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Cataract Surgery

Sermon by Rev. Doug Pratt — November 11, 2007
 

Introduction to Scripture
In our lifetimes we have become used to hearing about the Middle East as a place of repeated conflicts. The Israelis have fought the Egyptians and the Syrians in pitched all-out war, they have battled against the Palestinians within their borders continually, and various factions have fought one another in civil wars in Lebanon. The search for a lasting peace has continued to elude the leaders of these nations and parties, as well as successive American and United Nations diplomats. And as the French say, “The more things change, the more they stay the same!”

In our reading of Scripture today, a historic account from over 2500 years ago, we find yet another Middle East conflict. In this one the Syrian (or Aramean) king is waging a war of attrition against Israel—but things aren’t going well for him. His enemy seems to be anticipating every move the king and his generals make. He concludes that there must be a spy in his inner circle who is feeding intelligence to the other side. But he’s wrong.

At one point during the Second World War, the paranoid Fuhrer Adolph Hitler became suspicious of his general staff. The Allies seemed to be continually out-guessing the Nazis, anticipating their every move. Hitler ordered the Gestapo to root out the traitor and execute him, but none was ever found. For in fact there was no spy within the ranks. The Allies had actually cracked one of the German secret codes. The reason they were able to anticipate and counteract the Nazis was because of this secret invisible weapon of Intelligence.

The nation of Israel, whose history is recorded in the pages of the Old Testament, also had a secret weapon. Theirs was no spy among the Aramean army, but rather something much more powerful: the Intelligence of the Lord God Almighty. He is the One who has, of course, broken all of our secret codes. He knows everything that every one of us thinks, says and does. And here in 2 Kings, chapter 6, we find an interesting story of a pagan king’s futile attempts to defeat the Lord of Heaven.

     ⁸Now the king of Aram was at war with Israel. After conferring with his officers, he said, “I will set up my camp in such and such a place.”
     ⁹The man of God sent word to the king of Israel: “Beware of passing that place, because the Arameans are going down there.” ¹⁰So the king of Israel checked on the place indicated by the man of God. Time and again Elisha warned the king, so that he was on his guard in such places.
     ¹¹This enraged the king of Aram. He summoned his officers and demanded of them, “Will you not tell me which of us is on the side of the king of Israel?”
     ¹²”None of us, my lord the king,” said one of his officers, “but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the very words you speak in your bedroom.”
     ¹³“Go, find out where he is,” the king ordered, “so I can send men and capture him.” The report came back: “He is in Dothan.” ¹⁴Then he sent horses and chariots and a strong force there. They went by night and surrounded the city.
     ¹⁵When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh, my lord, what shall we do?” the servant asked.
     ¹⁶“Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”
     ¹⁷And Elisha prayed, “O LORD, open his eyes so he may see.” Then the LORD opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
     ¹⁸As the enemy came down toward him, Elisha prayed to the LORD, “Strike these people with blindness.” So he struck them with blindness, as Elisha had asked.
     ¹⁹Elisha told them, “This is not the road and this is not the city. Follow me, and I will lead you to the man you are looking for.” And he led them to Samaria.
     ²⁰After they entered the city, Elisha said, “LORD, open the eyes of these men so they can see.” Then the LORD opened their eyes and they looked, and there they were, inside Samaria.
     ²¹When the king of Israel saw them, he asked Elisha, “Shall I kill them, my father? Shall I kill them?”
     ²²“Do not kill them,” he answered. “Would you kill men you have captured with your own sword or bow? Set food and water before them so that they may eat and drink and then go back to their master.” ²³So he prepared a great feast for them, and after they had finished eating and drinking, he sent them away, and they returned to their master. So the bands from Aram stopped raiding Israel’s territory.

2 Kings 6:8-23

The Affliction of Cataracts
Cataracts are a gradually-deteriorating condition of the crystalline lens of the eye. A normal lens is perfectly clear, but a lens with cataracts is cloudy, filmy and discolored. The condition is most commonly found among people over the age of 50, but is not limited to that age group; younger people have developed them, and even in rare cases infants have been born with cataracts. If left untreated, the condition results in complete blindness to everything but bright light. I know there are a number of people among us today who have had cataracts. I understand that it can be a very frustrating experience. The world becomes hazy, foggy and blurred. Things no longer stand out in sharp detail. It’s hard to recognize and identify people at a distance.

The only treatment for cataracts is surgery. Thankfully, the prognosis is excellent. Under the care of a skilled eye surgeon, full sight can usually be restored. Surgery, though obviously never pleasant and fun, can be a great relief and blessing. Submitting to the surgeon’s hands can allow you to see again clearly.

As aggravating as cataracts may be to our eyesight, there is a condition that is far more serious, and that affects many more people. And I call this condition “Spiritual Cataracts.” It’s an inability to see life and God and truth and reality clearly. So many people stumble through their days with no more than a hazy, foggy idea of the invisible realities of the universe. They miss all the true beauty and joy and abundance of life that God wants to offer them.

But there is exciting hope for all who have spiritual cataracts! God the Great Physician can perform cataract surgery on our minds and hearts, and give us spiritual 20/20 vision. And we have an interesting example of just such an operation in this Scripture text.

I. Two Reactions to Life’s Problems
The story of the King of Syria’s futile and foolish attempt to capture the prophet Elisha is, I think, one of the most interesting (and humorous) stories in the Bible. Picture the scene in this way: in one corner of the ring we have an old, bearded, shaggy-looking prophet and his timid servant, living in a sleepy little farming village called Dothan.

In the other corner, the mighty Syrian king with all the military power at his command: his horses and chariots, the ancient world’s equivalent of the First Armored Division. This powerful commander decides to eliminate the humble little prophet. So what does he do? He sends nearly his whole army to accomplish the task. Really, King, isn’t this overkill? Sending a huge force to capture one man? Why not send in a few rangers or the SWAT team to accomplish the job much more easily and efficiently? In fact, a single soldier ought to be enough to capture an unarmed prophet!

But, in fact, an army of a million men with tanks and planes and cruise missiles wouldn’t have been enough to do the job, because the Syrians were not confronting a human force at all. They were up against the unlimited power and invincible might of the Lord God of the Universe. What looked to human eyes like an uneven fight in favor of the king was actually the reverse: the Syrian and his troops didn’t have a chance. It was Estero High School against the Indianapolis Colts.

What I want us to focus on is how two people reacted in the face of a seemingly big problem. When Elisha and his servant woke up one morning and found themselves surrounded by a hostile army, they responded in two very different ways. And in their responses we can come to understand two possible outlooks on life and reality.

When Elisha’s assistant rolled out of bed, turned on the coffeemaker and went outside to get the morning paper, he couldn’t believe his eyes. Enemy soldiers and chariots were all around him! How would you feel if you looked out your bedroom window one morning and saw a tank battalion surrounding you, its gun turrets aimed right at you? Well, you might react a bit like this man did: HE PANICKED! He yelled for his boss to come. Elisha took one look, smiled calmly, and said “Don’t worry about it. No sweat. We’ve got them right where we want them.”

Is he kidding? the servant thought. Is he hallucinating or on drugs? Has the old man gone blind? Did somebody slip some Prozac into his Merlot last night at dinner? How could he be so calm in the face of this disaster? The young assistant could probably see much better than old Elisha with physical eyes. But he could not see with the spiritual clarity of the prophet. The young man could count the material things around him: “One, two, three, twenty, fifty, a hundred chariots.” But he had not yet learned how to count the spiritual things: the heavenly Chariots of Fire on the hilltops all around them.

Elisha, in his patient response to his servant’s fears, is not ignoring or minimizing the human obstacles and difficulties. He could see the enemy well enough. But he was also able to see the rest of the picture, the presence and power of God. He speaks those immortal words that have proven to be a comfort for believers facing every imaginable kind of problem for thousands of years. Verse 16 is the key verse of our text—and the one from this passage to commit to memory: “Don’t be afraid. Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” And then Elisha prays a simple prayer: “Lord, at this moment my young friend can only look upon appearances which are not realities. Show him reality. Open his eyes and show him Your presence. Then he will be at peace. Remove his cataracts, O Lord.” And God did.

The servant realized for the first time that an army of angels on fiery chariots was surrounding their enemy. Look carefully at the story. When did the heavenly army appear? Did they come in answer to Elijah’s prayer—like the U.S. Cavalry arriving to rescue the circled wagon train from the attacking Indians in an old western? No. They had been there all along. There had never been a moment when Elisha and his friend had not been completely in the care and protection of the Lord. What changed as a result of Elisha’s prayer was simply the young servant’s awareness of what had always been true.

The spiritual message for us, the truth we need to take away from this study of God’s Word, is this: God is always with us. He never leaves us or forsakes us, as Scripture repeatedly promises. The spiritual, eternal world is real and is always there, if only we have eyes to see and understand it.

Today we’ve read about “horses and chariots of fire.” A week ago many of us watched a great film with that title: Chariots of Fire. The director chose the title based on this story we have read in 2 Kings. In the film, a young Christian named Eric Liddell, a gifted sprinter for the British Olympic team in the 1924 Olympic Games, demonstrated the spiritual vision and maturity of Elisha. He was able to see clearly not only the material things of the world—success and glory and fame—but also beyond, to the deeper and more important spiritual realities of life. And as those of us who recently read his biography learned, Eric Liddell’s entire life was dedicated to serving the Lord—in his athletic career, and then beyond that for the rest of his life as a missionary in China.

II. The Material and Spiritual Worlds
If we’re honest with ourselves today, I suspect that all of us at times have reacted to the challenges and temptations and trials and dangers of life the way the young servant of Elisha did. We’ve all given in to fears, to lusts, to anxieties, and to discouragements. The spiritual vision and faith of the great prophet is not something that comes naturally to us.

We live in a material world that is constantly pressing on us and trying to squeeze us into its mold. We feel temptations to put all our energy and focus on material and worldly things and ignore the intangibles of right and wrong, faith and prayer. The material world puts cataracts on our eyes that blind us from seeing the things of God. Think about some of the ways in which people live blindly:

• They give in to addictions and sinful pleasures just to grab a few minutes or hours of feeling good.


• They worry and stress over things they can’t control.


• They devote their precious resources of money and time to things that are worthless.


• They choose self-interest at the expense of loving relationships.


• They’re too busy doing other things to make any time for God in their lives.

These are “spiritual cataracts.” We all, by nature, are plagued with them. That’s why we need the Lord’s help, as Elisha’s assistant did, to see things as they really are. We need cataract surgery.

The connection between what an eye surgeon will do for us in the surgical suite and what God does for us when we humbly come to Him breaks down at one point. Ordinarily, when a person has cataracts surgically removed, the problem is solved once for all. It is unlikely that person will need cataract surgery again on the same eye in his or her lifetime.

But that’s not true spiritually. As long as we live, we will be prone to having cataracts grow back over our spiritual understanding. And that is why we need to regularly, consistently submit ourselves to the hands of the Divine Surgeon.

This is exactly what we do when we gather here each week. After six days of immersion in the secular world, with its materialism and its spiritual blindness pressing on us, we need to have our vision and spiritual insight restored each Sunday morning in worship. We need to lift our eyes beyond the enemy chariots surrounding us to see the “chariots of fire” all around. We need to be reminded of the tremendous promises of God in Scripture and the life-altering perspective and values He brings to us.

Conclusion
What we need above all, my Christian friends, is the sight of Elisha. We need the power to see the chariots of fire on the mountains; to see God in all situations; to see that the darkest clouds and the most threatening enemies are all under the controlling power of our Everlasting Father.

And seeing this, we will have the prophet’s faith, and the prophet’s hope, and the prophet’s trust: that, indeed, those who are with us are more than those who are against us. The prayer on each of our lips should continually be: “Lord, open my eyes, that I may see.”