Go and Wash

Posted on by korgrocker

“They asked, “Who healed you? What happened?” He told them, “The man they call Jesus made mud and spread it over my eyes and told me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam and wash yourself.’ So I went and washed, and now I can see!” “Where is he now?” they asked. “I don’t know,” he replied.“
John 9:10-12 NLT

The events that took place that Sabbath day caused quite a stir in the blind man’s community. It was unheard of for a blind man to receive his sight and the people there wanted an explanation. They knew the man had been blind because, after all, he had been born in that community. He had grown up there, and he now had to survive by abandoning any hope of personal dignity or respect and beg for alms, for money. There was no safety net of state handouts, and people in those days who were unable to work either begged for the money they needed to live on or they died. These poor unfortunate people were not like the beggars we meet on the streets in our towns and cities here in the UK. These were desperate people who cried out for alms as their fellow countrymen walked past. 

The blind man’s life had been turned upside down by his encounter with Jesus. He had to adapt to a whole new way of living, and would now have to work for his livelihood, perhaps labouring in the fields or some other manual task. And his first challenge was to convince those in his community that he was now a different man. The people around him had to adjust as well, because the man no longer blind was a living and walking challenge to their religious complacency. The religion they followed was not powerful enough to heal a blind man, but they had heard about this Man who claimed to be the Son of God and who could heal the sick, the blind and the lame. And this Man said to them that He also had the power to assure them of eternal life if they believed in Him. 

So the people interrogated the man to try and ascertain if there was some trickery going on. “How did He do it?”, they asked. The response was factual and so matter of fact that it must have been true. The man’s testimony has leapt from these pages in John 9 for two thousand years or so, encouraging and challenging all who read them.

The man was healed because he obeyed what Jesus had told him to do. Are we pilgrims equally as obedient. Let me ask a question – what has Jesus told us to do that we haven’t done yet? It may be something lacking the drama of that Sabbath day in Jerusalem, but important nevertheless. The blind man had a choice about obeying Jesus’ command, “go and wash”. And we too have a choice. On our discipleship pilgrimage wen will often come up against boulders that block our way forward. Many will camp there and give up the journey, saying this Christian life is too hard. But us hardy pilgrims reach out to God for His grace and strength to be overcomers. The apostle Paul wrote, “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Romans 8:37). We have the power within us, to be applied with faith and fortitude. And before us the boulders will turn out to be no more than a pebble on the ground.

Dear Father God. Thank You for Your strength and resources. We have not suffered in the way that Paul did on his missionary journeys, but we have challenges nevertheless. We are soldiers of Christ, able to press on His name. Amen.

Time to Go

Posted on by korgrocker

“Jesus knew the Pharisees had heard that he was baptizing and making more disciples than John (though Jesus himself didn’t baptize them—his disciples did). So he left Judea and returned to Galilee.”
John 4:1-3 NLT

‭Jesus had become aware that He had appeared on the Pharisee’s radar. This formidable group of Jewish leaders were very influential in Jesus’ day and they seemed to be quite popular with the people, though why this should be is unclear. The Pharisees promoted strict adherence to the Jewish Law – all 600 laws as recorded in the Torah – but they also followed the Jewish oral traditions that they believed had originated in the time of Moses. It must have been hard to be a Pharisee, but they were a self-righteous bunch and believed that if they kept all these laws and traditions then God would be pleased with them. Jesus had little time for them, as on several occasions he called them hypocrites, and we read what He said about them in Matthew 23:2-4, “The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees are the official interpreters of the law of Moses. So practice and obey whatever they tell you, but don’t follow their example. For they don’t practice what they teach. They crush people with unbearable religious demands and never lift a finger to ease the burden”. Jesus respected them to the extent of their knowledge of the Jewish Law, but He saw right through them into what was in their hearts. 

So why did Jesus want to leave a successful disciple-making venture in Judea and return to Galilee? Perhaps He didn’t want to confront and alienate the Pharisees just yet, as He was only at the start of His ministry. Or perhaps His Father communicated other plans. Or perhaps He knew that through His cousin John the Baptist, the baptismal ministry was in good and safe hands, and He was needed elsewhere.

It is human nature that should a person become successful at something, then they want to stay in that zone for as long as possible. This can particularly apply to people in an up-front church ministry, someone such as a worship leader or pastor. They feel that success gives them a right to continue even though God might be saying something else. It is very rare to find a leader with John the Baptist’s humility, as we read in John 3:29-30, “It is the bridegroom who marries the bride, and the bridegroom’s friend is simply glad to stand with him and hear his vows. Therefore, I am filled with joy at his success. He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less“. Paul the Apostle also taught humility, as we read in Philippians 2:3-4, “Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too”.

Very perceptively, John the Baptist said, “ … No one can receive anything unless God gives it from heaven” (John 3:27). Those in an upfront church ministry are anointed by God for their role but sometimes their conduct will bar them from continuing, as certain televangelists have found. In the Bible too we find the example of Saul who, through his disobedience, lost his anointing as king of Israel. 1 Samuel 15:22-23, “But Samuel replied, “What is more pleasing to the Lord: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams. Rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft, and stubbornness as bad as worshiping idols. So because you have rejected the command of the Lord, he has rejected you as king.”” 

The lesson to us pilgrims is that we must always be in a position where we are totally reliant on God and obedient to what He wants us to do. There is no other way.

Dear Heavenly Father. Thank You for Your guidance, keeping us on the path to eternal life. While we are here on earth please lead us in Your ways. In Jesus’ name. Amen.