The sin of the blind eye

If you falter in a time of trouble, how small is your strength! Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering towards slaughter. If you say, “But we knew nothing about this,” does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Proverbs 24:10-12

My wife and I recently watched a dramatization of the end of the Second World War. One particularly harrowing scene showed American troops entering a concentration camp, and the sheer horror of what they found: prisoners in a state of near starvation, more dead than alive, dressed only in those striped pyjama-type outfits. We sat shaking our heads, hardly able to believe that such cruelty could be inflicted by people on fellow human beings.

The Bible Book of Proverbs (a great book for browsing, by the way) contains a wide mix of sayings. Some of them (15:12, for example) are pretty banal, leaving you thinking “Yes? All right, but… so what?” But others pierce right to the depths of your conscience, and 24:11-12 is one such – and it came to my mind as I watched that film: Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering towards slaughter. If you say, “But we knew nothing about this,” does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?

The key words, for me, are that claim “we knew nothing about this…”. The film made it clear that within a few miles of that concentration camp there were villages with people getting on with their normal everyday lives. Could they really claim not to know about what was going on just down the road? Did they not notice the sinister-looking trucks, the comings and goings of military personnel, the smoke rising into the sky, the terrible smells of death and disease? Had they not picked up rumours of what was going on in their country?

It must, surely, have been a case of what we sometimes call “turning a blind eye”? The effect it had on me was not so much to lead me to criticise those ordinary local people, but to ask myself the question, “What would I have been like if I had been in their shoes? Would I have been any better?” And I have to confess that I couldn’t answer that question with any great confidence… (How easy it is to condemn sins or failures that we personally have never been tempted by!)

So here, plucked straight out of Proverbs, is a direct challenge to all our consciences: Do I have a tendency to look the other way when I see or hear things I really don’t want to have to think about? It’s easy to make excuses - and, of course, there may be times when we have valid reasons not to get involved. But… often that But is a pretty big one…

Broadly speaking there are two main reasons why we tend to turn a blind eye to bad things: Fear, or Indifference. Putting it more simply, either we’re scared, or we just couldn’t be bothered.

I can only guess that those German villagers, in the main, were scared. They were living under a cruel and repressive regime and they felt the need to “keep their heads down” in case they too ended up in such a place. That’s understandable, but of course it flies in the face of the example of Jesus himself and, throughout history, of many heroic men and women who have risked their lives for what they felt was right.

The Nazi concentration camp is an extreme example; our circumstances are no doubt far easier. But still we can hide our fear of getting involved in difficult issues under excuses which, in our hearts, we know are feeble: “Well, what difference could I make anyway…?”; “Really, it’s none of my business”; “I don’t like to judge others – there’s two sides to every story, after all”.

No, we don’t want to be busy-bodies or trouble-makers; “whistle-blowers” often make themselves seriously unpopular. If we do decide to act we must be determined to do so prayerfully, thoughtfully and only from pure motives. But there are times when our consciences tell us only too clearly that we have a difficult choice to make, and nobody can make it but ourselves.

I’m afraid that more often when we turn a blind eye – certainly in my case anyway – the real reason is indifference. I may care in theory – of course I do! - but to tell the truth I don’t really care enough... It’s just too much trouble… I really haven’t got the time… I simply don’t want to have to bother.

The Anglican church, when praying prayers of confession, speaks of “sins of commission” – that is, wrong things that I do – and “sins of omission” – that is, good and right things that I fail to do. It’s a worthwhile distinction; remembering it can help us to keep our consciences sharp and pure, for there are times when the sins of omission outweigh the sins of commission.

I have found over my years as a pastor that people with no interest in church sometimes feel the need to excuse themselves (quite why I don’t know: why not have the courage of their non-convictions?): “I admit that I am not a church-goer myself,” they say, and then they eagerly add, “But I will say this: I never do anybody any harm”. As if that makes everything all right, then. It doesn’t, of course.

We are put on this earth to love and serve God and to be a blessing to our fellow-men and women. We know he loves us and is forgiving, but we’d better not take him for granted! Let’s take seriously the warning of Proverbs 24:12: “If we say, ‘But we knew nothing about this’, does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?”

Father, when I’m frightened of doing right, give me courage. When I’m lazy and indifferent, rebuke me. So help me to fill my days with actions and words, however small, which are honouring to Christ and which bring blessing to others. Amen.