Blind

The man born blind in the story found in John 9 certainly had a tough hand to play. When people saw him, they saw a curse from God – somebody did something to cause this to happen to this someone. He probably got used to it – his blindness became a way of life. He would no doubt beg here and there for help. People knew him in the city – they saw him all the time, even if he couldn’t see them.


Jesus and the boys came along, and a discussion ensued about the origins of his blindness. It’s weird how people focus on blame – even the disciples. Perhaps it provides meaning on some level. I’m not really sure why, but I know we all do it. We need to understand how it all fits in order to make sense of our world.

In response, however, Jesus placed his focus elsewhere. This happened so the power of God could be seen in him… So, God is behind this after all?

I don’t think so. I don’t think God goes out of his way to create people broken so he can show off in healing them. What was Jesus talking about, then?

I think Jesus was purposeful in focusing on what could happen rather than getting nowhere with the “what caused this” questioning. He was focused on what was next instead of what was past.

Of course, Jesus was right – God was glorified – given praise and awe – as the man received sight for the first time. Nobody was asking the “who sinned” question in reference to the man born blind anymore. All the attention was focused on the who and how of the miracle.

The blind man, in a way, was given a strange gift when he was born. He knew exactly what his most obvious problem was – he couldn’t see! He probably didn’t spend a lot of time trying to guess what his deal was – the darkness before him answered that every moment of every day. When Jesus finally showed up, the guy didn’t fumble in his pockets looking for a list of things he wanted to ask God to do for him! He simply wanted to see.

The blind man had clarity.

Because of his clarity, he let Jesus smear spit-mud on his eyes (playing into some superstitious beliefs of the people), and followed Jesus’ instructions. He did what Jesus said, because he knew what he needed Jesus to help him with, decided he was worth believing in, and put his feet to work in getting to that pool/well. Harkening back to the story of Jesus and Nicodemus in John 3, this guy was aligned – he had mental clarity in believing in Jesus, he obviously trusted him enough o do the spit-mud thing, and followed up with behavior. What happens when these three become aligned? Eternal life, salvation, healing. And it did.

Sometimes when we see people born with struggles like this, we feel bad for them because of their limitations – limitations we think we may not have.

Maybe we’re wrong. Maybe we are the ones who are still blind while the blind guy sees clearly. Maybe we have grown accustomed to our adopted handicaps and settled with the idea that our lives are as good as it gets. Maybe those who are literally blind see right through us as we waste our potential on our recliners as we let Jesus come and go, come and go, come and go, not having a clue what to ask for, and not following his instructions if we dared ask for them.

It seems darkness, then, is a choice, and Light is before us.

May you choose Light. May you choose to see clearly your blind spots. May you have vision enough to ask God to heal your blindness. May you have insight to see what you can’t, so that you may know to ask for help, and receive it.