"Once Was Blind; now I see!" ... What's Your Story?

By Bob Stains

"Once I was blind; now I see!" So said "the man born blind" in John 9. It's a great story. A beggar blind from birth who, with his parents, is suspected of having committed some sin that caused his blindness.

Jesus has a different idea about the man. He sees him as he could be -- whole -- and He heals him. He says he's come to bring light to the world. Spits on the ground, makes mud, puts it on the man's eyes and tells him to wash it off in the Pool of Siloam. When he does, he can see for the first time: the light flows through him.

Can you imagine how he felt? Can you see him shouting and leaping; laughing with tears at seeing his parents for the first time; running about and inspecting every last thing for color, shape, texture and movement?  See his parents fall on their knees, weeping with gratitude, hugging Jesus' legs? And there's Jesus smiling, happy with the healing.  

And, later, the Pharisees. They encounter a man they've gotten used to calling "the blind beggar." Who now sees and no longer begs, who has been "born again" into a new life of sight and agency.

Ashen they are, then red-faced with rage. How dare this itinerant peasant -- this Jesus fellow-- break the Sabbath and heal without "going through the proper channels!" And they grill the poor guy who's just gotten his sight back: "Who healed you? Was he a sinner?" And, I love his response, after he castigates them for being so thick: "I know not if he was a sinner. All I know is that once I was blind, now I see." Boom!

Easter is coming, the time when many of us will be welcoming new people into the church and perhaps helping them realize how much God loves them. A time when we decide whether, how, and how much to tell our stories of Jesus' touch in our lives.

People come seeking, looking for stories of transformation -- evidence for hope -- not propositional truths. Our stories are powerful. But how can we tell them in respectful ways? 

The John 9 story about the man I prefer to call "The Healed Man" immediately comes to mind. Message: our stories of healing and resurrection don't have to be long, complex, flowery, intentionally persuasive. In fact it's better if they're not. The Healed Man's story is elegant and powerful in its simplicity: "Once I was blind, now I see." Ours can be, too.

Whether you're interested in sharing it with others or just pondering it for your own meditation, I encourage you to take "The Four-sentence Challenge:" pick an experience of God's action in your life. Write it out and then boil it down to its essence in four sentences:

1. Where/how you were in need ("I was blind")
2. What God did/how you were touched ("He put mud on my eyes.")
3. What changed for you ("Now I see.")
4. How being at All Saints helps you.

Jesus brought light into the life of the Healed Man, his parents and to us. We have the privilege of sharing that light through the stories we tell, helping others open to the love that's waiting for them.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
By Leslie Blake “Father forgive them……..” Powerful words spoken by our dearest Lord Jesus as he was dying while upon the cross. How…? How could He in the midst of pain & anguish, feeling the sting of mockery & abandonment, struggling to breathe & remain conscious……..how could He still request forgiveness for the very ones who did this to him? The word forgive by definition is a “verb,” something that requires an action to complete; for something that does not require actual physical labor, it is oftentimes one of the hardest tasks to accomplish. How often do we think about the word forgive? Really, truly think about it? We say it every time we recite the Lord’s Prayer:  “And forgive us our trespasses…..” We are asking God to forgive us on a daily basis. In fact, we probably expect it. But do we follow through on the next line? “…As we forgive those who trespass against us.”  That’s much more difficult. It’s easy to use the word loosely as we accidenta
Read more

Does God have a Direct Hand in our Temptation?

Image
From the Rev. Marya DeCarlen: In December, Pope Francis made news by suggesting that the words of the Lord’s Prayer should be changed from “lead us not into temptation” to “do not let us fall into temptation.” With a wee bit of research I learned that he actually commended the French translation for making it clear that God doesn’t push us into temptation, but rather picks us up when we fall. He suggested that Italian and other translations may consider similar changes, to be more theologically correct. Christian doctrine does not include God tempting us to do evil, but helps us be freed from it. We all fall into temptation at various points in our lives, but God does not push us into it. After sharing this news with our worship team at All Saints North Shore, and suggesting that we might want to be on a different diet of the Lord’s Prayer during Lent, I learned firsthand that many people still have the traditional Lord’s Prayer memorized.  It surely is the best known r
Read more

Save Us From the Time of Trial

Image
By Elizabeth Losa The Book of Common Prayer’s contemporary Lord’s Prayer seemed such an improvement to me that I began using it in my private devotions even while my church continues to use the traditional form. The newer translation calls a sin a sin, rather than a stroll across the grass. It speaks person to person rather than using "Thy" which is artificial to my speech, and it allows us to contemplate the kingdom, the power and the glory before ascribing them.  And saying “Save us in the time of trial…” answers my childhood objection that a good God would not even think of leading us into temptation.  Indeed when older persons explained to me that God tries us and it makes us stronger, I never bought it. But I realized this week that I was reading the phrase incorrectly, it is actually rendered, “Save us  from  the time of trial.”  At first I thought that perhaps the preposition was just the choice the translators made for some difficult word.  So I wen
Read more