Telling Your Truth--March 22, 2023

Telling Your Truth--March 22, 2023

"They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight.  He said to them, 'He put mud on my eyes.  Then I washed, and now I see'." [John 9:13-15]

The old line goes, "Evangelism is one beggar telling another where to find bread." 

I've always loved that way of putting it, because it reminds me that my job is not to have all the answers or think it's my job to dole out heavenly goodies.  I am a recipient of God's good gifts, and the most I can do is to tell others where I have found them being given away.  

And that truth is both humbling and freeing.  It's humbling, on the one hand, because it means acknowledging that I don't have all the answers and am not in control; and it is freeing because it means realizing I don't have to have them all or be in control.  I can just tell the truth I know about the grace I have been given.

One of the things I love about the man in this story from John 9 is that he doesn't have anything to prove to anybody, and he doesn't need to make anybody think he's got it all figured out.  He doesn't know what Jesus looks like [at this point in the story].  He doesn't know how soil and spit produced sight.  He's not an expert on whether it is, or is not, a violation of the sabbath commandment to restore someone's eyesight on the day of rest.  And he doesn't know what else to say about Jesus other than that he must be a prophet.

But for all that this man doesn't know, he is neither ashamed nor apologetic.  He is comfortable enough in his own skin to say, "Here's what I don't know, and then here's what I do know: Jesus put mud on my eyes, I washed, and now I can see."  He doesn't have to pretend he understands how it worked.  But he doesn't have to hide what he has experienced just because he only has his own experience to share.  The man tells the truth he has to share--"Now I see"--even if he can't explain the miracle or dissect the divinity of the one who worked it.   But once he has shared what he can speak to, he doesn't need to silence anybody else [even though the Respectable Religious Leaders will do that to him], and he doesn't need to weaponize his words against others, either.  Neither does he start a crusade telling other people living with blindness that they must have done something wrong because their experience doesn't match up with his.  The man can speak to what he knows and leave it there--this isn't a contest or a battle or a war.

There is something we can learn from this man's way of telling his story without turning it into a culture war.  All too often, modern day Respectable Religious Folk still talk about sharing what we have come to trust about God like it's a "battle for the truth" or a "war against the people who have it wrong," when the man healed by Jesus doesn't fall for that kind of thinking.  He can tell the truth he knows without arrogance [like he's got everything figured out] and without fear [because he doesn't have to pretend to have all the answers].  I wonder what it would look like for us to hold onto both of those day by day.  We don't have to pretend we are Bible experts, professional theologians, or perfect peaches in order to tell people what we have received from God in Christ.  We can say, confidently and graciously, how we have come to know love beyond earning and grace beyond calculating.  We can talk about how Christ's presence in our lives gives hope and direction.  We can tell others about the fullness that surrounds us in the community of Jesus' followers, who share joys and sorrows and ordinary times along the way with us.  And we can do all of that without having to get up on any high horses as if we're the only ones with anything to say, or that everybody else who says anything different is wrong.  We can tell the truth we know without getting defensive, because we're really just beggars telling other beggars where we've found bread.

What would it look like if we started there today?  What difference could it make for someone around us if we were willing to share what Jesus has meant to us--without having to make it into a battle or a war of words?  What might happen in this day if all you have to worry yourself about was telling the truth you have to share, and nothing more?

Lord Jesus, free us and humble us to be able to share what you have done for us without thinking we have to have all the answers.