When I head to my Bible everyday I'll either ask for guidance on something particularly on my heart OR ask to be led to the message He needs me to hear. I was led to both of these this week & I feel like the message is so profound that I had to share my reflections.
First, Jesus healing the man blind from birth: It can be found in John 9:1-41
There were several things that stuck out to me. The disciples...the very people that followed Jesus asked: "Who sinned? This man or his parents, for him to have been born blind?" Jesus replied: "Neither he nor his parents sinned; He was born blind so that the works of God might be displayed in him."
The way Jesus healed him....using his spit & mud. He healed people by simply speaking the words or touching them. He didn't NEED to make the mud to heal him. I knew THE WAY HE HEALED HIM was on purpose for a purpose.
I also imagined what it must have been like for a man born blind to see for the first time. Can you imagine the electrifying feeling? For the first time in his entire life he sees the textures that he could once only feel. The explosion of colors that lit up his mind... He could now SEE where a smell comes from or what makes the sounds he's heard all his life.... What the food looks like that he eats...
Then, can you imagine the Pharisees trying to steal his joy? QUESTIONING if he was ACTUALLY blind? Going so far as to seek out the man's parents.
Maybe the most profound part of the story.... Once Jesus learned what the Pharisees were saying & doing, He found the man. Jesus looked at him face to face & told him that He was the man that opened his eyes & that He was the Son of Man. Let me say it again. Jesus cared SO much, He found the man & looked at Him face to face & reassured him that He was The Son of Man.
I needed a little help connecting the dots, so I found THIS BLOG by K. Corkins. GREAT one! In this blog it referenced "The Samaratin Woman at the Well" & how this instance with the blind man from birth and the woman at the well were some of the few instances where Jesus directly reveals His identity directly to the person asking. I knew I wanted to read about the woman from Samaria, see it in a new light, but had plenty to think on from the man blind from birth. Besides everything I listed, the only other thing that this blog made me think about is how many of us actually relate to the Pharisees more than Jesus these days. In the blog the author gives an example of his reaction to a homeless man. He referred to how he viewed him with different kinds of glasses. One pair was "Judgement." The other was "Disbelief." There was another pair for "Fear" & yet another for "Pride." We aren't supposed to wear ANY of them. Jesus didn't. So, going into the next day, that is what I reflected on. When you start putting those glasses on...take them off.
I go on & carry my lesson into the next day & follow the same routine I had the day before & open the Bible to where I felt led. Again....to the Book of John, but Chapter 5.....about "The Woman at the Well." No joke. In this story, the things that jumped off the page at me was that the woman had been divorced 5 times. My mind automatically went to why? What could have happened? I did some research to find that in that time period, a man could divorce a woman for almost anything. So then I started thinking about the many reasons why this woman could have been divorced: Was she unfaithful? Could she have children? What did she look like? How did she act? How did she treat these men she was married to? How had she been marked? What was her story? I then also wondered: Why did she marry 5 times? Was she forced to? Did she feel like she needed to? Did she find her worth with a man?
So then, as I thought all these things, I recalled her reaction to Jesus when He asked her to give Him a drink from her bucket. She couldn't believe that this Jew would even consider drinking from her bucket. She didn't know what to think of it. Her reaction was almost downgrading who she was, a Samaratin, by coming into agreement with the culture at the time - that a Jew was of higher stature than a Samaratin. Like....she had been carrying this SHAME about who she was....like it consumed her.
So then....to get a little more insight I read THIS BLOG by B. Graham Simpson. TOTALLY WORTH THE READ. I hope I forever remember this message. It doesn't say it quite like this, but it is how I interpret it. Jesus WANTS to drink from our dirty bucket. He wants to open up conversation with us. He wants us to consume Him: "The spring of life," so the world does not consume us.
When she ran back to town & told everyone & Jesus came & ministered to them; I also thought to myself.... When she said: "He knows EVERYTHING about me..." Did He cleanse her from EVERYTHING? Did He take the SHAME she had been carrying...maybe her entire life....that which OBVIOUSLY had CONSUMED her. Yes. I believe so. I believe that she ACCEPTED Jesus. She already had the faith. She told Him that. When she chose to consume Jesus, "The Giver of Life", her old self died. Her old self died & the shame went with it. The shame that came from the sins of the world.
So what is the AWESOME that I take away from these passages? Why is it worth sharing? Our God is SO awesome. He healed the blind man the way He did to prove to the world that He does not operate by man-made laws. He was here to do the work of His Father. He used EVERY BIT of the time He was here for the will of God....even on the Sabbath...even when man said not to.
He not only spoke to the woman at the well, but He drank from her bucket. He did not care that she was a Samaratin. He did not care that she was a woman. He did not care that she had been divorced 5times. He CARED that she NEEDED Him & was willing to accept Him.
He broke through prejudice, racism, sexism, politics, judgement, condemnation.... He WILL NOT operate under the expectations of man. He WILL NOT limit himself to make man happy. He does not want us to diminish our spirit to please men. He wants us to take all that CONSUMES us in this world...all the sin & give it to Him, so He can give us the life that GOD calls us to have....not what man tells us we should have.
He WANTS to drink from your bucket: failed relationships, bad decisions, handicaps, illnesses, shame, guilt, regret, fear, loss....ALL OF WHAT CONSUMES YOU.....& give YOU life.
Buck UP Baby & Ride with Jesus! I mean....there is NOTHING more exciting. There is nothing more electrifying. He will open your eyes to ALL the things He wants to add to your life. God Bless!
