Trying to be like Jesus - now I see

The next three things I want to talk about will all relate to Jesus seeing the individual (yes, right up my alley), but they got started with the story in the 9th chapter of John, when Jesus healed a man blind from birth.

This is again one that I did not really catch in my own reading, possibly because it is a remarkably repetitive chapter. We hear about the healing as it happened, then as he relates it to the people who see him, then the Pharisees, then we get some repetition from his parents confirming he was always blind. Even he gets to a point where he objects to relaying the story again.

27. He answered them, I have told you already, and ye did not hear: wherefore would ye hear it again? will ye also be his disciples?

The story became important to me when someone else pointed it out. It was a speaker at a church meeting, marveling over the strength and logic of this newly healed man standing up to the Pharisees. He may have gotten his inspiration from Talmage, but yes, now I see it too.

The no longer blind man would not have been well-regarded in his society. One thing we get at the beginning of a chapter is a reminder that afflictions were taken to be a sign of sin. He certainly would have had less scholarly training than the Pharisees.

Also, he was at a stage where there was some real fear that anything that you said in favor of Jesus could get you excommunicated. His parents were scared, and maybe as someone sidelined by a disability he would not have been as aware of that risk or its ramifications, but as their tone grew angrier the underlying threats could probably be inferred.

None of that mattered, because he knew.

He may not have had thorough scriptural training, but he had a deep faith in God's goodness.

31. Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth.

That can be both a sign of a lack of knowledge and an unwitting self affirmation. His congenital blindness did not make him a sinner. Also, God does hear sinners, though theirs requests can't always be granted.

But he is learning, and he knows he needs to.

35 - 38
...Dost thou believe on the Son of God?

He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?

And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee.

And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him.

He has been cast out, but he has also been healed. There is a new path open before him, and he knows it is worth it.

That is very beautiful.