Process Matters

Sometimes things are not done the way we think they should be done.

As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.’ When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes, saying to him, ‘Go, wash in the pool of Siloam’ (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see. The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, ‘Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?’ Some were saying, ‘It is he.’ Others were saying, ‘No, but it is someone like him.’ He kept saying, ‘I am the man.’ But they kept asking him, ‘Then how were your eyes opened?’ He answered, ‘The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, “Go to Siloam and wash.” Then I went and washed and received my sight.’ They said to him, ‘Where is he?’ He said, ‘I do not know.’ They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight. He said to them, ‘He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see.’Some of the Pharisees said, ‘This man is not from God, for he does not observe the sabbath.’ But others said, ‘How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?’ And they were divided. So they said again to the blind man, ‘What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened.’ He said, ‘He is a prophet.’ - John 9:1-17

In today's reading from the Gospel of John, the Pharisees are presented with a true sign that Jesus is who they say he is, and they ignore it.  It is not what you accomplish, but whether or not you followed the tradition and the laws.

Jesus healed a man of blindness on the Sabbath.  How could he be from God?

I remember in school when we had to solve problems in math, the teacher would insist that we showed all our work, without skipping any steps.  That was the only way to know that we understood the process.

But what if we could come up with the answer another way?  Would we have gotten credit?

Probably not.  The preferred method is what was being taught, and anything else was wrong.

I will admit that I am guilty of this thinking as well.  If someone comes out of the blue and wants to donate a large sum of money to our cause, I may be excited at first, but if I don't see a link back to someone who actually knows us and knows what we do, I may become skeptical.

The Pharisees saw one thing that bothered them, and they put all their eggs in that basket.  This guy has to be fake, they thought.

I wonder how we would have reacted, if we had been raised to believe what they did about God and His laws.

When someone comes along who is not considered an authority and does things in a way we don't expect or appreciate, we may want that person to just go away, even if he is doing good.

I guess we value the process more than the outcome.

More to come...