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Most people have either read this poem by John Godfrey Saxe or have heard the story that it tells.
The last stanza of the poem compares the arguments of the blind men with the way people today argue about God and religion. The two kinds of argument are very much alike. God has revealed his existence and power through what he has created and he has given all of us an innate concept of right and wrong, so everyone knows something of God. But that knowledge is incomplete and is usually mixed with a lot of false beliefs. In most theological arguments those involved are like the blind men in that “each is partly in the right and all are in the wrong.â€
Most people who have heard this story don’t know of an event that happened to the blind men later. Someone else brought an elephant to the town where the men lived. However this was not a live elephant but a model elephant which was small enough for a person to hold in his hands. He heard about how the blind men were always arguing so he gave each of them an opportunity to examine his model elephant. As a result all six of the men finally came to an understanding of what an elephant was really like and this brought an end to their arguments.
If we had a small model of God that we could examine perhaps it would put an end to our theological arguments. But of course that isn’t possible. Or is it?
The first chapter of John’s gospel introduces someone called the Word who is God but who also became a human.
Verses 17 and 18 tell us who the Word was.
One reason Jesus came was to show us what God is like.
Just as the blind men could understand what a real elephant was like by examining the model, we can learn what God is like by seeing what Jesus was like.
Jesus is no longer on the earth but is seated in heaven so it is no longer possible for anyone to observe him directly but in the New Testament we have the words of those who did see him.
By reading and studying what they wrote we can come to understand God as well as we could if we had seen Jesus in person.
Jesus went through the land teaching and healing those who were sick. By his teaching he told people what God was like and corrected any false ideas they held and his healing proved that he was really who he claimed to be and also showed that God wants to do good for us.
But he did one more thing which is probably even more important. He allowed himself to be crucified. The people who crucified him couldn’t have done so without his permission. He demonstrated that clearly when he was arrested.
What possible reason could there be for someone who was God in human form to die? The answer is found in the words of John the Baptist.
If we compare our lives with what Jesus taught it is obvious that none of us has done all that God requires of us and therefore we all need forgiveness. Jesus died as a sacrifice to take away our sins and his resurrection shows that God has accepted his sacrifice. This means that anyone who turns from his sin and puts his faith in Jesus can be forgiven.
The fact that the death of Jesus was necessary before we could be forgiven shows us two important truths about God: God hates all sin and will judge it but he loves us and he expressed his love by sending Jesus to pay the penalty for our sins.
Salvation includes more than having our past sins forgiven. We receive eternal life and in John 17:3 Jesus tells us what eternal life is.
The model elephant helped the blind men to understand what an elephant was like but that was all it did. But Jesus did much more than simply enable us to know more about God; he made it possible for us to actually know God.
The last stanza of the poem compares the arguments of the blind men with the way people today argue about God and religion. The two kinds of argument are very much alike. God has revealed his existence and power through what he has created and he has given all of us an innate concept of right and wrong, so everyone knows something of God. But that knowledge is incomplete and is usually mixed with a lot of false beliefs. In most theological arguments those involved are like the blind men in that “each is partly in the right and all are in the wrong.â€
Most people who have heard this story don’t know of an event that happened to the blind men later. Someone else brought an elephant to the town where the men lived. However this was not a live elephant but a model elephant which was small enough for a person to hold in his hands. He heard about how the blind men were always arguing so he gave each of them an opportunity to examine his model elephant. As a result all six of the men finally came to an understanding of what an elephant was really like and this brought an end to their arguments.
If we had a small model of God that we could examine perhaps it would put an end to our theological arguments. But of course that isn’t possible. Or is it?
The first chapter of John’s gospel introduces someone called the Word who is God but who also became a human.
Verses 17 and 18 tell us who the Word was.
One reason Jesus came was to show us what God is like.
Just as the blind men could understand what a real elephant was like by examining the model, we can learn what God is like by seeing what Jesus was like.
Jesus is no longer on the earth but is seated in heaven so it is no longer possible for anyone to observe him directly but in the New Testament we have the words of those who did see him.
By reading and studying what they wrote we can come to understand God as well as we could if we had seen Jesus in person.
Jesus went through the land teaching and healing those who were sick. By his teaching he told people what God was like and corrected any false ideas they held and his healing proved that he was really who he claimed to be and also showed that God wants to do good for us.
But he did one more thing which is probably even more important. He allowed himself to be crucified. The people who crucified him couldn’t have done so without his permission. He demonstrated that clearly when he was arrested.
What possible reason could there be for someone who was God in human form to die? The answer is found in the words of John the Baptist.
If we compare our lives with what Jesus taught it is obvious that none of us has done all that God requires of us and therefore we all need forgiveness. Jesus died as a sacrifice to take away our sins and his resurrection shows that God has accepted his sacrifice. This means that anyone who turns from his sin and puts his faith in Jesus can be forgiven.
The fact that the death of Jesus was necessary before we could be forgiven shows us two important truths about God: God hates all sin and will judge it but he loves us and he expressed his love by sending Jesus to pay the penalty for our sins.
Salvation includes more than having our past sins forgiven. We receive eternal life and in John 17:3 Jesus tells us what eternal life is.
The model elephant helped the blind men to understand what an elephant was like but that was all it did. But Jesus did much more than simply enable us to know more about God; he made it possible for us to actually know God.
