Accept What You Can’t Know, Act on What You Do

Dear Reader,

John tells a story in the ninth chapter of his book about a man who’d been blind from birth. The disciples want to know whether he sinned or his parents did, because they’d been taught all suffering was the result of sin. Jesus refuses to address the cause and effect. He leaves the mystery of suffering on the table to announce instead that the power of God is about to be displayed in the blind man’s life and to remind the disciples that He, Jesus, is the Light of the World.

That sliver of supernatural biographical information reaches beyond the blind man to you and me. Without Jesus, Light of the World, none of us can see God. Throughout Scripture, the physical eye is used to represent spiritual seeing or perception (Matthew 6:22– 23, Ephesians 1:18). With that in mind, let’s see what implications this story holds for us.

When He had said this, He spit on the ground, and made mud from the saliva, and applied the mud to his eyes, and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent). So, he left and washed, and came back seeing.

John doesn’t say why Jesus initiated this exchange with the blind man instead of the blind man reaching for Jesus. Maybe the man was resigned to his sightless life. Perhaps he didn’t know who Jesus was, or he was unaware of His arrival. Regardless, once Jesus rubs mud on the man’s eyes, the guy is open to further instruction. Mark that and consider our present situation. We may be resigned to the darkness of our world, but Jesus isn’t okay with the status quo. He knows He is the Light, and He knows how badly we need Him. Jesus will allow us to feel desperation for our own good. Brace yourself: He’ll even create it. Indeed, Jesus is willing to rub mud in our eyes to get us to respond and see Him for Who He is. He’ll aggravate our condition to encourage us to seek grace. What a Savior!

Let’s keep reading. As the story progresses, the man’s spiritual eyesight will become clearer as he acts on what he begins to understand—brilliantly illustrating that obedience to what we know opens our understanding for more revelation.

So the neighbors, and those who previously saw him as a beggar, were saying, “Is this not the one who used to sit and beg?” Others were saying, “This is he,” still others were saying, “No, but he is like him.” The man himself kept saying, “I am the one.” So they were saying to him, “How then were your eyes opened?” He answered, “The man who is called Jesus made mud, and spread it on my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash’; so I went away and washed, and I received sight.” And they said to him, “Where is He?” He said, “I do not know.” They brought the man who was previously blind to the Pharisees. Now it was a Sabbath on the day that Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. Then the Pharisees also were asking him again how he received his sight. And he said to them, “He applied mud to my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” Therefore some of the Pharisees were saying, “This man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.” But others were saying, “How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?”

And there was dissension among them. So they said again to the man who was blind, “What do you say about Him, since He opened your eyes?” And he said, “He is a prophet.”

Let’s review. The first time his astonished neighbors asked the newly sighted man how he came to see, he tells them a man named Jesus rubbed mud on his eyes; and then, when he washed the mud off at the pool of Siloam per the man’s instructions, he could see. By the time the Pharisees begin to question him, Mr. I Can See has decided Jesus is no mere man, but a prophet. Refusing to believe any of his story, the indignant Pharisees call the man’s parents to the hearing. and they questioned them, saying, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? Then how does he now see?” His parents then answered and said, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but how he now sees, we do not know; or who opened his eyes, we do not know. Ask him; he is of age, he will speak for himself.” His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already reached the decision that if anyone confessed Him to be Christ, he was to be excommunicated from the synagogue. It was for this reason that his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”

So for a second time they summoned the man who had been blind, and said to him, “Give glory to God; we know that this man is a sinner.” He then answered, “Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” So they said to him, “What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes?” He answered them, “I told you already and you did not listen; why do you want to hear it again? You do not want to become His disciples too, do you?” They spoke abusively to him and said, “You are His disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where He is from.” The man answered and said to them, “Well, here is the amazing thing, that you do not know where He is from, and yet He opened my eyes! We know that God does not listen to sinners; but if someone is God-fearing and does His will, He listens to him. Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, He could do nothing.” They answered him, “You were born entirely in sins, and yet you are teaching us?” So, they put him out.

Talk about the light dawning! Mr. I Can See has come a long way in a short time. He’s now willing to stand before his family, his community, and those in authority to insist that Jesus could not have healed him unless He came from God! That public profession and his resulting expulsion from temple fellowship draws the attention of Jesus, Son of God.

Jesus heard that they had put him out, and upon finding him, He said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered by saying, “And who is He, Sir, that I may believe in Him?” Jesus said to him, “You have both seen Him, and He is the one who is talking with you.” And he said, “I believe, Lord.” And he worshiped Him.

Jesus came to find this man who was acknowledging Him and wanting to understand more. He is still coming for seekers. Take heart, Little Faith. Jesus doesn’t come once we have it all figured out, because we won’t ever do that. We can’t. But He does come, over and again, to those who accept the mystery of all we don’t know while reaching for more of the One who first opened our eyes.

As believers, you and I are no longer of this world, but we still live in it. We can experience the peace of God by accepting what we can’t understand and acting on what we do. We can discover deeper joy by seizing this truth: Jesus, Light of the World, is faithful to grant increasing sight to all who walk in the light they’ve been given.

Shellie Rushing Tomlinson is an award-winning author and humorist, a popular blogger and speaker, host of the The Story Table podcast and co-host of Rocking it Grand. Her titles include Suck Your Stomach In and Put Some Color On, and Finding Deep and Wide. She and her husband Phil live and farm in Lake Providence, Louisiana. They have two happily married kids and six grandchildren. Her new book, Seizing the Good Life is now available for purchase nationwide.