Lessons Learned
November 22nd, 2006 by NathanThis past week was a rough one in overcoming some bitterness.
Sunday, my pastor was teaching about Jesus healing the blind man in Luke 18. There is a crowd following Jesus, and as we all know, with crowds there comes a lot of noise. Especially when you’re blind and your other senses are filling in for your eyes. So this blind beggar is sitting there listening to all of this, and trying to figure out what the commotion is all about. He asks some people, and they tell him that it’s Jesus. He then cries out for him,” Son of David, have mercy on me!”
The people have an interesting reaction. They love seeing Jesus perform miracles. That’s why a lot of people follow him. So you would think they would want to witness this eye-opening event, and bring him out to Jesus. But instead, they told him to shut up, be quiet, stop yelling. This only made him more determined to get to Jesus.
Jesus hears him, and commands that he be brought to him, and then he heals him. I usually focus on this area of the story, the picture of the man’s eyes being opened, and him following after Jesus.
Not this week.
This week, I associated with the crowd. I wanted to see Jesus for myself, experience him myself, even if it meant that someone else who needed it wouldn’t get it. I was not a worship leader, but a worship obstructor.
Something amazing happens after Jesus heals this man. Not only does he begin praising God, but the crowd has a change of heart as well. They join with this man in praising God, and they are united in worship.
There are two healings that happen in this story.
The blind man had faith, and had seen Jesus with his spiritual eyes. The crowd did not have that faith, and had only seen Jesus with their physical eyes. The man had his physical eyes opened and worshipped God; the crowd had their spiritual eyes opened and worshipped God.
That was me this Sunday. Before the service, I had my spiritual eyes opened, and worship was sweet. I felt a unity with the people I was worshipping with. That is heaven.






