Walking down the street, Jesus saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked, “Rabbi, who sinned: this man or his parents, causing him to be born blind?”
3-5 Jesus said, “You’re asking the wrong question. You’re looking for someone to blame. There is no such cause-effect here. Look instead for what God can do. We need to be energetically at work for the One who sent me here, working while the sun shines. When night falls, the workday is over. For as long as I am in the world, there is plenty of light. I am the world’s Light.”
6-7 He said this and then spit in the dust, made a clay paste with the saliva, rubbed the paste on the blind man’s eyes, and said, “Go, wash at the Pool of Siloam” (Siloam means “Sent”). The man went and washed—and saw.
8 Soon the town was buzzing. His relatives and those who year after year had seen him as a blind man begging were saying, “Why, isn’t this the man we knew, who sat here and begged?”
9 Others said, “It’s him all right!”
But others objected, “It’s not the same man at all. It just looks like him.”
He said, “It’s me, the very one.”
10 They said, “How did your eyes get opened?”
11 “A man named Jesus made a paste and rubbed it on my eyes and told me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ I did what he said. When I washed, I saw.”
35 Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and went and found him. He asked him, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
36 The man said, “Point him out to me, sir, so that I can believe in him.”
37 Jesus said, “You’re looking right at him. Don’t you recognize my voice?”
38 “Master, I believe,” the man said, and worshiped him.
40 Some Pharisees overheard him and said, “Does that mean you’re calling us blind?”
What we believe predetermines what we see. The pharisees did not believe a man of God would heal on the Sabbath so anyone who did simply could not be of God.
Our beliefs can lead to blindness; our blindness leads to prejudice, judgment, and conflict. We see too much of this today, in the church and in the world.
Faith is meant to be a centering force, opening us up and enabling us to see God at work around us and even sometimes through us.
To say, “Lord, I believe!” is to make a statement as to the direction of our lives - not the boundaries, which keep us restricted in our prejudices.
It means we are to be compassionate as our God is compassionate!
“Faith is a power and passion
in authority among the powers
and passions of my life.”
P. T. Forsythe
Prayer thought for the week: “Lord, open my eyes too see; open my heart to believe;
open my will to be your ambassador of compassion.”
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