ONCE-BLIND MAN ( John 9)

"THE MOST COURAGEOUS ACT IS TO THINK FOR YOURSELF  ALOUD" - COCO CHANEL

MY DEAR GRANDCHILDREN,
TODAY WE TALK ABOUT A YOUNG MAN WITH A BIRTH DEFECT.
YOU MAY UNDERSTAND:
- THE SICK ARE ESPECIALLY LOVED, NOT CURSED BY GOD.
- WHY FAITH MAY PRODUCE MIRACLES, BUT MIRACLES DO NOT NECESSARILY PRODUCE FAITH!

'Why me? What is God trying to tell me?
In Jesus' day people assumed that tragedy hit people who deserved it. The Pharisees saw the hand of punishment in natural disasters, birth defects, and such long-term conditions as blindness and paralysiss. Steeped  in good Jewish tradition, Jesus' disciples debated what could account for "the man blind from birth".
The disciples were looking backward, to find out "Why?". Jesus redirected their attention forward, answering a different question: "To what end?".
What began as a tragic tale of one man's blindness, ends as a surreal tale of everyone else's blindness:
- the man's neighbors make him prove his identity,
- the Pharisees subject him to formal interrogations,
- his own parents waffle under all the pressure.
As for the once-blind man, he has little time for such theoretical musings: "Whether he is a sinner or not, I don't know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see".
In Jerusalem, where Jesus had been censured as a heretic, a clearcut miracle, especially one performed on the Sabbath, posed a grave threat to official doctrine. Although the Pharisees could not disprove the miracle - a blind beggar was now looking them in the eye and taunting them in open court - in the end they clung to their time-worn theories of punishment. "You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!" they snapped at the man. Theological blinders do not easily fall off.
The response to this miracle, as well as most of the others reported in the Gospels, bears out a striking principle of faith:
Although faith may produce miracles, miracles do not necessarily produce faith' (Philip Yancey, The Jesus I never knew).

• < Prev
• Next >