Simple Healing

A reading for Tuesday, March 24, 2015: John 9:18-41.

It's not their fault for not understanding what Jesus was doing. For generations, salvation was to be determined by the forgiveness of sins. Even Zechariah, in declaring the coming of Jesus as salvation, prayed for "knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of sins." So the Jews are just doing what they have been taught and believed as people of faith.

None of this was important to the man born blind. He only could testify to the simple fact that he had been blind, now he could see, and Jesus was the one who had done it. The politics, the power, the control, and all the rest of it was not his concern. He was grateful to God for simple healing...

Perhaps we too get caught up in our ideas about what God is doing. As people of faith we have a set of expectations, and when God acts outside those expectations, or does not offer salvation in the way we expect, it is difficult to recognize.

Many of our neighbors don't know enough about faith to know what they should expect. However, they do recognize goodness and grace, kindness and humility. When it comes to the church, the politics, the power, the control, and all the rest of it is of no concern. What matters to our neighbors is  simple healing... of their relationships, of their families, or their neighborhood, of their nation, or the environment.

And when they see this simple healing, they are able to be grateful to God and to recognize that Jesus was the one that has done it.