In Deuteronomy 30, Moses stands before the Israelite people and says, “There are two roads. One road leads to life. The other road
leads to death.” In Matthew 7, Jesus describes these roads as one being wide, easy and leading to death. The other road is steep,
narrow and leads to life. There are many things that can impede our ability to stay on the road that leads to life.

Jesus talks about one of those impediments is the darkness within us. In biblical times, it was believed that there was a light inside the body that came out through the eyes and that’s how people saw. So, the level of light inside a person’s body would enhance or diminish how accurately a person saw something. Jesus used this understanding to teach a truth.

We don’t think that way now, so Jesus might use a different analogy today. He might say that it’s like wearing sunglasses. Even with the advancements today, sunglasses limit how accurately we can see something. And the darker the shades, the more obscure and distorted our vision is.

When we have these figurative shades on, they distort our relationships. They distort how we see ourselves. They distort how we see God. They can even distort how we see scripture.