Red Letters – Unblinded by the Light – April 23

RED LETTERS
April 23, 2021

Unblinded by the Light

John 9:5, ‘“As long as I am with you, my life is the light that pierces the world’s darkness.”’ (TPT)

I had a bee sting one time. My mom made a paste and doused the bite, clotted it with the mask, and after just a little while the sting and the itch began to subside. The redness and swelling went away by the time she washed it with warm water and blotted it dry with a towel. The paste drew out the venom from my arm.

We find a man who has never been able to see a day in life. He doesn’t know the brightness of light because all he has ever known is darkness. He doesn’t know the color of red or the shape of a dog or the face of a child. What he does know is the acuteness of a spoken word because that is all he has ever been able to use to identify others by…his hearing. The voice of a stranger, someone he does not know—I love how he puts it, ‘the man they call Jesus’—directs him to go wash in the waters of Siloam after applying a paste to his eyes. What he also knows that once he was blind but now he can see.
It is interesting that the disciples believe what everyone always believes. That the man is blind because of a sinful condition of either his parents or himself. Jesus came to set that record straight. Not all infirmities, deformities, travesties, tragedies, happen because there is sin that didn’t get checked at the coatroom door of life. Some conditions are for a greater purpose than forgiveness. So you ask, what can be greater than forgiveness? How about faithfulness? Could it possibly be that we have a condition in our soul that the Lord intends to use for our good and His glory, and the catalyst by which it travels, is our faithfulness.

Our subject today is nameless but he isn’t useless. His purpose is so God’s miraculous grace can be shown rather than taught. This man likely has lived on the outskirts of life, forgotten, marginalized, blind, useless. But on this day, he finds his voice and he uses it for a man named Jesus. It upset the applecart of the religious society because the sanctimonious leaders wished to know of God with their minds, but refused to acknowledge and worship Him with their whole hearts.
Today, just as in that period, the Lord has a huge lesson plan for His homeschoolers, and He stands at the head of the class releasing the outline, directing His students to take notes. Our once blind scholar is studiously learning, and we also finding him teaching the leaders of that day. They don’t like it. Not one bit. Isn’t it interesting how it’s not a lot different from today? They throw him out also, eradicate him from their circles? They don’t like what he has to say due to the truth behind his words. Jesus comes to his aid, and I imagine it is because He knows what it is like to be ostracized for faith and belief. He asks him, “Do you believe in the Son of God?”, and this man whose blind eyes were healed, answered, “Who is He, Master? Tell me so that I can place all my faith in Him.”

I may not have been born blind, but I know what it is to be blinded by the world and all its trappings, and I know what it is like to have the scales washed clean from my eyes. I too know what it feels like to say, “Tell me so that I can place all my faith in Him!”
And Jesus replied, “You’re looking right at Him. He is speaking with you. It is Me, the One right in front of you now.” And the blind man’s search, and mine too, was over. Once He put His salve on our handicapped places, it drew out the venom so healing could begin.

I’ve been reading RED LETTERS all my life, but never with my heart.
During the month of April, let’s JOURNEY where JESUS journeyed,
and listen with our hearts to all He came to proclaim.