The Most Important Person in the World

The Sunday night message given in the Gettysburg United Methodist church.  The Bible verses used are John 9:1-41.

            When you look at Jesus’ miracles, it’s amazing to me how many of them don’t seem to have been planned out ahead of time.  Think about it.  Jesus just goes to a wedding as a guest, and the next thing we know he’s turning water into wine.  Jesus is trying to get off by himself, but a bunch of people follow him, he speaks to them, and the next thing we know he’s feeding five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish.  Those are just a couple of examples where Jesus was really just kind of minding his own business, and all of a sudden circumstances prompt him to work a miracle.

            And our story today is another one.  Jesus is walking down the road, sees a blind man, and decides to heal him.  The way it’s written, it does not sound like Jesus set out that day to heal a blind man.  It does not sound like Jesus had any particular plan, really.  It just says “as he was walking along, he saw a man who was blind since birth.”  The disciples ask him whose fault it was that this many had been born blind, and Jesus says, “This happened so that the works of God might be displayed through him.”

            You know, as I read this, I have all kinds of questions.  First, how did the disciples know this man had been born blind?  I mean, I can see how they could’ve figured out that he was blind, but how did they know he was born that way?  Was he somebody they knew?  Did Jesus tell them?  

            And then, I wonder how the blind man felt when he heard this conversation between Jesus and the disciples about whose fault it was that he’d been born blind.  I mean, the way it sounds, and they’re having this conversation right in front of him.  Have you ever had that happen, to have people talk about you like you were not even there, even though you are right there, right in front of them?  Talk about feeling insignificant.  This guy might just as well have been a rock by the side of the road, for all the disciples noticed him.

            But then, he’d have heard Jesus say that bit about him being blind “so that the works of God might be displayed through him.”  What must he have thought about that?  He was pretty confused, probably.  We don’t even know if he knew who Jesus was.  He’d have heard the disciples call him “Rabbi”, so he’d have known that much.  But did he know Jesus could work miracles?  

And how was his being blind going to let the works of God be displayed.  What works of God, anyway?  Was Jesus saying his blindness was a work of God?  He must have really wondered what was going on.

So Jesus spits on the ground, makes some mud, and rubs it on the guy’s eyes.  He tells him “Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam.”

As the story comes to us, that’s the only thing Jesus said.  He did not explain who he was.  He did not explain what he was doing.  He did not say what, if anything, would happen after this guy washed in the Pool of Siloam.  He just said to do it.

And the guy did it!  That’s pretty amazing, really.  Again, we don’t know that he had any idea who Jesus was.  We don’t know that he had any idea that Jesus had special healing powers.  When he was going to the Pool of Siloam, what was he thinking?  After all, he was blind.  Going to the Pool of Siloam, even if it was not far away, would not have been easy for a blind man.  And the Bible does not say anything about him having any help.

So what do you think he was thinking?  Did he really believe he was going to be healed by washing in the Pool of Siloam?  Or did he think, well, what have I got to lose, really?  

And it worked!  Can you imagine how he must have felt?  Can you imagine what that would be like?  To have been born blind, to never have seen anything, to not even really understand what it meant to see something.  And then, all of a sudden, you can see!  I mean, that had to feel incredible.

And then come the questions.  First from his neighbors.  Now, you really cannot blame them for having questions.  I mean, they’d known this guy for years, they knew he was blind, and now he can see?  How’s that work?  How’s it even possible?

But then the Pharisees question him.  He tells them the story, and they refuse to believe it.  So they ask him again.  And he tells them again.  This keeps happening, over and over and over.  The Pharisees keep asking him questions, he keeps answering them, and they keep refusing to believe it.

But here’s the thing.  Think about this.  The day before this--in fact, earlier that same day--the Pharisees would not have had any interest in this guy at all.  They would’ve walked right past him.  I mean, he was a blind man.  He was a beggar.  In their world, he was being punished by God, either because of his own sins or his parents’ sins.  He was essentially a non-person in the eyes of the Pharisees.  They would’ve ignored him.  They would not have given him the time of day.  They’d have had zero interest in anything he had to say.

And now, just a few hours later, this guy is the most important person around.  The Pharisees pretty much demand to talk to him.  And they keep talking to him, questioning him.  And as you look at the answers he gives to the Pharisees, it sounds like this formerly blind man loves the attention he’s getting, and you cannot blame him.  It also sounds like he gives no deference to the Pharisees, and you cannot blame him for that, either.  He tells the Pharisees Jesus is a prophet.  He asks them if they want to be Jesus’ disciples.  He tells them that Jesus could not do what he’d done if he was not from God.  This guy has to know he’s making the Pharisees mad, but he does not care.  And there’s no reason he should care, because he knows he’s telling the truth.  If the Pharisees don’t want to accept it, that’s their problem.  But he’s going to praise God, and praise this prophet who has cured him of his blindness, because he knows what happened.  He knows the truth.

Think about what Jesus did for this man.  When you think about it, Jesus really worked two miracles first man.  Jesus cured him of his blindness, of course, and it would’ve been awesome enough if Jesus had just stopped there.  But Jesus did more than that.  Jesus elevated this man from essentially being a non-person to being the most important person around.  He went from being someone who people ignored to someone people could not stop talking to. That had to feel almost as good, maybe even better, as being able to see.  

In the end, of course, the Pharisees threw him out.  But it looks like he did not care, and why should he?  He did not need them anymore.  He did not need anyone.  Except for one person.  He needed Jesus.  When Jesus caught up with him again, he said to Jesus, tell me who the Son of Man is, so I can believe in him.  And when Jesus told him, he worshiped Jesus.

You see, that’s what makes Jesus the great healer.  It’s not just because of his physical healing.  That’s what we always think of, the miraculous physical healing he gave so many people.  That’s important, but it’s not the most important way Jesus heals us.  Jesus provides spiritual healing.  He can take us from feeling like we’re lost, feeling like we’re not important, feeling like no one cares about us, to feeling like we’re the most important person around.  Because in Jesus’ eyes, we are.  Each one of us, to Jesus, is the most important person around.  No matter who insignificant or helpless we feel, each one of us is incredibly important to Jesus.

We’re living in an uncertain world right now.  Some might say it’s a scary world.  It’s a world that seems to be changing every day.  Many things we used to depend on are not there anymore.  There are all kinds of new things that we don’t fully understand.  Sometimes we feel kind of lost.  We feel unimportant.  We feel like we have no control over anything.  That’s one of the reasons people sometimes start to hoard things--it’s an attempt to have control over some aspect, any aspect, of our lives in a world that seems totally out of control.

But it’s not.  The world is not out of control.  God is still there.  Nothing happens that God does not allow.  And Jesus is still there, and Jesus is still the great healer.  Jesus can heal us physically, and that’s very important.  But Jesus can also heal us spiritually.  In a world where we feel totally insignificant, Jesus can come and make us feel like the most important person around.  Jesus will do that, if we put our faith and trust in him.  If we worship him, like the blind man worshiped him.  Because then we will know the truth, just like the blind man knew the truth.

You and I are not insignificant.  We are not unimportant.  When we experience Jesus’ healing, we’ll know that.  Because then, we will know the truth.