Blind!

It would be a miraculous thing indeed if we were solely speaking of Jesus restoring someone's physical sight.  Yet, the power and meaningfulness of John 9 goes beyond that.  Why?  Well, let's think about it for one minute.  What does the act of a person restoring another persons physical sight accomplish?  How does that impact my life?  If I witnessed it myself, I would be awestruck and testify to that person's greatness.  But, Jesus came to inhabit earth for one purpose. Namely, to be a sacrifice for us and to show us how to be one with the Father as he is one with the Father. (John 17) He didn't come to be regarded as powerful, mystical, unique, or even great. I mean, we all know that was true of him then, true of him today, and will be true of him forevermore!  What I am driving at is that Jesus himself did not come with that mission.  He was absent any ego, profit motive, power, material gain, etc, etc. He came to serve, not to be served. He came to do the will of his Father, period!  

Therefore, how does John 9 apply to me and impact the way I live if it is only looked at as a physical healing?  Not much at all.  Therefore what meaning can be ascertained from John 9 that has eternal, significant, and personal meaning?  The answer is found at the end of John, 9:41,  "Jesus said (to the Pharisees), 'If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains."  See, Jesus was directing this comment at the Pharisees or Jewish scholars.  Jesus says in verse 39, 'For judgement I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.'  The blindness Jesus is speaking of is spiritual blindness.  In this story, Jesus is saying that those who have no personal knowledge of God and he (Jesus) are in effect blind.  They are groping around in life with no direction and no moral compass.  The Pharisees did have knowledge of God.  They possessed the best book (Bible or in their case Talmud) knowledge among all the people of the world. Yet, they had no personal knowledge of God.  Knowledge and knowing are two entirley different things. They had all the scholarly details down pat but they didn't know God.  Not like Job, 'my ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you. (Job 42:5)  Even here in Job, the word "eyes" is used to convey a real knowing of God, although he did not actually see God.  It is this same emphasis on sight that Jesus uses in a parabolic way to emphasize spiritual sight as knowing God.

We can possess all the Bible knowledge we want and quote scripture front to back.  Yet, the question remains.......do I really know God?  What do I do with all that knowledge of the Bible?  Do I try to impress my friends or use it as a symbol of righteousness?  The Pharisees did and look at their predicament throughout the New Testament.  Jesus took them to task.  We must take that knowledge and personalize the word of God to our everyday lives.  We must work out our salvation......daily.   The sight that has meaning to me is that when I look at my life and my circumstances and I read the Bible, I can see that God has been with me the entire time.........his gentle footprints slightly ahead of mine leading me through ALL of life.  And with that knowledge, developing a faith so strong that I need not worry or toil anymore.  The kingdom of God is when I can walk this earth each day muttering, "thy will be done, not mine" and be like the lillies of the field that do not labor or spin and like the birds of the air that do not sow or reap or store away in barns.  

What is Love?

When I think of the word "love", I think of warm and fuzzy feelings one has for a family member or wife or child.  Basically, love has always been associated with positive and uplifting feelings.

However, I have come to see over the years through God's word what love really means.  It always seems that when we pray for something like love and patience, God places people in our lives who are difficult to love and people who are demanding.  Yet, He says that "love is  patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.......Love never fails!"  (1 Corinthians 14:4-5, 8)

See, the first thing that I have to realize is that God loved me not because I was lovable.  He loved me because that is His nature!  Period!  If His love was contingent upon my personal traits and characteristics, He would have forsaken me long ago.  We are called to love one another just as God and His son Jesus loved us.  That is love with no conditions or strings attached.  Unconditional love.  

And once we grow in our spiritual lives, He will place unlovable people in our path who we will be expected to love in a Godly manner.  That is, we may not like the person or agree with what they say or do, but we must love them.  And the purpose of doing so?  To become as much like Jesus as possible in this life that we may be greeted by God upon our physical death with these words, "well done my good and faithful servant." (Mat 25:21)  We have to remember that "wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it." (Mat 7:13)  If we hate, despise, ridicule, and gossip about those who are different than us, who get on our nerves, who continue on in sin...........then what are we doing any different than the majority of people in this world, the majority as Jesus tells us that are passing through the wide gate?  

I personally have to remember all the times that I have forsaken God, the times when I have done bad things, the times when I lived in the squalor of sin..............then it becomes easier for me to love the unlovable, just as God loved that unlovable me!