I Was Blind and Now I See

People spend a lot of time arguing about who Jesus was. Some people argue that Jesus was a good man with good teachings for all of humanity. Some (even Muslims) claim that He was a prophet. Others think He was an insane young rabbi who captivated his generation with talk about deliverance from the Romans. This chapter points to one thing: results. In this chapter, we see that an encounter with Jesus changed a man’s life. In the account, the healed blind man initially didn’t know exactly what had happened or exactly who had healed him. He just knew that he was blind, and now he could see. 

For most of my adult life, I have taught that Jesus saves the sinner and can free us from the captivity of sin. I’ve seen it in some lives, but in others, there's little change after a person claims an encounter with Jesus. However, that changed in March of 2020. I was preaching a sermon on Psalms 23. A young couple had been visiting the church for about 3 months. The wife felt the need to “get in a church somewhere.” I think the husband just complied with his wife and began attending. On March 14, 2020, the husband later reported to me that he was filled with intense anxiety as they made their way down the church driveway. At one point, he had his wife stop the car, and he told her, “I can’t go in there today. Something bad is going to happen to me.” She told him to get back in the car, and they came into the service.

About halfway through my sermon, the young man interrupted me out loud. He cried out, “Help me. I don’t know what I need, but I’m not the husband or the father that I need to be.” I stopped speaking, and I invited him up to the front to commit his life to Jesus. He did so. That day, he was born again. What followed was miraculous. In the next month, as he laid one addiction before the Lord and was healed, he would bring another addiction to the Lord. He was never the same. The young man still struggles with life's difficulties. If you ask him how it all happened, he can’t explain it all. All he can say is, “I was blind, and now I see. I’m not sure how God did it, but He did, and I am no longer a slave to these things.” Reader, the proof is in the pudding. These kinds of things do not happen outside of a personal encounter with Jesus. Jesus wasn’t just a good teacher or a prophet. He was and is almighty God in the flesh, ready to bring healing to all who call upon Him.