This meditation was originally posted on November 10, 2013.

“He answered, “Whether or not he’s a sinner, I don’t know. One thing I do know: I was blind, and now I can see!”…. “This is an amazing thing!” the man told them. “You don’t know where he is from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but if anyone is God-fearing and does his will, he listens to him. Throughout history no one has ever heard of someone opening the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, he wouldn’t be able to do anything.” (John 9:25,30-33, CSB).

As Jesus and His disciples are walking along one day they came across a man who was blind from birth and was also a beggar.

The disciples asked Jesus to explain the reason for the man’s unfortunate condition and circumstances: His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (vs 2).

Jesus explicitly answered the second question but enigmatically answered first question: “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” Jesus answered. “This came about so that God’s works might be displayed in him” (vs. 3).

The formerly blind man was brought to the Pharisees who interrogated him at length because Jesus had performed this healing on the Sabbath. When the man was brought before the Pharisees for interrogation a second time, he became frustrated and exclaimed that he didn’t have answers to their questions.

All he knew was that he had an encounter with Jesus when he was blind, but now he sees!

When the Pharisees began to ridicule the the formerly blind man, he scoffed at their religious pretense and offered his own theological explanation for the healing miracle, which the Pharisees vehemently rejected.

The formerly blind man explained that God hears and helps those who worship Him and do His will.

The man’s brief encounter with Jesus had turned him into an amateur theologian!

While his theological explanation may have been a little flawed, he certainly knew that he had experienced God’s power!

Yet, the only response the Pharisees, the professional theologians, could offer was an ad hominen argument–a personal attack upon the man: “You were born entirely in sin,” they replied, “and are you trying to teach us?” Then they threw him out.” (vs. 34).

What if each of us were to experience God’s power in our lives in such a way that we were transformed into amateur theologians!

“Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saves a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I’m found; was blind, but now I see.” (John Newton)