No Blame Game Here - The Blind Man Saw
In John Chapter 9 we see the story of a man blind from birth that was healed by Jesus. In ancient cultures, blind people often had no choice but to be beggars. This man was very poor and was begging along the roadside, but Jesus saw him with compassion as he passed by. On the other hand, the disciples believed his blindness was a punishment for sin, based at least partly on Old Testament texts like Exodus 34:7. They just wanted Jesus to tell them who to blame for the man’s blindness.
“Teacher,” his disciples asked him, “why was this man born blind? Was it a result of his own sins or those of his parents?” They saw the effect, they wanted to know the cause.
“It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “He was born blind so the power of God could be seen in him.” (John 9:2-3) Jesus shifted their attention away from the cause of the man’s problem and instead toward the purpose. Jesus was about to mightily demonstrate the power of God. In was time for the disciples to get over the blame game.
As the story goes on, several other groups of people and the man are described for their view of the miracle Jesus performed, and really for what was in their hearts.
1. The man’s neighbors – Knowing the man for many years, and now seeing the man had his sight back put them in a state of surprise as well as skepticism. Do people in recovery really recover?
2. The Pharisees – since Jesus did a miracle their prejudice at his ministry caused them to disbelieve a healing occurred. Even the staunchest Christian may have problems believing in recovery.
3. The man’s parents – They knew their son was healed. After all, they had raised him since birth and knew his condition. However, their joy was tempered by the fear of losing their ability to go to synagogue. What do I lose in the church by others knowing I have a recovering individual in my family?
4. The man himself – as the story proceeds we see his faith grow. We also see his simple testimony of what happened is a great testimony for Christ. That’s the way we are to be, just tell our story of recovery – Jesus will do the rest.
The important lesson from this story is that God does not work in cause-effect. He does not look for fault. Jesus uses his power to change the situation for his glory. It may not be immediate enough to suit our needs, but nonetheless he is in control.
We do the same in Celebrate Recovery. We teach our people to be forward looking – in other words stop looking in the rearview mirror. We call it looking through your problems and looking to God. As Christians we are to look upon the things above – the power and strength and majesty of our loving Heavenly Father – and get yours eyes off the things below – your circumstances, your weakness, your fears (Colossians 3:2). Point here – if the world beats you down, then look up. Look for what God can do; rely on God’s faithfulness, knowing that he’s got it all under control and we are safest when we stay in obedience to him.
And so Jesus came upon a man who’d been blind since birth. The man was begging on the streets of Jerusalem, just to survive until the next day. Although people were all around him, he sat in isolation. No one could truly understand his fears and his frustrations; People passed by, some even spoke to him, some even gave him money, but no one could really understand his situation.
But along came this man named Jesus who understood and was willing to use his power to heal. Jesus sent the man home whole – physically and spiritually.
In Christ,
Jerry McGuire
