Want to hear a crazy story? I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t been the recipient. But trust me – it really did happen.
I’ve been blind since I was born. That is not a request for pity. It’s just a fact. So life was always pretty simple for me. Had my regular routine and I was okay with that. The hand I was dealt. It was the life I was accustomed to and had learned to accept.
But last Sabbath, I had just left the temple and was heading home. I heard a group of men talking. It was clear they were talking about me. The question was asked, “Jesus, why is that man blind? Is it his fault or his parents?” Obviously, they thought that one man among them had deeper insight than they did. I listened for his answer. It was interesting. He said, “It’s nobody’s fault. There is a bigger purpose behind his blindness. God is gonna do something amazing.”
The next sound I heard was someone spitting on the ground. And then a sandal mixing the spit into the dirt. That didn’t seem strange or unusual, but what happened next did. I sensed someone walking toward me. He greeted me by name and then placed his hand under my chin. For some reason I wasn’t afraid. By the sound of his voice, I could tell it was the one they called Jesus. And with his other hand he placed something wet on my eyes. It took me a minute to figure it out but then I realized it was the mud he had made from the dirt and the spit. This seemed a little weird. But then he told me to go and wash my face. And this is the crazy part. As I splashed the water on my face, the mud melted under my fingers. And then I experienced the strangest, scariest, most wonderful thing. I SAW everything that I heard and felt, for the very first time. This sense that I had heard about all my life was opening up a whole new part of my world. Colors that I had heard about were now a reality. Textures that I’d felt I could now see!
I couldn’t believe my eyes – literally! I ran home to tell my friends and family. They really couldn’t believe that it was me because it couldn’t possibly make sense. They asked me who did this and how. I told them that it was the man everyone called Jesus and shared the story. When I couldn’t tell them where he was, they took me to the synagogue to talk with some of the Jewish religious leaders there. Surely, they would have some idea how this would be possible. It was, after all, a miracle.
For some reason, these leaders were less impressed with the fact that I had suddenly regained my sight, and were more worried that this amazing thing happened on the Sabbath. Their thought was, this guy that healed me couldn’t have been on the up and up, much less associated with God, because he had done this on their day of worship. They asked my opinion of who or what I thought he was. I’m not sure why they bothered asking, because they didn’t like my answer. I told them I believed he was a prophet.
Now they thought they had to get my parents involved to make sure I was ever really blind in the first place. My parents confirmed, but they were not much more help than that. They were afraid of offending these powerful men and told them that I was old enough to answer for myself. Thanks mom and dad…
Clearly, these men were not fond of Jesus. They seemed to feel threatened. Because they came back to me and asked me to tell them that he was a sinner for breaking the Sabbath. I told them I didn’t know about that, but that I did know that I used to be blind and now I could see.
Again, they asked me how he had done this. Now I was starting to get irritated. We had already been over all of this. I’m sure my sarcasm was obvious in my answer. I decided to push their buttons a little and ask if they were asking because they wanted to be his disciples. They really didn’t like that and started insulting me, adding that they didn’t even know where this Jesus came from.
Now that made me laugh. Really? They saw the miracle that Jesus had just performed, heard my testimony of how it happened, have studied about God and how he works all their lives and they couldn’t see that Jesus was from God? And I was the one who was blind? It was like they were walking around arrogant with their eyes wide shut. I said something to that affect and then they called me a filthy sinner and threw me out.
And who should come and find me, but Jesus. He asked if I believed in the Son of Man. This was a new phrase for me so I asked him who the Son of Man was so that I could believe. And he basically said, it’s me. That’s when the second miracle happened. I got this insight that had nothing to do with my eyes, but again it felt like I was seeing for the first time. My eyes of understanding were opened and I realized that this Jesus was not just from God. He WAS God. And there was nothing that I could do but fall down on my knees in front of him and believe with everything that was in me.
So that’s my crazy, amazing story. I was blind and now I see. A whole new world…In so many ways…
