Easter - 2018

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Decline of Worship due to lack of AWE!

There are hurting people on every journey and every journey will have interruptions. Believers of Jesus will stop and have compassion. The day is come thus we should be actively bringing restoration to life in the way we proclaim Jesus is the Christ and the living Word. Those who hear John’s words will be obedient and “go” when Jesus sends us to our healing. Even at the end of the beginning of this miracle story tied in with a proclamation, John exhorts his readers to, “avoid the attitude of the Jews and join the faith of the blind man.”[1]


Therefore, it is our gift to be receivers of the John 9:1-12 gospel account. It is a gift to be encouraged to hold fast in our belief that Jesus is the Son of God. In contrast, John demonstrates that “by being content with the law that came by Moses and by shutting their eyes to the grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ, the Pharisees are being plunged into the darkness of unbelief as surely as the once blind beggar is walking more and more towards the illumination of faith.”[2] When we become anesthetize to the power of Jesus and the work that is to be accomplished as labors for the kingdom, we are like the townspeople unwilling to celebrate the joy and filled with doubt. The ultimate reason for the decline of Christ worship is a failure to recognize or experience the redeeming work of Jesus.[3]



Jesus is willing to interrupt his journey and he is also the one that brings a sense of awe, joy, compassion, and dedication to living abundant lives. We may not know the name of the former blind man, but we can gain insight in his story and transformation that illuminates our minds to how God is willing to restore our sight that has been taken away from us because of the sin that so easily entangles us. John’s goal and aim is achieved in the awakening of our senses “so that we might believe.”

I wonder what interruptions that Lord will bring by me today! You know I love ya, Don


[1] Rene’ Kieffer, “Different Levels of Johannine Imagery” (papers presented at a conference of Scandinavian New Testament Exegetes at Uppsala, June 16-19, 1986) 78.

[2] R.V.G Tasker, The Gospel According to St. John an Introduction and Commentary (TNTC 4; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans. 1994), 125.

[3] Ibid, 125.

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