What is the significance of Jesus saying, "The blind leading the blind" (Matthew 15:14)?

"Blind guides," they knew not whither they were going. John shows us that. So with all their pretension they were blind. They ask, in John 9. : "Are we blind?" They were assuming to be guides. The language means that there is an awful end for those under their influence. It is plain enough, though Peter calls it a parable. We are slow to believe that which is against us. It is a mercy to have grace to welcome all the word of God, even that which exposes us and shows us our danger.

(6) The "blind" are primarily, no doubt, the Jewish leaders; but the follower will not escape the ditch by being simply a follower: for the truth speaks for itself to him who has ears to hear. He who gives himself up to another's leadership absolutely, has his conscience not before God, but before man; and even the Lord bases His title to be heard upon the truth of what He spoke: "If I say the truth, why do ye not believe Me?" (John 8:46.) That to which a man yields himself necessarily moulds him. If then he surrenders himself to the teacher of error, he will not be above his teacher, but, if he is perfect, be only like him.

"Lot them alone." He says,--terrible sentence from the lips of the Son of God! Yet if men want this haughty independence, God may let them alone to indulge the folly of their choice, with no restraining of His wise and loving hand, of which the believer feels the need, and appreciates. "Blind leaders of the blind" is a striking and appropriate designation. They will fall into the ditch, and those who blindly follow them will do the same. This is warning enough not to follow such men. The leaders of course are the most solemnly responsible. but others are responsible for allowing themselves to be led.

This kind of thing, pushed as it was by the Pharisees to its extreme limits, stirred our Lord to a strong exposure of its evil. They were hypocrites, and He told them so plainly. They came under Isaiah's scathing denunciation, for this type of religious wickedness is always to be found with men who have hearts far from God and yet honour Him with their lips, whilst putting their own precepts and commandments in the place of His word. All such nominal worship is empty and in vain, yet it is not difficult for a true believer to get entangled in such things today.

Having exposed the Pharisees to their faces, the Lord turned to the people to warn them as to the error which lay at the root of this hypocrisy - the assumption that defilement is imposed upon men from without, rather than generated within: that it is physical rather than spiritual. The defiling thing is what comes out of a man's mouth, expressing what is in his heart. The heart of man is the fountain-head of defilement. Solemn fact! The Pharisees of course were offended at such teaching, which cut at the root of all their ceremonial observances, but that only showed that they were no plants of God's planting. Their end was to be rooted up. They were blind themselves and misleading others who were blind also. God would deal with them in His government, and the disciples were to leave them alone and not retaliate.

The disciples did not altogether relish what the Lord had been saying. They came and said unto Him, "Knowest Thou that the Pharisees were offended after they heard this saying?" They might not be offended themselves, but were disposed to sympathize with the people who were. But our Lord answers still more sternly, "Every plant which My heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up." There needs a new life from God, not an improving of the old one. A plant of heavenly origin must be planted, then, and the heavenly Father must do it. Every other plant shall be rooted up. "Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind." Reasoning with these Pharisees is altogether vain. They require first principles, and the work of God in their souls. All discussion therefore is useless. "Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind." He did not apply this to the multitude, but to the leaders that were stumbled by the doctrine of man's total corruption. Such are best left to their own devices. "Let them alone … And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch."

"Then His disciples coming up said to Him, Dost thou know that the Pharisees, having heard this word, have been offended? But He answering said, Every plant which my heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up. Leave them alone; they are blind leaders of the blind; but if blind lead blind, both will fall into a ditch" (v. 12-14). These words not alone show the doom of the Jewish Pharisees, but they speak also of the doom of that which His heavenly Father has not planted -- Christendom. It will be rooted up and then cast out with its boasted leaders, who are but leaders of the blind.

The Lord calls the multitude together to Him therefore, to give the most public utterance to that which may seem to us so simple, and yet to which a large mass of Christians by profession have not even yet attained; that "not that which entereth into the mouth defileth a man." The source of defilement for a man is, alas, within him; and Christianity by taking away the suppositious sources has lifted the true moral element out of all confusion, and placed it upon an immutable foundation. Brought into the clear light, such a principle commends itself to every man's conscience; but all the more would the Pharisees resent it. The disciples, in some alarm, represent this to Him; but He at once in most decisive language condemns their principles as what were no plants of His Father's planting, but as it were weeds that must be rooted up; while they themselves were but blind leaders of blind followers: they would fall into the ditch together. For man cannot escape from the responsibility which the moral faculty entails on him, and which would for the simplest, if they would listen to it, break such snares as these.

Matthew 15 goes deeper into the roots of things. When challenged by scribes and Pharisees of Jerusalem, the Lord shows that their traditional observances made the commandment of God void, and exposes the religion of the flesh. It was hypocrisy. Outward forms were of no avail while the heart was far from God, as Isaiah had forewarned, and the leaders of such a system were but blind leaders of the blind to the ruin of those that trusted in them. So much for man in his religious state. But the multitudes are called to hear that man in his purely natural state is defiled, and that not by anything that goes into his mouth but by all that comes out of it. For all the streams of outward activity do but proceed from the heart, the defiled spring of every defiling thing.

With this the Pharisees are highly offended, and on the disciples informing the Lord thereof, He adds, "Every plant, which my heavenly Father has not planted, shall be rooted up." There must be a new life from God, not an attempt to improve the old; that day had gone by. "Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch." Such was the state of Israel's leaders at the moment. Utterly blind, they knew not Jesus, nor their own need, and their state and their end is thus tersely described. Fancy "the blind leading the blind." Can anything more sad be conceived? Yet has it its counterpart today, when Romanism and Ritualism, with their blind leaders, are leading a blindfold host to the ditch, the means by which blind leaders guide their blinded followers being nothing but the exhumed and refurbished paraphernalia of a defunct Judaism, which had its death-knell sounded by the Lord in this chapter, its death-blow dealt by God at the cross, and its funeral executed when the Romans swept temple, altar, Sacrifices, and earthly priesthood all away at the destruction of Jerusalem.

“Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch” (Matt. 15:12). A solemn verdict this—awfully solemn! It was spoken by Christ in reference to the false teachers of that day—the teachers who placed tradition above Scripture, and who taught for doctrines the commandments of men. Of religion (such as it was) they had plenty, for they drew nigh with their mouth, but their heart was far from God. Oh, what a difference! Mouth-religion may be musical, eloquent, attractive, imposing, but most delusive. It may consist of prayer and chant and oratory, but never affect either the throne of God or the conscience of man. It may present the most splendid appearance outwardly, but withal leave the soul barren and unsatisfied.

It may appeal to history, to language, to learning, or to fathers, but pass over the plain, palpable facts of Scripture. The light of truth, its liberty, its moral power, all is unknown. It dwells in the unspiritual darkness of human thoughts and reasonings. Its teachers are blind, and by them the blind are led. What a condition! And they glory in it.