Go Wash

 

"As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth.  “Rabbi,” his disciples asked him, “why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?”

“It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him.  We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent us. The night is coming, and then no one can work.  But while I am here in the world, I am the light of the world.”

Then he spit on the ground, made mud with the saliva, and spread the mud over the blind man’s eyes.  He told him, “Go wash yourself in the pool of Siloam” (Siloam means “sent”). So the man went and washed and came back seeing!

 This man had never met Jesus. Out of the blue, without even asking for permission, Jesus makes a mud pie with His own spit, puts it on the man’s eyes and tells him to go wash in a swimming pool. Here’s the part we can’t miss, “So he went and washed and came back seeing.” (John 9:7)

 But wait a second, hadn’t Jesus previously just proclaimed people healed and they were healed? Whats with the mud? Well, there is an old saying that “Seeing is (believing),”  but according to Jesus, believing is seeing. If this man had not believed what Jesus said, if this man had said, “This makes no sense; you’ve healed others with just a word! Why do I have to go wash now? I don’t believe you can really help me!” He would have died a blind man.

We might think thats harsh, but we do this at times too. “Jesus, this makes no sense, I’ve prayed, I’ve told you my issues….you’ve healed others without them doing anything….why do I have to be part of my healing?” Sometimes we even go so far as to give up all together.

There are times when we pray that Jesus puts things on our heart. To move or act in some way. Maybe it’s that he simply wants us to keep praying! Things might be taking longer than we wanted or expected. Jesus’ healing in our life might seem more involved than other healings we’ve seen him do for others.

What is the one thing that keeps us hanging on in those insecure, doubtful moments? Desperation.

Why did this man believe Jesus? Because he was desperate. Nobody else had offered a cure. Nobody else had offered a change. Nobody else had offered an opportunity for this man to see. He believed what Jesus said, because it was the only thing that still held hope.

For those living lives of quiet desperation today and wanting a way out of your desperate situation, cling to what Jesus says. Believe what Jesus says about you. Believe what Jesus says about Himself and what Jesus says He can do through you, in you, and for you.

Listen again to the last statement of verse 7.

“So he went and washed and came back seeing.” (John 9:7,)

What does a person with blindness need? Sight. What does a person in darkness need? Light. Here Jesus, the light of the world, had given this man sight to his eyes.

The scripture goes on to tell us that no one believed what had happened. His neighbors doubted and the Pharisees doubted.

Do you know why everybody else in this story refused to believe in Jesus except this one blind man? Because their attitude was “Until I understand everything I want to understand and until I get every question answered I want answered I will not believe.” They thought, “Seeing is believing.”

If you are having a hard time believe in Jesus because you’ve got this question unanswered and that question unanswered and you don’t understand this or you don’t understand that, you’re in a perilous place. Because If you have to understand everything before you can believe…. you will never truly believe; because seeing is not believing, but believing is seeing. And once you believe and have eyes to see….you will truly know who Jesus is.

Why do we treat faith in Jesus differently than the way we treat faith in everything else? All of us, every day, act on things that we believe, but don’t understand. We don’t focus on the unexplainable in our every day lives.

We might not know how a cell phone works, but we use one. We may not understand aerodynamics;  like how a plane that weighs several tons can get into the air and fly, but we have flown on airplanes.

Yet in this world we will meet people or even be people that just don’t believe at times. One thing we can’t deny is this book we call the bible, that has survived for thousands of years, though many have tried to destroy it, is still the world’s best seller.

We cannot deny that the same disciples that ran away from Jesus at His crucifixion gave their lives preaching His resurrection. We cannot deny that that tomb on that Sunday morning was empty and the body of Jesus has never been discovered. We cannot deny the billions of people in this world who claim their lives have been radically and irrevocably changed and transformed by the risen Jesus Christ.

If you say, “When I see it I’ll believe it” then you may never believe it. When you say, “I believe” then you will see….and then you will know.

This man believed what Jesus said and because of that he received what Jesus had.

If you are a believer and you have seen the light and you have been delivered from the darkness of desperation and you have experienced transformation through Jesus Christ you’ve got a job to do.

Go out and find other people who are sitting beside the road living lives of quiet desperation and offer them the same light that has been given to you.

If you are an unbeliever I would encourage you to simply do this. Instead of asking “How?” start asking, “Who?” and “What?” I would encourage you to begin reading the Gospel of John today, and simply ask two questions:

Who did Jesus claim to be?

What am I going to do about it?

Let’s wash the mud from our eyes this Lenten season and believe, so we can truly know Christ.

-Pastor Patti