AUDIO MEDITATION:

Matthais Gerung (German, 1500-1570), Healing of the Man Born Blind. Public domain.

FULL TEXT:

When the man born blind is healed, he is questioned intensely by the religious authorities. He replies simply: “I told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again?” In reply, they ridicule him.

This is an image from an illustrated Bible from 1530 that shows the healing on the left, and the man speaking to the leaders on the right. They want the man to compromise his story so they can discredit Jesus, but the man never capitulates. He speaks the truth of what happened to him, even though he doesn’t fully understand it. And so they throw him out.

Suffering is a mystery, but so is grace—we don’t deserve either, and both experiences can change us in ways beyond what we can describe. The man does not rush to conclusions about what happened—he is comfortable with the questions. Jesus, then, finds him after he’s been thrown out.

What questions about our lives might we become more comfortable with? How might we better trust that Jesus will find us when others don’t understand?