Good morning! Today the Lord is speaking to us in John 9:2-3 & 5-7:
“And His disciples asked Him, saying ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.’”
John 9:2-3, 5-7
“‘As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.’ When He had said these things, He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva; and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. And He said to him, ‘Go, wash in the pool of Siloam,’ (which is translated “Sent”). So he went and washed, and came back seeing.”
This ninth chapter of John is about a blind man who receives his sight, then Jesus moves on to teaching about spiritual sight. The first thing that struck me in this chapter is that the blind man did not know Jesus, wasn’t a follower, and had no reason to believe that Jesus would or could heal him. He had no faith, but the healing happened, and then His faith became real. Jesus even comes back to the man compassionately to confirm that he has seen the Son of God.
Jesus takes this teaching moment with His disciples to reinforce that not all disabilities and illnesses originate in personal sin. Disease and defects are a result of man’s fall from grace in the Garden with the consequent entry of sin, sickness, affliction, and death into the world that God had originally designed for freedom and perfection. Jesus’ shed blood brought restoration to our fallen world.
This is yet another reminder to continue to pray for salvation for the lost, but not to rule out that God works in strange and mysterious ways. He might choose to heal a wandering soul out of mercy as a means of bringing them into the Kingdom. Our job isn’t to follow a formula of repentance, salvation, and healing, but to listen to Holy Spirit and pray for healing physically and spiritually. We serve a mighty God who rejoices in healing all of His children. Praise God, our Healer!
Jesus loves you! Me, too!