It has been a long time since I last posted anything on my blog. I felt like I was getting preachy and I didn't want to do that, so I stopped. Just recently Kate suggested that I start writing again, and shortly after that I stumbled into the below during one of my morning devotionals. My prayer is that this serves to strengthen my walk, and maybe challenge some of the ways in which we as Christians approach the world around us.
Here is the setup: Jesus had just healed a blind man by placing mud in the man's eyes and telling him to go wash the mud in a specific well. The man did not know who had healed him, and the Pharisees (religious authority of the day) were questioning him. I'm going to jump in mid-story. If this is the first time you've read this, or like me, you've read this multiple times; focus in on what the Pharisees say and how they say it - then look at what Jesus says at the very end of the conversation ...
A second time they summoned the man who had been blind, "Give glory to God," they said. "We know this man (Jesus) is a sinner."
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!"
Then they asked him, "What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?"
He answered them, "I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?"
Then they hurled insults at him and said, "You are this fellow's disciple! We are disciples of Moses! We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don't even know where he comes from."
The man answered, "Now that is remarkable! You don't know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does his will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God he could do nothing."
To this they replied, "You were steeped in sin at birth, how dare you lecture us!" And they threw him out.
Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?"
"Who is he, sir?" the man asked. "Tell me so that I may believe in him."
Jesus said, "You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you."
Then the man said, "Lord, I believe," and he worshiped him.
Jesus said, "For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind."
Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, "What? Are we blind too?"
Jesus said, "If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains."
-- John 9:24-41 NIV
I have read this story more times than I know, but during a recent devotional I think I really paid attention for the first time. I was blown away by the venom of the Pharisees and the depth and power of Jesus words at the close of the conversation. I want to tackle both aspects in this post.
First off, the poison of the Pharisees.
You are steeped in sin, how dare you lecture us? The Pharisees were talking with a man who was born blind, and could suddenly see. Instead of approaching this situation with awe they saw it as an affront to their authority. They refused to feel any wonder, and instead sought a way to manipulate the man to fit into their preconceived views. When the man refused the Pharisees grew offended and cast the man out.
How easy is it to imagine those words to come from the pews of a church? How dare you lecture us? We know what is right. You are blind, and we can see - be gone from us!! We place our fears, prejudices, cultural norms and traditions, and build those attributes into our vision of God. We know that we are right because God is on our side. We cast people out in his name, we draw lines and require that people conform to be like us before they are allowed to cross into the holy zone. We take verses out of the Bible to justify our actions.
If God calls it a sin it is a sin, and we cannot allow it to be in our midst. So, if you will just admit that you are wrong and change you are welcome, but if you don't change you need to leave.
Think about this .... Jesus spent his time with sinners right? That's what we are taught. But it was never Jesus who called these people sinners - it was the religious authority who defined the people as sinners. It was the religious authority that separated "us" from "them". The Pharisees were the ones picking up the stones, they were the ones looking for someone to step out of line. They were the ugliness that the church shows the world to this day.
Jesus just spent time with people. Jesus treated people as special - not because they were sinners, but because they were. He did not approach people as projects in need of fixing, he treated them as valuable because they had value. The change he brought; people chose freely because of the love Christ gave them. He offered love and grace to any who would accept it. It seems that the people who claimed to be holy, who claimed to have sight were the ones who most often refused to see the grace offered them.
What exactly does it mean when he says, "If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin..."? It is one of those statements that does not seem to mesh with the teaching of the church. The church often teaches that if a person does not accept Christ they are doomed, but that isn't what Jesus says here. He seems to be saying that if a person does not know that they are blind they will not be held accountable for this - only those who claim to know the truth will be judged accordingly.
I think C.S. Lewis gave a beautiful illustration of God's spirit in the face of blindness in The Last Battle. At this point in the story the known world has ended, and all that is left is the world beyond the worlds. The children have encountered a youth by the name of Tisroc, who was a member of the peoples who had worked to destroy Narnia. Tisroc was picked up by his god, Tash and carried into the world beyond the worlds. If this makes no sense to you please read the entire Chronicles of Narnia series - it is a beautiful set of books.
... Then I fell at his feet and thought, Surely this is the hour of death, for the Lion (who is worthy of all honour) will know that I have served Tash all of my days and not him. Nevertheless, it is better to see the Lion and die than to be Tisroc of the world and live and not to have seen him. But the Glorious One bent down his golden head and touched my forehead with his tongue and said, Son, thou art welcome. But I said, Alas, Lord, I am no son of Thine but the servant of Tash. He answered, Child, all the service thou hast done to Tash, I account as service done to me. Then by reason of my great desire for wisdom and understanding, I overcame my fear and questioned the Glorious One and said, Lord, is it then true, as the Ape said, that thou and Tash are one? The Lion growled so that the earth shook (but his wrath was not against me) and said, It is false. Not because he and I are one, but because we are opposites, I take to me the services which thou hast done to him, for I and he are of such different kinds that no service which is vile can be done to me, and none which is not vile can be done to him. Therefore if any man swear by Tash and keep his oath for the oath's sake, it is by me that he has truly sworn, though he know it not, and it is I who reward him. And if any man do a cruelty in my name, then though he says the name Aslan, it is Tash whom he serves and by Tash his deed is accepted ...
God does not judge us by the name that we claim - he judges us by who we actually serve.
My prayer is that any ugliness that I do would be revealed to me. Any attitudes of superiority or divisiveness would be stripped bare. I want to love people not because of what I think they can do for me (or what I can do for them), but because they are special. I want people to discover the amazing love that is offered to them from a God of endless love. I want to reflect the love of the God I claim.
God is good. God is love. God loves every person as they are. He does not require that we change to be loved, but he will change us if we accept that love. It is another one of those things that is hard to understand, but that does not make it any less true. He has perfection for us, and if we let him, he will take us there. I don't know what that looks like - my guess is that it looks different for each of us, but I have faith that he is working on my heart for His glory. Amen
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