This morning I felt led to read from John 9, which is a chapter with which I am very familiar, the story of the man born blind, but healed by Jesus. I have always enjoyed this story, especially the interactions between the man who was healed and the Pharisees, as it just sounds so real. This morning as I was reading it, I realized that there is an interesting parallel to all the confusion that is in the wind over competing videos, and facts and rules and requirements for response to covid-19. Anyway here are the verses - John 9:13-34 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.”
[18] They still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man's parents. [19] “Is this your son?” they asked. “Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?”
[20] “We know he is our son,” the parents answered, “and we know he was born blind. [21] But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don't know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself.” [22] His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who already had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. [23] That was why his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”
[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?”
[28] Then they hurled insults at him and said, “You are this fellow's disciple! We are disciples of Moses! [29] We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don't even know where he comes from.”
[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.”
[34] To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out."
As I was reading these verses this morning, I realized that some people will never believe the facts, as the facts don't fit their narrative, or understanding, and so rather than being open to changing their mind, they reject the facts, and reject those that know those facts to be true. It seems we have the same issue now, except now we have so many voices, so many opinions, so many "professional" responses. Ugh, what are we to think?
We see here the Pharisees sticking to their understanding of the Law, rather than acknowledging that Jesus could possibly be from God. They believed that anyone who broke a law was unrighteous, and thus could not be from God, who was perfectly righteous. The specific Law that Jesus "broke" was the commandment to do no work on the Sabbath. Spitting into the dirt to form mud and then spreading the mud on the man's eyes sure doesn't seem like work, but according to the Talmud, which is not Scripture but man's attempt to define exactly what the Covenant of the Law meant, it could have been seen as work.
Talk about missing the forest for the trees in front of them. They also had countless verses from the Prophets that indicated that God would open blind eyes, but rather than look at this situation from that perspective, they chose to focus on one tiny man-made addition to the Law, and throw out the whole of truth that was right in front of them.
So, how do we apply these verses to our lives today? For me, I am confident that if I turn to the Lord, that He will guide me to clarity and understanding. I am purposely shutting out the myriad of voices, looking to the facts and asking the Lord to help me know how to respond. I don't need the media or the hundreds of opinionated voices telling me what to believe, and what not to believe, I want to hear from the Lord.
I am not trying to make this into a religious argument at all, but rather saying that the Lord has a perspective, and I am going with His, to the best of my understanding. Our faith is meant to be lived personally, each in relationship with the Lord, hearing His voice for ourselves. We are to be guided in this by the whole of scripture, and the recorded experience of those people of faith who went before us. I am not telling anyone what to believe or what to think, but I must come to a place of peace myself.
Going back to John's story, we see that in the next verses (35-38), John records Jesus finding the man, and telling Him who He is, and the man responds by worshipping Jesus! Oh, that we would let Jesus be enough! Not that we put our head in the sand and ignore everything else, but rather that we choose Him, His peace, love, mercy, compassion, faithfulness and forgiveness over everything else. It is possible to view the world from the arms of Jesus, and that is my intent. I am reminded of Jesus' statement found in John 14:6 NIV: "Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
If we want to know the truth, we should turn to "The Truth".
Amen!
May the peace of Christ and the clarity of His mind be yours today! May He guide you into all truth!
Sam
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