Lent 34

This morning, I am up in the dark, doing this before anybody else wakes up. It feels extra holy. Probably something they recommend in the Focus On The Family marriage books on how to be a good wife. It's over-rated.

But the day is going to be full, with most of my busy away from home, and this time with Jesus has become something that matters, an important moment in my day.

And then this morning, I wondered too, what would happen today, the day after yesterday.

And this morning what I read over and over again, is that all of this is about God and God's purposes. Sin, don't sin, good figs, bad figs, the remnant of Israel, and blind man - all are. They exist only to make God's plans known, only to reveal God's great goodness and true heart.

So I bring my raw-again, confessing heart to God this morning, believing that truly God's mercies are new every morning, and beg God, like David has done for weeks and weeks now, beg God to save me. Let there be some goodness for God in my restoration. I don't want to be blind like the useless idols I've built. I want to see. So Jesus, restore my sight.

And then I'm just going to do the rest of the day and hope like crazy it makes God look good. Because friends, God is good.

John 9:1-17

New International Version (NIV)

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 works of God might be displayed in him. ⁴ As long as it is day, we must do the works 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 After saying 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 asked.
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 perform such signs?” So they were divided.
¹⁷ Then 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.”