John 9 - Mud in the Eye, Stubborn Hearts, & Willing Minds

        Some of us have little excuse.  There is no excuse for not believing in Jesus - unwilling minds and stubborn hearts.  Creation shouts and shows off God’s majesty.  Scripture miraculously records God’s love story, foretelling the arrival of the Great Saving King, and the fulfilled prophecy of He who would manifest Himself to the world.  Epiphany.  Jesus came to save the world (John 4:42).  God loves you, beyond measure.  Jesus came to show Himself, to live, teach, tell the truth, die for us, and rise to everlasting life.

        Responsibility.  That’s what Jesus teaches the Jewish leaders in this story.  Like every person born into this world (you and I included) the Pharisees had a free moral choice to accept or reject the Son of God.  At the end of the story, they say, “Are you saying we’re blind?” ‘If you were blind, you wouldn’t be guilty,” Jesus replied.  “But you remain guilty because you claim you can see.’” (John 9:40-41).  They had stubborn hearts.  They loved their possessions, positions, and power.  They were in love with the things of this world so much so that they had no room in their hearts for God.  In fact, they hated the Father.  Their stubborn hearts created unwilling minds.  Not so for us.  God seeks to transform our minds and hearts into renewed loving hearts and willing minds.

        We are who we are so that God can shine His glory in and through us.  Each of us.  Abled or disabled.  Whether we be slow learning chubby kids from Northern Saskatchewan, middle sons from Rhode Island, or Florida refugees forever stuck in Virginia by providential care.  Whoever you are and wherever you are, God loves you and has a good plan for you.  The sick, lame, old, young, smart, simple, blind, deaf, short, tall, handsome, gruesome, skinny, talkative, quiet, shy, exuberant, inquisitive, curious, or energetic.  All of your God-given characteristics and so-called deficiencies are so that God can show His glory through your life.  Thank God that He loves us and calls us His prized possession, made in His image.

        Like the blind man in this story, we have to hear from Jesus.  And we have a moral ability and responsibility to respond.  Jesus put a little spit and mud in his eye.  And Jesus told the blind beggar to go and wash it out.  And.  He did.  He obeyed.  He didn’t have to.  But he did.  Likewise, God’s image (His characteristics) was not just in the blind man, but in every person in this story (the disciples, the blind man’s neighbors who took him to the Pharisees, and yes, the Pharisees too).

        Presented with the obvious: their blind neighbor who could not see for many years and who could now see - miraculously healed by some ordinarily seeming man by spit and mud in the eye they chose not to celebrate and rejoice with the healed man.  Instead, like jealous cowards annoyed at their neighbors’s good blessing and the grace God gave to him, they pointed out the legalistic infraction, of healing on the Sabbath.  Like the curse of a Karen on the homeowners association board, the legalists have been with us since the beginning.

        Jesus will return to earth one day.  I hope that day is soon and I pray we have the mindset that He does, but I also suspect His return is long off by our timeline as I see God is up to so much.  He's drawing people to Himself and showing His way and His glory.  God continues to prove His age-old proverbial wisdom that the wicked earn their pay.  And the godly through faith in the Son will be judged and justified by Jesus.  Jesus says, “Look, I am coming soon, bringing my reward with me to repay all people according to their deeds” (Revelation 22:12).

        Jesus gave the Pharisees one work to do and they failed in it, miserably so.  Jesus said, “This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent” (John 6:27).  Their problem was not moral inability.  Jesus made that plain in this passage.  If they were blind and unable to believe they would have had an excuse.

        Lord Jesus, we pray for spiritual growth and strength to follow Your teaching.  Test our hearts today and find us pure.  We humbly seek You today.  The law can do nothing for us but lead us to You.  But faith in You is everything.  Let us not have stubborn hearts, but rather confidence in You and willingness to obey You today.  Amen. 

Winter in Lynchburg, Virginia.