Clear As Mud

This morning as I read in the gospel of John about one of Jesus' countless miracles, I felt as though I could relate to the blind man whom He healed.

In the story, Jesus had upset the religious leaders, striking quite a nerve when He called them "children of the devil" who love to do evil and hate the truth.  Going a step further, Jesus then claimed not only to be greater than Abraham but to have existed before him as well.  At this point, the crowds picked up rocks to throw at Jesus, wanting to stone Him to death for His blasphemous remarks.  Before they could harm Him, Jesus magically disappeared and left the temple without anyone seeing or knowing where He had gone.

Apparently, Jesus reunited with His disciples fairly quickly because in the very next verse, we see them walking along the road together.  They come across a man "who had been blind since birth."  His disciples immediately ask Jesus, "WHY was this man born blind?  Was it because of his sin or his parents' sin?"

WHY -- the age old question.  WHY -- a toddler's favorite word.  Coralyn loves to ask "Why?" about anything and everything.  And when I answer one "Why?" she wants to know "Why" about that too.  It's a never-ending process.  Sometimes she just had to settle for, "That's just the way things are," or "That's just how it works," or "That's just how God made it."  I guess we never really grow out of asking WHY, no matter how old we are.

Here, the disciples want to know WHY this man was born blind.  They want to know WHY something bad happened to him.  Automatically, they assume he or his parents had done something wrong to cause this terrible tragedy.  But still, they ask Jesus WHY the man couldn't see.

I am sure the blind man had asked himself the same question many times.

I bet he asked his parents quite a few times growing up too.  Unfortunately, like most parents, they didn't have an answer to his, "Why?"  Maybe after hearing him ask "WHY?" for the 4,983rd time, they sighed and finally shouted in frustration, "I don't know WHY, okay!  Just because....because that's how God made you!  Now don't ask me again!"

And then, in the quiet of the night after they had put their son to bed, they would cry out to God, asking Him, "WHY?  Why did you do this to our boy?"  Begging Him for an answer, but never getting one.  Just like their son, they were left in the dark (pun intended).

Most likely, by this point both the man and his parents had given up hope of ever knowing WHY he was blind, let alone ever being healed and having the ability to see the world around him.

Enter Jesus...

Without batting an eye, Jesus has the answer to all the WHY's that had been asked about this man's blindness since the day he was born.  No, it wasn't because the boy had sinned.  Not his parents' fault either.  Rather, "this happened so the power of God could be seen in him."

Oh, is that WHY?  Makes perfect sense now.  Of course!!!  He was born blind, so that one random day Jesus could come by, notice the man, and perform a miracle.  Wasn't that obvious?!!!  Why hadn't the man or his parents thought of that?

We aren't told how old the man is, just that he was blind from birth.  We don't know how many years this man and his parents -- and everyone in the community -- had been asking WHY.  I am sure they grew tired and weary of asking, never getting an answer.  I get impatient if I have to wait for a few seconds at a red light. I get frustrated if I have to wait in the doctor's office or in line at the grocery store.  I get irritated when I have to wait for God to answer my questions, to respond to my prayers, to give me the answers I so desperately want....NOW.

And so, as I read just the very beginning of this story, I felt like I could relate to the blind man.  Granted, I haven't been asking the same question for my entire life, just the past month or so really.  Ever since our house sold but then didn't, have been asking WHY.  And each day that it doesn't sell, that we don't get an offer, I keep wondering WHY.  Like the blind man, I want to be able to see what in the world God is doing, what He's up to and how He is using all of this for good.

The situation is vastly different, but the answer is still exactly the same, "this happened (and is happening) so that power of God can be seen in us."

What Jesus did next was probably not what the blind man was anticipating.  I am guessing that in all his years of asking WHY he had been born without the ability to see and that in even his wildest dreams that maybe one day he would be healed, he had never imagined that Jesus would do what He did.

Jesus picked up some dirt, spit in his hands, and mushed the dirt and spit together to make mud.  Then, He took that mud and smeared the blind man's eyes with it.  Like I said, I think it's safe to say this isn't the typical procedure for healing a person's sight.  But then again, Jesus isn't your typical doctor either.  He's the One and Only Great Physician, and if He wants to use mud to give a man his sight for the first time in his entire life, then that is what Jesus will do.  All to the praise of God's name.  You can't really give mud any credit for restoring sight.  Definitely all credit goes to the power of God.  That was, after all, the very reason WHY the man had been born blind in the first place!!!

After Jesus covered the man's eyes with mud, He instructed him to wash himself in the pool of Siloam.  Without questioning Jesus' healing methods, the man went and did as Jesus said.  Instantly, he could see!

What a story he had to tell!!!!  Sadly, the Jewish religious leaders were more upset about Jesus performing the miracle on the Sabbath than they were glad that this man had just been given the ability to see for the first time in his life.  They even went so far as to CURSE the newly un-blind man, saying they had no idea where this Jesus came from or how He had the power to heal people.

The man's answer is so honest, so evident that he had just personally witnessed God at work in his life and was unable to contain his excitement, "Why that's strange!  He healed my eyes, and yet you don't know where He comes from?  We know that God doesn't listen to sinners, but He is ready to hear those who worship Him and do His will.  Ever since the world began, no one has been able to open the eyes of someone born blind (and he would know!).  If this man were not from God, He could not have done it."

So true.  So simple.  So offensive.

Furious, the Jewish leaders answer, "You were born a total sinner!  Are you trying to teach us?"  And they threw him out of the synagogue.

They totally missed it.  Jesus had already explained at the onset that this man's blindness was NOT a result of his sin, but that God's power might be seen in him.  The Jewish leaders might have been the ones born with the ability to see, but on this day, they were the only blind ones in the temple.  And sadly, their blindness was a result of sin.  Furthermore, it couldn't be remedied due to their lack of belief in God.  Their unwillingness to let Him work in their lives -- to let Him display His power, to admit their need for His power in the first place -- kept them in the dark.  Just as Jesus had just told them earlier, "Anyone who belongs to God gladly listens to the words of God.  But you don't listen because you don't belong to God."

How I pray that my own inability to see isn't a result of my sin!  I most certainly don't want to be kept in the dark because I refuse to let God do things His way, in His timing!  I would much rather keep asking WHY, and learn to WAIT PATIENTLY until I get my answer.  And then, when Jesus does do His thing -- however strange or weird it may be -- He can receive all the power and glory and praise due His name!

And so, today, I am doing my best to not even ask WHY, but rather to praise God in advance for the way He is going to work in my life to make His power known.

Because even if God did answer all my WHY's, I am sure His explanation would be clear as mud in my tiny, pea-sized human brain with such limited capability to understand His majestic, glorious, all-knowing, perfect divine ways of doing things.