THE PARABLE OF THE BLIND MEN AND THE CUPS

As you have noticed, I have not written anything lately. Part of me says, “Why write when God will not let me teach what I have learned?” and another part of me says, “If I do not try to explain what God has taught me, then how will anyone else understand?”

I have no desire to be a leader. We already have a leader and that leader is Jesus Christ, the King of kings. It would be best if we all listened to our King, but we seem to always look to man to explain what our King says. Because no man is perfect, if you place your faith in any man, to explain God to you, you will not understand, as you should.

I believe that God has given me a parable, so that I understand His way about teaching and understanding.

There are three blind men, standing and talking to each other. They all wish to understand everything and they are asking each other many questions, but because they are all blind, they do not have many answers.

While they are talking a stranger, who is not blind, walks up, and hands each man a cup. All three cups are exactly the same and the blind men begin to examine them.

They all reach the same conclusions. That is they are made of a hard material. They are open at the top and the bottom is closed. They all agree about everything they can find out about the cups.

However, one of the blind men, which agreed with the other two, in order to understand everything about the gift from the stranger, turns the cup upside down. Then he begins to try to explain what he has learned to the other two blind men.

Well that goes over like a lead balloon. The other two have examined their cups and they know the opening is on the top of the cup and no one is going to tell them that they are wrong. They are so sure that they are right that they will not turn their cups upside down to see if the other blind man is telling them the truth.

The truth is the blind man that is at odds to the others is not telling them they are wrong, only that if they examine their cups from a different angle, they will understand even more.

All three of the blind men would understand everything, that they could understand about the cups, if they only asked the stranger who could see.

Let me explain the parable to you. The cup represents the Word of God, which is Scripture. The stranger, who can see, is Jesus. The blind man that turned the cup upside down is me.

When we examine the cup, holding it the same as everyone, we all agree about everything we ascertain about it. However, if the cup is turned, so as to better understand it, it may seem to be different from the other cups. But the cups are all the same, only the angle that they are being held is different.

If you think that I am trying to teach you anything, you are only partially right. I would, if I could, but that honor is reserved for Jesus only. If you think that I am wrong, then ask the stranger that can see and therefore knows everything about the cup. Perhaps he will turn the cup in your hand to a different angle and you will understand better than I do. I pray that he does and then you can try to explain it to me.

I hope that you are better at explaining than I am.