One of the hardest things to get right is how to understand God’s part and my part. We either think that God does everything without any participation on our part, or that He does nothing. That we have to earn our way to God and the good or the bad that happens in our life is brought onto ourselves by our action or lack thereof.
Today in John Chapter 9, we learn, in the encounter of Jesus and the blind man, that there are things that Jesus does, like healing out of His power. And then there are times that He requires our help or participation, like getting up and going to bathe in the Pool of Siloam.
John Chapter 9 is also a typical encounter of Jesus as He speaks truth to power. Religious abuse is still conducted today in the name of God. Religious professionals and other weird-type people who have one agenda – power and control – resort oftentimes to manipulation by threat of exclusion from the community in order to get their way.
As you follow along today, get the subtleties of how radical Jesus’s teachings and behaviors were in His day of religious conformity, and ask yourself this question, “Has it changed much in my day?”