All those tests strengthened him, so that in the ultimate test of faith, when God Himself asked the man for faith, he was ready. Then, he immediately believed and worshipped God.
I have been reflecting on the story of the blind man who Christ healed.
It is an interesting story to me in the Gospels, because it is a story when Christ made something to use for the healing. Obviously, a bit of spittle and mud could not heal a blind man, but Christ did this anyway and afterwards, the man could see…
“As Jesus went along, He saw a man who had been blind from birth… He spat on the ground, made a paste with the spittle, put this over the eyes of the blind man… when the Pharisees asked him how he had come to see, he said, ‘He put a paste on my eyes, and I washed, and I can see.’…. So they spoke to the blind man again… ‘He is a prophet’ replied the man…. So the Jews again sent for the man… The man answered, ‘I don’t know if he is a sinner; I only know that I was blind and now I can see.’ They said to him, ‘What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?’… The man replied, ‘Now here is an astonishing thing! He has opened my eyes, and you don’t know where he comes from! We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but God does listen to men who are devout and do his will. Ever since the world began it is unheard of for anyone to open the eyes of a man who was born blind; if this man were not from God, he couldn’t do a thing.’… Jesus heard they had driven him away, and when He found him He said to him, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?... Jesus said, ‘You are looking at him; he is speaking to you.’ The man said, ‘Lord, I believe’, and worshipped Him…” (John 9:1-41).
But it is not only the action of creating the paste, or even the actual physical haling of the man that stays in my mind today, it is the progression of the blind man’s faith during the account…
You see, after he was healed, the Pharisees questioned the blind man three times… The first time he was questioned he told them, that a man cured him. The second time that he was questioned, he told them that the man must be a prophet, and the third time that they questioned him, he confirmed that the men must come from God. Then – when Christ Himself questioned the man – he believed and worshipped God the Son…
And it is this progression of faith through the numerous tests of faith that this man endured that is most fascinating to me today…
You see, I can imagine the scene. There he was, a man who can suddenly see for the first time in his life. The light would have been overwhelming, the movements around him would have been overwhelming. He would have been completely overloaded with the new concepts he would have had to form to make sense of his sight having never seen before. Perhaps he would close his eyes to stop the sights overwhelming him as he concentrated on the questions…
And though all of that he was being questioned and his family were being questioned as though they were criminals. And he endured it all, answering to the best of his ability, at great inconvenience to himself. Perhaps he was tired after his day and that miracle and wished to celebrate and then rest with his family, but still they wanted to question him. Perhaps he really did not care why he was healed, he was just happy that he was.
And despite all of this his faith was tested. But the beautiful thing about this story, is that all those tests strengthened him, so that when he was provided with the ultimate test of faith, when God Himself asked him for faith, he was ready. He immediately believed and worshipped God.
And I have been thinking about that today, because it seems that during all those times when I feel that my faith is being tested, it is actually being honed so that I can answer my Lord and God correctly, when He speaks to me.
And when I think of it like that, I am so overwhelmed with gratitude. For my Lord and God is preparing me for Himself, for He knows exactly what I need…
Tests of faith cause faith to grow
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.