Jesus And The Blind Man
Jesus reminds us of what we need to do in the end of the day. We need to exercise our spirituality by reaching a hand to those who feel like they have no hope.
Well, it's another Sunday. I'm going to be switching gears a bit. The reason for this is that after the last sermon from a few weeks back, I still feel emotionally drained. So what is the best way to getting around this feeling?
For me, it's going back to the basics. It's time to examine Jesus's teachings in more detail, the way that God intended. This means going back to my Sunday school mentality. For inspiration, I turned to all of my teaching books that I saved when I was a Sunday school teacher. I'm now glad that I didn't trash them.
As I was thumbing through these lessons, I came across very good story that are worthy of exploration. A story that highlights God's power and Jesus's divine nature. It's the miracles that remind us that Jesus provided Salvation to us because he loves us, even when we feel that mercy is beyond us. When we seek Salvation, interesting things will happen.
In Luke Chapter 18 Verse 35, As Jesus approached Jericho; a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard the crowd going by, he asked what was happening. They told him "Jesus of Nazareth is passing by." He called out, "Jesus Son of David, have mercy on me!" Those who were around him rebuked the blind man and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to him. When he came near, Jesus asked him, "What do you want me to do for you?" "Lord I want to see," he replied. Jesus said to him, "Receive your sight; your faith has healed you." Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus, praising God. When all the people saw it, they also praised God.
It's often said that the Book of Luke is the "gospel for the poor". The reason for this is that throughout Luke, we see many accounts of how Jesus reached to those who have been rejected and marginalized by society. He reached out to many that society as a whole didn't take the time to acknowledge, like the poor, the sick, those with diseases, and women. Jesus demonstrated mercy and humanity to those that the vast majority thought nothing of.
We know that Jesus was on his ministry and was on the outskirts of Jericho when a sizeable crowd started to approach him. Why shouldn't they. They were fully aware of the stories that they heard. The driving out of demons, the healing of those sick, and various other miracles as well. Those who been in the cracks of society heard about the commotion as well. Curious, the blind man asked what was going on. One can make the very safe assumption that he heard about the miracles as well. The blind man already realized that Jesus could deliver him from his ailment, highlighting the urgency to ask mercy from him. One could make a few reasons why the blind man did this. He, like all of us, are sinners in the eyes of God, and thus, needing to repent for the sins that have been committed. With that said, there was another reason why the blind man asked for mercy, and it took on a dark overtone.
While we are all sinners, the blind man believed that his blindness was a punishment from God. Back in the day, it was assumed that if you had a disease, medical defect, blindness, or if something horrific happened to you, then this was a direct punishment from God. Unfortunately, this mindset had persisted to modern times.
Many talking heads will declare that whatever events occur to someone or a group of people is direct punishment from God. The only way that one would be able to confirm the specific reason for direct divine intervention on a case by case basis is if that person was in God's control room when he made those decisions. That would also be assuming that a mere mortal would know more about God’s will than Jesus himself.
We would also have to take into account that a person’s spiritual profile greatly ranges as well. One person’s spiritual walk is different from one another, so how God plays his hand with one person would be different from another person. How the person responds to God’s will varies. How God responds is a mystery since we won’t know the reasons why God makes the decisions that he does in the first place. Is it direct divine intervention or is it a part of life’s experience.
Many people love the idea of direct divine intervention playing out on an individual basis because super-villains are defined as well. One likes to apply the black-and-white mentality because it doesn’t require much thinking. However, even in cases where things appear black-and-white, there is a lot more than what meets the eye. One could argue that this mindset is unnecessary since life itself can be a super-villain without someone looking for scapegoats to define their pain and grievances. Because of this, a cartoon super-villain isn’t necessary as pain and suffering, which is already a massive part of our life, is part of the experience. Their still defined by God, but done as they are part of the experiences that we all share equally, and not to quote “put someone in their place”. People suffer because it's part of life, and not because there's a super villain at play.
Job's friend accused Job of angering God. This was what was driving what they perceived to be God's wrath on him. These horrible things happened to Job because they believed that God was punish him. This wasn’t the case, but still, this mindset persisted through the time of Jesus, and now.
Job's friends were not in God's control room either, so their constant declaration of Job's suffering as a punishment from God is especially offensive and arrogant.
During the time of Jesus, it was widely believed that God directly punished future generations based on the actions of the previous generations, so it was viewed that if the child was born blind, which was often the case during this time, it was seen as God punishing the parents of the previous generation.
Because it was widely assumed that a child's birth defect was God’s punishment to the parents of the previous generation, the family often become outcast as well, and thus, rejected by society. The child was rejected as well for something that was beyond their control. There was a lot stacked up against the blind man. The general crowd felt that he was beyond mercy and Salvation.
We don't know much about the blind man other than he existed. We know nothing about his family. However, the blind man did know who Jesus was. He declared "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" This was a declaration of the blind man acknowledging that he knew that Jesus descended from the royal blood-line of David. He also knew that Jesus can heal people, and that he could heal him too. For the blind man, Jesus would not disappoint!
Given how people felt about blindness in the time of Jesus, they were not going to give the blind man the time of day. As such, it would be very hard for the man to get close to Jesus. The crowd told the blind man to hush. The man was determined to ask for Jesus's mercy, and wouldn’t hush. His blindness was not divine punishment, so there was no reason for him to hush for the sake of the crowd.
Jesus knew of the man though. Jesus was about to turn a sign of perceived punishment into an opportunity to demonstrate Gods power. The man wasn’t born blind so that God could demonstrate his wrath, but to demonstrate his power and love to those who in the crowd. This was for those standing around, passing observers, and those who were self-righteous and pious. They were in for a treat! The blind man was about to get the biggest gift of all!
Jesus instructed the crowd to bring the blind man to him, and Jesus healed him in front everybody. The biggest of demonstrations of God’s power didn’t require a massive ceremony, but simple words. The blind man responded "Lord I want to see," Jesus replied, "Receive your sight; your faith has healed you." That was it. The blind man, instantly receiving sight and recognizing God's power, started to praise him, along with those gathered around them as well. The man was delivered love, hope, and Salvation from God himself.
Jesus reminds us of what we need to do in the end of the day. We need to exercise our spirituality by reaching a hand to those who feel like they have no hope. The hand of love. The hand of power. Help out, and reach to those who are poor, sick or others in the community and world who are suffering for whatever reason. Jesus did these miracles to demonstrate that the poor are still real people who are in need of God's Salvation. Helping the poor.
A person's spirituality is judged by their actions, and not their words. It doesn't have to be some grand act either. Many feel that they need to make some grand gesture. This isn't the case. Someone giving that thirsty person a bottle of water or giving a person on the street a cup of coffee. Giving some pocket change. Someone who’s in needs of a shoulder to cry on. Maybe someone has a story or experience to share, and they want someone to listen to them. The rendering of help to those in need. Not only should help be rendered, but it needs to be rendered with God’s love. This is what Jesus calls us out to do.
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