Today’s world is so abundant in performances as if nothing else is looking more ardently than these. If someone has something to say, he must make his discourse into a show, otherwise will go unnoticed and almost no one has interest to listen to a message without sensationalism.
Unfortunately many Christians judge their faith according to how much spectacular it contains. The words: humility, simplicity of faith, hard labor, repentance and prayer no longer please the modern “religious consumer”. We are constantly in search of wonders. Is there somewhere an elder that can foresee our problems before they occur? Or perhaps one that can absolve us of all sins without any effort on our part! So if we find him, there we must go…
The Gospel of Christ is full of miracles but paradoxically to some, is totally unspectacular. Our Saviour healed the sick, the terminally ill, casted out demons, multiplied the bread and fish, raised the dead simply just by His word. There was no pompous speeches, no preparation of those present (today we would call viewers) or special effects! Such was with the healing of the blind man; the miracle was simple, unspectacular.
These are the acts of our Lord. He does not create shows, He has no need to impress, but simply He wills and things happen according to His word.
At the opposite pole stays Satan, who is the master of special effects. Having nothing to offer, the evil one feels the need to impress, to hide under the false glow of sensationalism its emptiness and nothingness. Today many people seek a spectacular faith and through it they willingly make themselves victims of the devil.
So there are many vendors of religious ideas who turn God into a show, deceiving those in search of easy happiness.
Do you seek excitement? Satan will give it to you abundantly! But after the pulling of the curtain you will find that the price of this “ticket” was your soul.
Through the healing of the blind man, Jesus Christ showed us the way to salvation. In order to be healed, the spiritually blind passed these three tests:
The test of obedience – he agreed to be smeared with mud and obeyed the command to go and wash in the pool of Siloam;
The test of temptation – he was left alone to fight the Pharisees and did not give into their temptation to deny Him who healed him. More so, he confessed Him even at the risk of attracting the hatred and the revenge of the Pharisees;
The test of faith – after his encounter with the Pharisees, Jesus asked him: Do you believe in the Son of God? God did not force him to believe but required his faith in full freedom. So freely, the blind asked: Who is He that I may believe? And Jesus answer: You’ve both have seen Him and talked to Him!
To His creation, God gives freedom to reflect and understand. And the healed man, hearing how great is his healer, more than a prophet, immediately cried out: Lord, I believe, and he worshiped Him.
