8 Mar 2016
The blind man had been waiting for thirty-eight years for
someone to help him. He wasn’t that far
from the pool, but he had no way to get there by himself. And so he was waiting for an angel to come
along. And one did.
As we get deeper into Lent, we ourselves might become aware
of “spiritual illnesses” that are beyond our ability to fix. Like the blind man, we can have a sense of
where we want to be, but we don’t know how to get there. Maybe we struggle with gossip. Maybe our illness is that we turn to food or
internet or something else to find satisfaction. Maybe we struggle with faith. Whatever it is, it can paralyzing to just sit
there, to know something isn’t right, and yet to feel powerless to make it
right. Sometimes, we can be waiting for
an angel to come along.
Now, Jesus came to the blind man. But instead of picking him up and taking him
to the pool to be cleansed, Jesus gave a commandment: “Rise, take up your mat,
and walk.” The blind man didn’t know it
was Jesus. But he followed that voice
and he was made well.
And, of course, Jesus comes to us. But instead of just taking away our spiritual
ills, he gives us commandments, just like the blind man. He offers a way of healing—speaking through
our conscience. There, in our innermost
being, Jesus whispers to us commandments and advice in the form of an active
conscience (and we may not even recognize that it’s him speaking).
Maybe when we’re tempted to reach for yet another piece of
chocolate, Jesus says, “Come, sit with me, and tell me what’s on your
mind.” Or maybe when we feel the urge to
judge someone, Jesus says, “Don’t worry about them; I am Lord, and I watch over
them too."
Like the blind man, Jesus offers us his words as a remedy for
what ails us. And the sooner we listen
to that voice in our conscience, the sooner we can “rise, take up our mats, and
walk.”
No comments:
Post a Comment