So over the last few weeks, we've been working our way through a series of sermons called Crossroads. And in this series, what we're doing each week is we're talking about a different person who encounters Jesus during his time on this earth. And in each of these encounters that people have with Jesus, we see that when they meet him, it brings them to a crossroads, where they have to decide if they're going to continue going down the same path they were already on, or if they were willing to let their encounter with Jesus change their lives forever. But we're going to be talking about another one of these people who has an encounter with Jesus during his time on earth today.
But before we get to talking about this encounter, I want to tell you a story about another encounter first. And this is an encounter that I had with someone not too long after I started in ministry. And this encounter brought the person that I was meeting with to a crossroads of their own. This story started when a man in the first church that I served in named Tom invited me to go with him to visit a former member of the church.
Former member of the church's name was Danny. And as Tom and I were driving over to Danny's house one afternoon, Tom told me that Danny had once been a pillar in our church. Danny had been actively involved in Sunday school and worship. He had served on committees.
He had even been the chair of the deacons in the church. But what Tom didn't tell me as we drove over to Danny's house was why Danny had stopped coming to church. Instead, he let Danny explain that to me as the three of us sat down together around an old potbelly stove in the back room of Danny's house. As we sat down together, Danny started the conversation by saying, I bet Tom told you that I used to be pretty active in church.
Yep, he did. But I bet Tom didn't tell you why I stopped coming to church right again. And then Danny said just two words. But the two words that Danny said were enough to help me start to understand where he was coming from.
And those two words were 9-11. As in September 11th, 2001, the day that 2,996 people lost their lives and four coordinated terrorist attacks took place in New York City, Washington, D.C., and the skies over Pennsylvania. That was a day that brought an emotional and psychological trauma on our nation that we hadn't experienced since Pearl Harbor. It was also a day that drove a wedge between Danny and God.
Because as we sat there that afternoon, Danny told me that before 9-11, he had never really thought all of that much about God and his faith. He just always assumed that God loves us, that God will protect us. But he said that when something like 9-11 happens, it makes you wonder. And I think I surprised Danny when I told him that he was absolutely right.
When something like September 11th happens, it's going to make you wonder. But I also reminded Danny that he was far from the first person who ever struggled. When he saw pain and suffering in the world around him or in his own life. I reminded Danny that Jesus himself cried out to God when he was experiencing pain and suffering on the cross.
When he was dying on the cross, Jesus called out to God, cried out to God, asking, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And Danny said that's exactly how he felt in the aftermath of September 11th. He felt like God had forsaken him. And because he felt like God had given up on him, Danny made the decision to give up on God.
And like I said, Danny's far from the first person who's ever faced this crossroads in his life. There are plenty of people that when something bad has happened to them, when they've experienced pain and suffering in their lives, or they've seen pain and suffering in the lives of someone that they love, or when we've seen something bad happen in the world around us, they've come to that crossroads where they felt like God has given up on them. And they have to decide if they're going to give up on God. This is the same crossroads that we're going to see in the scripture passage I want us to take a closer look at today.
So if you've got a Bible close by or Bible app on your phone, I'd encourage you to go ahead and open it to John chapter 9. And in John chapter 9, we're going to meet someone who has every reason to want to give up on God because they had every reason to believe that God had already given up on them. So let's take a look at their story together. We're going to start reading John chapter 9, verse 1, where John writes this.
As Jesus walked along, he saw a man who was blind from birth. Now I want to pause here for just a minute. I want to pause right here for just a minute so we can talk a little bit more about the person who encounters Jesus in the story. And John tells us that the person who's going to encounter Jesus in the story is a man who has been blind from birth.
But there's a little bit more than we need to know about this man so that we can really understand what has been happening in his life. And what we need to understand about this man is that anyone back in Israel in the first century who had any kind of disability, people would have thought that they were being punished by God. And this belief that anyone who had any kind of disability was being punished by God would have stemmed from passages like Deuteronomy 28, where God promises that God will bless those who are obedient to him, but will curse those who are disobedient to him. So people thought that if you had a disability, that meant that you were being cursed by God.
And the only reason you would be cursed by God is if someone had disobeyed God. And if people thought that you were being punished by God, they didn't want anything to do with you. Not your neighbors, not your religious leaders, not even your own family. Now I want you to think about the kind of toll that that would take on a person.
Because this man was blind from birth. So his entire life, he would have heard people telling him that he was being punished by God. His entire life, he would have heard people telling him that he was being cursed by God. And for his entire life, everyone around him would have wanted nothing to do with him.
Because they thought God was punishing him. And when you've heard that kind of message over and over again your entire life, you've got to believe at some point along the way, this blind man probably made the decision that he was going to give up on God. Because everybody all around him thought that God had already given up on this man. Let's keep that in mind as we continue to read and see what else happens in this man's story.
So I'm picking back up in John chapter 9 verse 2. John continues by telling us, Now this point in the story, the disciples ask the kind of question that we all ask whenever we see pain and suffering in the world. The disciples want to know, whose fault is it? Who caused this to happen?
But based on the way that the disciples asked this question, they already have an answer in mind. They know what's happening, they just want Jesus to affirm it. So they don't really want Jesus to explain to them why this bad thing has happened to this blind man. What they want is for Jesus to say, Yeah, you're right, what you're thinking is absolutely correct.
They want Jesus to say, Yes, this blind man is being punished because someone had disobeyed God. Because if this man was just being punished because someone disobeyed God, well that meant that the disciples could ignore this man. They didn't have to show him any pity, they didn't have to have any empathy for him, they didn't have to do anything to help him. Because he was just reaping what had already been sown.
And you can kind of see this from the very beginning of the story. Because at the very beginning of the story, the disciples basically ignore this blind man. They walk right past him. Notice that in the two verses that we read, there's nothing that is said about the disciples stopping to talk to the blind man.
Nobody offers to help this blind man. John doesn't even say they threw a few coins into his begging bowl. No, they walked right past him, and they would have ignored him altogether if they didn't think that this was the time for Jesus to prove their point correct. But regardless of why the disciples ask the questions they ask, this is a question that we have all asked.
It's a question that we ask after September 11th, 2001. It's a question that we've asked after we've received a bad diagnosis. It's a question that has been asked after marriage falls apart. It's a question that we ask when we lose a job, or when our kids get into trouble.
When these kind of things happen in the world around us, we want to know why. Why did this happen? And how does Jesus respond to this question? Well, let me show you.
Picking back up in verse 3, this is what John tells us. John writes, Jesus answered, Neither he nor his parents. This happened so that God's mighty works might be displayed in him. While it's daytime, he must do the works of him who sent me.
Night is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world. So the disciples are trying to figure out why this man was born blind. They want an explanation.
They want to know who to blame. But did you notice how Jesus answers their question? He doesn't. Jesus doesn't answer their question of why.
Matter of fact, he basically ignores that question altogether. Instead, what does Jesus say to him, to his disciples? He says, This happened so that God's mighty works might be displayed in him. And I'll be honest, when you first hear that answer, it does not make a whole lot of sense.
The truth is, when you first hear Jesus' answer, what it sounds like is that Jesus is telling us that this man was born blind so that decades later Jesus could show up on the scene just to heal this man. And if that's the case, if this man was born blind so that decades later Jesus could show up and heal him, that means God is incredibly cruel. But there's a theologian by the name of Gerard Sloyan, who offers a different understanding of Jesus' response in this passage. For Sloyan, when he sees that Jesus responds by saying that this happened so that a great work may be displayed in this man, what happened here is that it's neither a glib response about human pain nor an assurance that a miracle impends.
Instead, it is a statement that even in the face of suffering, God is still at work. Even in the face of suffering, God is still at work. So what Sloyan means here is that when he sees Jesus speaking to his disciples, Jesus is basically saying, Listen, I know that you all want to know why this happened. But I'm not going to tell you that God caused this to happen.
And I'm not going to tell you that God is punishing this man. Instead, I want to show you something different. When you look at this man and you see that he's blind, you think that God has given up on him. But I want to show you that God has always been present with this man in his suffering.
I want to show you that God has always been at work in his life. And then Jesus does something to show them that God has been at work in this man's life. So let's see what Jesus does. Picking back up in verse 6, this is what John tells us.
He says, after he said this, Jesus spit on the ground and he made mud with the saliva, and he smeared the mud on the man's eyes. And Jesus said to him, Go and wash in the pool of Siloam. This word means sin. All right, now before we talk about what Jesus does in these verses, let's take a second to remember what this man has been through.
His entire life, this man has heard that his blindness is a punishment from God. That somebody disobeyed God and he has been cursed for it. And because he has been cursed by God, nobody, not his neighbors, not his priests, not his own parents, if he wanted anything to do with this man. But then Jesus and his disciples come along and they start talking about this man, apparently close enough where this man can hear them.
And as they're having this conversation, this man hears Jesus say something that he has never heard before. Therefore, he hears Jesus say that it's not his fault. He hears Jesus say that he's not being punished by God. He hears Jesus say that God is at work in his life.
And then Jesus spits on the dirt and he makes mud and he smears it on this guy's eyes. And yeah, I think we got it. Can all admit that sounds that weird, right? And if it sounds weird to us, just imagine what it felt like for that blind man when all of this happened.
But as strange as all of this was, this is also what brings this blind man to his crossroads moment. Jesus has spit on the dirt, he's made mud, he's smeared it on this man's eyes, and he's told him to go and wash in the pool of Siloam. But this man has to decide if he's actually going to do it. And I want you to notice something in the story that you may have overlooked.
But Jesus doesn't tell this man that anything is going to happen to him when he goes and washes in the pool. Jesus doesn't promise him that when he goes and washes in the pool that he is going to have his eyesight restored. No, for all this man knows, the only thing that's going to happen if he goes and washes in the pool of Siloam is that he's not going to have mud on his face anymore. There's no promise that he's going to be healed.
So this man has to make a decision. He has to decide if he's going to continue to believe what he has always believed, that God has given up on him. And if that's the case, there's no reason for him to get up and leave his begging spot. Or he can get up and he can go and wash in the pool of Siloam and believe that maybe, just maybe, God is still at work in his life.
So what does the blind man do? Well, let me show you. Picking back up to the end of verse 7, this is what John tells us. John writes, So the man went away and washed.
And when he returned, he could see. So does the blind man do? Well, even though he is still blind, he gets up and he goes to wash in the pool of Siloam. Even though Jesus does not promise him that he is going to be healed, the blind man decides to trust Jesus.
Even though he has heard his entire life that God has given up on him, he decides to give God a chance and believe that God is still active in his life. And when he goes and he washes, he can see. Now, this is the same crossroads that we all face. When bad things happen in our lives that we can't explain.
When our prayers go unanswered. When our questions start to pile up. We find ourselves asking the same question, facing the same crossroads that this man faced. Will we let our suffering convince us that God has given up on us?
Or will we trust that God is still at work, even when we can't see it? And that's the crossroads that Danny faced when I first met him all those years ago. When Danny thought about everything that had happened in the world around him, he thought that God had given up on him. So Danny made the decision that he was going to give up on God.
But here's what Danny didn't realize. Even if we give up on God, God doesn't give up on us. Even if we give up on God, God doesn't give up on us. And God was still working in Danny's life, even though he didn't realize it.
God was working through people like Tom, who refused to give up on his friend. God was working through people like me, even as a young pastor who wasn't used to dealing with these difficult questions with people. But God was working through me and my willingness to just sit down and talk and listen to Danny. And God was working through Danny's family and friends that were still a part of the church.
who continued to pray for him, continued to love him, and refused to let him completely give up on faith. And you know what? Slowly, Danny did start to come back. But he didn't start to come back because all of his questions had been miraculously answered.
He didn't start to come back because everything suddenly clicked and it just all made sense to him. No, he started to come back because he was willing to trust that maybe, just maybe God was still at work, even if he couldn't see it or feel it. So Danny kind of had to do what the blind man did in the story that we've just been reading. The blind man had to decide that he was going to get up and walk to the pool of Siloam, even though he had no idea what was going to happen when he arrived and washed his face.
Danny had to decide to take a step back toward God, even though he still was carrying these questions and wrestling with him, trusting that if he was willing to make that step toward God, God would show him he hadn't given up on Danny. I still remember that first Sunday when Danny came back into the church. He stuck in a couple minutes after the service had started and he sat on the back row, not just because he was Baptist, but also because he didn't want anybody to know that he was at church that day. And as the service wound down, he slipped out because we were singing the closing song so that nobody would see him.
But a few weeks later, he came back. And a few weeks after that, he came back again. And a few weeks after that, he came back again. And that's kind of how things went the rest of the time that I was the pastor.
He never got back to the point that he was at. He didn't rejoin any committees. He didn't start serving as a deacon again. He didn't even get to the point where he was showing up every single Sunday.
But every couple of weeks, Danny would show up. He'd sit on the back row with his wife. He would worship with us, even though he was still carrying those questions with him, because he had decided to trust in God. Now, I don't know where you're at in your relationship with God right now.
But I do believe that there's somebody who is worshiping with us right now, whether you're sitting in this room with me, whether you're joining us online, that's been struggling, that's facing that same crossroads that Danny and the blind man in the story faced. Maybe you've been dealing with an illness that just doesn't make sense to you. Maybe you've lost someone close to you, and you're just angry at God about it. Maybe you've been watching everything that's been happening in the world around us and wondering where God is in it all.
Maybe you're like Danny right now, and you've already made the decision to walk away from God. And the only reason that you're hearing this message right now is because somehow it popped up in your Facebook feed as you were scrolling through it today. Maybe you're on the verge of giving up on God. Because when you look around and you think about the way that it seems like God is treating people, that you just want nothing to do with them.
If that's where you're at right now, I want you to hear what I'm about to say. God has not given up on you. God has not given up on you. Even in the face of the suffering and the pain that you're going through, God has been present.
God has been with you. God has been at work. God has not, and God never will give up on you. But you also need to know that you have a choice to make.
You can stay where you are, believing that God has given up on you. Or you can be willing to take that step. Like the blind man took as he walked to the pool of Salon, like Danny took as he walked back into the church for the first time. In years.
You can take that step. Even without having all the answers. Even while wrestling with those hard questions. And it doesn't have to happen immediately.
So I've told you at the beginning of the story that when Danny and I were talking about why he had stopped coming to church, he told me it was because of September the 11th, 2001. What I didn't tell you is that I first met Danny in 2009. Eight years after this had happened. Eight years Danny had been wrestling with these questions.
Eight years. He felt like God was silent. It wasn't a quick decision that he rushed into to give faith another shot. But as Danny wrestled with these questions, as he talked with his friends, his family, people that loved him, he was willing to see and trust that God had not given up on him.
So eventually, he came to that point where he was willing to take that step back toward God. Even while he still didn't have everything figured out. So the blind man did, too. He didn't know what was going to happen when he went to the pool of Salon, but he trusted God anyway.
Danny did it, even though he still had his doubts. But he came to a point where he could trust that God was still working anyway. And it's a step that you can take, too. No matter what you've been through, no matter how much pain and suffering you've experienced or you've seen, in the lives of those people that you care about or in the world around us, you can take a step back toward God, too.
Because God is at work. God has not given up on you. But the question you have to ask yourself is, are you going to give up on God? Are you going to trust God enough to be willing to take one more step to him?
Let's pray, God. God, as we come to you now in this time of prayer, I'm thankful for the story of this blind man in John chapter 9 and the story of Danny. Thank you for what both of these men realized, God. When they looked at pain and suffering in their lives and in the world around them, it may have been easy for them to walk away from you for good.
But, God, they were willing to take a step back toward you, trusting that you hadn't completely given up on them. And, God, you showed them that even when the world around them may have said, yes, God has given up on you. God wants nothing to do with you. You showed them that you had always been present with them, always at work in their lives.
And, God, you do the same thing for us. When bad things happen to us, when questions start to pile up and our prayers go unanswered, that doesn't mean that you're absent. No, God, you are always with us, always at work. So, God, when we start to feel the despair and the doubt creeping in, remind us of who you are and open our eyes so that we can see what you are doing and constantly remind us that you have not and you will never give up on any of us.
We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen.
Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.