Messy Spirituality #3 – Those Who Doubt Our Spirituality
There was a time a long time ago when people would judge other people. They would look at their lives and make decisions and determinations about others based on what they saw or heard about someone else. They were ruthless when Jesus was here. Judging every little thing they saw someone mess up. It was almost like they were watching, just waiting for you to mess up. When you did mess up, they would pounce. Calling you out and not even caring who was around. It is such a great thing that people are no longer that way today.
Are you laughing as hard as I am at that last statement? It is even worse today. Now we can shame people on social media, through texts and not even have to be near them to make it happen. We live in a cancel culture now. If I see you do it then I make sure and post about it so everyone else realizes that you might have messed up.
It has always seemed strange to me that the most judgmental people in the world are the ones who should be the least judgmental in the world. People who follow a God who has forgiven us of so much should be the last people to say something about someone else’s mess. But, here we are loud and proud. I wish religious people were not so quick to pass judgment on others. I would hate to think how many people have given up on God because of something one of his kids said or did in judgment. With all of that being said we need to figure out how to handle criticism when it comes at us. We have an example to follow at least, because Jesus was criticized all the time. We are going to take a few minutes to see how he handled criticism from different people.
The judges who just assume the worst
There has been an idea that has hung around for a long, long time. There is this idea that if something goes wrong in your life it is because you did something wrong. Not because life happens to each one of us and sometimes it happens to be bad. As Jesus walked around he was often met with people who faced hard times. In John 9:1 – 2 Jesus’ own followers asked him a question about someone’s spirituality. “As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been born blind. His followers asked him, ‘Teacher, whose sin caused this man to be born blind – his own sin or his parents’ sin?”’
That has always seemed like a crazy question to me. Why did the disciples assume that someone had sinned for this man to be born blind? He was born blind; did he sin in his mother’s womb? These people assume the worst causes for something to have happened. They assumed someone’s sin caused this blindness. There are people who see things happen in our lives and just decide that we sinned and are being punished by God for it. They assume the worst about us and our situation.
Those who are comfortable with the old you
After Jesus helps this man some of the people who only saw this man as a blind sinner show up to condemn him. In verses 8 – 9 it says, “The neighbors and some people who had earlier seen this man begging said, ‘Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?’ Some said, ‘He is the one,’ but others said, ‘No, he only looks like him.’ The man himself said, ‘I am the man.’”
Some people can never get over who we were before we began following God, or even in our bad moments after following God. They want to remind us and others of our bad moments and to keep us in the past. They love what they are comfortable with and hate to see change, especially in others. They will always quick to remind us of our shortcomings and where we used to be in our lives. They also cast shade on who have become and how short we are from what they expect.
Those who keep their rules, no matter what
After Jesus heals this man and the doubters cannot deny the change in this man’s life they turned on Jesus. “So some of the Pharisees were saying, ‘This man does not keep the Sabbath day, so he is not from God.’ But others said, ‘A man who is a sinner can’t do miracles like these.’ So they could not agree with other.” John 9:16
The rules they followed were rules alright. They just expect you to follow all the rules the way they have. This guy is blind and Jesus can help him, even if it is the Sabbath day, and he decides to do just that. He realizes that people who we can help need to be helped right away. These Pharisees believed that a rule is a rule is a rule no matter what. They might actually worship the rules more than God. After all rules can be regulated and enforced. A messy relationship with God does always have rules, but grace.
Jesus shows once again that a mess is for redeeming – Give grace not judgment
“Jesus answered, ‘It is not this man’s sin or his parents’ sin that made him be blind. This man was born blind so that God’s power could be shown in him.’” John 9:3 Jesus takes this man’s mess and uses it to bring glory to God. What if we saw messes this way? A mess is a chance to glorify God. Jesus reminds us of that again when he helps this blind man on a day the religious said do not do that on this day. Jesus offers grace, I bet even to the ones who judged when He was doubted.
We need to remember that the only people who are not criticized are the ones who are doing nothing. So if you dive into this messy spirituality be prepared to be criticized and doubted. Give grace to them and yourself.