John 9:24-25 (NIV)
A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.”
He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”
The formerly blind man’s parents had been no help at all. They had confirmed that the man under examination had been blind from birth, and that he could now see, all of which militated against the agenda of the Pharisees, which was to prove that Jesus was a hoax, and to completely discredit Him.
They recalled the man himself and charged him solemnly to “give glory to God,” a phrase used in trials to urge someone to tell the truth, especially one who was suspected of lying up to that point. The next phrase, “We know that this man is a sinner,” shows the result that they were aiming for and was designed to direct the man’s testimony in that direction. It was if they had said, we know that you are lying, and that Jesus is actually a sinner, not a miracle worker, so you better start telling the truth! All they needed to succeed was for the man to give in to their pressure tactics and threats, and for him to declare that it was all a sham. At that point, they would have all that they needed to succeed in their aims.
But, to their dismay, in one of the most clear and stunning demonstrations of truth-telling ever recorded, the man simply testified about his own experience with Jesus. He could not give testimony about Jesus’ morality or legal standing; his encounter with Him had been far too brief, and he wasn’t going to allow himself to be pressured into conjecturing about those things. Instead, he simply testified about what he himself had experienced: he had been blind, and now, after his encounter with Jesus, he could see. Case closed!
Father, it is clear and demonstrable that our prejudices and the pressure to fit ourselves into a pre-determined mold will always do violence to the truth and turn our words into lies. But this man, simple and uneducated in theology as he was, still gave one of the most powerful and theologically coherent testimonies about his own life-changing encounter with Jesus.: “One thing I know: I was blind, and now I can see.” Help me to keep my testimony as simple, as straightforward as this man’s, because it is close to the same story. My eyes and mind were closed up, blinded by sin, but a single encounter brought light into my heart, and opened my eyes so that I could see. Glory to You, Lord! Amen!