This is the story of the man born blind. The Pharisees wanted to know who had sinned that he was blind, him or his parents. Of course, the answer is that no one had sinned.
Then they were upset that he was healed on the Sabbath. So they then claimed that Jesus was a sinner since he had "worked" on the Sabbath.
The man then asked how a sinful man could have cured him. The bottom line is that they tossed him out of the temple.
I once heard a sermon on this reading that had props! The minister had a seven candle candelabra. He had three candles lit on one side and the rest were not lit.
The ones that we lit symbolized the Pharisees who could see and the unlit, the man born blind.
As the story unfolded, the candles on the side of that were unlit were lighted and the candles that were lit were blown out. The seventh at the top of the candelabra symbolized Jesus.
The blind man began by not even knowing who Jesus was, but trusted him to heal him. The better he came to know Jesus and his faith in him grew, the candles were lit to show the growth.
The more the Pharisees questioned and condemned the healing, their candles were extinguished.
The eyes of the Pharisees were open to the world, but closed to the working of God in their midst and they became increasingly blind.
The man born blind, on the other hand, had never been able to see the beauty of the world until Jesus healed him. But his blindness did not prevent him from seeing the power of God and he became increasingly confident that Jesus was from God and was, in fact, the Son of God.
This message is something we need to think about. We would not be reading this if we were blind to the power of God, but we might have blind spots that we are unaware of.
Let's take some time today to ask the Lord to open our eyes to see the work that we is calling us to.
