2019-02-10T08:00:00-06:00
9:1 As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.4 We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work.5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”6 Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud 7 and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.
8 The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” 10 So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” 11 He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.” 12 They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”
13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. 14 Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. 15 So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” 16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them. 17 So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.”
18 The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight 19 and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” 20 His parents answered, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. 21 But how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” 22 (His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue. 23 Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”)
24 So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.” 25 He answered, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” 26 They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” 27 He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” 28 And they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. 29 We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” 30 The man answered, “Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. 32 Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” 34 They answered him, “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” And they cast him out.
35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”36 He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” 37 Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.”38 He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. 39 Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.”40 Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” 41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright (c)2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. http://www.esv.org
It would have been the kind of story old soldiers love to tell. They must’ve imagined the telling even as the story unfolded. Hidden in a cave, outmanned and out of steam, the army rested out of sight. Then they heard the noise, maybe even a conversation. It was the leader of the enemy. And there he stood, in the cave with them. No one dared speak. No one dared breathe. He couldn’t see them, with the sun at his back and the deep cloak of darkness shrouding them.
Then he put down his weapon and took off his clothes. He was in the cave, where he was sure he was safe. The soldiers wanted to scream. They wanted to attack. “It must be a God thing”, they thought, “him in here with us, unaccompanied and unarmed.” Can you imagine what they imagined? Maybe the thought of holding up Saul’s head on a pike, or making him scream from torture? Victory had been handed to them. “Do it David. He’s ours, then you become king, and we get to go home to tell the story. Do it!”
But David was a man after God’s own heart. And he already knew about the breathtaking wonder of fighting God’s way. He had a Philistine giant’s sword to remind him. God would give him the kingdom, and he would reign as God’s chosen, but it would be on God’s terms and timing. God had promised. This wasn’t it, and he knew it. He cut a piece of the robe from the disrobed king and watched him leave the open trap. And then David confessed.
David called to Saul. The kingdom was the Lord’s, and Saul was the Lord’s anointed. David had been brash and disrespectful even as he had shown mercy. He would not forsake The Lord. David, the humble, soon-to-be ruler, showed honor to the dishonorable king.
And that’s our story to tell. We have been spared by the Son of David. When we deserved death, life was given. When we deserved condemnation, forgiveness came. When we were enemies of God Almighty, Almighty God sent His son to bear the enemies’ torture. God has won our unimaginable victory in a breathtaking way.
"For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation." —Romans 5:6-11