At the Point of Sight
Beloved People of God,
Have you ever noticed how easy it is for us to pass judgment? It takes us hardly any energy to assign blame to others. We condemn with the scantest details and go about our day feeling justified in our criticism. We aren’t alone. Jesus’ disciples did too. Walking by a man born blind they asked, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9.2). What?! They don’t even know this man’s name, or when his blindness began, but they’ve already ascribed his suffering to sin!
When we see things in others' lives—things which strike against our own insecurities in unseen ways—we hammer back with judgment. We shield ourselves with veils of piety and rain down impious accusations (John 9.16, 24, 34). The danger is that not only has our rash judgment been wrong against another, but it’s also blind to the work of God in our midst. When the disciples asked Jesus whose sinned caused the man’s blindness, the Lord’s response should challenge us: “Jesus answered, ‘It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of Him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world,’" (John 9.3-5).
Friends, in our rush to judgment we miss the very place God desires to work in and through us. Like Pharisees, we condemn in the places where Jesus is commissioning us to work. We can’t afford to miss that Jesus doesn’t say “I must work” in His response. No, He says, “We must work.” Before Jesus opens the eyes of the man born blind, He opens the eyes of the disciples! Their easy judgment was a sinful blindness blocking them from God’s work.
Beloved, if we are going to do the works of the Father in the light of the Son, we must be transformed by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit as we carry our cross, laying down our anxieties and insecurities, our prejudices and cultural biases (Romans 12.2; Ephesians 4.23-24). On our Lenten journey, let’s ask Jesus to open our eyes.
For Christ the King,
Brett