Dramatic Identity Shift

[Jesus] said to him, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam" (which is translated, Sent [Apostle]). So he went away and washed, and came back seeing. Therefore the neighbors, and those who previously saw him as a beggar, were saying, "Is not this the one who used to sit and beg?" (John 9:7-8)

My perception and heart-level belief about my real identity is maybe the thing that I struggle with the most in life. As I read this story about a man born blind that is suddenly and radically transformed in a few minutes in the presence of Jesus and then thrust into the position of dueling with not only his family and acquaintances but with the highest authorities of the country almost immediately, I can't help but wonder in amazement at what God might do next. And the more that I meditate on this story the more convinced I am that I too am born blind and am in desperate need of healing and a new sense of identity as well.

These two verses jump out at me as being all about perception of identity and the value associated with that identity. This man had spent his whole life being labeled and classified by his handicap and disability. And this particular classification of blindness seems to have carried with it an even greater stigma and cultural shame as is discussed later in the story than just incidental blindness. A person who was born blind was considered to be under a specific curse of God because of some great sin, even if it was not openly apparent what that sin may have been. The spiritual dishonor associated with blindness from this cause was very intense for such a person and consequently their concept of God would have been strongly influenced by such a belief accepted by nearly everyone around them all of their life.

This man therefore, was not just physically blind but was very likely spiritually affected because of the way he was viewed by his society. But in a strange sort of way his spiritual blindness was much easier to heal by Jesus than the self-induced and reinforced blindness of the leaders who seemed to have a vested interest in keeping society locked firmly under the influence of the distortions of God that the leaders perpetuated. They had so shaped religion to serve their own interests at the expense of others that they believed they were serving God while all the time they were terribly misrepresenting Him, even suppressing and opposing the very Son of God who had come to correct people's dark views of God.

As Jesus had evidently just been run out of the temple area for irritating these Jews too much, He came across this man who was living under the dark influence of these very leaders and who's sense of identity had been almost entirely shaped by their mistaken views of how God feels about people. His sense of value and identity as referenced in the following verses was strongly influenced by those who all his life had viewed him as a beggar, one who was generally worthless, one who could not do anything useful but could only sit and beg hoping to gain sustenance from the occasional mercies of passersby. It says here that they previously saw him as a beggar, the one who used to sit and beg.

But when Jesus came by, He did not look at this man as someone hopeless, someone cursed by God as even His own disciples had assumed. Imagine what must have gone on in this man's mind as he overheard the conversation between Jesus and His disciples standing there discussing him and the surprise and hope that must have sprung up in his heart as he heard comments about himself that Jesus made. This was likely the first time in his life he had ever heard such affirming words, words that refuted unequivocally the shameful assumptions about his identity that he had lived under all of his life. For the first time he heard someone challenge his demeaned status in society and his heart must have leapt with hope as he wondered what this unusual person might say next.

Jesus not only challenges the status of this man in the eyes of society but refutes the assumptions about him and about how God viewed his situation. In a few short words Jesus undoes all that society and his parents had done to suppress his heart and stifle his spirit. Jesus brings freedom, hope and love into a heart that had known precious little of any of these things most of his life. Then Jesus demonstrates how God felt about him by going through a most unusual routine by which he solicits the man's assistance in his own healing. John, the apostle who is writing this story, carefully makes sure the reader does not miss the point that Jesus in essence commissioned this man as another apostle, implied in the meaning of the name of the pool where Jesus sent him to wash his eyes.

The method that Jesus used to heal this man's blindness was a very unusual and unique way that never was used on anyone else. Jesus reaches back to the very dawn of creation when He himself had knelt down and done something similar in the forming of Adam from the clay of the earth. Only this time instead of forming the whole man He only addresses the malfunctioning part and re-forms this man's eyes bringing life out of the clay by mixing into the dirt the very saliva of the great Creator. Then the stirring sentence emerges that summarizes the dramatic change in this man's sense of value and identity and that transforms his life forever. So he went away and washed, and came back seeing. This is in stark contrast to the identity those around him still tried to label him with in the face of clear evidence of his new condition.

Plan B

Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple. As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. (John 8:59 – 9:1)

The context here is that Jesus had just finished speaking at length with religious leaders who were so stubbornly blind in their hearts and minds that it was impossible for Jesus to get their attention on heavenly things as Jesus understood them. Although Jesus had the truth about reality clearly about Him and repeatedly expressed it in various ways to anyone willing to listen, it was rare that many were willing to open their minds enough to receive much of what He was offering.

Yet the purpose of Jesus coming to this earth was not to show us how stubborn and sinful we are but to reveal to us how good and gracious and caring God is. This is why Jesus never gave up trying to reach people who resisted His appeals and loving advances and entreaties. Although the religious people were the most hostile against what Jesus had to say about God, He refused to give up His purpose to do everything possible to win them over to God. But at times He had to change His methods when people made it absolutely clear that they would no longer allow Him to speak to them. God is very keen on the issue of freedom, even for those who don't even believe in it themselves. So when the religious leaders picked up stones threatening to kill Him for saying things they didn't like, Jesus obliged and left their presence and the temple they so insisted on controlling and running their way.

But this did not mean that Jesus had given up trying to reach their hearts. Rather than feeling resentful or bitter about the treatment He received from them, He rested in the care and guidance of His Father. Possibly on the way out of the temple He felt impressed by the Spirit that this blind man had been strategically placed there as the next best option to try to reach the hardened hearts of those He longed to save. Although they had pushed Jesus out of their presence, Jesus knew that this blind man would be able to say and do things on His behalf that could initially get past the resistance these leaders had formed against Jesus Himself. The actions and words of this blind man once healed would act as an overwhelming testimony to convey the very message that Jesus was trying to convey about God that they would no longer allow Him to deliver personally.

Jesus says as much in verse 3 when He answers His disciple's question about the blind man by stating that this man had been foreordained to be there and available for Jesus for this very moment. Since the Jews had refused to believe Jesus or to allow Him to display the works of God among them, Jesus turned to this blind man to display the works of God for the same purpose. Even though He was willing to respect the prejudiced hostility against Him by the Jews, He was ready to use the service of another person who did not yet have such prejudice blocking his access into their midst.

In verse 4 Jesus tells His disciples that we must work the works of Him who sent Jesus into the world. The works of God are to reveal in every way possible the truth about what God is really like and how He really feels toward His children despite all the lies circulating about Him. God is seeking anyone and everyone to work His works in order to reach as many as possible in every way possible to reconcile them back into a trusting fellowship with Him.

If we refuse and resist the works of God from one direction, God is ready to come at us from another direction through another venue or person until we either give in to His loving entreaties and let go of our confused resistance to His love, or we so steel our hearts against Him that we destroy all capacity to receive and return love forever. But it is never God who runs out of patience and suddenly turns into a vindictive judge out to punish evil-doers, it is our own sin and hardness of heart that brings on the ultimate sad fate of the lost upon their own lives. God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit are ever and will always be in the business of reconciliation and redemption. But they also believe in freedom as the only atmosphere in which true love can thrive so they do everything possible to bring us into that relationship of love unless we make it impossible for them to do any more, or we surrender and are drawn fully into that love. The choice is always ours.

Of Apostles and Ordination

[Jesus] said to him, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam" (which is translated, Sent). So he went away and washed, and came back seeing. (John 9:7)

Siloam. One of the roots of this word is shalach: to send out or send away. It includes the idea of pushing out, possibly implying being pushed out of one's comfort zone for a specific purpose.

Sent = apostello

And He appointed twelve, so that they would be with Him and that He could send them out to preach, (Mark 3:14)

Apostles = apostolos – apparently the label given to a person, derived from and based on the word apostello. It seems to be a condensation of the sense derived from apostello and describing a person specifically designated for that purpose.

Given the meanings for these three words, it seems rather clear that Jesus designated this blind man to be an apostle by the way John articulated his description here of what took place between him and Jesus.

I have heard people try to argue that since the days of the 'twelve apostles', the New Testament era, that no other apostles will ever be seen in the church. They insist that only the original twelve apostles are to be considered legitimate because they were personally ordained by Jesus (except Matthias who was chosen after the death of Judas) and that this gift no longer applies to the church today.

This notion is not supported at all by Scripture as far as I can tell from my study. It seems to have the ring of tradition and prejudice and even legalism, an obsession with external forms and rules. In fact, the controversies swirling around the very idea of ordination today have very shaky foundations of deeply entrenched opinions and traditions and prejudices concerning what the very word itself means. If we were willing to be honest enough to allow the Word of God to define its own terms without injecting our heated and biased opinions into its messages, we would find our arguments dissolved and would see more readily the pettiness and stubbornness that gives them so much mileage in our debates.

The whole tenor of the Old Testament period revolved around the idea of exclusiveness in sharp contrast with the inclusiveness of the New Testament era. That is not to say that anything goes in the body of Christ. Just ask Ananias and his wife. There is a natural exclusivity that occurs when the presence of God is very real and close in His people and that naturally separates those who are willing to believe in Him from those who are afraid of Him. But this separation should not be confused with the prejudices and traditions that have crept back into religion and now confuse much of our thinking about the various roles and gifts that God intends for His children to exercise in benefiting His body.

And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians 4:11-13)

Men have turned the issue of ordination into a battleground and a diversion that keeps people's focus away from the real issues at stake. Rather than viewing ordination as some sort of magical transfer of power or investment of artificial authority, we should begin to grasp God's perspective and use of this term. Real ordination is simply a recognition by the body of Christ of some gifting or outworking of the Spirit's activity and gifting in a person's life. When Jesus ordained His twelve disciples, He simply sharpened their focus to a specific commission He wanted them to do for a period of time. Rather than just doing whatever they felt like doing while traveling around the country with Him, Jesus synchronized His disciples with His own mission by giving them a specific list of instructions to follow in order to awaken interest in others about the kind of kingdom He was introducing into this world.

I find it quite interesting what is strongly implied in the above verse from Mark 3. Jesus not only sought to send out His friends to do a specific job for Him but He wanted them to be with Him as well. What I am starting to see is the rhythm of a relationship with Jesus; there are times of quiet togetherness with Him in which we soak up His character and absorb His Spirit into our hearts. Then there are times when we are pushed out of our comfort zone of enjoying His intimacy up close and are sent out among people who are sometimes quite the opposite to us from resting in Jesus' presence. When we are sent out to infect other people's hearts with a desire to want to know Jesus better and to entice them to consider joining His kingdom, His family, we are just as much apostles as were the twelve whom Jesus originally used for that very same purpose.

In this story of the blind man in John 9, the writer I believe is trying to make this very point. He takes the meaning of the name of the pool that Jesus sent this man to and specifically weaves it into the narrative to make the point that this man too was considered an apostle. The rest of the chapter is an amazing record of the interchange and the testimony of this blind man that rivals many of the stories of the disciples when they later met similar opposition as recorded in the book of Acts. Jesus in essence ordained this blind man for the specific purpose of seeking to draw the religious leaders into belief. They had built up such a level of resistance against Jesus that His own words had become nearly useless in getting past their defenses. But this man caught them totally by surprise and was for a time able to convey a testimony and offer them a vicarious invitation that they had a hard time overcoming.

Sadly, because of their intense pride, arrogance and stubbornness, they only further deepened their unbelief and hardened their hearts even more while this man eloquently appealed to them to repent. This man for a time became the personal representative of Jesus, His personal envoy to these religious leaders, His chosen apostle. It could even be argued that in placing the clay of His personal spit on the eyes of this man, Jesus in essence had ordained Him just as surely as He ordained any others while He was here on this earth. Then He sent the man to a pool with a name to match his assignment to reinforce the commission that his job was to go out of his comfort zone and declare how good God really is to those who resist believing such things.