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THE BLIND LEADING THE BLIND!
      Rumor has it that the one who ends up with the most toys wins.  Pile up enough things, deep-six all competition, network the movers and shakers . . . and power, position, and  status are yours to enjoy.  So goes the tale.
      It's a rumor, folks.
      More often than not, "upward mobility" is a downer.
      So begins Joe Aldrich's book Gentle Persuasion.  A book that compels us to rethink evangelism.  A book that argues that God is not asking us to tell others what a friend they have in Jesus as much as he's telling us to show others what a friend they have in us.  After all, didn't  our Lord say,
'Love your neighbor as yourself.'1
      So it is not surprising that Joe Aldrich believes successful evangelism is a three-phase process.  The three phases are:
1.  Cultivation is an appeal to the heart through the building of a relationship.  Yes, in building a relationship it is our goal to draw our neighbor to Christ.    But, no one enjoys being someone's pet project.  Our neighbor has been created in the image and likeness of God and this in itself is reason enough to be a good neighbor, even though they may choose to never invite Christ into their heart.
2.  Sowing is an appeal to the mind through the communication of revelation.  If people need to make informed decisions, and they do, they need accurate information.  This sowing of information may take the form of a simple conversation where we share what the Lord has done in our life recently, a book, an evangelistic event, or a TV program.
3.  Reaping is an appeal to the will in anticipation of a response.  It is responding to the Philippian jailer when he cried out, "Sir, what must I do to be saved?"  Of course, our friend may not be as direct, but there may come a time when he or she really wants to know what they need to do to be saved.  It is for moments such as this, that we need to be prepared to give the reason for the hope that is within us.2
      Joe Aldrich argues that you and I ought to be living intentional lives.  That is, he argues that having the goal of reaching our neighbors for Christ isn't enough, we need to develop a strategy for doing so.  A strategy that enables us to defeat our adversary.
      Having said all this, let me now introduce you to a man who had neither the goal of reaching others for Christ nor a strategy.  In fact, at the time, he didn't even see himself as a believer.  But as a witness, judging by the response of others, he was very effective.  His story, one of the funniest in Scripture, is found in John 9.  We're introduced to him with these words,
      As he (Jesus) went along, he saw a man blind from birth.  2 His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?
      Note, it was not the religious rulers who raised this theological issue it was the disciples - people like you and me.   Their question made sense, for in their day it was commonly taught that a fetus could commit sin while in the mother's womb and that its kicking was a sign of the baby's rebellious nature.  Then too, the Torah, the book of traditional Jewish laws, claimed that it was possible, and reasonable, for God to impose judgment on the children for the sins of the parents.
      Today, their question makes sense to us.  We see innocent children impacted by alcoholism and/or the drug use of their parents and are reminded that judgment invariably impacts the next generation as well as the next one.  The problem with this thinking, in the life of the original disciples, as well as in our life, is that it prompts us to treat people as question marks.
      This isn't necessarily bad unless we never get beyond the question mark.  After all, we can spend a lot of time chalking it up to bad karma, bad luck, or the result of living in a fallen world.  To do so, however, is to waste our time.  The question we really need to ask is - What is God doing?  Or, as Jonah's escapade reminds us, what do we need to do to stay on the right side of what God is doing? 
      Of course, if any believers are into big fish they can try living on the wrong side of the way things work and discover for themselves how well that works out for them.  After all, some believers, just have to learn everything the hard way.
      At any rate, Jesus didn't allow the disciples time to linger on the who-should-we-blame question.  He corrected them and then turned to the work at hand.  In vv. 3 - 7 we read:
      "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.  4 As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.  5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world."
      Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man's eyes.  7 "Go," he told him, "wash in the Pool of Siloam" (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
      Like everyone else in this story we may be inclined to ask some pretty silly questions.  We may be inclined to raise our hand in hopes of getting an answer to questions like:  Why clay?  Why saliva?  Why did Jesus tell the man to go wash in the pool of Siloam?  (Incidentally, this last question is easy to answer.  The man, if you will recall, had mud smeared over both eyes!  What would you do if you had mud in your eyes?  The real question is, why did Jesus even have to tell him to go to the pool of Siloam?)
      But all these questions are drowned out by laughter; the wonder of seeing for the very first time.  His jubilation caught the attention of his neighbors who plied him with questions.   In vv.  8 - 12 we read:
      His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, "Isn't this the same man who used to sit and beg?"  9 Some claimed that he was.
      Others said, "No, he only looks like him."
      But he himself insisted, "I am the man."
      "How then were your eyes opened?" they demanded.
      He replied, "The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see."
      "Where is this man?" they asked him.
      "I don't know," he said.
      His answers were as if someone had requested him "to tell the truth and nothing but the truth."  He neither embellished what had happened, nor did he leave anything out.  It was plain and simple and was more information than the neighbors wanted to hear on the Sabbath.
      For in listening to him, the neighbors immediately saw the problem which gave them no time for sharing the man's joy.  The problem was simply this - this "man" who had given sight to their neighbor had worked on the Sabbath!  He had broken the law and this neighbor needed to be taken to the proper authorities.  Hence, the man found himself being dragged off to court and questioned by the local authorities.  This is where the story turns humorous.  In vv. 13 - 34 we read:
      They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind.  14 Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man's eyes was a Sabbath.  15 Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. "He put mud on my eyes," the man replied, "and I washed, and now I see."
      Some of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath."
      But others asked, "How can a sinner do such miraculous signs?" So they were divided.
      Finally they turned again to the blind man, "What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened."
      The man replied, "He is a prophet."
      The Jews still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man's parents.  19 "Is this your son?" they asked. "Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?"
      "We know he is our son," the parents answered, "and we know he was born blind.  21 But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don't know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself."  22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews, for already the Jews had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Christ would be put out of the synagogue.  23 That was why his parents said, "He is of age; ask him."
      A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. "Give glory to God," they said. "We know this man is a sinner."
      He replied, "Whether he is a sinner or not, I don't know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!"
      Then they asked him, "What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?"
      He answered, "I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?"
      Then they hurled insults at him and said, "You are this fellow's disciple! We are disciples of Moses!  29 We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don't even know where he comes from."
      The man answered, "Now that is remarkable! You don't know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes.  31 We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does his will.  32 Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind.  33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing."
      To this they replied, "You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!" And they threw him out.
      No testimony is quite as compelling as that of a changed life.  The Pharisees badgered this man and proclaimed themselves to be superior theologians but in the end they were rendered speechless by the reality of a changed life.  In this regard, Cardinal Suhard gave us a convicting definition of such a life.  He wrote,
"To be a witness does not consist in engaging in propaganda, nor even in stirring people up, but in being a living mystery.  It means to live in such a way that one's life would not make sense if God did not exist."
      Unable to answer the man, the Pharisees threw him out.  But, Jesus sought him out.  In vv. 35 - 41 we read:
      Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?"
      "Who is he, sir?" the man asked. "Tell me so that I may believe in him."
      Jesus said, "You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you."
      Then the man said, "Lord, I believe," and he worshiped him.
      Jesus said, "For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind."
      Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, "What? Are we blind too?"
      Jesus said, "If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.
      "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."  So says Eugene Peterson in The Message.  The Pharisees claimed they had a corner on truth and yet they willfully ignored the truth that was staring them in the face.
      Now why would God allow this man, and his parents, to be subjected to the authorities in this manner?  I think there are two reasons.  First and foremost, it was yet another way to expose them to the truth.  Through this man, God allowed a healthy dose of in-your-face truth to be delivered to them.  He slapped them in the face with the facts, and they still chose to live in darkness.  On the plus side, the man who was blind faced the truth squarely and readily accepted it.
      Second, Jesus allowed this man to be subjected to the religious authorities because he couldn't resist the irony of it.  To explain this, let me conclude by telling you another true story.  Here it is:  
      George Shearing, the British-American jazz pianist, was born blind.  He once stood on a New York City street corner during rush hour.  With his dark glasses and white cane, he could always count on someone, sooner or later, to offer to assist him across the street.  While waiting, he felt a tap on his shoulder.  "Excuse me, sir," said a voice, "but I'm blind.  Could you help me across the street?"
      "Certainly, I'll help you," said Shearing.  He reached out, found the arm of the other blind man, and strained his ears to decipher the sound of the traffic.  After a few moments, he said, "It's safe to cross.   Let's go!"  Together, the two blind men set off across the intersection.  As they walked, Shearing heard a great deal of horn-honking and yelling, but he was never sure if it was directed at him or not.
      Moments later, the two men were safely on the other side of the street.  The other blind man thanked Shearing for his help and went on his way.
      Shearing later related the incident to an astonished friend who asked, "George!  Why on earth did you do such a dangerous thing?!"
      Shearing smiled.  "Oh, I couldn't resist the irony of it!  The blind leading the blind and all that!  And you know, that was the biggest thrill of my whole life!"
      You see, I think it just struck Jesus as being funny.  Now did he do it just because it was funny?  No!  He did it because he cared about the religious rulers and this was just bold enough to get their attention.  How much do we care for the lost?  

1     Joseph C. Aldrich, Gentle Persuasion; Creative way to introduce your friends to Christ, Multnomah Press, Portland, OR 97266, 1988, pp. 7 - 8.
2     Ibid., pp. 59 - 62.

THE JOY OF LAUGHTER                                             10/29/06    1

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