Fingers

“As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth.  And his disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’  Jesus answered, ‘It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him….’” John 9:1-3.  

I have ten fingers on two hands.  Bless God, not one is missing!  All of these fingers have a supernatural purpose. …to point upward in grateful thanksgiving and praise and to facilitate the works of humanitarian love.  But these ten fingers are often involved in a merely mortal purpose.  They go jabbing in all directions to find the faulted one.  Who is to blame for all of these losses around me?  It is an easy occupation because so many are living guilty lives…. “all have sinned….” Romans 3:23.  When a blind man helplessly wasted away on the side of a Jerusalem highway, even the disciples of Jesus Christ were less concerned with his disability and were more concerned with somebody’s guilt…

We are often observing who is at fault for the human condition rather than recognizing opportunities to reconcile creation.  Two thousand years ago God invaded the human atmosphere to make multiple declarations about His intentions towards humankind.  And two-thousand years ago we were no more peace-makers than we are today.  

Jesus Christ laid His finger on our disability.  He touched it.  He was not pointing out our guilt; He was healing our sick, raising our dead and casting out our demons.  Divinity showed up to say “I love you” in ways we had forgotten love should be expressed.

Yes, certainly the blind man had sinned and his parents had as well.  Certainly they are responsible for many losses.  We are all guilty souls.  But that is not the point of the story.  The point of the story is that Divinity lays down His life for sinners…. .He loves his enemies… .He makes peace with those who refuse to be peace-makers.   The finger of God has come to set itself upon our messy condition and declare His good will towards it… .to offer peace to its innermost places.