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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
As He went along, He saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked Him,
“Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened
so that the works of God might be displayed in him. As long as it is day, we
must do the works of Him who sent Me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While
I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
After saying this, He spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva,
and put it on the man’s eyes. “Go,” He told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam”
(this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn’t
this the same man who used to sit and beg?” Some claimed that he was.
Others said, “No, he only looks like him.”
But he himself insisted, “I am the man.”
“How then were your eyes opened?” they asked.
He replied, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes.
He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could
see.”
“Where is this man?” they asked him.
“I don’t know,” he said.
John 9:1-12
This ends
today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
When you think of the
word “disability”, what comes to mind?
Maybe it’s an image of
someone in a wheelchair, unable to walk because of some injury or illness. Perhaps
it’s a picture of someone who has lost an arm or hand or finger. Or it could be
someone who has lost their sight or hearing.
In our world today, we
find disability striking people in a lot of different ways, some more obvious
than others. In regard to the latter statement, I believe we can broaden our
knowledge of the concept by considering that a disability is dictated by a
person’s lack of ability to do something. I can say this because the meaning of
the prefix “dis” is simply “a lack of” or “apart from”. Applying this to the
word “ability”, we gain the definition that a disability is an ability a person
has that is lacking or missing. And it can include any ability we may have, not
just the very obvious ones or even ones that can be seen.
With this as a backdrop,
we turn to the opening twelve verses of the ninth chapter of John’s Gospel.
Here, we find Jesus encountering a blind man near the pool of Siloam after
narrowly escaping death at the hands of angered Jews gathered in the temple
courts (end of chapter 8…see yesterday’s devotion, Stubborn Rejection). Look
again at the scriptures here:
As He went along, He
saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this
man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
“Neither this man nor
his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God
might be displayed in him. As long as it is day, we must do the works of Him
who sent Me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I
am the light of the world.”
After saying this, He
spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s
eyes. “Go,” He told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”).
So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
His neighbors and
those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn’t this the same man who
used to sit and beg?” Some claimed that he was.
Others said, “No, he
only looks like him.”
But he himself
insisted, “I am the man.”
“How then were your
eyes opened?” they asked.
He replied, “The man
they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam
and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.”
“Where is this man?”
they asked him.
“I don’t know,” he
said. John 9:1-12
We learn from our
passage that the man had been blind and disabled from the day he was born.
Unable to work for a living, the man was seen begging to afford to live by
people in the community which included the man’s neighbors.
Why was the man blind?
This is a question that
seems to be central to the story. The disciples of Jesus were certainly
interested and so they asked Him with a preconceived notion that the disability
had come from sin committed either by the man himself or his parents. It should
be noted that this was a common belief in Jewish circles in the day, that God
punished people for sin through a judgment of disability.
So is that what happened
with the blind man?
Jesus sets the disciples
straight in short order, saying:
“Neither this man nor
his parents sinned but this happened so that the works of God might be
displayed in him. As long as it is day, we must do the works of Him who sent Me.
Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light
of the world.”
Jesus assured His followers that the blindness was not a result of sin
but was rather by the purpose of God so His works could be displayed in the
disabled man. The man, like Esther in the Old Testament, was set apart by his
lack of sight for such a time as this, for the perfect time when God would use
him to display His glory. The man had gone through His entire life unable to
see like others but was purposed to be healed in miraculous fashion by Jesus.
That healing came in a rather amazing way as we find Jesus spitting on
the ground, making mud with the saliva, and then placing the mud on the man’s
eyes. Think of it as the most awesome, transforming, divine spa treatment in history.
We find Jesus telling the man to go and wash in the Pool of Siloam, and
after the man did as Jesus said, he was able to see and went home with sight
for the first time, much to the amazement of everyone who saw him. In fact, his
neighbors and others thought it was someone else. Surely they much have thought
that a man blind from birth couldn’t simply regain full sight in the blink of
an eye, could he?
He could if God had purposed for it to happen and as we see, it did.
Well after coming to the realization that it was the former blind man who
could now see, the people wanted to know how it happened. And so the man told
them.
Think about the impact his testimony had on those who heard about what
Jesus had done. It was little wonder they all wanted to know how to find Jesus
themselves but the man didn’t know where He had gone. Still, the miracle had a
major impact on the man and everyone who knew him. Jesus took a disability and
turned it into a blessing, one that advanced the kingdom of His Father.
So what is your disability?
I think we all have one or two or more.
Think about anything you have said you can’t do and take it well beyond
sight or walking or hearing. Consider the thing you don’t think you can do, the
ability you think you lack.
I have heard people say over and over again that they can’t do this or
that, whether in reference to working in the church or doing other things.
Invitation: Come sing in the choir!
Response: No one would want to hear me sing, trust me.
Invitation: We need help teaching the children. Would you consider? Response: I’m not really that great at
working with kids and haven’t ever taught before.
Invitation: Do you think you could come and help us with the sound system
during worship? Response: I’m not good
with computers and technology.
Three specific invites. Three rebuttals centered on a person’s perceived
lack of ability or shall I say, perceived disability.
I’m convinced the Lord really hates the words, “I can’t” except when they
come attached to invitations to sin. When we say “no” to things, especially
things related to Christian ministry, it’s almost as if we say, “Lord, I don’t
think you can do this through me.”
Go back to the examples and imagine what God might hear by the people
refusing the invitations:
“Lord, I don’t believe that you can produce music through me by way of
the Holy Spirit.”
“Lord, You know I don’t get along well with children and have never
taught. Why would you ask me to do either? Do You really think You could help
me do it?”
“Lord, I’m terrible with technology and I don’t trust that You could
change that.”
The point is that sometimes we don’t have control over our disabilities
but sometimes we do. In either instance, we need to simply trust the Lord who
can do all things. As we have seen in today’s devotion, He can remove our
hindrances, according to His purposes and use the result for His glory.
Won’t you trust Him with simple faith today, believing that He can do
what He says, and that is anything He wills to do.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com
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