Testimony

"He then answered, 'whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see."
-John 9:25
      I've meaning to write this for a long time but I kept putting it off because of schoolwork and different things. My church has been learning about the Gospel of John, and I wanted to write about the story of the blind man who was healed (John 9). We had actually studied this passage many weeks ago, but again I hadn't gotten around to writing about it. Regardless, the passage is quite simple, but is a great reminder of how we should live. Jesus is passing through an area, and He sees a man who was blind from his birth. Jesus then spits on the ground, and puts the newly formed mud onto the man's eyes. Jesus then instructs the blind man to go to the Pool of Siloam and wash. After the man washes in the pool, he is completely healed from his blindness.
      Obviously the healing of the blind man is an incredible miracle, but I want to focus on the man's response to his healing. When the man is healed, the Pharisees come and question his healing. They conclude that because the man was healed on the Sabbath day, the healer must be a sinner. The Pharisees continue to question the healed man, but the man's response never changes. The previously blind man insists that Jesus is a man of God because only a man of God could heal blindness. The Pharisees decide to just ignore the man and leave.
      When Jesus heals us from our sin, our response should be one of thanks. In addition to thanking Jesus, we must give testimony to what He has done for us. The man who was healed of his blindness is a great example of this. He was not afraid to tell others of the great miracle that Jesus had done for him. Even against great opposition, the man still proclaimed that Jesus was a man of God. When Jesus healed the blind man, the man put his faith in Jesus. He wanted everyone to know that it was Jesus who healed Him, and continued to give his testimony to the Pharisees.
      We learn that the Pharisees end up not listening to the healed man. Not everyone will listen when you give testimony to what Jesus has done in your life. However, we should not let this discourage us. If we truly believe that Jesus changed our lives and He is able to change lives, we must continue to testify of Him. We sometimes think of this as some kind of burden we have to carry, but it is actually a privilege. The blind man didn't testify about Jesus because he felt obligated to, he testified because he wanted to. He knew that Jesus had changed him, and he didn't hesitate to testify. We too must testify to others who Jesus is and what He has done for us.
-Smart