John 9:25
Many of us have heard this story before. But if you haven't, here's a very brief run down: There was a guy blind from birth. Jesus and the disciples saw him. Jesus healed his blindness. Oh yeah, and it was on the Sabbath, so some Pharisees got mad (what's new?).
A lot times that this story is talked about on Sunday mornings in a church, the focus is on the instruction Jesus gave the man after putting the mud he created with his spit on his eyes, which sounds disgusting to me. He said, "Go" (v. 7). Jesus told him to go wash the Messiah-spit off of his eyes. The focus is on the fact that the man had to obey Jesus to get his sight. We're going to go a different route. We're going to focus on the aftermath. What happened after the man gained his blindness?
Firstly, doubt from everyone else came. When the man washed the mud off of his eyes, he left the pool seeing. He had sight! Take a second to grasp that miracle. Even today when doctors are able to give the gift of hearing to those born deaf we consider it a miracle. Now take away all the medical equipment and knowledge. How much more miraculous!! As he was coming back home "seeing" John tells us that his neighbors began to notice that, hey, that guy who couldn't see yesterday can now. I imagine he's running down the road gawking at things because he's seeing them for the first time and it's obvious! They noticed that he could see and were questioning it. "Wait. Wasn't that guy blind?" Some said that he was, others said that this guy, who can clearly see, just happens to look like the blind man everyone knew. Hearing the murmur in the crowd, the man decided to step up and set the record straight: It was me! "I am the man," (v. 9).
Next, they questioned the validity. "How?! How can you see!" The man replied simply. It was some guy named Jesus. No more explanation was needed nor was there anymore to say.
After that, he was taken to the Pharisees. (Pro tip: if something great happens in your spiritual life, don't go to people like the Pharisees. They're just mood killers.) The Pharisees approached the man's parents and asked them if it was true that he had been blind from birth, and, who knew, they said he had. This still was not good enough for the Pharisees. They pursued him again and this time tried to guilt the man into saying what they wanted to hear. "Give glory to God by telling the truth! We know this man [Jesus] is a sinner" (v. 24).
The man's response is beautiful. "Whether he is a sinner or not, I don't know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!" (v. 25)
That was that man's testimony. "I don't know a lot but I do know that yesterday I couldn't see and now I can." And yes, that's our testimony.
The air of the Christian world has become one that says if your testimony doesn't involve a major sin and turn around then it's not "as powerful" as, say, a drug addict's or an alcoholic's. Jesus, with his own mouth refutes this in verse 4: "Neither this man nor his parents sinned..."
It seems that Christians are focusing on the wrong things to me.
- Armenian or Calvinist?
- Baptist or Methodist?
- God's Word or "Written by Man"?
- Why aren't the Ten Commandments still in the courthouses? Why don't we say the Lord's Prayer in school anymore?
False.
The spread of Christianity in the first, second and third centuries was done by Christians under real persecution by a government. And they didn't do it by having the Ten Commandments posted in the courthouses, nor did any school child recite the Lord's Prayer in class. Nope. It was done by Christians. By talking! By giving their story; sitting down with their friends and relatives and telling them how they got from point A (unredeemed and lost) to point B (saved and righteous). It's always easy to have an excuse of why we shouldn't tell others our story. Remember my favorite C. S. Lewis quote: "It's funny how mortals always picture us [demons] as putting things into their minds: in reality our best work is done by keeping things out." I've had trouble sharing my story. What if I don't do it right? What if there's "incorrect" theology in it? What if it's too personal? What if people actually get turned away because of some of the things I did? The truth is that the best way for us to relate to other people is to talk about the one thing we all have in common: life.
We don't need a complex, massive redemptive story. One of the most powerful testimonies of all times fits into one sentence: "I don't know whether he is a sinner, but I do know I was blind and now I'm not." What if we told people that we're not blind anymore? We would see a real revival that isn't able to be stopped by a culture that may be trying to shut us up.
Our voices and the Holy Spirit is an unstoppable combination.
