Wednesday 9th October 2019 Prayer Devotion
Scripture Reading:- John 9:1-38
Topic:- What Made Jesus To Heal The Man That Was Born Blind [3]
Text:- John 9:1
D. After this, Jesus sought him out, a man who had gained eyes, but lost his patrimony and all standing in Jewish society. Certainly. Christ would not have presented himself again to a coward. The man had been courageous in defending Him, whom he had never seen, and because of this, he was vouchsafed to see and understand the God-man. Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe?. He answered and said, Lord, I believe. And he worshiped him. See John 9:35-38.
1. The healing of the blind man shows in a striking way that God gradually illumines a soul. This event was recorded for our benefit, and together with many other events and recounting, helps us to see the diverse manner in which Christ heals and illumines a soul, and also serves as an instruction to us, who are also being gradually illumined, more or less according to our reaction to God’s grace.
2. The illumination of the soul has been a constant theme since Pascha. Describe at lease three other examples of this most important action of the grace of God, which the church has recently contemplated. What may these recounting teach us?
3. Since Pascha, the church has studied the holy process of the illumination of the soul with truth. The day of the Resurrection, the Disciples of Christ hardly believed until Christ had shown them in diverse ways. Mary Magdalene saw an empty tomb, and conversed with an angel, but her understanding was not opened until Christ, Whom she mistook for the gardener, appeared unto her, alone, near the tomb.
4. The two apostles of the Seventy, Luke and Cleophas, conversed with the God-man all the way to the village of Emmaus, and did not recognize Him. When He sat at meat with them, and broke bread, then they were illumined fully, and He vanished from their sight. The Holy Apostle Peter, still shaking inwardly because of his thrice fold denial of Christ, saw an empty tomb with John, and heard the report of the Myrrh-bearing women, but he could not truly believe until Christ appeared to him, alone, and he who lamented his moment of weakness was vouchsafed to be the first Apostle to see the risen Lord.
5. Thomas doubted until eight days after the resurrection, when Christ appeared to him among the other apostles, and bade him to touch His wounds. The formerly doubting one then was the first to confess the dual nature of Christ, saying “My Lord and my God”.
6. The Church then turned its spiritual gaze towards the paralytic who had lain by the sheep’s pool for 38 years. The Lord healed his legs, and afterwards, enlightened his soul, showing him that his infirmity had been because of his sins.
7. The woman by the well, a stranger to Israel, was evangelized by the God-man in the heat of the day. She learned of the true faith, and became an apostle to her people, saying: Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ? See John 4:29.
8. On the Sunday following, a man who was formerly blind in his physical and spiritual sight had both restored.
9. All of these events from sacred history deserve careful scrutiny. These are stories of how God approached man, and taught him to see the truth. They were approached in different ways, by the same God-man, and learned the same truth.
May we derive comfort and instruction from reading of how the God-man revealed Himself to those who loved Him.
Prayer Point:- Oh Lord God, open my eyes of understanding and spiritual eyes henceforth by fire, in the name of Jesus Christ.
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