new eyes
At our recent ministry and kaleo team meeting, we explored the story of Jesus healing the blind man in John 9. What struck me the most was the process of transformation that the blind man goes through in “seeing” who Jesus is. Even after his healing, when the blind man is asked who Jesus is, he responded that Jesus is a prophet. At this stage, there is an understanding that Jesus is special and close to God but no understanding of how special Jesus actually is. The blind man doesn’t immediately see that Jesus is the Messiah and Lord. It is not until after further conversations with Jesus later in the chapter that he says “Lord I believe” and he worships Jesus.
This struck me as important, as we often think that the faith transformation process is not a process at all. We see it as a one off event – a ‘coming to faith’ if you like. But, what if we were to see coming to faith as a process and not an actual event in time? What if we were to view our baptism as a process?
I wrote this prayer at the conclusion of our lectio divina on John 9.
God,
To hear that transformation is a process is such a gift.
Such relief!
I fail so often.
do things that are so unlike you,
and don’t do things that you would do.
forgive me.
Thankyou for allowing me to be a
work-in-progress
a project unfinished
keep applying the mud to my eyes,
so I stop seeing what I want to see.
bathe me in water,
so I see what you see.
Open my eyes to see,
your light, your world, your cause.
Perhaps if we understand faith transformation as a process we will look on others with new eyes that Jesus has healed.
March 10th, 2005 at 3:45 pm
Your prayer is so beautiful and meaningful Phil. Yeah seeing myself as a work-in-progress is a great insight for me. Thanks heaps for your sharing.
March 15th, 2005 at 9:11 pm
Phil
A bit late,but your comment reminded me of a book written by John Hull,”In the beginning there was darkness”,SCM 2001(Blurb says:”when John H went blind he realised that the Bible was writen by sighted people”).
A most stimulating book which should be read by every preacher.
On John 9 he writes,”no other book of the bible is so dominated by the contrast between light and darkness,and blindness is the symbol of darkness.This reaches its climax in chap 9…..the perspective of the sighted person is illustrated in the words that follow immediately(j.9:4)……….were there blind potters etc ……at any rate it is certain that the coming of night does not stop blind people from working………..”
In an article on attitudes too blindness in the hymnbooks (Theology Sept/Oct 2002)he concludes