In John chapter 9 verses 24-34, the Pharisees continued their interrogation of the man who’d been healed of blindness. They were determined to find a way to turn this miraculous event into a means of condemning Jesus by twisting it into a Sabbath violation. But frustrated by their failure to discredit the man’s testimony or use it for their purposes, they reached a boiling point. Like a belligerent attorney in a courtroom drama, they demanded that he glorify God by finally telling the truth and admitting Jesus was a sinner.
Instead, he uttered the words that would inspire the most powerful line in the lyrics of one of the most recognized songs in the world, Amazing Grace. Staring directly into the teeth of the intimidating religious elite, he declared, “One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see.”
Still, unwilling to give up their pursuit, the Pharisees decided to start over from the beginning. They commanded the man to tell them once again what Jesus had done and how he did it. But clearly wearied by this nonsense, he responded with a question of his own, one dripping with bold sarcasm. He asked them why they wanted him to repeat himself. Did they want to become followers of Jesus?
They reacted by reviling him – which literally means they stabbed him with words – and invoked the authority of Moses to try and pound him into submission. But this formerly blind beggar punched back by schooling them on the absurdity of their position.
They retaliated with a vulgar epithet and then ended the proceedings by excommunicating him.
Being shut out of his community by the Jewish authorities was a serious price to pay. But he did so without complaint, and he’s a hero in my book. Although he was the very definition of a nobody – we don’t even know his name – he stood his ground against an assault by the powerful and walked away with his spiritual integrity intact.
I want to be like him when I grow up.
But I’m embarrassed to admit how little it takes to intimidate me into spiritual compromise. Right now, the nations of the world are dealing with a health pandemic that has also created a global economic crisis. And the other day, I caught myself becoming anxious about how it will impact my personal finances.
Really? That’s all it took to cause me to discount the faithfulness of the God who has provided for me through my entire life? Instead of standing firm in the faith that as God has miraculously cared for me through many previous challenges and will not fail me now, I literally allowed fear to adjust my testimony. I began expressing my doubts to my wife.
But thankfully, I’m married to a woman of great faith. And her trust-filled reply – like a loving slap to the face – shook me from my compromise and steadied my shaky confession.
Can I pay it forward? Is the solid ground of your God-story beginning to sway under some form of spiritual assault? If so, please let me encourage you to remember the steady faith of the anonymous man in John chapter 9. And may that reminder serve to reestablish the solid footing of your trust in the one who cannot fail.