Learning From Martha

For ten years starting in 1968 Christian Life Magazine published a list compiled by Elmer Towns, who was a Sunday School Guru, listing the top 100 Sunday Schools in America.   

In 1974 the largest Sunday School in the US and assumedly in the world was First Baptist Church in Hammond Indiana with an average weekly attendance of 11,303, in Sunday School.  They had 165 buses operating, reported 8,040 baptisms that year and had an income of almost 3 million dollars.

Sunday school conferences were the norm for Pastors who wanted to see their churches grow and churches that didn’t offer Sunday School programs were considered to be weak and ineffectual and maybe even not Christian…

But twenty years later that was changing.  In 1994 when Cornerstone was in the planning stages we made the conscious decision to not have Sunday School.   Part of it was practical, we didn’t have any Sunday School teachers and we would have had to pony up more cash to rent our facilities for a longer period of time.  But it went beyond the practical.  In the two previous churches I had pastored we had offered Sunday School and I had watched the commitment of both students and teachers waning.  

It takes a lot of commitment to make Sunday School happen, teachers who have to commit to prepare lessons every week, often for 52 weeks a year, year after year.  Parents who had to commit to bring their kids to Sunday School.  It was a constant struggle to recruit teachers and students and keep them motivated. 

And so twenty years ago when we launched it was without a Sunday School program, instead we were committed to providing a high quality children’s program.  And for the first 14 years that was run by Angela and for the last six years Pastor Marilyn taken the lead and it has worked.

And there are folks who still call our programs Sunday School, but they really aren’t.

And in churches everywhere there were staples with the Sunday School programs.  There was the opening session where they played games that helped them memorize scripture and sang songs to help them learn bible stories.  And then the kids went to their classrooms where they would learn the stories from the bible, often from Flannel graphs.  And all the kids and often the adults would be learning the same things each week just presented at a level appropriate for their age level.

Flannel Graph Story of Mary and Martha.

She was a little steamed, actually she was a lot ticked and who could blame her.  Sure she had been the one who had invited the company over, but it wasn’t just her home, I mean her sister could do a little bit to help out.  Instead she just sat there staring up at their guest as if it was the first time she’d ever seen the man, when the truth was they had practically grown up together.  And so she walked a little louder, actually it was pretty close to stomping, and banged the pots a little more than necessary, actually a lot more than necessary and she sighed a lot and not little sighs either, these we full blown asthmatic sighs that were not to be missed.  And yet they were missed, their guest continued to teach and her sister sat mesmerized, hanging on every word that he said.  And Martha was a little steamed, actually she was a lot ticked and who could blame her.

We read the story earlier in the service.  Mary and Martha were the sisters of Jesus’ good friend Lazarus and it would appear from different gospel accounts that Jesus spent a fair amount of time at their home.  On this specific occasion Jesus was travelling past on one of his journeys and Martha invited him to come and stay with her family.  When Jesus arrived he sat down and began to speak, we don’t know if he was teaching, or if he was telling them of his journey or just shooting the breeze.  Whatever it was Mary was soon entranced with his words and sat at his feet hanging on to every word.  If you ever saw the CBS mini-series “Jesus” you might remember they actually portrayed Mary as having a crush on Jesus, and it could have happened.  He was a likeable type of guy who obviously was well respected, had a trade and came from a good family.  A girl could do worse than Jesus. 

But the story really isn’t about Mary at all; it’s about her sister, Martha.  It had been Martha who had invited Jesus into her home and she was bound and determined that everything would be perfect for Jesus.  And so she began to fuss around, cleaning up and getting supper ready.  At first it wasn’t bad but the longer she worked the more she began to resent the fact that her sister was just sitting there, doing nothing.  And finally she couldn’t stand it any longer, in Australia they would say that she spit the dummy or got her knickers in a knot, and she blurted out, “excuse me, doesn’t anybody think this might be more than a little unfair, me playing Cinderella, while her highness sits on her duff and does nothing.”  Or something to that effect.

And Jesus responded by saying “Martha, don’t sweat the little stuff, and this is all little stuff.  Right now Mary has discovered what is really important, and I’m not going to put a damper on that.”

I wonder what Martha’s response was?  It’s not recorded but somehow I don’t think she said “Oh I’m sorry Lord, I didn’t realize.”  What can we learn from Martha in this story? 

Let’s go back and look at the story, Luke 10:38 As Jesus and the disciples continued on their way to Jerusalem, they came to a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home.  

We Can Learn to be Like Martha.  For better or worse Martha had a servant’s heart.  Years ago a friend of mine, actually the engineer who designed our building referred to engineers as “The Sons of Martha” and that comes from a poem that Kipling wrote in it he

The Sons of Mary seldom bother,
for they have inherited that good part;

But the Sons of Martha favour their Mother of the careful soul and the troubled heart.

And because she lost her temper once, and because she was rude to the Lord her Guest,

Her Sons must wait upon Mary's Sons, world without end, reprieve, or rest.

We have talked in the past about spiritual gifts, that is to say the gifts that are given to each believer for the building up of the Kingdom.

Depending on who you talk to the list include things like, prophecy, speaking in unknown languages, healing, teaching and leadership.  And right in the middle of all of that is the gift of hospitality, or entertaining.  A very valid gift and a very important gift.  It is referred to in scriptures like 1 Peter 4:9-10 Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay. God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. As well as Romans 12:13 When God’s people are in need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality.

And Hebrews 13:2 Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it!

Do you remember that last scripture from the King James, it says: Hebrews 13:2 Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. When I first heard that I wondered who would want to entertain angels in underwear.  Talk about strange mind pictures.

So we need to be like Martha in the sense that she knew what her giftedness was, and she was willing to put it to use.  She was one of those people whose home was always open.  As believers one of the most frustrating things in life can be trying to do things that we not gifted for, it goes back to the trying to put square pegs in round holes. 

Now sometimes we can fill a temporary need, and that’s valid.  But for the most part our place of service ought to be where we are spiritually gifted.  When we find where that is, and then we exercise that gift we not only feel fulfilled we are fulfilled.

Mary Lou Retton  said  As simple as it sounds, we all must try to be the best person we can: by making the best choices, by making the most of the talents we've been given.

But spiritual gifts are more than simply talents, they are gifts given to Christians from the Holy Spirit, for the purpose of seeing the Kingdom of God grow.  And every Christian has at least one spiritual gift, and most of us have several, some stronger, some not nearly as evident.  That’s part of why Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 12:4-6 There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us.

But how do you find out what your gift is?  One of the easiest ways is to take a spiritual gift inventory, it’s like a personality test except it helps us to identify our spiritual giftedness.  If you interested let me know and I’ll get a copy to you.  But many of us know what our giftedness is, because that’s where we feel comfortable.

One of the easiest ways to determine that is by asking two questions:  1) Do I enjoy this? and 2) Do I do it well?  The first question can only be answered by you; the second question may have to be answered honestly by someone else.  Notice that I said honestly. 

Not like the train wrecks who get panned on American Idol then tell the judges: “But all my friends say I can sing.”  And I can only think of a couple of explanations for that

1) Nobody in their life knows anything about music. And maybe there are some bizarre little communities out there where horrific singing is something to be admired and praised. I've never heard a hint of such a community and as strange as it may seem it be it can't be as strange as the only other alternative and that is

2) People who say they love these folks would lie to them about their singing abilities setting them up for ridicule and humiliation.  And they would probably defend their actions by saying they didn’t want to hurt their feelings.

For the church to function at its optimum level every believer has to be exercising his or her spiritual gifts.  Paul uses the analogy of the body time and time again to describe the church, and for a body to operate the way it was designed each element does the work that it was designed to do.  The nose smells, the eyes see, the ears hear. That’s the way it’s supposed to work, and we are told that often if one part doesn’t work the way it’s supposed to that other parts take up the load.  And so a blind person may have a heightened sense of hearing or smell to help offset the disability of not being able to see. 

But that’s not the way it’s supposed to be and it’s not nearly as effective.  In the same way when some believers don’t use their spiritual gifts to help the kingdom grow then the gap will have to be filled by someone else, perhaps someone who isn’t gifted there but is willing to help carry the load.  But that’s not the way it’s supposed to be and it’s not nearly as effective. Think about what happens when things get mixed up and your nose runs and your feet smell.

If Cornerstone is going to be everything that God intends Cornerstone to be.  And if we are going to impact the people that God wants us to impact.  And if we are going to do all that God intends for us to do it will be when “We” not “Me” does it. 

We’ve been here before but everyone here, everyone here has an ability, a gift, a “something” that they could and should contribute to the Kingdom, and often as Christ followers we do it through the local church.

Do you ever stop and think about how many people are volunteering on a typical Sunday morning to make all this seem seamless.  So that adults and children can be lead into God’s throne room?  This morning there are 35 people who will be involved in some way today between the two services.  From nursery to greeting to making coffee and cleaning up afterwards to children’s ministry and platform ministry and in the sound booth.  That doesn’t include anyone who draws a salary.

And there is something you could be doing and something you should be doing and if you are honest than you know that there is someplace at Cornerstone that you can serve. 

And so the good is that Martha knew her spiritual gift and was willing to put it to work.  But like everything in life, balance is a wonder thing.  Luke 10:39-40 Her sister, Mary, sat at the Lord’s feet, listening to what he taught. But Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing.  And it is while Martha is exercising her spiritual gift that the wheels kind of come off the wagon.

Martha had at least an elementary grasp of who Jesus was because she called him Lord.  If she didn’t recognize him as the Son of God or the Messiah she at least identified him as being a teacher or a Rabbi, and we don’t have to look too far through the gospels to discover that Martha and her siblings were friends of Christ.  So, I wonder why she invited him to their house? 

Was it just to eat or had she invited him to come so she could enjoy his company and to hear what he had to say.  I would suspect that it was that the latter.  I mean if she just wanted to provide him with a meal she could have given him five deanari and sent him to McMalaci’s or someplace. 

But as so often happens the good soon eclipses the best.  And so in an attempt to be the best hostess that she can be, to provide the cleanest possible house, and to make the best meal she can, she neglects the very reason she’s doing it.  Have you ever done that, invited company over and by the time the evenings over, the dishes are done, the kitchen’s cleaned up you realize that you didn’t get to spend any time with your company.

There was a couple in our church in Australia who had this hospitality thing down pat, if you stopped there to say hello or to pick up your kids there was a pretty good chance that you would end up staying for a meal.  Nothing fancy, just put some more water in the soup, but they were some of the best times we had.  We have known other people who wouldn’t think of having you in there house unless everything was perfect, nothing could be out of place and the meal, it had to be a five star event, which inevitably meant that you never got invited to their house, or if you did you didn’t get to visit they were way too busy getting ready for you to actually have anytime for you.

We Can Learn to Not be Like Martha.   You see,   Martha got so caught up in serving Jesus that she didn’t take the time to know Jesus.  And that doesn’t just happen when we are beating around the kitchen.  We can take course after course, read book after book, go to seminar after seminar and never take the time to actually sit at Jesus feet and build a relationship with Him.  And to be truthful Jesus probably would have preferred a tuna sandwich and Martha’s company to the fancy meal she was so busy preparing.

What is it that distracts you from getting to know Jesus better?  What keeps you from having the relationship with Jesus that you would really like to have?  What would it take for you to slow down and sit at His feet and listen to what he has to say?

But that wasn’t the worst part of the story.

And so Martha is busy being the hostess with the mostess and before long she notices that she’s doing all the work, which knowing Martha was what she wanted but she wanted it on her terms.  You understand there’s a difference between doing everything after someone has offered to help and you’ve turned them down, and doing everything and nobodies even offered.  And it would appear that Mary hadn’t even offered, she just plopped down at Jesus feet and became engrossed in what he was saying. 

The text tells us that Mary wasn’t helping but neither was Lazarus, or any of the disciples.  Sometimes we overwork our volunteers because nobody else steps up to the plate.  And maybe they offered and Martha turned them down, after all it was her house and her kitchen, but maybe they were content to just sit back and enjoy the service they were getting and it didn’t even cross their minds that they could help out.

And that goes back to the Sunday morning thing, we come in take a bulletin from a greeter, drop the kids off in Nursery or Jr. Church, come out and grab a coffee and then we go in and enjoy the worship, without ever thinking “I wonder how I could help out.”

And Martha was not in the least bit impressed.  But she couldn’t really lash out at Peter and James and John and the other nine so she lashed out at her sister.

Luke 10:40 But Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing. She came to Jesus and said, “Lord, doesn’t it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me.”   And this is where things got nasty. 

It was here that Martha spit the dummy.  If you close your eyes you can almost picture her standing there, a tea towel over one shoulder, a smudge of flour on her nose and her hands on her hips.  She’s not a happy camper. 

What should have been a great time for everyone suddenly became very awkward, Martha’s little tiff was in front of everyone.  There are a couple of warnings here for us.  First:  Martha Insisted That Mary Share Her Spiritual Gift.  I mean after all if she had the gift of hospitality than everyone should the gift of hospitality.  But that isn’t the way it works, but often we can get caught up in thinking that.  Especially with gifts like mercy, or intersession, that is the gift of prayer or the gift of helps. 

We kind of feel like: if I can pray for four hours than everyone ought to be able to pray for four hours.  And if there’s nothing I love more than doing hospital calls then everyone should feel that way.  When I was in Truro I had a retired gentleman in my church who worked as my lay assistant helping with visitation.  And it was nothing for Don to visit 4 or 5 hundred people during the year, yes that’s right four or five hundred people, people who were in the hospital or nursing homes or were shut-ins. 

And he did it so well, the gift of mercy was right up at the top of Don’s gift blend. Don lived to call on people, But he never tried to make me feel spiritually inferior because I didn’t have the spiritual gift of mercy in the same way he did.  But on the other hand while he was using his gift blend of mercy and compassion I was using my gift blend of Teaching and Leadership and saw the church grow and move into a building project. 

Secondly Martha allowed herself to be consumed by bitterness.  I’ve said this before you will never, ever be responsible for another believer’s behaviour but you will always be responsible for your own.  Martha wasn’t responsible for what Mary was or wasn’t doing.  But when she allowed envy to rear its head she became responsible for that. 

I don’t think it was so much that Martha wished that Mary would do what she was doing.  I think that Martha was envious of what Mary was doing, but instead of asking herself “Why aren’t I doing that?”  She found it easier to attack Mary, not for what she was doing, I mean how can you condemn a person for listening to Christ, but instead for what she wasn’t doing.   But that wasn’t the issue.

And Jesus recognized that, listen to what he says Luke 10:41-42 But the Lord said to her, “My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.”

What was the one thing that Mary had discovered that Martha hadn’t?  I don’t know it doesn’t tell us, but somehow I have a sneaking suspicion that it has something to do with his words in Matthew 6:33 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.  What is your primary concern?  And if someone was to define your spiritual walk, where would it end up.  I trust that your desire is to serve him.  To get to know Jesus better and to exercise your spiritual gifts. 

I was blind but now I see.

This is week three of Old School Sunday School.  And we sometimes think of Sunday School as a fairly recent phenomena, something that became a part of our churches in the fifties, when the parents of the boomers were filling churches with their growing families. 

But the first Sunday schools were set up in the 1780s to provide education to working children on their one day off from the factory.
The concept of a “Sunday” school was proposed by Robert Raikes, who raised the possibility in the Gloucester Journal.  His idea was supported by many clergy of the day, it aimed to teach the youngsters reading, writing and cyphering and a knowledge of the Bible.
It was another 90 years before children would be able to attend school during the week.  Within five years of the birth of Sunday School we are told there were over a quarter of a million English Children attending classes, that’s pretty impressive.

But most of us are more familiar with the Sunday School of our childhood with opening sessions, games, contests, learning memory verses, singing choruses and learning our bible stories via the ever present Flannel Graph”

This morning’s story is one of those Jesus stories that kids learned back in the day.  (Tell the flannelgraph story about the blind man)
Message
This is another one of those stories that make you go hmmmm.  Not because Jesus healed a blind man, he healed all kinds of blind people in the gospels and he healed them by themselves, and in pairs and in groups.  But this story was different, different in the way it was initiated, different in the way that Jesus approached the blind man and different in the way he healed the blind man. 

John 9:1 As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth.

The Meeting was Different  If you are familiar with most of the healings that Jesus is credited with in the New Testament you know that they were initiated by either the person who needed to be healed or by someone close to them, a relative or a friend.  Either someone came to Jesus themselves asking to be healed or approached him as he passed by or they were brought to Jesus.  But in most of these cases it was a conscious effort by someone.  The man with the demon possessed son, the woman who touched the hem of Jesus’ garment when he was in the crowd, or blind Bartimaeus who began crying out to Jesus when he heard he was near.   But this isn’t what happened in this story.
We are told that Jesus and his disciples were walking along the street in Jerusalem when they saw a blind man who we are told had been blind from birth.  Now I don’t know what the blind man was doing, but I would suspect that he was begging, because the reality of the situation is that was all he would have been expected to do two thousand years ago.  And before I began teaching in West Africa I really didn’t grasp the enormity of what it is like to have a major handicap in the developing world.  We live in a society that is protected by a huge safety net and where people are encouraged to move beyond whatever physical challenges might limit them.  And so while there are certainly some job opportunities that might be off limits for someone with no vision, there are opportunities out there.  Not so in Jesus day, if you could not see and if there was no one to support you, then your only recourse would be to rely on the kindness of strangers. 

And so Jesus and his disciples are walking along and see this blind man and it’s here the conversation gets a little awkward.  Let’s pick up the story in John 9:1-2 As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. “Rabbi,” his disciples asked him, “why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?”

A few years back when we were a polling station for the federal election we had some volunteers from the high school helping out.  One young lady was assisting voters when they arrived, one elderly gentleman came in a wheelchair pushed by his wife.  The gentleman was very frail and hunched over in his chair and so the young lady leaned over and very slowly and carefully asked if she could assist the gentleman.  To which he snidely replied “I’m a cripple, I’m not stupid.”  The girl was crushed. 

And I wonder if this blind man wanted to say, “Hey guys, the sign says blind not deaf, I’m right here.”

I don’t know what prompted the question from the disciples, perhaps they were picking up on a previous conversation, maybe it was just a question one of them had and it seemed like the opportune time to ask it.  And it’s still a question that is asked today, “What did I do to deserve this?”  “Is my child sick because of something I did?”  “What have I done wrong?”  In the Old Testament book of Job, Job’s friends implied that all those nasty things that happened to Job had to be his fault, obviously there were hidden sin in his life. 

It seems that we want to blame someone, that it’s not enough that it just happened.  And yet that is what Jesus seems to imply here when he responds in John 9:3 “It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him.”  Does that imply that the man had been born blind for this very moment, that he had lived a life devoid of sight as a set up for Christ to heal him at this very point?  That seems pretty heartless.  Because I am a reader I can’t imagine life with sight, it was Matthew Henry who wrote about this man “If the light is sweet, how melancholy must it needs be for a man, all his days, to eat in darkness!”   We know so little about the blind man, perhaps he was a godly man with a super positive outlook on life who radiated righteousness in spite of his circumstances, and that’s what Jesus meant by God’s power been seen in him.

When I first became a Christ follower my pastor was Jack MacKenzie.  And Jack and his wife are the godliest people I have ever met.  I first met the Mackenzies not long after they had buried their second child.  Their teenage daughter Elaine had died of a lingering disease that robbed her of movement and eventually robbed her of her breath.  And their college age son was killed in a tragic accident.  And yet through it all their love for God and trust in his purpose shone through.  And the power of God was seen in them.  There will be countless people in heaven because of the witness of Jack and Charlene through those dark days.  Did God have a hand in the death of the MacKenzie children?  I don’t think so.  Was he able to use the tragedy for good?  Most definitely.  And here a man who had been blind since birth will used to reveal the power and grace of Jesus.  He wasn’t born blind because of his parent’s sins or his own sins.  He was born blind because he was born into a broken world where bad things happen, even to good people.

And Jesus implies that this man’s greatest need wasn’t that he needed to see light, but that he needed to see the light of the world. 

And even though the man wasn’t seeking a healing from Jesus, he receives an offer of healing from Jesus.  Let’s continue with the story

John 9:6 Then he (Jesus) spit on the ground, made mud with the saliva, and spread the mud over the blind man’s eyes.

The Healing was Different 
This isn’t the only time in the gospels that we see Jesus heal a person, and it’s not the only time in the bible that we see Jesus heal a blind person.  But this particular story has the most detail of any of the instances where someone was blind was given their sight.
And there are things about this story that make it different than the other stories.  It’s the only time that we see Jesus heal anyone using mud.  And different people have different opinions about the method that was used here.  Some tell us that spit was considered to have healing power back then.  I do know that mother’s spit is pretty powerful stuff from cleaning a child’s face to flattening out a wayward cowlick. 

And this wasn’t the first time that Jesus used his saliva in a healing, we see another example of a blind man being healed by Jesus in Mark 8 using his spit, saliva sounds so much classier but we read in Mark 8:23 Jesus took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. Then, spitting on the man’s eyes, he laid his hands on him and asked, “Can you see anything now?”

And in Mark chapter 7 a man is brought to Jesus with a speech impediment and Jesus spit on his finger and then touched the man’s tongue and he was healed.

But this time he doesn’t just use his saliva he mixes it with dirt and makes a mud poultice which he applies to the man’s eyes.  And at least one commentator makes a case that the man had been blind since birth and Jesus is just going back to creation where God created man from the dust of the ground.  And so Jesus is correcting his lack of vision with the original building material.
But we don’t know, all we know is that in different cases Jesus used different methods to heal people.  Sometimes he touched them, sometimes they touched him.  Sometimes he spoke to the person who needed to be healed and other times he simply spoke to their loved ones.  Sometimes it was close up and there were times that it was from a distance.  And that is the reality today as well.  God still heals in different ways.  There are still people who are healed by God in a miraculous manner without any physical intervention and then there are times that people are healed through modern medicine, does that move God out of the equation.  And this isn’t a cop out but some folks are healed through death.  If we believe what we say we believe about heaven and eternity it is the ultimate healing.  We won’t live forever and often our later years aren’t always our healthiest years, but God’s  promise tells us in Revelation 21:4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”  
And it’s the same with our salvation, there are as many different salvation stories as there are people telling them.  You may have been saved at the end of the service when you were called to the altar while the congregation sang “Come as you are”.  Or it may have been around a campfire at youth camp, or maybe you were one of hundreds who responded at a Billy Graham crusade. 
I came to know Jesus because my best friend kept talking about the difference that Jesus had made in his life and then one night he dragged me out to the Wesleyan Church in Saint John.  They gave an altar call and I had no idea what they wanted me to do so after the service I told my friend that I wanted to become a Christian and we prayed together.
When Angela was in grade five the Gideon’s handed out New Testaments in her school and she read the prayer at the end of the NT and signed the commitment page, and then three years later strangers showed up at her door asking if her parents would let her go on a bus to the Sunday School at Hillside Wesleyan Church.  Your story is probably completely different than ours but that doesn’t make yours or ours any less valid.

It is interesting that the man didn’t come to Jesus for healing, Jesus offered the healing to him but he had to take steps as well.  John 9:7 He told him, “Go wash yourself in the pool of Siloam” (Siloam means “sent”). So the man went and washed and came back seeing!

In other cases Jesus just spoke and the healing happened, but those folks had asked Jesus to heal them they wanted to be healed.  Jesus is offering this man the choice.  He could do as Jesus commanded and be healed, or he could go home wash the mud off in the kitchen sink and not be healed, it was his choice. 

God’s grace is available to each of us, but it is up to us to take that which has been offered.  For example following the service Julie will be taking pictures for the new photo directory.  And so we are offering each person here the chance to be in the photo directory, all you have to do to accept that offer is to go and have your picture taken.  You may choose not to accept the offer, in which case your picture won’t be in the photo directory, but your decision to not accept the offer in no way negates the fact that the offer was made.

In theology we call it Prevenient Grace and that is simply the divine grace that precedes human decision. It exists prior to and without reference to anything humans may have done

So what happened?  I’ll let the blind man tell us in his own words.  John 9:11 He (the formerly known as “The blind man”) 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!”

The offer of a healing was extended by Jesus and the man had the option of either accepting it or rejecting it, and he accepted it.  The result was that he could see.  Now understand he did nothing to earn the gift of healing, and really did nothing, other than obey Jesus, to facilitate the healing.  Paul would later write in Ephesians 2:8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God.

And it would fit with this story if we read it this way Ephesians 2:8-9 God healed you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God.

Whether you receive a physical healing from God or a spiritual healing.  It is a gift from God.  Not every sick person that we pray for will be healed, that is God’s providence.  But every person who accepts the grace of God for a spiritual healing will be saved.  

The Response was Different  One would think that everybody who heard that the man had been healed would be excited and happy for him.  But that wasn’t what happened. 
There were those who didn’t believe it had happened, they stated that it wasn’t really the blind man instead it was someone who looked like him.  But the man insisted that it was indeed him, and you’d think he’d know.  But more than the confusion was the fact that his healing enraged the religious leaders. 
There’s a whole section of the story that wasn’t read for us this morning that tells how the Pharisees grilled this poor man about the facts of his healing.  They accused Jesus of being a sinner for healing on the Sabbath, and said that proved that he must be of the devil.  They couldn’t get past the rules, or at least their interpretation of the rules.  This seems like as good of a place as any for a Mark Twain quote, Twain said “Loyalty to a petrified opinion never broke a chain or freed a human soul.”  For the religious leaders the fact that every I was dotted and every t was crossed was much more important than the fact a man had been given a brand new life. 

Jesus summed up his reasoning another time he was accused of healing on the Sabbath when he said in Luke 14:5 Then he turned to them and said, “Which of you doesn’t work on the Sabbath? If your son or your cow falls into a pit, don’t you rush to get him out?”

It is interesting to note that in some translations the word donkey is used instead of son.  I’ve heard people use this excuse for any manner of work they do on Sunday but years ago I heard someone say “If your donkey falls in the ditch every Sunday you ought to fill in the ditch or get another donkey.”  But that is beyond the point.
The blind man wasn’t really all that interested in theological debates on whether or not he should have been healed when he had been healed.  

For him it was a very simple story he sums it up in John 9:25 . . . the man replied. “But I know this: I was blind, and now I can see!”

His life had been made different, he could see what he had never been able to see before, and with that came all kinds of changes.  He would have to find work, he would have to get used to how the people he loved looked.  As a matter of fact he would have to get used to how everything looked, he had always been blind, he had no idea what anything looked like.  He was seeing life through brand new eyes.   In another Jesus story a blind man had been healed and when Jesus asked him what he saw he said that he saw people but they looked like trees.  I don’t think the people looked like trees nearly as much as they didn’t look like what he thought people would look like.

When you become a Christ follower your life should change, and not everybody will appreciate it.  Your habits should change, your priorities should change.  When I became a Christian I stopped hanging around some of my old friends because their behaviour made me uncomfortable, and some old friends stopped hanging around with me, because me behaviour made them uncomfortable.

But to the blind man all the changes in his lifer were worth it, after all he was blind but now he could see.  And he wanted to share his experience with everyone.  In this account he tells his story four times and the even then the religious leaders don’t seem to get it, we pick up the story in John 9:26 “But what did he do?” they asked. “How did he heal you?”   I’m sure he felt like saying “If I told you once I’ve told you a dozen times, instead what he tells them is John 9:27 “Look!” the man exclaimed. “I told you once. Didn’t you listen? Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?”

And really, our story isn’t complete until we ask others the question, “Do you want to become his disciples too?”  Which is why we are told in Psalm 107:1-2 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever. Has the LORD redeemed you? Then speak out!

So where are you at today?  Maybe you’re like the blind man, unaware that the one who can change your life is so close.  But Jesus is just a prayer away.  And he has already offered you his salvation and his grace, but like any gift it needs to be received.  Are you ready to wash the mud off your eyes and accept the new life he is offering you?

Of this I am certain, if you accept his offer your life will never be the same.