Don’t Look Away from Disability
- Message Excerpt by
- Topic: Suffering
Audio Transcript
“The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, ‘Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?’” (John 9:8) So, all he could do was sit blind on the side of the road with a basket or cup, and, “Mercy, mercy on the blind.” That’s all he could do. He made enough to eat I suppose.
Jesus saw him as he passed by, and the disciples saw Jesus see him. So, in John 9:2, “His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’” Now, that question is crucial, but notice first, before we go there too quickly, this story did not begin with that question. It could have; it didn’t. This story began with Jesus seeing a blind man (John 9:1). So, they saw Jesus see him — they saw him attend to him with a glance, or a look, or something — and then they’re on it. That’s the way it begins: it begins with Jesus seeing, and then they see him see, and they’re into the question about the meaning of this blindness.
So, I’m going to pause here just a moment and plead with you. I’m thinking children, teenagers especially, and adults: see disability. See it. Not like the Levite and the priest who see the Jewish person beat up on the side of the Damascus road, and then just walk to the other side (Luke 10:30–32). This is so in us, is it not? We don’t know what to say. So, we “see,” and we cross the road. We “see,” and we look away. You’re not seeing the way Jesus saw when that happens.
So, my plea is, trust God to give you what you need in that moment, and don’t turn away. See! See! Move toward, not away. It’s natural to move away. We’re not natural; we’re Christians. We have the Spirit of Christ within us. That’s what it means to be Christian. We are counter-natural. We resist natural. So, I’m preaching to myself here. Lean toward and see. Go ahead, make the mistakes.
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