April, 2007
“Making Hay While the Sun Shines”
John 9:1-12
“...we must do the work of him who sent me” (v. 4).
INTRODUCTION: You have probably all heard the term “making hay while the sun shines.” What does that mean? Does it just mean going out and working in a field? Verse 4 says, “as long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me.” The Message Bible says, “We need to be energetically at work for the One who sent me here, working while the sun shines.”
Today happens to be the end of daylight savings time, and I hear people say, “It will be dark before I get home from work or it will be dark at supper time. There is no daylight left to do anything.” As summer and fall draw to a close, leaves drop off of the trees, and cold weather approaches, we find that a lot of outdoor activities end for the year. We might say, “I wish I had done more things outside this summer, or I wish I had completed that outside project. Painted the house, trimmed the landscaping, planted some spring bulbs... I wish I had... We might carry this thought over into areas of our life where we have lost opportunities or where we have made unwise decisions. We might say, “I wish I had done that or I wish I hadn’t. I wonder why things didn’t turn out like I had planned? I wonder why?” This gives rise to the statement, “You have to make hay while the sun shines.”--to do things while you have the opportunity.
Today’s scripture finds the disciples in a discussion about a blind man. “Who sinned that caused the man to be blind from birth?” they asked. Was it his parents or his grandparents? What was the reason? The disciples were not really focused on the man’s need but rather wasting time trying to figure out the cause of his problem. It was a matter of theological curiosity rather than compassion. Why did they have this mindset in the first place?
The Jews thought that a person suffered from ailments because of his parents or grandparents’ sin and some of the more philosophical Jews taught a doctrine of the pre-existence of souls where the transmission of the soul of one person went into the body of another person. At any rate sin somewhere was surely the cause of this man’s blindness.
Jesus said, “No, you’re asking the wrong question here. You’re looking for someone to blame. We’ve got more important work to do than sit here and speculate about the reason for this man’s blindness.”
Jesus is telling them it was an opportunity to do God’s work. vs. 3 Jesus said, “...but this happened that the work of God must be displayed in his life.”
Jesus wanted his disciples to move on from the problem to the solution and not dwell on the whys or the blame. We, too, could spend a lot of time with the hard questions of our life. Why the suffering, why terrorism and violence in our country, why suffering and death is happening around us in our world with the anthrax problem. When things happen to us personally, we may get STUCK at the QUESTION stage and never move on to the SOLUTION stage. We ask, “Why did this happen to me? Why is this happening to my family? Why?”
What can we get out of today’s scripture that will help us to “make hay while the sun shines?”
1. The Importance of Being Productive: Jesus is attempting to move the disciples on to a more productive state. He says, “We must do the works of him who sent me.” Jesus included the disciples in on the works God sent him to earth to do. It was not limited to just him. He said, “You, too, must be in on this.” There is work to do today. He knew that his time on earth was short. He was living in the shadow of the cross. The time of opportunity was quickly coming to a close, and He Must help as many blind people as he could--both physically blind and spiritually blind. He knew that there was too great a need all around him to waste his days. He wanted to get this sense of urgency across to his disciples. “Don’t sit around discussing the WHY but move on to allow God’s work to be displayed in the SOLUTION. He says to them, “WE must do the works of him who sent me.” That included all of them, and he was trying to prepare them for the work when he was gone. He said, “You as well as I have work to do and there will come a time when you can’t work because the opportunity will be gone.”
I think this applies to us today as well. Let us not squander the opportunity that God has given to each of us individually. We all have work to do--our own work at home, with our families, and our jobs and all of the many earthly tasks we have. But as Christians we have not been saved to sit--we have been saved to SERVE Him and do the works of God wherever we go. We have been made into a new creation for a reason.
ILLUSTRATION: the pumpkin
"What it’s like to be a Christian ? "
A lady had recently been baptized. One of her
coworkers asked her what it was like to be a
Christian. She was caught off guard and didn’t
know how to answer. But, when she looked up,
she saw a jack-o’-lantern on the desk and
answered, "It’s like being a pumpkin."
The worker asked her to explain that one.
"Well, God picks you from the patch and
brings you in, and washes off all the dirt on
the outside that you got from being around
all the other pumpkins. Then he cuts off
the top and takes all the yucky stuff out
from inside. He removes all those seeds
of doubt, hate, greed, etc. Then he carves
you a new smiling face and puts his light
inside of you to shine for all to see. It is
our choice to either stay outside and rot on
the vine or come inside and be something
new and bright."
I’ll never look at a pumpkin the same way again.
Let us pray: Lord, thank you for picking us! Amen!
2. You have already been commissioned: He has already picked you out of the patch and commissioned you. Matthew 28 “go and make disciples...” We are not just a church member who has our name on the books, or we don’t just show up when we don’t have anything better to do. We are a disciple, a daily follower of Jesus. God has given us limited daylight in which to carry out His work on this earth. Will we waste the daylight hours. Many of us are doing just that when we fail to get with His program. Our days are numbered on this earth. At best we are temporary on this earth. While we have the opportunity, let us take full advantage of the daylight. “We need to be ENERGETICALLY AT WORK for the One who sent me here..” Jesus told them. This speaks of His work as being a HIGH PRIORITY on His list. To do His works, we can’t let everything else crowd out our church attendance, Bible study, prayer, or going to speak to someone about spiritual matters. Jesus saw the blind man’s need as a priority. He didn’t take a ho hum approach. He said that “we must work while it is day.” What things has God been calling you to do that you are slow to act on-- taking an “I’ve got all the time in the world approach--saying, “I’ll get around to it--some day maybe---no big rush.” You may procrastinate as far as your salvation--I’ll get around to it. I know I SHOULD. You may procrastinate on volunteering to do something that would strengthen your community, your church. You might have resources available to help someone in need and yet you don’t do it. You might be easily able to encourage someone and yet you don’t do it--too busy, not time, no energy, don’t want to---and the “works of Him who sent Jesus” don’t get done in the corner of town where you are living.
3. How Do You Make Hay While the Sun Shines?: What is the difference between a productive person and a non-productive person? Why do some people seem to accomplish more than others? How do we know what to do? How do we get started?
We begin to sense what to do as we learn to RESPOND to the Lord each time we come to church through the various means of grace--during prayer, singing, sharing what God has done for us individually. OPEN YOURSELF up to His Holy Spirit. You begin to grow more each time you RESPOND. Each time you CO-OPERATE with the Lord’s Work--your DESIRE to do His work in the world--your ATTEMPT to step out in faith to do something you’ve never done before. Saying, “Yes,” to Jesus. I WILL follow you Lord. I WILL never be too busy for you. I WILL be AVAILABLE. It is an act of our WILL.
As you say, “yes,” time after time, you will see yourself growing. He will move you where He wants you to be, He is able to connect you with the people He wants you to talk with, He will guide you and direct you in what to say. He will give you new ideas for service. I don’t know how it all takes place. But as we receive His grace, he adds more grace. Each of us has to seek the Lord for ourselves in order to find out what He wants US to specifically do. Someone else can’t do it for you.
Maybe it takes better time management on our part, maybe setting new priorities, doing a little spiritual housecleaning and repenting of our careless ways. Maybe it is plain old getting out of the lazy boy and starting to get back to the basics.
In reading the rest of the chapter, we know that good things did happen--the works of God were displayed in the blind man’s eyes. He could see. He never had done this in his entire life. The disciples were in on it. They saw their faith grow as they were a part of this miracle. They moved beyond questioning “Why?”--and they saw help come to a needy man.
CONCLUSION: We are saved to serve. To be a part of DOING the works of Him who sent Jesus. We must move beyond our procrastination and apathy. We must begin to RESPOND to the Lord at every opportunity for Him to shape us and make us ready to do His work in today’s world.
This week, “Let’s make hay while the sun shines.”
