“Spiritual Eyes” (John 9:1-41)

Blindness

Helen Keller lost her sight and her hearing when she was 19 months old. At the age of seven, she met her first teacher and lifelong companion Anne Sullivan. Keller recalls her childhood this way:

“Gradually I got used to the silence and darkness that surrounded me and forgot that it had ever been different until she came — my teacher — who set my spirit free.”

 Silence and darkness. Probably, a blind beggar in today’s scripture was not much different. He was blind from birth. Darkness was all he had ever known. He had never seen a million glories of nature – the white of snow, the green of spring grass, the magic of a sunset. He had never seen the beautiful faces of his loved ones. He was always in the dark.

Then, one day Jesus came. The blind man heard that someone kneel close to him and gently spit on the ground. He then felt gentle hands rub the clay paste on his eyes and heard the voice, saying, “Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam.” As he washed in Siloam, his eyes were flooded with light. Then he could see! Perhaps first he saw his own reflection, then water, ski, trees, people’s faces. Perhaps then he ran to his house and shouted out, “I can see!”

Spiritual Blindness

What’s even more amazing is that later this man received “spiritual eyes” as well as physical ones. He recognized Jesus as the Messiah and said, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshiped Jesus. But ironically, people around him who had physical sight turned out that they were living with spiritual blindness. In this story we meet three different groups of people spiritually blind with different reasons. 

The first blind group is his neighbors. Soon after the man’s eyes were opened, the whole town was buzzing. His neighbors asked each other, “What happened? Isn’t this the man who used to sit and beg? Or is it someone like him?” The man kept saying, “I am he!” But they kept asking him, “Then how were your eyes opened? He clearly answered what happened again and again. But they were still doubting. So finally, they took the man to the Pharisees for further interrogation. Doubts had blinded their eyes.

The Pharisees are the second group spiritually blind. They kept asking how the man had received his sight. He kept answering what happened to him. But they didn’t believe it. Their eyes were closed because of their ignorance and pride. They said to the man, “This man [Jesus] is not from God, for he does not observe the Sabbath.” According to the tradition of the elders, rubbing the mud on the eyes on Sabbath was considered as work. What total ignorance! They didn’t know God. They didn’t know God’s character. They didn’t know God’s sabbath. But they insisted, “We know what we are doing,” “We see.” Charles Spurgeon rightly said,  

It is not our littleness that hinders Christ; but our bigness. It is not our weakness that hinders Christ; it is our strength. It is not our darkness that hinders Christ; it is our supposed light that holds back his hand.[1]

So Jesus said to them, “If you were really blind, you would be blameless, but since you claim to see everything so well, you’re accountable for every fault and failure” (v. 41 MSG). The eyes of the Pharisees were closed because of their pride.

The third group spiritually blind is the blind man’s parents. Actually, they were firsthand witnesses. But when they were called to testify before the Pharisees, they passed the responsibility to the son because of fear, saying, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind, but we don’t know how he sees now, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him. He is old enough to speak for himself.” They were afraid. They had let fear blind them.

Spiritual Blindness Today

We may have a 20/20 vision. But we may not see well spiritually because of our doubts, unbelief, ignorance, pride, and fear.

I belong to several different clergy groups. One group consists of deeply conservative members both politically and theologically. They listen to Fox News and get information from the websites like the Daily Caller and Breitbart. They read books written by conservative pundits or popular conservative ministers. Another group that I am part of is fairly progressive. They subscribe the New York Times, listen to NPR News, and watch PBS. They often visit websites like Vox, the Atlantic, and FiveThirtyEight for in-depth study. Each of them from both groups is brilliant and sincere. Each one knows his or her stuff. What is striking is how little each one knows anyone else’s stuff. In other words, they live in their own small closed world. Their eyes are closed because of fear, pride, ignorance.

I am not an exception. I am one of them. God has been nudging me, challenging my perspective, and stretching my mind especially over the past three or four years. I grew up in a theologically conservative Korean Methodist church. There had been some struggles here and there along the way, but overall my theology was working well to see and interpret the world around me until the pandemic broke out in 2020. Then the death of George Floyd. Then presidential election. And now homosexuality issue in the UMC. Now I am more aware of my own ignorance, my fear, my prejudice and pride than before. So now I practice wide reading, and wide listening. I subscribe Christianity Today, but also reads Christian Century and Sojourners. I listen to The Russell Moore Show podcast as well as The Soul of the Nation with Jim Wallis.

Recently, Joyce attended a local pastor licensing school. As part of a class activity, there was a Q & A session with Bishop Peggy Johnson. Joyce asked some questions and talked about the challenges the local churches were going through because of the homosexuality issue. After this, Bishop Johnson graciously sent Joyce and me her newly published autobiographical book, The Ever-Expansive Spirit of God: For All Who Feel Left out. Joyce and I thanked her via email, and she replied this way:

“[This book] describes how I worked with people on all sides of the debate around homosexuality. I did not succeed in making peace. It is a difficult thing. The best we can do is agree on Jesus Christ and love on people.”

 In her book Bishop Johnson shares with us a deeply personal story, full of honest reflections on her journey as a Christian, and a leader in the church. We may not agree with her stance on same-gender marriage, sexual orientations, gender identity, and so forth. But we can still listen to her story with our heart and see where she is coming from with a non-judgmental spirit.  

“Lord, I Want to See”

Today we are surrounded by many troubles within and without. But we are not crushed, because God is still with us. Once Elisha and his city Dothan was surrounded by the enemy. Elisha’s servant found this and was terrified, “Alas, master! What shall we do?” Elisha replied, “Don’t be afraid, for there are more with us than there are with them.” Then he prayed, “O Lord, open his eyes that he may see.”  Then the LORD opened the servant's spiritual eyes, and he saw; the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha (2Kg 6:17).

 

The Apostle Paul offers the same prayer for the Christians in Ephesus. At that time some of them in the Ephesian church felt a lack of purpose, some felt a sense of poverty, some suffered from a feeling of powerlessness. So Paul prayed. He said to them, “Friends, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance he has given to you, and his incomparably great power for you who believe” (Eph 1:18-19).

 

I need this prayer. Have you ever felt or talked to yourself, “I am purposeless. I am not enough. I am powerless”? Then, join me in this prayer. Do you resonate with the blind man’s story, the neighbors’ unbelief and doubts, the parents’ fear, the Pharisees’ ignorance and pride? Then, join me in this prayer.

           Lord God, I pray that the eyes of my heart may be enlightened,

    so that I may know the hope to which you have called me,

    the riches of your glorious inheritance you have given to Christians,

    and your incomparably great power for us who believe.

Lord Jesus, help me to see.

    Open my eyes to know you as I have never before. 

    Open my eyes to see all people as you see them. Amen

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[1] R. Kent. Hughes, John: That You May Believe (Preaching the Word) (p. 262). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

“Who Is Jesus to You?” (John 4:1-42)

Lens

A traveler nearing a great city asked an old man seated by the road, “What are the people like in this city?”

“What were they like where you came from?” the man asked. 

“Horrible,” the traveler reported. “Mean, untrustworthy, detestable in all respects.”

“Ah,” said the old man, “you will find them the same in the city ahead.”

Soon after, another traveler stopped to inquire about the people in the city before him. Again the old man asked about the people in the place the traveler has just left.

“They were fine people: honest, industrious, and generous to a fault,” described the second traveler. “I was sorry to leave.”

The old man responded, “That’s exactly how you’ll find the people here.”[1]

The “lens” we see others is a reflection of ourselves: If I am a trusting person, I will see others as trustworthy. If I am a critical person, I will see others as critical. If I am a caring person, I will see others as compassionate.

Nothing

Our lens is the way we see the world. Let’s think about it this way. Many of us use cell phones. Do you ever use filters to edit your photos – such as, vivid, dramatic, mono, and so forth? For example, my phone has at least more than ten filters, though I don’t use them all. Our world looks very different, depending on which lens filter we use.

In today’s passage we find that there are at least three different lenses to see who Jesus is. When we see Jesus through the first lens, we see Jesus as nothing. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Please give me a drink.” The woman replied, “How come, you, a Jew, are asking me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” (v. 9) In those days Jews and Samaritans did not associate with each other. The Samaritan woman saw Jesus as just one of many typical Jewish men. Jesus was nothing to her.

On one occasion, Jesus came to his hometown and began to teach the people. They were amazed and said, “Where does he get his wisdom and the power to do miracles?” But then they scoffed, “We've known him since he was a kid; he's the carpenter's son. We know his mother, Mary. We know his brothers James and Joseph, Simon and Judas. All his sisters live here. Who does he think he is?” (cf. Matt 13:54-57, MSG) And because of their unbelief, Jesus was not able to do much of anything there. The people in his hometown saw Jesus merely from a human point of view. Jesus was nothing to them. Jesus had no influence on their lives.

Something

The second lens through which we see Jesus is, “Jesus is something.” At first, Jesus was nothing to the Samaritan woman. But then she began to see him as a prophet (v. 19). The Samaritan woman asked Jesus, “You have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where would you get this living water?” Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water from the well will get thirsty again and again. But anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst. That water will become a well of water for you, springing up to eternal life.” The woman said, “Sir, give me this water.” Then Jesus replied, “Go, call your husband, and come back here.” “I have no husband,” she answered him. Jesus said to her, “You are right. You have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true.” Then, the woman said, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet.”  

Oxford Dictionary defines prophet as a person regarded as an inspired teacher or proclaimer of the will of God. In Jesus’ time many people saw Jesus as a prophet – someone who was teaching God’s will, helping them, guiding them. They wanted to use Jesus as a ticket to heaven. They wanted to use Jesus to make their lives better. They wanted to use Jesus to make themselves important. But not more than that. Jesus still had little influence on their lives. They were not willing to change the course of their lives. They were not willing to turn, repent, deny themselves. When Jesus fed the people with five loaves and two fish, they were all satisfied. But when Jesus clearly proclaimed who he was and why he came, saying, “I am the bread of life. Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you,” they were not happy. They were not ready. They were not willing. They complained and said, “This teaching is difficult. It’s too much for me.” After this, many of them turned away and no longer followed him. For them, Jesus was someone useful or helpful for their lives, but not more than that.

Everything

With the third lens we see Jesus as everything. The Samaritan woman had an unquenchable thirst for life. So she asked Jesus about the place of worship and God’s Messiah. At the end of the conversion, she said, “I know that Messiah is coming. When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” Jesus said to her, “I AM the Messiah! You don’t have to wait any longer or look any further” (v. 26). She found the answer. Her thirst was quenched. She was fully known, accepted, and loved. Then she ran back to the village, telling everyone, “Come and see a man who knows me inside and out. Could this be the Messiah?” Her heart changed. Her eyes changed. Her eyes were opened progressively. At first, she saw Jesus as nothing (“Jew”), then as something (“prophet”), and eventually as everything (“Messiah”).

Who is Jesus to you? I want you to think carefully about this question, as you listen to the following poem, titled The Flower written by Chun-soo Kim[2]:

Before I called your name,

you were nothing

more than a gesture.

When I called your name,

you came to me

and became a flower.

Like I called your name,

will you please call my name

that suits my light and fragrance?

I, too, long to come to you

and become your flower.

We all long to be something.

You, to me, and I, to you,

long to become a gaze that won't be forgotten.

Who Is Jesus to You?

So who is Jesus to you? In his book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis, who was once an atheist then converted to Christianity, rightly said this way:

“People often say about Jesus: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”[3]

Who is Jesus to you? And what will you do with Jesus? I believe that the life of C. T. Studd can be a shining example. C.T. Studd was a rich and famous English athlete in the 19^th century. But one day when missionary Hudson Taylor visited and called for missionaries to come to China, C.T. Studd surrendered his life to be a missionary to China. All his loved ones were against his decision. They said, “What a waste!” But, C.T. Studd said to them, “If Jesus Christ is God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.”

Who is Jesus to you? Isaac Watts, in his hymn When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, invites us to join him at the foot of the cross and witness the pain of Jesus’ death: “See, from his head, his hands, his feet, sorrow and love flow mingled down.” Watts shows us what kind of Messiah Jesus was, giving us a new lens, then calls us to make our choice.

Were the whole realm of nature mine,

that were a present far too small.

Love so amazing, so divine,

demands my soul, my life, my all.

May this be my prayer… and our prayer. Amen.

 

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[1] John C. Maxwell, The Maxwell Daily Reader (HarperColllins Leadership, 2007), 6.

[2] Translated by Dr. Chae-Pyong Song

[3] C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (HarperOne, 2009), 52. 

“Eternal Life” (John 3:1-10, 14-16)

 

Pool or Ocean

Have you watched a dolphin show? Many people think dolphins in a pool are smiling. But the fact is that it’s just the shape of their jaw. That facial shape contributes to the myth that captive dolphins enjoy a happy life. But no matter how big and wide a swimming pool is, it makes no difference. They still spend their entire lives in tiny enclosures performing some tricks for food, separated from their families, and traded between venues. If we knew this, we no longer see a smile. We see pain, lifelessness, hopelessness.

Now, imagine that you are watching free dolphins swimming and dancing in the ocean. There these wild dolphins enjoy freedom – swimming thousands of miles, playing in the waves, hunting, choosing a mate. A life of freedom.

Eternal Life

In today’s passage Jesus tells Nicodemus about eternal life. We often think eternal life is about the length of life, especially the life after death. Though it’s true, even more importantly, eternal life is about the depth of life, or a life of depth.

Nicodemus was a privileged person in many ways. He was a leader of the Jews, Pharisee, teacher of Israel. But for some reason he felt miserable. He felt like he was living in a cage. He felt like he was just spinning his wheels aimlessly. So finally, he came to see Jesus at night. And Jesus said to him, “You must be born from above.” Of course, Nicodemus didn’t get it. “You must be born of water and spirit.” Jesus continued, then he spoke about the similarity between the nature of wind and the life in the Spirit. We can hear the wind, we can feel the wind. But we can’t stop the wind, we can’t control the wind, we can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going. It’s a mystery. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. Here Jesus is saying that the life in the Spirit (that is, eternal life) is a life of freedom. The Bible says, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Cor 3:17).

That’s why Jesus came. Jesus came to set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying (Heb 4:15). Jesus said, “I came that you may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). Here Jesus was talking about eternal life. And it’s not just about the life after death. It’s a life of here-and-now. We can have and experience eternal life now. Jesus prayed to the Father in John 17, “This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (v. 3). Knowing God, knowing Jesus is eternal life, a life of depth, a life of freedom.

Holy Mystery

“How can this be?” We ask. And Jesus answers, “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” Jesus said this to indicate how he was going to die (his death on the cross) and how he was going to save. When we look to Jesus who is lifted up on the cross and believe in him, we are born from above and have eternal life.

I would like to share the conversion story of E. Stanley Jones, Methodist missionary to India. The reason why I share his story is because he articulates well what happens when we encounter Christ. So when I read his conversion, I was so amazed because that was exactly what I experienced. When he was seventeen years old, he attended a 3-day revival meeting. On the third day night he felt like he got to go to the alter. And when he bent his knees, he felt like the seven colors of the light pierced his darkness. In his diary he described what had really happened[1]:

1.  A sense of forgiveness and reconciliation with God, with life, with my brothers, with myself. The universe seemed to open its arms and take me in.
2. A sense of being at home in my homeland. I did not try to make myself at home in my new condition and position – I was at home.
3. A sense of purpose, direction, and goal. I had been a raft, tossed by storms and waves of meaningless emotion. Now I had been taken aboard a great liner that was going somewhere, with some goal, with power to move on to that goal.
4. A sense of not being alone. I had Another who knew and understood me perfectly and was always with me.
5. A sense of being a person. My total being was awakened and coordinated and fulfilled.
6. A sense of wholeness. Fragmentation was over. Life was pulled into central meanings and purposes around a single Center.
7. As sense of grace. How did this happen to me? I felt so undeserving and so unworthy, and yet it was mine!

This is his unique story. But also, this is our story, every Christian’s story.

Nicodemus to Nicodemus

We don’t know exactly how and when Nicodemus became a Christian. But at the end, he became a bold follower of Christ, risking his life by asking Pontius Pilate for Jesus’ body for burial. In the meantime, it seems like Nicodemus was pondering, reasoning, struggling, gradually but surely coming to the faith.  And he did taste and see eternal life – a life of freedom in Christ. I believe later on, Nicodemus would become an influential leader in the early church, helping many other skeptics and pointing them to Christ.

Recently, Joyce and I watched the film ‘Devotion.’ It’s based on a true story – sacrifice and friendship between two naval officers, Jesse Brown and Tom Hudner, during the Korean War. Brown is the only black member of the unit, suffering from racism. After Brown’s car breaks down, Hudner starts giving him rides and eventually meets his wife Daisy and their young daughter Pam. Around that time, the Korean War broke out. Their unit is sent to support the South. Before they leave, Daisy has Hudner promise that he will be there for her husband Brown. On one mission, Brown’s plane gets shot down, and he is forced to crash-land. Brown is alive but trapped in his cockpit. Hudner sees it and deliberately crashes his own plan in order to help Brown. Hudner makes every effort but is not able to take him out from the wreckage, and Brown dies shortly after a Marine helicopter arrives to assist him. Several months later, Hudner and Brown’s wife Daisy attend the ceremony to receive the Medal of Honor. There Hudner apologizes to Daisy for failing to save her husband. But she said to him, “I didn’t ask you to save him. I just asked you to be there for him, to be his wingman. And you did. Thank you.”

Our calling is not to save people, but to be there for them. Our calling is to be a wingwoman and wingman for those God sends to us. Recently, God opened the door for me to share the good news with one person. He is a skeptic. He used to have lots of questions to God and still does. But for the first time, he said to me, “I might be wrong. I wish I could have greater faith.” As I was listening, I prayed to God what to say. Then, I shared the story of Nicodemus and also my conversion story. At the end of the conversation, he said, “I want to read the Bible.” On the next visit I brought him an audio Bible, because it’s hard for him to read books. He thanked me and said, “Victor, I am not speaking well. I am not reasoning well. I am dying.” I replied, “For Christians, to die is to live. We have eternal life. And eternal life is about the depth of life as well as the length of it. We can have it now when we believe in Jesus.” Then we prayed together. He promised that he would surely listen to the audio Bible.

I cannot save him, but I can be there for him. I am still praying for him often. Jesus promised, “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32). Jesus will do it. First, let us look deep within to see if our faith is genuine, just as Nicodemus did. Second, let us look around and see other Nicodemuses, who are searching and seeking. May the Lord give us strength and love to be their wingman and wingwoman. May the Lord give us grace to live a life of freedom in Christ today and always. Amen.

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[1] E. Stanley Jones, A Song of Ascents: a spiritual autobiography (Abingdon Press, 1968) 28-29.