In 2013, my wife was diagnosed – based on the results of two surgeries, a panoply of tests, and two different types of imaging – with stage-four, untreatable, incurable, and terminal cancer. But during a third surgery performed for the purpose of debulking the cancer to provide a short extension to her life, no trace of the lesions could be found. And her scans have been completely clear ever since.
The medical community can often be quite skeptical of divine healing. But the force of my wife’s miraculous story has left many among them literally speechless and shaking their heads.
A testimony is a powerful thing.
John 9:13 opens the description of what followed Jesus’ healing of the man who’d been blind from birth. When people heard that this miracle involved Jesus making mud on the Sabbath, they brought the healed man to the Pharisees. They knew there was going to be trouble, and they wanted to make sure they weren’t in the line of fire when the religious stuff started to hit the fan.
Among other things, the Pharisees were a kind of self-appointed Sabbath-police and part of a religious system that had turned a blessing from God – a one-in-seven day of rest – into a ritualistic nightmare. And they’d already determined that Jesus should get the death penalty for a previous Sabbath infringement when he healed the lame man at the pool of Bethesda. So, they were chomping at the bit to investigate this current violation.
But they ran into a problem. The man they set out to intimidate with their interrogation – who just minutes before would have been disregarded by them as nothing more than a blind beggar – proved to be unshakable because of the power of his testimony.
Verses 14-16 describe the beginnings of what would become a proxy trial of Jesus and reveal the impotence of pride and doubt to ultimately resist the story of a life impacted by him. Even before the proceedings really got rolling, cracks began to form in the solidarity of the Pharisees. This formerly blind man’s opening statement of the simple facts was so powerful that it caused some of them to begin reconsidering their negative perceptions of Jesus.
The impact of this used-to-be-blind man on some of the Pharisees wasn’t the result of a well-crafted theological argument. In fact, in verse 17, when the man was asked his opinion about Jesus, the gaps in his still-developing Christology were revealed when he described him as a prophet not as Messiah. He didn’t have all the answers yet, but he did have a story.
Let me repeat myself. A testimony is powerful thing. And if you’re a Christ-follower, your testimony is a powerful thing. It may not include a dramatic physical healing. But the impact of Jesus’ touch on your life and the progressive healing he’s daily producing in your soul as you pursue him in faith is incredibly potent and cannot be disputed. It’s your story.
Remember that the next time life challenges your faith like a group of Pharisees sitting in judgement. You have a testimony that’s unshakable because it’s rooted in the one who’s immovable.