SEEING WITH EYES OF FAITH

“One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”

 John 9:1-25 (NIV) 

¹As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. ² His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

³ “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. ⁴ As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. ⁵ While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

⁶ After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. ⁷ “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

⁸ His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?” ⁹ Some claimed that he was. Others said, “No, he only looks like him.”

But he himself insisted, “I am the man.”

¹⁰ “How then were your eyes opened?” they asked.

¹¹ He replied, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.”

¹² “Where is this man?” they asked him. “I don’t know,” he said.

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!”

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“One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”

            Sight is an everyday miracle that most of us just take for granted.  We wake up in the morning, open our eyes, and go about our days without another thought -- without a single “Thank You” for the precious gift God has given.  Through sight, we find our way around our physical world.  Through sight, we interact with this world and with those around us.  Through sight, we experience life.

            There are many in our world today who do not have this gift.  And, although they can navigate this world and experience life just as well as those of us with sight, their experiences and interactions are not the same.  Despite God’s grace in their blindness and His giftedness to them in other ways, they cannot experience the beauty and wonder of this world in the same way or to the same extent as those who wake up seeing, but who so often take this gift for granted.

            In Annie Dillard’s book, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, she discusses the experiences of those who first received cataract surgery once this technique became widely available.  In those days, those born with cataracts were essentially blind, unable to see and experience the gift of sight.  But, as doctors began operating on those with cataracts, a new world opened for them.

            “Vision is pure sensation,” she wrote.  Those who underwent the surgery were able to “see the world as a dazzle of color-patches” for the first time.  Their eyes were opened and new experiences and senses flooded their lives, resulting in “expressions of gratification and astonishment.”  Quoting from Marius von Senden’s Space and Sight, Dillard described the overflowing gratitude from one young girl who saw for the first time after the removal of her cataract: “Oh, God!  How beautiful!”

            Senden documented the changes that were wrought in the lives of those given sight.  Especially noteworthy is the comment, “A blind man who learns to see is ashamed of his old habits. He dresses up, grooms himself, and tries to make a good impression.”  Where before, he had no idea of the state of his dress and did not care how others might see him, now that he can see, his entire behavior and code of conduct has changed.

            Reading this, I could not help but think of the parallel to our Christian life.  Before we came to Christ, we were as the blind man in this passage from John 9.  We went through life without really experiencing it.  We moved through it, we lived in it, we sought our living in it, but the true nature and depth and beauty of this world was hidden.  And, our spirits and our lives were shaped by the darkness that surrounded us.  We paid little attention to our dress or our habits or what we did.  We lived in sin and dressed in filthy rags simply because we did not know any better.

            But one day, Jesus came.  He passed by where we stood.  He called to us to come.  And we heard His voice proclaiming, “I am the light of the world.”  What a statement to make to someone who lived in darkness -- who had never experienced light -- who couldn’t understand what light was.  As sinners, we lived bound in darkness and could not imagine another life -- a life filled with light and glory.  But, when Jesus called, we heard and our souls stirred and we felt a longing for something that we desired deep within, even though we didn’t understand it or know we needed it.

            And, standing before Jesus, He touched us.  The darkness fled.  The light rushed in.  And our souls were filled with His glory and grace.

            Immediately, a change was wrought in our souls.  Seeing clearly for the first time, we were amazed at the beauty of this world.  The brightness and sharpness of creation.  The glory of God reflected all around us.  In the Emmaus movement, we use the phrase, de colores, Spanish for “the colors,” to help explain how we now see the world and creation and those around us once we have come to trust in Jesus for salvation and the forgiveness of sins.  It’s like the movie, “The Wizard of Oz,” when everything changes from black-and-white and becomes color.  That is what coming to Christ is like.  That is why we should exclaim, “Oh, God!  How Beautiful!”

            This opening of our eyes -- this ability to see as never before -- to experience light within -- also causes a change in our behavior.  We look at our garments, and realize they are but filthy rags.  We look at our actions, and see the evil within.  And we are determined to make a change.  Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we let God’s light shine within our hearts and out through our very being, radiating forth with force and magnificence to change our very self, from the inside out.  Our thoughts change.  Our motives change.  Our actions change.  Our lives change.

            Such is the power of sight.  Such is the power of the light of the world illuminating our very souls.  Where before we lived in the familiarity of darkness because that was all we could imagine, now we find ourselves living in a light that is beyond anything that we can imagine.  Words cannot describe the change that was wrought.  With the blind man by the pool of Siloam, we can only explain it by proclaiming to others, “One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”

A CHRISTIAN RESPONSE TO NATURAL DISASTERS

Over the past several months, we have witnessed extraordinary natural disasters in this country and abroad.  Major earthquakes have occurred in various places, most recently in Mexico.  Floods and wildfires appear to be everyday events now, and the southeastern U.S. is reeling from the double-punch of hurricanes Harvey and Irma. 

But, to quote the double-rainbow guy (see You Tube video here), “what does this mean?”  It seems everyone has a different interpretation.

Some people have expressed the certainty that these natural disasters are God’s judgment on America, although their American-centric view omits the regular occurrence of natural disasters in other parts of the world (for example, the current famine in Africa that has largely been ignored in the West).  These judgment-pronouncers point to the current cultural and moral climate in America and stand on their soap-box and proclaim that what we are seeing is nothing less than God’s judgment in response to America’s sins. 

While I agree that the sins of America are many and that our country has drifted a long way from its original Christian foundations, I do not believe these natural disasters are a sign of God’s judgment, any more than 9-11 was a sign of God’s judgment. 

In Luke 13 Jesus’ disciples ask Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with his pagan sacrifices.  Was it because they were worse sinners than others?  No, Jesus said.  They were not worse sinners, no more so than those in Siloam who were killed when a tower fell on them.  This was not God’s judgment upon them as a result of their individual sins because all.have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  All deserve judgment, not just these select few, but God has withheld His judgment on sinners so that salvation and redemption might come through His Son.  God “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4).  Therefore, Jesus replies, “I tell you...unless you repent, you too will all perish” -- you, too, will suffer the wrath and judgment of God.

The assertion that the recent natural disasters are signs of God’s judgment on the United States is simply not supported by Scripture.  God’s judgment will come, but not yet.  It will come when Jesus returns, at the end of the age, after all have had an opportunity to respond to God’s grace through Christ.

For a more detailed analysis of the reasons why these natural disasters are not a sign of God’s judgment, read Allan Bevere’s post here.

So, if these natural disasters are not God’s judgment, what do they mean and what should be our response as Christians?

First, we need to consider the fact that they may mean nothing at all.  They may simply be part of the natural world that God created, and they may be part of His plan for the normal functioning of environmental processes.  Natural disasters have always occurred, from the beginning of creation until now.  Hurricanes are not a recent phenomenon.  Floods and earthquakes have always occurred.  Wildfires are a normal part of the ecosystem processes.  In fact, in the southeastern U.S., the longleaf pine forests are termed “fire dependent,” and rely on the periodic return of wildfires, to include catastrophic wildfires, in order to maintain their existence on the landscape.  In the absence of wildfire, the longleaf pine forests and all its dependent flora and fauna would disappear, to be replaced by an oak-dominated ecosystem.

That said, I do believe the intensity and destruction associated with these natural disasters are not part of God’s original plan of creation.  I do believe they were part of His original plan, but not with the intensity nor frequency we are currently experiencing, and certainly not with the concurrent destruction and devastation.  I contend that they are a result of living in a fallen world, one which has deviated from God’s original plan and order because of the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. 

Assuming the Garden of Eden represented God’s perfect order in terms of His Creation, then as sin corrupted and impacted this paradise, we would expect to see conditions worsen the farther from the origin we go.  In other words, the greater the distance from the original point of creation, the greater the effect of sin displayed in terms of intensity and magnitude and consequence.  These natural disasters look worse now because they are -- not as a result of God’s judgment -- but as a consequence of how far Creation has fallen from God’s original plan.  Hence, the need for redemption.

I think Jesus pointed to this when He talked in Matthew 24 in the Olivet Discourse about the birth pains associated with the signs of the end of the age.  Jesus told His disciples to not be deceived, that there would be wars and rumors of wars, but not to be alarmed.  There would be natural disasters (earthquakes and famines) in various places, but to not be worried.  “These would be the beginning of the birth pains.”

Jesus’ comment about the birth pains has been interpreted to mean that as the end of the age approached, these signs would increase in intensity and magnitude and duration, just as the birth pains of a woman increase as the time for the birth approaches.  Thus, natural disasters will continue to occur, and as time goes by, we can expect to see them occurring more and more frequently and with greater duration and intensity.  They may mean nothing more than that we live in a fallen world, far from the original paradise of God, a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin.

Secondly, while these natural disasters are certainly not a judgment from God, they may be a means of God’s grace.  Natural disasters are just that...disasters.  And when they occur, people’s lives are impacted in so many negative ways.  Homes and material possessions are destroyed.  Lives are taken, both as a direct result of the disaster and indirectly through the associated hardships of illness and lack of basic necessities (food, water, and shelter).  Disasters are horrible events. 

But, in the midst of the horribleness of the disaster, God’s grace and mercy is made manifest.  Just as a light shines brightest on the darkest of days, God’s grace shines forth in the midst of human suffering and calamity.  As C.S. Lewis wrote, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”

While I do not believe God desires this suffering or sent these natural disasters as judgment, I do believe He redeems their occurrence by pouring out His grace into the lives of those affected (See Romans 8:28).  His goodness and love and mercy can be seen and felt through the hands of those ministering to those affected by the storm, by the sacrificial love shown to those who suffer.  Looking in the news and on social media, you can see story after story of how God’s grace touched the lives of people during and after Hurricanes Harvey and Irma.  We saw the same with Hurricane Katrina and in the flooding in the midwest several years ago.  We saw it during the tsunami in 2004 and during 9-11. 

God’s grace shines forth in the darkness to bring hope and life to a people searching for help in the aftermath of a disaster.  And, our response to these disasters should not be to point our finger at others and condemn their sins, but to reach out in love and care and help those affected when and where we can.  If not in person, then financially and through our prayers.  Christian are called to be the hands and feet of Christ in this world, and the church is called to be His redemptive agent on earth, to share the good news of Christ in physical and tangible ways through the direct application of His love to others.  Certainly, we should share the good news of Christ with those who do not know Him, but the hurting cannot hear until their basic needs are met, and the message should come through love, not condemnation or judgment.

Finally, while these natural disasters are certainly not God’s judgment on sinners, I do believe they represent His clarion call for repentance.  These natural disasters are used by God to call out to a wayward world to come home, to return to Him, to come to His Son Jesus through repentance to receive redemption and salvation.  Jesus makes the point in the Olivet Discourse that “when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door.”  These signs, and the frequency and the intensity of these signs, are flashing warnings that the end is ever near, that our physical death might come at any time, that our days on this earth are numbered. 

The ancient philosophers spoke of “Memento Mori,” a Latin phrase meaning, “do not forget that you will die.”  None of us will live forever.  All of us will pass from this life into the next.  And remembering our imminent death, remembering our sins, calls us to come to Christ for salvation and redemption.  The early church adopted the concept of Memento Mori as a reflection on mortality and a reminder to focus on eternity and the things of God rather than on the temporal pleasures and treasures this world advertises.  Natural disasters are used by God to remind us of what is important and where our focus and priority should be.

While the end of the age and the second coming of Jesus may not occur for years, decades, centuries, or even millenia, that doesn’t erase the fact that each of us face the end of our lives within the next hundred years or so.  These natural disasters are harbingers of the wrath of God on those whose sins are not forgiven, on those who have not been redeemed through the blood of Christ and who continue to live apart from a personal relationship with Jesus.  These natural disasters are reminders of what awaits those who choose to reject Jesus’ offer of the forgiveness of sins and who will be cast out into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

But grace is always present, and God is the Father who stands by the road waiting for the return of the prodigal son, always ready to run to him, to greet him, and to welcome the repentant sinner home.  God’s grace and mercy are extended to us, and these disasters can be considered His megaphone and His call for us to come home.

So, use the opportunity provided by these horrific disasters to share God’s love and message of salvation to this world.  Do not use it as a means of judgment or condemnation, but share God’s grace materially, financially, physically, and spiritually with those affected by these disasters.  Reach out to them and minister to their needs, and share with them the hope we have through Christ.