The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection of Leawood, Kansas, United States Daily Guide grow. pray. study. for Friday, 26 December 2014 “I am the light of the world”Daily Scripture: John 9: True Blindness
1-2 Walking down the street, Jesus saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked, “Rabbi, who sinned: this man or his parents, causing him to be born blind?”
3-5 Jesus said, “You’re asking the wrong question. You’re looking for someone to blame. There is no such cause-effect here. Look instead for what God can do. We need to be energetically at work for the One who sent me here, working while the sun shines. When night falls, the workday is over. For as long as I am in the world, there is plenty of light. I am the world’s Light.”
6-7 He said this and then spit in the dust, made a clay paste with the saliva, rubbed the paste on the blind man’s eyes, and said, “Go, wash at the Pool of Siloam” (Siloam means “Sent”). The man went and washed—and saw.
8 Soon the town was buzzing. His relatives and those who year after year had seen him as a blind man begging were saying, “Why, isn’t this the man we knew, who sat here and begged?”
9 Others said, “It’s him all right!”
But others objected, “It’s not the same man at all. It just looks like him.”
He said, “It’s me, the very one.”
10 They said, “How did your eyes get opened?”
11 “A man named Jesus made a paste and rubbed it on my eyes and told me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ I did what he said. When I washed, I saw.”
12 “So where is he?”
“I don’t know.”
13-15 They marched the man to the Pharisees. This day when Jesus made the paste and healed his blindness was the Sabbath. The Pharisees grilled him again on how he had come to see. He said, “He put a clay paste on my eyes, and I washed, and now I see.”
16 Some of the Pharisees said, “Obviously, this man can’t be from God. He doesn’t keep the Sabbath.”
Others countered, “How can a bad man do miraculous, God-revealing things like this?” There was a split in their ranks.
17 They came back at the blind man, “You’re the expert. He opened your eyes. What do you say about him?”
He said, “He is a prophet.”
Reflection Questions:
When John wrote that “the life [Jesus] was the light for all people” (John 1:4), he followed Jesus’ lead. Jesus said in the Temple that he was the light of the world (cf. John 8:12), and repeated the claim in verse 5 of today’s reading. His healing of this blind man was like a life-changing, actedout parable. Jesus’ light gave the beggar back both his physical and spiritual sight.
• At what age or stage of life did Christ’s light first shine into your life? What are some of the first things that you remember seeing more clearly in the light of Jesus’ love and grace? What are one or two ways that Christ’s light has helped to give you clearer vision in the most recent weeks and months of your walk with him?
• Jesus’ disciples reflected a view common in their day (and still today): that God caused everything, even bad things. Jesus taught us to see God differently, as the source of healing and hope even in the face of illness or tragedy. (For deeper study of this key idea, see Pastor Hamilton’s book Why?) What does it mean to you to trust that God is on your side, not working against you, in a volatile, often frightening world?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, when something bad happens, I’m tempted to ask, “Why is God doing this to me?” Help me remember what you told your disciples, and to trust your healing light and love even when I’m hurting. Amen.
Insight from Phil Antilla
Phil Antilla serves as the program director for Young Adult and College Ministry. Before coming to Church of the Resurrection, Phil served as an associate pastor at a local church in Shawnee. www.cor.org/youngadults
The introduction from 1 John is an appropriate Christmas greeting for us today:
“We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life…This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.”
Thanks be to God!
It is good news indeed that Christ has come into the world, because as the author of 1 John writes, “In him there is no darkness.”
However, once the Christmas season fades, and the decorations get packaged up, many of us may still feel that there is much to be troubled by.
Perhaps you may be wondering, “If Christ has come, why does it feel that I am walking in darkness?”
The prologue of the Gospel of John states this same sentiment: “He [Jesus] was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to that which was his own, and his own did not accept him.”
While Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Christ, it must also come hand in hand with the reality that to be born is to be made capable of death. Let me say that once more. To be born is to be made capable of death. All who live will die. This is not meant to strike fear in the minds of anyone; it is simply the truth of our mortality.
We must remember that the same Christ, who lives eternally, also lived in the human flesh. Jesus actually died. And Jesus did suffer. Not only on the cross, but also in his life. Again, the Gospel of John tells us “all things came into being through him [Jesus],” and yet “they did not know him.”
How painful must this have been for Jesus? To see the good in all people and yet to watch as we regularly turn our backs from him?
Perhaps you too know what this is like. You are aware of the good that can be, but you are also aware of the darkness that surrounds us.
In today’s text, the disciples try to ask Jesus why a “bad thing” has happened. Why was this man born blind? Perhaps we might ask similar questions; “Why was this child born premature? Why did this infant die?” We must acknowledge that bad things happen. However, even in our text today we are reminded that Christ works through all things. Like the blind man in John 9, you were made so that Christ could be revealed in you. No amount of darkness will overcome the light of Jesus Christ.
This does not eliminate hardship in this life. But with Christ, we can be sure that our future will be better than our past.
In this season of Christmas, may you remember that the light of all life has come into the world, and though the light shines in the darkness, the darkness has not overcome it.
Happy Christmas!
Phil Antilla serves as the program director for Young Adult and College Ministry. Before coming to Church of the Resurrection, Phil served as an associate pastor at a local church in Shawnee. www.cor.org/youngadults
The introduction from 1 John is an appropriate Christmas greeting for us today:
“We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life…This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.”
Thanks be to God!
It is good news indeed that Christ has come into the world, because as the author of 1 John writes, “In him there is no darkness.”
However, once the Christmas season fades, and the decorations get packaged up, many of us may still feel that there is much to be troubled by.
Perhaps you may be wondering, “If Christ has come, why does it feel that I am walking in darkness?”
The prologue of the Gospel of John states this same sentiment: “He [Jesus] was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to that which was his own, and his own did not accept him.”
While Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Christ, it must also come hand in hand with the reality that to be born is to be made capable of death. Let me say that once more. To be born is to be made capable of death. All who live will die. This is not meant to strike fear in the minds of anyone; it is simply the truth of our mortality.
We must remember that the same Christ, who lives eternally, also lived in the human flesh. Jesus actually died. And Jesus did suffer. Not only on the cross, but also in his life. Again, the Gospel of John tells us “all things came into being through him [Jesus],” and yet “they did not know him.”
How painful must this have been for Jesus? To see the good in all people and yet to watch as we regularly turn our backs from him?
Perhaps you too know what this is like. You are aware of the good that can be, but you are also aware of the darkness that surrounds us.
In today’s text, the disciples try to ask Jesus why a “bad thing” has happened. Why was this man born blind? Perhaps we might ask similar questions; “Why was this child born premature? Why did this infant die?” We must acknowledge that bad things happen. However, even in our text today we are reminded that Christ works through all things. Like the blind man in John 9, you were made so that Christ could be revealed in you. No amount of darkness will overcome the light of Jesus Christ.
This does not eliminate hardship in this life. But with Christ, we can be sure that our future will be better than our past.
In this season of Christmas, may you remember that the light of all life has come into the world, and though the light shines in the darkness, the darkness has not overcome it.
Happy Christmas!
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