INTRODUCTION
Have you ever had one of those days that you know you will never forget; a day that had a profound impact on your life? I’m sure you have. We all have.
Start with World/historical events
Sep 11, 2001 – 9/11 attack on World Trade Center and Pentagon
Dec 7, 1941 – Attack on Pearl Harbor
30 A.D. – Jesus Christ crucified
Move to more personal events
Feb 13, 2010 – Seeing Margaret, Stephen and Grace at the Grafenwoeher Gym coming back from Afghanistan.
April 4, 2006 – CPL Ty Johnson killed in Iraq
August 17, 2000 – Grace Bartlebaugh was born
June 16, 1998 – Stephen Bartlebaugh was born
Dec 16, 1995 – Married Margaret Thompson
August 21, 1994 – Accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.
Move to the Blind man
READ TEXT
Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind
9 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. 4 As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
6 Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. 7 “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
8 His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some claimed that he was.
Others said, “No, he only looks like him.”
But he himself insisted, “I am the man.”
10 “How then were your eyes opened?” they demanded.
11 He replied, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.”
12 “Where is this man?” they asked him.
“I don’t know,” he said.
The Pharisees Investigate the Healing
13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. 14 Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath. 15 Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. “He put mud on my eyes,” the man replied, “and I washed, and now I see.”
16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.”
But others asked, “How can a sinner do such miraculous signs?” So they were divided.
17 Finally they turned again to the blind man, “What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened.”
The man replied, “He is a prophet.”
18 The Jews still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man’s parents. 19 “Is this your son?” they asked. “Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?”
20 “We know he is our son,” the parents answered, “and we know he was born blind. 21 But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself.” 22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews, for already the Jews had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Christ would be put out of the synagogue. 23 That was why his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”
24 A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.”
25 He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”
26 Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”
27 He answered, “I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?”
28 Then they hurled insults at him and said, “You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! 29 We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.”
30 The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does his will. 32 Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”
34 To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out.
Spiritual Blindness
35 Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
36 “Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.”
37 Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”
38 Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.
PRAYER
MONOLOGUE
There I was, sitting on the side of the road just like I did every other day, begging for money. I know it was a warm day because of the sweat that was forming on my brow and the sun must have changed positions because I could feel it more directly on my face than it was several hours before. People were passing by and the smell of the dust being kicked up by their sandals reached my nostrils. There was a slight breeze I heard as the leaves rustled in the wind and the birds were chirping sending refreshing sounds of joy to my ears. I wish I could tell you about the clothes people were wearing, or the colors of the fields and sky but I can’t. Since the day of my birth I have seen only darkness. I have never seen light. I have never seen the sun or moon or stars twinkling in the night. I have never seen my mother’s face or my father’s. I have never seen the clouds, the grass, or the sand that sifts through my hands as I sit here begging. I have never seen the green grass of the pastures. To be honest, I don’t even know what “green” is. I have never seen bushes, trees, or animals. I have never seen the sunflower stand tall to face the sun, turning to watch the sun as it travels the horizon and then to gracefully bow as the sun sets and night approaches. I have never seen the tear of a family whose loved one has died. I have been blind from birth. Never have I seen and never will I see. There is no hope for me. My lot has been cast. All the days of my life I must sit here and beg for handouts from strangers so that I might be able to live one more day. Hope you say? I have no hope. There is no cure for blindness.
That was the story of every day of my life that I can remember; the same day over and over again; nothing but darkness and blackness; no light, no hope.
But today was different, life changing different. I heard this group of men talking as they were passing by. Normally I don’t listen; I just hope they put something in my basket. But for some reason this felt different, they were talking about me.
One of the men said, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” I was floored. This disciple was asking his teacher a question about my family and me as if I weren’t even here! How rude can you get? I’m blind not dead. I can still hear. I have feelings you know. And then to have the nerve to insinuate that either my parents or I could have caused this to happen. Give me a break. Yes, I know, the common thought is that if something is wrong in your life, if you have an ailment like leprosy, lame, blind, cancer or anything else that makes you different or deemed “handicapped” then you must have done something to cause that to happen. I was born blind. I didn’t ask for this and my parents didn’t ask for a blind child. But my parents loved me, they raised me and took care of me. We didn’t do anything to bring this on.
I almost jumped for joy when I heard the Rabbi say, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned.” I wanted to shout, “YES! Somebody finally gets it and is willing to speak out!” But the next words that came out of the Rabbi’s mouth puzzled me. He said, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” Really, this happened to me so that the work of God could be displayed in my life? I have to tell you, I did not understand what he meant at that moment. I thought about that statement for the next couple of days and gained a better understanding of what he meant. I’ll share that a little later. But first let me tell you what happened next. Hang on to your sandals because you are not going to believe this. I heard the Rabbi bend down and scoop up some dirt in is hand and then he spit in his hand and I could hear him mixing it together. I thought to myself, “what is going on here?” when all of a sudden I felt him gently putting the mud he just made on my eyes. Then he gently but with authority spoke directly to me and said, “Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam.” So I went and did what he said. There was just something in his voice that made me know that he truly cared about me. I went to the Pool of Siloam and washed and at that moment I received the greatest gift I could ever imagine. I could see!!! I had wanted to see all my life and now I finally could. I saw the water I just washed in and it was so crystal clear. The sky was a bright blue with a few white, fluffy clouds. I saw the trees and pastures. And the people! Oh, to see the expressions each person had on their face. And at that moment I had a fleeting desire to know what the Rabbi’s face looked like that put the mud on my eyes. I ran home to see my parents for the first time in my life and shouted to all the neighbors and people I passed that I could finally see.
I’m not sure how it is in your day with the internet, cell phones, and reality TV, but back in the day, my day, we had this problem called gossip. You probably don’t even know what that was but basically it was talking to other people about a problem you have with someone else but you were too chicken to talk directly to the person about it. Well, I heard some neighbors talking with some people who didn’t even know me but had seen me begging on the side of the road. They asked, “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some acknowledged that it was me but others said that it wasn’t me and I just looked like him. I could not contain my excitement and I told them that yes it was me. They had so many questions. They wanted to know how my eyes were opened, who opened them and where the person was that opened my eyes. I jumped at the opportunity to tell the story. I had discovered that it was the man they call Jesus who opened my eyes. I told them every meticulous detail about how Jesus bent down and grabbed some dirt, spit in it, mixed it together to make mud and then gently placed it over my eyes and told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see. I have to admit that I was a little embarrassed when I had to tell them that I did not know where Jesus was. To be honest, I didn’t even know what he looked like. Even worse, I hadn’t even attempted to find him to say thank you.
Then things started getting a little complicated. The Pharisees, or religious leaders, got involved. I had heard that the Pharisees did not like what Jesus was doing and were trying to find a way to kill him. I don’t know about you but why would you want to kill someone who makes the blind see and the lame walk. I don’t understand. The Pharisees had this huge list of hundreds of laws that we had to obey in order to go to heaven. If we were found lacking in any of these areas then we were toast. The problem though was that some of these laws were in conflict with each other so that if you obeyed one you broke another. For instance, if you touched a dying or dead body you were ceremonially unclean and had to perform rituals in order to be declared clean again. However, we were also expected to help one another. I had heard that Jesus shared a story with the Pharisees regarding a man who had been beaten along the side of the road and left for dead. Two religious leaders saw the body but since they were on the way to the Synagogue they passed by on the other side of the street so that they would not be ceremonially unclean. A Samaritan, who is considered to be less than a second-class citizen, came by and helped the man. Jesus said the Samaritan was a better neighbor to that man than the religious leaders. The Pharisees did not like being compared to a Samaritan in the first place but to be told that the Samaritan was a better person than they were was more than they could handle.
The Pharisees did not like the whole idea that Jesus healed me on the Sabbath. That was a violation of one of their top 10 rules to not do any work on the Sabbath. Evidently, healing a man who was blind from birth is considered work. I personally consider it a miracle and I’m not sure if there is a rule against that. But hey, I’m just a former blind beggar.
The Pharisees wanted to know how I was healed so I told them about Jesus bending down, grabbing some dirt, spitting in it, making mud, putting it on my eyes then I washed it off and I could see!!
Then the Pharisee started arguing among themselves about who Jesus was. Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others asked, “How can a sinner do such miraculous signs?” Their debate made me start to think about the same question. Who is this Jesus? There was definitely something special about him. After all, I was blind but now I see. How amazing is that? I recalled that I referred to Jesus as “the man they call Jesus” when I explained it to the neighbors. But now I realize that he cannot be just a man. In order to perform miracles he must be sent by God. If he was sent by God then he must be a prophet. All of a sudden, all of the religious leaders turned to me and asked me who I thought he was. They’re asking me, a former blind beggar. Yesterday they didn’t know who I was and avoided me at all cost. Now, these religious leaders, life long theologians were asking me. Something told me they didn’t really care what I thought but I told them anyway. I said, “He is a prophet.”
The religious leaders did not believe that I had been blind and had received sight until they sent for my parents. My parents confirmed that I was their child and that I had been born blind. When the Pharisees asked my parents how I gained my eye sight they said, “He is of age; ask him.” There was an “understanding” that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Christ would be put out of the synagogue. It was not politically correct to acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah. I’m sure the days of having to be politically correct are gone.
Again I summoned to meet with the Pharisee. I told them the only thing I knew for certain, “I was blind but now I see!” The meeting went on but was not very fruitful other than it helped me to think more heavily upon who Jesus is. If Jesus was not from God he would not have been able to open my eyes which were blind from birth. I took my stand and would not move off of it. The Pharisees were upset, told me “I was steeped in sin from birth” and threw me out.
I was upset by their comment but as I dwelt on it I realized that may be the one thing they were right about. I was steeped in sin from birth. I remembered hearing how Adam and Eve fell out of God’s grace by disobeying him and that is when sin entered the world and created a barrier between God and all humanity until God would restore that relationship through the Messiah. Yes, I am a sinner just as everyone else born under the curse is a sinner. That was a bitter pill to swallow after being granted my eye sight, the gift which I believed would be the one thing that would make me whole and complete. Now I realized there was something more that I needed but I was not sure how to get it.
Jesus heard that they had thrown me out, and he came and found me. At first I did not know it was Jesus but when I heard his voice I knew it was him. This was Jesus who healed my blind eyes. He was the one who knelt down, grabbed dirt in the palm of his hand, spit in it and made mud and placed it upon my eyes ever so carefully. Amazing isn’t it. He sought me out. He came to me. I didn’t search for him. It’s as if he knew I had a much greater need than physical healing. He said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” His question, if he were asking you today, which he is, would be paraphrased like, “You…do you believe in the Messiah, sent from God to provide forgiveness of your sin?” This was a very personal and direct question that required, no demanded a personal decision and commitment on my part and on your part today. I knew at that moment that my greatest need was forgiveness of sin. Suddenly I heard myself answer, “Who is he, sir? Tell me so that I may believe in him.”
37 Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”
At that moment I looked into my Saviors eyes, which were filled with a love and compassion I cannot explain and I said, “Lord, I believe,” and I worshiped him with all my heart. I no longer cared about “political correctness.” I knew the truth and finally I was set free.
Now I understand what Jesus said when he told his disciples “this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” The greatest gift I could ever receive was not my eye sight but a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Through my personal relationship with him I am able to do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I can go through any and every infirmity, struggle, trial or tribulation giving glory to God as I trust him to carry me through. In my case, the physical healing was the vehicle that brought about my greatest need, spiritual healing.
CONCLUSION
God’s active and personal pursuit of his people.
