652 Go and Wash - John 9:7

Jesus can ask us to do some pretty difficult things, how we react matters. 

Hi, I'm Mike Henry Sr. with Follower of One, thanks for joining me on the Follower of One Podcast again today. We have these daily devotionals to help us think about how we integrate our faith into our work every day. 

Today, I want to talk about John 9:7 I'm reading from the New American Standard. "And he said to him go, wash in the pool of Siloam (which is translated sent.) So he went away and washed and came back seeing." 

Wasn't Jesus cruel to make a blind man go to the pool of Siloam. He would have had to have someone else help him get there. I don't know how far away it was, but it was far enough away for Jesus to be gone by the time he got back, Jesus made this guy walk with mud over his eyes. It probably would have looked pretty silly too. How do you think this guy felt, what was he thinking? God, I hope this works. Man. Am I going to feel stupid if it doesn't? I wonder how far it was. I think it was far.

On the Sabbath, working and making the mud, applying it to the guy's eyes and him washing. Those were all forbidden. The distance that he walked may have been farther than you were allowed to walk on a Sabbath. There are rules about all of that. Also sometimes Jesus asks us to do things that seem cruel.

Maybe it seems silly. Jesus asked this man to do this. Now if you also remember this man was born blind. The nerves that connected his eyes to the rest of his brain and his body weren't there, they didn't work. And so this is a major miracle. In fact, this whole chapter is extremely challenging to me. But my question today for us is what do we do when God asks us to do something that seems a little silly?

There are other commands like this in John, including having all the waiters, having all the servants, fill all the jars with water the night they ran out of wine at the wedding feast in John chapter 2. Rolling away the stone from Lazarus's tomb in John chapter 11. All these things seem kind of extreme. Everyone's in this position where what Jesus is asking them to do doesn't seem like the next logical step.

What difference does it make if we roll the stone away from a dead man's tomb, what does filling six jars full of water matter when you're out of wine? 5,000 people need to eat something. And what difference will five loaves and two fish make? This guy had to walk all the way to the pool of Siloam, and he's going to feel pretty silly if this doesn't work.

Is Jesus asking you to do something a little silly today? Is He asking you to serve your coworkers and you go above and beyond your own job? Is He asking you to get outside of your own job description, maybe come in early or stay late to help someone without any promise of getting ahead in any way, shape or form? Wouldn't you get ahead better if you only looked out for yourself? Wouldn't we all do better if we were just looking out for ourselves? 

Today, Jesus is calling us to do some silly things because we follow Him. Ask Him what he wants you to do today, and then do it. Find a way to figure out how to do whatever it is that He's asking you to do. 

And you will be blessed. You'll experience the joy of seeing Him work in your sphere of influence and among the people that you work with. There is much joy and much peace in following Jesus, even when He asks us to do things that may seem silly or cruel. Today let's see if we can lock arms with Jesus and do exactly what He would have us do.

He has a calling for us today that will help Him become visible to our friends and our, people that we work with. And then we might get a chance to tell them a little bit about the kingdom that we're belonged, to because we follow Jesus. 

Thanks for being a market placement, and thanks for making a difference with your faith in the workplace. Join us as we do this together at https://community.Followerofone.org. 

Thanks very much.