We all have things that we are ashamed of. Some are stupid things we did: a bad haircut, an unwise relationship, a terrible date, a speech gone wrong, a text sent to the wrong person. Others are things that were done to us: a harsh word of criticism given in front of your peers, a rumor started by someone else, abuse doled out by someone who should have cared for you. Whether it was our fault or not, shame can weigh heavy on our souls.
John 9 contains the story of a man who had experienced a lot of shame in his life. He had been born blind. That might not seem like a necessarily shameful thing, but in Jesus’ day, it was assumed that physical deformities, financial problems, any bad circumstance in a person’s life were caused by sin. While there is ample evidence in the Old Testament that this is not always the case (the story of Joseph, the book of Job, the book of Ecclesiastes, for starters), it was still widely believed by the Jewish people.
How’s At Fault?
The disciples wanted to better understand how this process works, so they asked Jesus. Right in front of the blind man, as they pass him by, they ask (I imagine loudly enough that the poor man can clearly hear them), “Whose fault is it that this guy is blind? Did he do something bad or did his parents?” Sadly, the man probably wasn’t too hurt by these statements. He’d heard similar things his whole life. He’d become calloused to them.
But Jesus doesn’t heap more shame on him. Instead, he does the opposite. I imagine Jesus stops, looks at the man and says, “It’s not his fault. It’s not his parent’s fault. His whole life has been leading up to this moment where God is going to display his glory in an amazing way.” These words are a balm to the man’s battered and bruised soul.
Jesus doesn’t stop there. He mixes up mud and spit (a process the man thankfully cannot see), places it on the man’s eyes and tells him to go and wash in a particular pool. The man’s eyes are healed.
Dignity Restored
For the first time in his life, he is able to see! Not only that, but his dignity has also been restored. He no longer has to beg. For the first time in his life, he can work like any other person. He no longer carries the shame that came with the stigma of his blindness.
The sad part of this story is, the religious leaders, the ones who should be most excited about this miracle of God, try to heap shame on him, trying to re-open an old wound. They can’t see past their own vision of what God is like and their hatred of Jesus to appreciate what God is actually doing right in front of their eyes. Ironically, they show that they are more blind than the man was. To cover their blindness, they have to invalidate the man’s testimony and they try to shame him into silence.
Despite this, the man continues to assert that Jesus is the one who healed him, Jesus is a prophet, Jesus is a holy man. Eventually, the man realizes Jesus is the Messiah and comes to worship him. He will not be bound by shame any longer because Jesus is bigger than all of that. Jesus has shown him his true worth. God’s great love for him is revealed by what Jesus does.
Jesus offers us the same hope today.
Many of us are bound by shame. We may think that we deserve hard things that have come our way. Generations of brokenness seem to bind us, taking our hope. We may think that we have made so many mistakes there is no hope for us, no redemption possible. Others in our lives may have heaped shame on us telling us we are worthless or unlovable or past hope. But none of that is true.
Jesus offers you the same healing and hope that he offered the man born blind. He says that there are difficulties in our lives that are not of our own making. He assures us that even the worst of circumstances can be redeemed and used for God’s glory. We are never stuck where we are. There is always healing and hope possible. It might not look the way we hoped (I’m guessing the blind man never imagined he would be healed with spit and mud), but healing is always possible. It’s often a process, but it can happen.
Not everyone will understand.
Sadly, sometimes other people are still as stubborn and blind as the leaders in this story were. Even some religious people today can still be blind. They can’t see God for the gracious and good God that he is, the one who offers healing and redemption for anyone. Often, they carry their own shame and struggles that they haven’t yet let Jesus heal. Don’t let them get you down.
There’s a tricky balance here though. We shouldn’t write a leader off simply because they say something that feels “condemning” to us in the moment. God uses leaders and others in our lives to convict us of places that we need to be more like Jesus. Sometimes that can feel condemning at the time, but that doesn’t mean a leader is stubborn and blind. They might actually be right.
If a leader continues to offer us love and hope, they’re being like Jesus, even if they have to share some hard truths with us along the way. If they continually make us feel like we’ve blown it and there’s no hope for us, they’re just heaping on shame and condemnation. These are blind leaders we want to avoid.
Keep looking to Jesus.
Like the blind man, keep looking to Jesus. Keep allowing Jesus to remind you who you are. Don’t listen to the voices that try to heap shame on you repeatedly. Jesus has come to free us from sin and shame. You are no longer bound to anything that tells you that you are less than a beloved child of God.
Don’t let the world, self-righteous people, or anything else keep you bound by shame and guilt. Jesus has come to relieve us of that burden. Keep looking to him and let him define who you are.
Photo by Andrew Neel on Unsplash