John Chapter 9
We were walking out of the Target near Fry Road and I-10. Judas didn't like shopping there because he said it's too expensive, but that's mainly because he like to keep skimming from the group fund. Thomas always said that he thought he could find better deals and better quality at TJ Maxx, but James had to have his Bustelo, and that was the only place that sold it.
Anyway, as we were walking toward the frontage road, we saw the homeless people camping there among the trees. They were panhandling at the corner, and so we were asking Jesus, "Hey, why should we give these guys money? Are they homeless because sometimes Life just happens, or because they were on drugs and made some bad choices along the way?
Bartholomew said we should see which ones were the Vets and help them and maybe not the others. "Ultimate sacrifice," he said, remembering something Jesus had been teaching us about friendship.
Jesus went to one blind guy. He said, "This man's homeless through no fault of his own. It also wasn't the fault of having bad parents. This happened so that the works of God can be demonstrated through him."
We asked Jesus what He meant by that. He said, "I'm only going to be here a short while longer. You guys need to do this work with me. As long as the sun shines, we have to do the work of God. There will be a time when the opportunity is gone. As Andrew likes to say from his favorite show, 'Winter is coming'"
The scant trees in this section by Fry and frontage road has a depression to catch overflow of rainwater. Jesus walked down to the damp area, scooped up some mud, spit on it, rubbed it in his hands, and then walked back to the blind man with the goop in His hands and while James and John propped the guy up, Jesus rubbed the mixture into each eye.
We all kinda stood around, wondering what was going on. Surely that couldn't be sanitary. At least, that's what I was thinking. Don't know what the others were thinking.
He waited for about an hour or so. The cars were driving by the entire time, most everyone slowing down to look at what we were doing with this homeless guy. If they thought we were doing him any harm, no one ever stopped to check. They just stared as they passed by.
Eventually, the mud dried and began to crack, and scales of it began to fall off, like dried limestone shale that gets brittle and breaks. The homeless guy raised his hands to his face to peel the rest off and his eyes were red and puffy but he started blinking furiously, and then covered his face from the light of the sun.
"I CAN SEE!" he shouted. He shouted so loud that I thought they could hear him all the way at the PetSmart.
Jesus told the man, "Go and wash in the baptismal pool at the Second Baptist Church building. There, the healing will be complete."
The man got up and ran off. Interestingly enough, he knew the direction to the church. I had the sneaking suspicion that he was wandered there a couple of times looking for assistance. I wonder what they would say now.
We looked at the rest of the homeless with new eyes that day. I realized that even all those times I'd gone on church outings to give them clothes and sandwiches, that I always wondered what they had done to get themselves into their situation. I realized today that it was not my place to wonder. Not my place to ask such questions. Not my place to judge.
The scales had fallen off my eyes that day.
Thank God. Before it was too late for me.
