Who Wants To Shine For Jesus?

As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. “Rabbi,” his disciples asked him, “why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?” “It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him. We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent us. The night is coming, and then no one can work. But while I am here in the world, I am the light of the world.” [John 9.1-5]

There is a lot to be understood from this passage from John's Gospel. I don't know that I have the definitive explanation, however, I do believe there is a consistency in the Bible that must be honored when reading difficult passages like this one.

First, it stands out to me that God is not random. He is a God of order and everything He has ever done has been consistent with that. He went to great lengths to define curses and blessings for disobedience and obedience respectively. Blindness is one of the curses for disobedience (Deuteronomy 28.28). For Jesus to say the man's blindness was not because of his sins or his parents' sins did not, in my understanding of it, imply that the man's blindness was not the result of sin at all! In fact, every curse for disobedience is an opportunity for the power of God to be seen! Every manifested curse is an opportunity for forgiveness to be applied and the power of that curse to be broken. This is the message of the Kingdom of God - forgiveness from sins!

Now, what's really potentially troubling about this passage is the last part of it: 

"We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent us. The night is coming, and then no one can work. But while I am here in the world, I am the light of the world.” 

At first this might seem to indicate that once Jesus has left the earth, the miraculous works of God would no longer take place. Many believe this to be the case. It would seem the time of miracles was predicted to pass away. In fact, that is true, but it is only true to the same degree that God said, "If you sin, you will die." There is a remedy! There is repentance! There is redemption!

What Jesus was saying was that upon His departure from earth, the light would be gone - which was and, sadly, is true. Jesus was speaking what He was seeing. He could see into the future the tendency of mankind, that would play out increasingly after His departure from earth, would be to quit walking in the power of the Holy Spirit (the same power that raised Jesus from the dead and enabled Him to  perform great miracles beforehand) because people would decreasingly look and act like Jesus. In other words, the light of Jesus would shine less and less until it would be "dark." People would stop walking by the power of the Holy Spirit and start walking in the power of knowledge and experience. And that is exactly what has happened.

Remember, Jesus' departure from earth was followed by the Day of Pentecost. There was a 'revival' of sorts for a time, but, even then, the power of the Holy Spirit (that was the "light" in Jesus and given to us for the same purpose) was replaced with knowledge and experience - and the miraculous has only rarely been seen since.

You see, Jesus was not forbidding miraculous works after His departure from earth. He was predicting the lazy, lethargic, and faithless tendencies of mankind to quit "shining the light" and start living in darkness.

Who wants to shine for Jesus?

Father, I want to shine Your light for all to see.