[AI translation] We may remember that on New Year's morning, our Lord's first teaching to us was, "I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." (Jn 8,12b) We remembered then what a great grace it was to begin this New Year in the shining light of the light of the world, and it was our hope and desire that we would walk in the light of that light every day and in every situation of the coming year! Behold, now Jesus speaks again of "While I am in this world, I am the light of this world." (v.5) Would to God that this light might really shine forth here among us, and shine so brightly that some great truths of the Bible story we have just read might be made clear to our souls with such convincing and compelling power!Let us begin right at the beginning of the story, where it is about a wretched man! The apostle John, who witnessed the scene, says that this man was blind from birth. Great misery! And he was also poor, he had to beg. And yet, as we shall see, his parents were still alive, but this crippled child must have been a burden to them: they made him a professional beggar, abandoned him, ignored him. Perhaps they were poor people themselves. One misery piled on another. What is the point of such a life? It just gets in everyone's way. Why does God create such wretches in the world?
And behold, one day Jesus stands beside him, points to him, and says, "Neither has this man sinned, nor his parents; but that the things of God may be made manifest in him." (Jn 9:3) So Jesus states that this man is also in this world for a reason. Until now he may have thought that other people, yes, they are for something, they are for something, but he, - he is for nothing! Perhaps there was no other man in the world, except Jesus, who could see why such a crippled man should exist in the world. That his life has a meaning, a purpose, just like the other people, the healthy people. Indeed, such a man is not much to the credit of even his Creator, for he is a poorly made specimen of the human race - so every human eye sees it. But Jesus sees something quite different in him: this man is, he says, "that the things of God may be made manifest in him." So it is precisely on this man, born blind, that the glory of God will shine forth, it is precisely on this pile of misery that the glory of God will be reflected. It is the blind beggar who will be a witness to the power and majesty of God. This man's life will gain the greatest meaning that a human life can gain: the things of God will be made manifest in him. We might say: he had all his misery, blindness and poverty so that the glory of God might shine out all the more in him!
Brothers and sisters! This means that there is no life without meaning, only life without understanding. Sometimes there are times in our lives when we see our own lives as very meaningless and useless, and we begin to wonder: why am I in this world? Would it not be better to throw this life away from myself?Well, if any of us are now in such a spiritual abyss, hear Jesus pointing to a really very purposeless life and saying: you are here so that the things of God may be made manifest in you! Yes, on you! It is in you and on you!
Since Jesus said this to a beggar born blind, we can be sure that there is at least no purposeless, meaningless, meaningless life in the world!
On the other hand, it could be said that the purpose of human life is not in itself or not of itself, but from God, that is, that every human life gains its meaning in what God works out in it, from it, through it. In the manner of an exhortation, it would sound like this: give yourself to the Lord! Ask Him to make manifest in you His work, His things! For example, if you are in the midst of sufferings, trials, make manifest in you the patience, the peace with which the believer bears these afflictions! Thus the things of God will be made manifest in you. Consider any development of your life, any twist of fate, that it is now so and not otherwise, that it is in this very situation that God may be glorified through you.
Jesus says, "that the things of God may be made manifest in him." God's supreme work with all men is redemption. The most precious work of God is what Jesus has done, what he has prepared by his death, resurrection and ascension, by the outpouring of his Holy Spirit on earth. Has this work of God been made manifest in you? Redemption?! The forgiveness of sins?! Full reconciliation with Him?! Renewal by grace?! So: have these things of God become manifest in you, in us? Are they visible, recognizable in different situations, in bearing burdens, in the midst of the thousand troubles of everyday life? If you can see the misery, the suffering, the sadness, the fear of your own life in such a way that it is so that the things of God may become manifest in you - that is, so that God may show you how a redeemed person should bear these burdens - then everything that was meaningless in your life suddenly makes sense. Then you will be able to appreciate what is happening because you know that God is working in you and through you!
And what a liberated, happy feeling it is to look through this whole world, through all the many labours and struggles of the world, and see that God is working, God is working something in it, and even if the signs are barely visible for the time being, one day, we know, God's work will become evident. The time will come when I will be able to give thanks even for what was painful before, because it will turn out that those painful and meaningless things were the means by which God worked, by which the great things of God will unfold, will be revealed, will become manifest!
We often fail to see the events of the world and of our own lives with such serenity, with the purposefulness of the divine plan, because we fall into the same error that the disciples did here in the story. What did they do? Seeing the blind man, they began to ponder: who sinned, this man or his parents, that God had placed him in such miserable circumstances? It can be a very interesting question theologically, and there is much that could be said about it, but what is the point of it once we have decided? That is why Jesus does not enter into such a debate when he is asked the question, "Master, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"(John 9:2b) Jesus puts the whole matter in a different light: "Neither this man sinned, nor his parents; but that the things of God might be made manifest in him." (Jn 9,3) In other words, Jesus is saying: do not look back, but forward. Look not for the cause of things, but for the end! Not what could have brought about this or that turn of events, but what God wants to achieve through it, what good does the Lord want to bring out of it? And above all, ask: what can we ourselves do to make God's purposes come to pass, to make God's things manifest?!
If only we could take this teaching of our Lord seriously, if only instead of all backward-looking whys for our sake, we could at last, with the forward-looking expectation and future-working activity of a question, go forward, asking, waiting and working for the things of God to be made manifest!
And here let us now go one step further in the footsteps of our Saviour. Behold, we see that while the disciples are speculating as to whose sin this wretched blind beggar is suffering the consequences of, while the disciples are speculating, debating, judging, Jesus is at work, setting to work, laboring to make the things of God manifest in this man! Jesus puts aside all theoretical explanations and is only interested in the practical work to be done. How, then, in the name of God, can we help the afflicted and his victim? How can something of the things of God be done for a wretched man?
There is no more important teaching of the Lord to His people today than that they should not meditate on pious things when it is the time for action, for active help! And today it is! It is not for the children of God to judge: who is to blame, who has sinned; not to philosophize and ponder and reason - but to work, to help, to do all that is in their power to do of the things of God! I can do the work of God by showing by the work of my two hands, by my honesty, by my trustworthiness, by my absolute honesty, by my productive industry, by my helpfulness in all the troubles of the world, how great God is, how gracious God is!
There is a terrible statement in the Bible, "For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you!" (Romans 2:24) God has brought this to the attention of His people. And do you know why it is blasphemed? Because His people did not seize the opportunity to do the things of God, they did not follow the Master's example, but the example of the disputing and judging disciples!
It is not by chance that Jesus says, in this very case, there, confronting the blind beggar, "I must do the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work" (Jn 9,4) Brother, look around you at your workplace, where you spend most of your life out in the world, and see what are the things of God that can and must be made manifest through you!
Let me end with what I began with: would to God that the light of the world, who shone before us already on New Year's morning, would so shine now that some great truths from the preaching of the Word would be made clear to our souls with convincing power and captivating authority!
Amen
Date: 14 January 1951.
Lesson
Jn 9,1-12