiritually through the richness of the gospel. The society and the church are separate entities. The only connection is that the worker in the society goes to the feuding church. Just as the story indicates, the society, out of fear of losing face with the leaders in his church is keeping the New Testament from being distributed freely to these families.

Paul was speaking to the church in Corinth when he said in 2 Corinthians 12:20:

For I am afraid that perhaps when I come I may find you to be not what I wish and may be found by you to be not what you wish, that perhaps there will be strife, jealousy, angry tempers, disputes, slanders, gossip arrogance, disturbances …

This was not just one church Paul was speaking to, it was the whole body of Christ who lived in the city. Can we imagine that Jesus is saying the same thing? We are all looking for the day when Jesus comes back to take His church away with Him. Will he find bickering, dissension, and other problems with His people?

James says it well:

Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. (James 3:13-18)

The work of God’s kingdom will never get done if we refuse to work together.