“So I went and washed, and then I could see.” (John 9:11)
Expanded Passage: John 9:8-12
As a boy, I was amazed by my pastors. They always seemed to have all the answers; they understood all the mysteries of God and the Word. I worried about my relationship with God, but they never seemed to. I supposed that the answers to those questions were in the books that lined the shelves in their studies. I longed to be the man with the answers instead of the boy with the questions.
As I grew, I read many of those books and more. I discovered that confidence comes not with having all the answers, but with an experience of Jesus’ healing. The crowd asks the man for a theological explanation: “How were your eyes opened?” He doesn’t know. All he can do is respond that the man called Jesus put mud on his eyes and told him to wash; he did so, and then he could see. He did not know how, but he knew who.
Today, we Christians can feel defensive about God. We want to have answers for our neighbors about what we believe and why we believe it. But the most important thing we can know is what Jesus did for us personally. We can share that with others freely, trusting that Jesus himself will fill in the rest of the story in his time.
Know—and share—your experience with Jesus’ healing.
J. Michael Jordan is associate professor of theology at Houghton University, and the author of Worship in an Age of Anxiety (IVP, 2024).
© 2025 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission. Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
