I have a friend who struggled with eating disorders, and now she doesn't, because the power of Jesus - well what's that about? How did He do that? I don't know, I just know she did, and now she doesn't. I don't know!
Isn't that freeing, to be able to say: I don't know - I don't have to have all the answers? In other words, Jesus wants to relieve you from the pressure of having to defend your story; that your story is your story.
Notice in that passage, the religious people are the ones with the problem. They're the ones that want answers to explain everything. It has to be theology and doctrine - they have to have all the answers.
The blind man doesn't have the answer, and he's the ultimate frustration to them. In other words, you don't have to defend your story of what God's done for you. If anything, Jesus spoke against those who claimed to have the answers, and He speaks for people who are journeying with the right heart.
The rabbis said that if we spend two hours here tonight (which we will) - if 95 per cent of everything we said here tonight is wrong, that God is still pleased that a group of people are talking about Him - that we can be freed up from that.
There are 613 commands in the Torah, 613, so a common question that people would ask their rabbis is this: can you summarise this up in a sentence? Can you like just give us some kind of summary statement? 613 commands, hard to remember them all, so can you give us a way to keep the whole thing in just one shot?
It was a very common question - and Jesus' way of answering that was what? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength; and to love your neighbour as yourself - in that you fulfil the whole Torah. So instead of doctrinal answers, can I just move us to real life demonstration?
Let's ask ourselves some questions:
Do you have a love for God today, which is greater than it was yesterday? If that's the case, then you are free to say: I don't know, I just know I love Him more today than yesterday - and that life speaks loud.
Does your heart break for the things that break God's heart? Do you get angry at the things that would anger God? Let me give you a litmus test for that - if it's angering you, it's probably not angering God. God got angry at things like: injustice, oppression, slavery, hunger, things like that. He didn't get mad when somebody cut Him off in traffic with their donkey.
Do you have a greater love for people today, than you used to? Are you patient? Are you more patient today, than you used to be?
Do you have awareness that the things that bother you really badly might actually be God working things out in you - instead of demanding others to change? That when something gets under your skin really bad, it might actually be God trying to kill you - and God is trying to kill you.
Do you honour kindness? Do you put other people first?
If these kinds of demonstrations are in your life, people can say whatever they want, but at the end of the day, you've demonstrated the life. It's where we don't demonstrate it, that we lose credibility with the whole world.
In Acts 19:37 the same guy, Paul - he's in Ephesus, and the main god, the main god in this region was a goddess named Artemis.
Actually the temple to the goddess Artemis is one of the like big wonders of the world - it's still there. It was huge, and the entire economy of Ephesus is built around capitalism regarding the goddess Artemis. So you can imagine if a guy comes in talking about another god, that's going to threaten the economy of the whole region, people might not take too kindly to that?
So they go to throw him in jail. They go to throw Paul in jail for preaching about Jesus, but watch what the clerk of court says (in Acts 19:37) about the situation: “For you have brought me these men, who are neither robbers of our temple, nor have they blasphemed our goddess”.
So Paul goes into a town where the main god is the goddess Artemis, and he doesn't say one bad thing about her. He simply lives the life Jesus called him to: a life of compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love God. He demonstrates the power of God, and he says: you make your choice - the kingdom of God is at hand.