Jesus heals a blind man in John 9. It is one of my favorite stories in all the scriptures. There is just so much to love about it: Jesus says that no one’s sin caused the man’s blindness, Jesus makes mud to heal the man, Jesus makes the man wash in the pool of Siloam (literally, the pool of “apostleship”).
But something else caught me when I read it today. The man who was healed is being questioned by the local Jews. They want to know how and why this man Jesus healed the blind man. “How could this be?” “He healed on the Sabbath, he must a sinner!”
What I love is the blind man’s response to these accusations. “I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see” (9:25). What a genius line! It cuts to the heart of the matter. It doesn’t dwell on human invention of categories.
And I could say the same about Jesus. Look, I don’t know what he was like. I don’t know if he was tall or short, handsome or ugly, had sweaty palms or a bum knee. I don’t know any of that. And truthfully, it doesn’t matter.
What matters is that Jesus saves, Jesus heals. That is the standard that stands firm against all accusations.
the rev. jimmy abbott 