John 9-10

A few quick thoughts about John 9 and 10 this morning.

John 9: The man born blind has his sight restored by Jesus – a story most Christians know well. In fact, most of the world has some of this scripture memorized (thanks to that oldie-but-goodie “Amazing Grace”) – “I was blind and now I see”.  Anyway, what strikes me this morning is that this “blind begger” was such a great evangelist!  The guy is blind from birth, probably in his 20’s (his parents say “he’s of age…” and he’s been a begger already) he gets his sight. I’ve heard stories of blind people having even partial sight restored through surgery and it’s tremendously overwhelming. Can you imagine being completely deluged with light and sight (you’ve never seen any of this before – and it’s not even gradual – it’s all at once). BUT he can’t even take the time to deal with it – he’s immediately questioned and told he’s a sinner and a lier, etc. Even his parents can’t seem to commit. Even still he seems to quite simply say, “this is crazy, I was blind but now I see. From where I’m standing it’s pretty clear that this man, Jesus, is the real deal! Man, what a bunch of schmucks you are!” (OK, look at 9:30 to get the real deal – this is my paraphrase)

So, what about me?  What in my life points to this kind of faith?  (that’s what it is, right?)  If I was questioned as to the power of Jesus and his real identity – what in my life would point to His real work.  Even Jesus, in John 10 (coming next) says that “even if you won’t believe in me because of the Scripture, at least believe on account of the miracles I perform” (paraphrased).  So, what would that be and why don’t I talk about it more?  This morning I can point to a number of miracles in my life that, if you know my life (as these people knew this blind begger) – you’d know it was outside of my doing.  1. My restored marriage.  2. My marriage to begin with (seriously, I married way beyond my league!) 3. our children – we were told that getting pregnant was virtually impossible without drugs – our second child is due in February!

I know there are more – but these are the ones that immediately jump to the front.  In these cases, I think I can pretty clearly share how it “had” to be Christ because it wasn’t possible otherwise.   It would be cool if I could say, “seriously, how can you not see this.  I was near divorce and now I have no doubt this is going to last forever in this life.  You’re just silly if you don’t get that!”  Or, “what about, ‘you will not be able to conceive without medicine’ don’t you get!  We have two kids for crying out loud!”  I know I shouldn’t want to be so confrontational, but I just wish I had a better reaction when I hear people say that Jesus just isn’t real or they’re not religious or whatever.  Who knows..

John 10: ran out of time to type this morning.  Hopefully this evening.