“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!”
1 comment:
WOW!
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