Luke 4:28-29 And all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things; (29) and they got up and drove Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff.

I find the phrase “blind rage” quite interesting and worth giving some thought to. Why this adjective? Blind? Most of you have been the object of the RASN’s rage (reviler, abuser, sociopath, narcissist), and though you may not have realized it at the time, that rage made the RASN to be a fool.

Consider the verses quoted above. This mob was filled with rage at Christ and in that rage became murderous. They would have thrown him off a cliff if not for the Lord’s divine intervention. They had the Son of God, their promised Messiah, right there among them, yet they raged at the truth He preached to them and in that rage were blind to all else except their intense lust to kill Him. Blind. Blind to His Person and glory.

RASNs rage. Perhaps in somewhat different ways. Some of them rage more silently than others, but nevertheless the flames of rage are there within. And as – is it exaggeration to say “always”? – as it always is with rage, a blindness is produced.

Blindness to what? What is it that the raging RASN doesn’t see? I suggest that what is unseen is the consequences of his rage. Raging blindness is blind because it focuses on one thing and one thing only – vengeance. Revenge. It does not see the truth of the person or words it rages against. It does not see the outcome/results of choosing to rage instead of repenting. It does not see the destruction it will produce. It is blind to all of this because it only sees punishment of the one it rages against. It is blind rage.

Domestic abusers, for instance, when they rage, are blind to the reality that causing trouble for their victim at, for instance, the victim’s workplace, is going to result in the abuser’s own financial loss. When they rage and blindly seek revenge through the courts, they fail to see their own financial loss. In their rage they are blind to the truth that their victim spouse is a wonderfully gifted, talented, and loyal person who should be seen as a jewel to be cherished. No matter. They are blind. They rage. Vengeance, punishment, these are all that matter.

The result? Not only pain and hurt for their victim, but great loss for the RASN himself. I wonder how many such ragers at some point, when the consequences of their blind rage come home, think, “I may not have thought this thing through”? Probably not very many. The blindness lingers long.

Blind rage is a chief reason RASNs are fools. It makes a fool out of the one raging. It even would kill the very Savior sent for the fool’s own salvation.