Imagine being blind with nosy neighbors, fearful parents and judgmental religious leaders inserting their opinions into the work of Jesus Christ in your life.  You finally get healed and instead of a party to celebrate your newfound vision, you get the third degree with people second guessing your experience.  Certainly, the way in which the man in John 9 was healed is very unusual from the way in which Jesus healed other people.  The reaction of those around him must have been very disappointing to him who just wanted to celebrate.  

The sound of someone spitting on the ground must have been puzzling to the blind man.  The silence while Jesus made mud on the ground must have furrowed the brow of the man who was blind from birth.  Imagine never knowing what blue sky, green grass or an orange sunrise ever looked like.  And suddenly a man is standing near you who has a growing reputation for miracles.  Possibly he had heard about Jesus feeding 5,000 people, healing lepers and raising Lazarus from the dead.  All those miracles had been instantaneous…yet, for some reason Jesus is smearing mud made from spitting on the ground on the man’s eyes.  He must have haltingly made his way to the Pool of Siloam where the Messiah had instructed him to go.  I wonder if on the way to wash he started wiping the mud off his eyes or if he obediently waited until he arrived at the pool to wash away the pasted dirt.   

If I knew someone who had been blind from birth, I would want to follow that person around all day and be a witness to their fascination with their newborn sight.  It would be so neat to watch them connect faces with voices they heard their whole life.  However, his neighbors did not host any festivities for him.  His neighbors second guessed his very existence as to whether he was truly their neighbor.  Having been accustomed to seeing him perhaps walk slowly and uncertainly, maybe it would be strange seeing the same person ambling comfortably along without any fear of tripping over something.  I imagine it would be normal to squint your eyes some and wonder if it was the same person.  

The religious leaders got involved and started interrogations related to how the man had been healed.  They asked repeatedly who it was that healed the man followed by snide comments about Jesus.  These clergy then involved the formerly blind man’s parents to further exasperate the situation.  As they were possibly going to be thrown out of worshipping in the synagogue for acknowledging Jesus as the Christ, they did not want to even entertain discussions about the subject.  They basically took an ‘hey, he is an adult, don’t ask me’ approach to the situation.

The man encountered Jesus, which resulted in having his life dramatically changed by Him. Yet people became uneasy being around Him. Of course, this was a fiery time in the ministry of Jesus where the religious leaders were furious with Jesus believing him to be guilty of blasphemy. But there are lessons we can learn from this encounter. When someone we know encounters God, its important we support them and not spend our time second guessing them or putting them through questioning like the Inquisition. Celebrate with them in the immediacy of the moment, there will be time to discuss later in detail. This man couldn’t get out of the first day before he was being attacked on all fronts by neighbors and religious leaders. Let it not be so amongst us.

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Tony “T-Bar” Barnes is a 28-year veteran of the Marine Corps and Air Force. He is also retired from the Department of Veteran Affairs. Tony is active in patient advocacy roles and can be reached at tbarnugget@yahoo.com