This morning I was lead back to John's Gospel and the story of the man born blind, who was healed by Jesus. There is an interesting question being discussed in the midst of that story that I need to think more about. Here are the verses of focus- John 9:13-17, 24-27, 30-33 NIV:
[13] "They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. [14] Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man's eyes was a Sabbath. [15] Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. “He put mud on my eyes,” the man replied, “and I washed, and now I see.”
[16] Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others asked, “How can a sinner perform such signs?” So they were divided. [17] Then they turned again to the blind man, “What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened.”
The man replied, “He is a prophet.”
[24] A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God by telling the truth,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.”
[25] He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don't know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”
[26] Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”
[27] He answered, “I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples too?”
[30] The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don't know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. [31] We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. [32] Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. [33] If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”
So the question(s) is whether or not it was a sin to break the Sabbath, and whether someone who was a sinner could be used of God to great things like healing a man born blind? Although we don't usually put this question in these simple terms, we find that this type of thinking is actually quite prevalent in the church. We know that Christ never sinned, so its not really a question as to whether or not He is a sinner, but it is clearly a question that is significant for every other Christian, for scripture makes it clear that we are all sinners.
The first question was whether or not it was a sin to do "work" on the sabbath. The Sabbath was created by God, and the basic law came from Him (see Ex 31:14-16 for an example). However, the definition of work and the religious observance of the Sabbath had mostly been developed by man. The purpose of the Sabbath was to cause the Israelites to cease from their own labors, and reflect and recognize that it was the Lord God who made them Holy, set them apart and provided for them, and all of that was not due to their own works. Here is Jesus, representing the Father and showing the people that God was still present, providing for them and interacting with them, and they couldn't get past the religious mind-set that was created by man teaching man's interpretations of God's laws (religion). Jesus was embracing the very definition of the Sabbath and so clearly not sinning.
The proper definition of sin is doing something that is outside of the will of God. The term used most frequently speaks of missing the mark. It was a term associated with archery, and I know that whether I miss the target completely, or only by inches, I still have missed the mark. Jesus lived His life in perfect obedience to the Father's will. Every word He spoke, every action He did was coming from the direction of the Father. He was sinless, in other words He was always hitting the mark in everything, every moment of every day! No one else that has ever lived is sinless, so we are all "sinners" (Rom 3:23). If we are all sinners than we know that if God wants to continue to do His work on earth through us, than He must use sinners.
The second question is very interesting and although we might agree to the statement above, that God has no choice but to use sinners, we tend to believe that God's choice to do powerful works through someone is a sign that this person is Holy, and some would argue, not in sin. This is not true if we are all sinners, and the proper definition of sin is anything that is not in the perfect will of God. I have said this before, but it is worth revisiting, having read the lives and writings of many people who we would consider Holy, even saintly, everyone one of them was more and more and more convinced of their sinfulness the closer they came to being like the Lord. One could say that in the light of Christ, all sin becomes exposed and as you draw closer to Him, the more every little speck of sin is exposed by His increasing light. Now these people lived exemplary lives, but from their own perspective of looking to Christ, they saw their own weakness and sin, and were never convinced of their own purity and holiness.
This would be the opposite of the thinking that is being presented in this story and that is prevalent in the church. It is common to see an equating of a person's holiness and purity with their ability to do miraculous works. This can get us, and the people who God is using powerfully, into some trouble if we start believing the results are a sign of their purity and sinlessness. I have seen some people convinced that their ability to do mighty works is a sign that there is no sin in their lives, and God is thus using them. The problem with this thinking is that it isn't true! (Look to scripture for plenty of examples of people doing mighty works, while having sin, or plenty of wrong ideas in their lives - all sinners by definition). If we hold this view about someone else, we will be convinced that everything they are doing and saying is from God, even things that would normally be considered questionable, and this is very dangerous. If we are the person God is using, we can become convinced that as long as God is doing mighty works through us, that we aren't sinning, and everything in our lives is ok by God, and this is very dangerous, as well.
We see the results of this type of thinking regularly in our churches. It is unfortunate how many great ministers, representatives of God who are doing great things, having significant areas of sin exposed publicly. The interesting thing is that their ministry did not seem affected by their sin, which is what this type of thinking that we are examining this morning would require. Often times the minister is seeing significant moves of God occur through them, and because of that they think they are not sinning, or maybe that God isn't applying the same rules to them as to everyone else. The people who follow them are shocked, and then wonder if God was actually even at work, since these ministers were clearly sinful. That is the exact same thing the Pharisees and teachers were arguing about Jesus, they thought He couldn't possibly be representing God, because He was clearly sinning.
By no means am I saying that our obedience to the Lord is of no consequence, nor that we shouldn't pursue purity and holiness. I am saying that we cannot assume the state or condition of one's heart (even our own) before God looking purely at their actions and God's apparent blessings in their lives, as evidenced by the works He does through them. Some of the greatest saints who have ever lived, ones that saw amazing miracles worked through their prayers, have also been convinced of their absolute unworthiness and sinfulness. Back to the analogy of sin, even the best archers in the world are upset when they miss the bulls-eye, even if its just by a hair. In the same way these saintly individuals did not dwell on the fact that the majority of their former sinful tendencies are gone, but rather that in the light of Christ they still had much they could improve upon.
Two things that I take away from this discussion:
1) God uses sinners and if I am a sinner I can't disqualify myself from being used by God, even in miraculous ways.
2) I need to guard my heart and thoughts from prideful, unbalanced and potentially dangerous thinking like this that would convince me that sin isn't sin if God is doing awesome stuff through me, or others.
Lord help us all!
Just a couple of things for further consideration -
1) Look at the spirit of pride that was evidently in the apostles hearts, even while they were healing the sick, cleansing the lepers, opening blind eyes and raising the dead - see Luke 9.
2) Look at Mark 10:13 - the discples are keeping the little children from coming to Jesus, and He is indignant (clearly, they missed the mark)
3) Peter was rebuked by Paul because he was acting wrong (sinning) concerning the message of grace - Gal 2:11-16
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