St. John’s 9th: FOURTH MOVEMENT

Posted on November 18, 2015 by America's Keswick in Freedom Fighters

“Then Jesus told him, “I entered this world to render judgment—to give sight to the blind and to show those who think they see that they are blind.” ~John 9:39 (NLT)

Some of the craziest display of contradictions occurred to me while I was in school. I was the kinda student that had the roughest time keeping my yap shut. (That’s right folks, I had a sassy mouth…who’da thought?) Whenever I thought something sounded off rhythm I would not hesitant to point it out. It annoyed one teacher so much that she made me write 100 times “I will not get smart”. When I said she forgot to add “mouthed” to the end of her sentence I was marched down to the principal’s office, given a three-day vacation and after my parents were through with me I was transferred from this “nice” teachers class to a class that was considered to be less than “nice”.

The last time I was with you I stated that I admired the blind man’s resilience that we read about in the 9th chapter of John’s Gospel. During the persistent interrogation by the Pharisees this once blind man does not waver one iota. Even to the point where he asks them if they want to be disciples of Jesus. To which they respond, eventually, by throwing this man out of the synagogue and what would be considered the Jewish community all together. Like myself, our friend pointed the obvious and now he is thought of as being “lesser than” everyone else…who followed the line just as it was written. So as we come to the last movement in the 9th chapter of John’s Gospel we now come into the fullness of why this man was born blind in first place…there would be an encounter with Jesus Christ.

The first thing Jesus does with our friend is seek him out once they he has been cast out. For our once blind friend there is nowhere else to go, all that is left is the comfort of Jesus. Here we can see that Jesus is for us when everyone is against us and for those of us who understand being casted out this speaks volumes on what He thinks of us. When our spiritual eyes are opened and we see our Redeemer a wave of contentment should be upon us, as is in the case of our friend here. All that is left for this once blind man to do is to worship the Son of Man. I am sure that as he exits from the scene he doesn’t mind repeating his testimony to those he encounters and from it the Son of Man gets the glory so rightly due Him. Then Jesus turns to the Pharisees…

Jesus, the master conductor, now brings this symphony up to its crusado, “I entered this world to render judgment—to give sight to the blind and to show those who think they see that they are blind.” And the Pharisees respond, “Who? Us? Blind?” It’s funny how the guilty react when the obvious is pointed out to them. And it’s not guilt of action we are dealing with here its guilt of positioning. The Pharisees thought themselves “more highly than they ought to” so much so that instead of practicing compassion they practiced chastisement. Basically saying to everyone around them that if you ain’t at our level…too bad for you. And Jesus calls them out on it, after all, the Jewish community came to them for help when oppression would fall upon them and all the Pharisees did was compromise position. Keep peace or make peace, which is better?

As time as gone by for me I’ve learned a lot about pointing out the obvious to folks. If I don’t do it with a heart of compassion, I may be keeping them in spiritual blindness. Jesus uses the blind man to show His compassion towards The Creation and all those around this miracle could do was question it or even worse, dare to say “We already see.” If my old teacher back in school would have met up with those wacky Pharisees, I wonder what she would have made them write 100 times. Perhaps something like “I will not be spiritually stupid” but then they would have pointed out the obvious and would have been taken to The High Priest for disciplinary actions. For us, all we need to be is content in the fact that Jesus has opened our eyes to see Him and has included us in His community. Amen?

Written by Chris Hughes, Colony of Mercy Graduate

The Daily Bible Reading: 1 Chronicles 22-24; Luke 3

Think About This: “It is a horrible blindness, indeed, when a mortal man is not ashamed to oppose himself to God; but to such a pitch of madness does Satan carry those who set a higher value on their own ambition than on the truth of God.” ~John Calvin

This Week’s Verse to Memorize: The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, To the soul who seeks Him. ~Lamentations 3:25