Pondering for Tuesday, February 15, 2022

Daily Office Readings for Tuesday of the 6^th Week of Epiphany: Year 2

Morning, Psalms 97 and 99; Evening, Psalm 94;

Genesis 31:1 to 24; 1^st  John 2:1 to 11; John 9:18 to 41:

“The man answered, ‘Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes.” (John 9:30)

After the interrogation of the man who was given his sight by our Lord Jesus, and his parents also, the newly sighted man stands up to the “Temple Elders” (I think a better term than “the Jews”).  He has contempt for the Temple Elders and sarcastically asked them if they too wanted to become disciples of Jesus. If we don’t know where a person comes from then, if we are smart, we will leave open the possibility that maybe perhaps he or she could actually be from God.  We should identify the tree by its fruit.

These so-called educated men argue with the man who was given his sight but he catches them off guard when he says, “Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind” (John 9:32).  But even this does not move them to admit they were in error. 

Finally the newly sighted man stumbles into Jesus after being thrown out of the Temple.  Jesus lets him know that he is speaking to our Lord Jesus and the man worships him.  I can’t begin to know what it must be like to have never seen anything and then be given sight. Wow!  But perhaps it’s not too different from living under false doctrine for all of one’s life and then be given real sight about who God is and what God wants of us. Again, Wow!

“Jesus said, ‘I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind” (John 9:39).  This is a way of saying that our Lord Jesus will open our eyes to what is real but if we choose to not see it, so be it.  “Some of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him, ‘Surely we are not blind, are we?’ Jesus said to them, ‘If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, “We see”, your sin remains.” (John 9:40 – 41)  Therefore, we cannot see wrong-doing and pretend not to see it. Once we know, we can’t un-know.   If we see it we must acknowledge it and respond to it in godly ways.  Anything less and we fall into that judgment that our Lord Jesus spoke of. So, may the hearer heed.

Personal note: It’s good to be back.

As we listen to what the Spirit is saying to us, let us live to love, to serve, and to teach, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John