March 31

John 9:18-41 

“One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”    John 9:35b 

Some of our friends from other denominations insist on the need for a one-time “born again” experience as evidence of a true coming to faith. In my own experience, and I suspect for many others as well, coming to faith is not a sudden flash, but instead is an up-and-down spiraling journey of gradually coming closer and closer to Jesus, even if the progress is two steps forward and one step back, punctuated by wrong turns and diversions. 

In this fascinating story from the Gospel of John, the man born blind has been healed, but he’s not really clear on how it happened and on the real identity of the one who healed him. His journey to faith is instructive for us all. In yesterday’s reading he identified his healer only as “that man called Jesus” who made mud and placed it on his eyes – this is Jesus as miracle worker. After being brought before the Pharisees and under the tension of explaining his healing to this hostile audience, he then describes Jesus as a “prophet” (v. 17). Hearing of the man’s subsequent expulsion from the synagogue, Jesus seeks him out again. After Jesus tells him that he has been healed by the Son of Man, he makes a full profession of faith: “Lord, I believe.” (v. 38) 

It’s not the length or difficulty of the journey in faith that matters; it is instead that “I was blind, now I see.”