Man Healed of Blindness, John 9:1-25
This passage is an exceptional example of storytelling. The conversations and interaction between the characters are so believable. The neighbors’ comments (Is that him? No, just someone who looks like him); the Pharisees’ questions (One more time, how did you get your sight back?); his parents refusal to get caught in the middle (He is of age; ask him); and the poor blind man’s frustration (I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again?). Many of us have heard this type of discussion before or been involved it ourselves.
I love the way the devotion speaks to the man’s blindness. Because he couldn’t ‘look’ at others, he was always over ‘looked’. We often forget that those with disabilities have emotions and intellect that are fully functional even though one aspect of their physical being is not. His blindness gave him the super power of being invisible, but he could never turn it off.
The big question that started this whole discussion gets lost in all the details of this conversation. Who sinned? How did this unfortunate situation come about? As humans, we are curious to figure out the cause when we see the effect. There should be a reason, and the greater the effect that we can see, the greater the cause must be. Yet here Jesus basically replies, the only cause may be so that God’s works will be revealed.
That answer is usually not good enough when we or someone we love goes has a permanent disability or goes through painful situations (let God use someone else so that God’s works may be revealed, not me or those I love). Christianity is a revealed religion, not a reasoned religion. You cannot reason your way into understanding God’s plan because on the surface, it does not make sense. If we must have a reason for everything that happens in life, then the Christian walk will be very frustrating for us. That is why faith is so important — faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). Faith cannot be reasoned, it can only be offered and when faith is offered, revelations (revealed wisdom) comes.
May each of us have the sight to see the Spirit working in our lives so that God’s works and wonders may be revealed.