It was the kind of moment when the impact of it just washed quickly over me and I wasn't sure what to do with it. I just knew it was so comforting and healing. It was that moment when a Truth of Scripture just bounces off the page and smacks you square in the face with how beautiful it is. I smiled, then shook my head with the realization that I am so blessed, and not worthy of the love and acceptance Jesus gives. A song came to mind:
"When no one else knows how I feel, Your love for me is proven real. When noone else cares where I've been, You run to me with outstretched hands...and You hold me in Your arms, again." (Building 429)
"They (pharisees) answered and said unto him, Thou wast altogether born in sins and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out. Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God?"
(John 9:34-35)
And here's the beautiful part: They cast him out, Jesus sought him out and found him!!
There will always be those that are 'quick to cast'; the infamous "they" will accuse, abandon, disappoint, betray, reject. You try to do the right thing, honor God, obey His word and instead of being able to be excited and joyful about something great God has done, you have to "answer to the accusers". This blind man had received sight after a lifetime of living in darkness. He had responded to Jesus in obedience, and experienced healing. Then he has to stand before Jesus' accusers. He chooses to defend Jesus' authority to heal him, even if it occured on the sabbath. The problem was that in doing this, he challenged the Pharisees who considered themselves the only authority that mattered.
It just melted my heart to see this man robbed of the joy of this moment and cast out. And he didn't even really know Jesus at this point! He just knew "a man called Jesus"(John 9:11)had authority to direct him ("go to the pool of Siloam and wash" (John 9:7), the ability to heal him, and compassion to do so. But then Jesus found him! He gave him a chance to "see" Him clearly for who He was, the very Son of God, and the man believed and worshipped.
Jesus specializes and welcomes rejects. Those that are written off by others as "insignificant nobodies", Christ died for, and they are Somebody to Him. They just need the chance to see Him for who He is, the One who can forgive them and accept them. And even in the grace already experienced in salvation there are days when doing the right thing just lands you in the outcast pile, crushed and broken. To live in such a way that your obedience to Christ is evident will challenge any idea or philosophy, action or attitude that is not wholly submitted to God's authoritative Truth. Rejection is a consequence and can be brutal.
"If the world hate you, know that it hated me before it hated you" John 15:18
They cast him out, He found him.
He finds me.
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