Do You Believe?

The man who had been blind all his life, received his sight, but lost his community. Blind from birth, he used to sit and beg. One day a man called Jesus, spread something on his eyes and told him to go and wash it off in the pool. When he washed his eyes he was able to see. He went home and his parents were amazed. Then he went around town, meeting voices he knew and seeing faces he had never seen. People could hardly believe it was the same man; not surprising because the facial expressions of people who can't see change when they do see.

The priests ordered him not to credit his recovery to the man called Jesus, because, said the priests, "We know he is a sinner."
"That's strange," replied the man, I have never heard that God would give the power to open the eyes of blind people, to a sinner."
Exasperated, the priests ordered him out of the place and announced that he was expelled. People feared being seen with him, because their law said they were not to mix with people who had been expelled from their society. Even his parents were nervous in case the priests expelled them too. He had received his sight but lost his friends. Much like to-day, when a person from certain religious societies believes that Jesus is God, that person shocks their family, and becomes unacceptable in society.

Sighted but alone the man wondered around town, seeing the hasty turning away of people whose voices he knew, and feeling the snubs of those who avoided meeting him. Jesus heard that he had been expelled and did what Jesus does: he went looking for him.

When they were sitting together, Jesus asked, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?"
"Tell me who he is," said the man who remembered voices, "and I will believe in him?"
"You have seen him," said Jesus "and he is the person speaking to you."
"Lord I believe," said the man born blind, and he began to worship Jesus.

The man born blind was a Jew. Jews worship God and no other, the command to worship God and only God is the first of their ten commandments. Jesus was a Jew, he kept the Jewish law, but he did not stop the man from worshiping him.

All over the wider community, religious people who worshiped God and no other, were beginning to worship Jesus, they believed that he had come from God and that the words he spoke came from God. The recently healed man was just one of many.

The gift of sight had opened his eyes to the world around him, but the gift of faith had opened his mind to the truth about Jesus. Today, Jesus is still looking for people who will believe him. He still speaks to us through the words of scripture. Many people hear and believe. What follows is that they are the same person but yet a new person. They have been born into spiritual life. They worship Jesus the message-bearer, Jesus the Son of God who became man for our sake.

The gospel of John, chapter nine, verses 1-41

The Turning Point

I am the light of the world, anyone who follows what I teach will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life. Jesus said these things, while he was standing in the treasury of the temple.
The crowds stood around and listened to the response of the temple leaders, who were threatened by this workman from Galilee who had not been to their religious schools. As this particular session ended Jesus reiterated once again, that nothing he did was self-motivated but that he had been sent by God, whom he called the Father, and was giving the message that God had given him. He went on to say that when they had 'lifted up' the Son of Man (He was referring to the fact that they would kill him by crucifixion, and his work would be completed) then they would understand. Many of the regular people listening to the discussion between Jesus and the teachers and priests chose to believe that Jesus was telling the truth.

What did they believe? that Jesus was the Son of God, and had come with a message directly from God.

Why did the believe? Because they had heard about the things that Jesus did: he healed people, people who had not been able to get healed any other way, people who were close to death, and some who had died, like the little daughter of Jairus. Only by the power of God could these things happen. Also because the message that Jesus delivered was good: about the love of God, his good intentions towards humanity and his promise to keep faith with everyone who believed. They chose to believe that Jesus was telling the truth.

To them Jesus said, if you remain in my word you are my disciples. You shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free. This puzzled them; they began to ask the meaning and Jesus began to explain.

The simple decision they made by deciding that Jesus was God's son and had brought God's message; that was their entry into light. The light had already come, but they had not sought light, preferring the darkness of their own thinking and the safety of accepting what the religious rulers taught. Now by a simple decision they had entered into the same light that enlightens all who believe today.

That was all Jesus asked that day, he simply accepted them as his disciples and instructed them to continue believing the message that he had brought. He didn't say, you will become my disciples, but he said, "You truly are my disciples." The rest was to follow, all the rest of their lives they would experience what it meant to be a disciple of Jesus.

This is still all that Jesus asks; believe that he is the Son of God and has brought God's message to us. There is nothing more to do because he does all the rest. There is nothing more to do, but there is a lot to experience.