I love discovering new angles when reading the bible. I was reading John 9 earlier. Its a widely recognised passage. There is a man who has been blind from birth. The disciples ask why the man is blind, whether it was because he had sinned or his parents had sinned. Jesus answers that neither has sinned, but this was an opportunity to show the works of God. He then proceeds to spit in the dirt and create mud, then put that on the man’s eyes. The man goes to wash in a specific pool and he is miraculously healed.
That’s the bit of the story often told. But it was the bit after that I read today. The Pharisees have let it be known that if anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. The man’s parents back off and let the man himself take responsibility. When the Pharisees question the man he answers honestly about what Jesus has done for him and refuses to call him a sinner. He doesn’t back down and the tries to explain to them how Jesus couldn’t be a sinner because God listens to him (and the thinking at the time was that God didn’t listen to sinners). The Pharisees take umbridge at him trying to teach them and threw him out.
This is the bit that caught my attention today. Jesus heard that he had been cast out and came to find him and revealed himself as the Son of Man (old testament name for the Messiah…)
Stop for a second. Jesus had already given this man his sight. But when he heard that the man had been thrown out of the synagogue, Jesus takes the time to search him out and speak to him. The man could have denied Jesus, he could have given in to the Pharisees, but he chose to believe in Jesus. And Jesus meets him there. Jesus blessed the man with his sight, it was the choice of the Pharisees to kick him out. Jesus didn’t leave him there, he invited him to be one of his followers.
I wonder if there are people around who have been made not welcome in our places of worship or at our meetings? I wonder if you are one of those people? Take heart from this passage. Jesus searches for those on the outside. He meets them. He won’t let them be abandoned, no matter what mistakes the leaders have made. The Jesus worshipped inside churches is just as present to those outside, those who for whatever reason don’t feel comfortable or welcome inside. Jesus makes the invite to them to be a part of his family. Jesus is on the outside.
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