Seeing is Believing

GETTING STARTED

Have you ever said something like, “That was incredible! Did that just happen?” I felt that way watching Cirque du Soleil for the first time, when the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004, and that time there was a streaker at a Westlake football game. On all of these occasions, I had to see it in order to believe it.

  • In what ways is your capacity for faith bound by your experience?

READ THE WORD: JOHN 9:18-23 (ESV)

18 The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight 19 and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” 20 His parents answered, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. 21 But how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” 22 (His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.) 23 Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”

English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

DIGGING DEEPER

  1. What were the Jews struggling to believe and why?
  2. What was the predicament that the blind man’s parents found themselves in?
  3. What would you have done if you were the parent of this man? How would this event have affected your faith and relationship to God?
  4. Are you an “I’ll believe it when I see it” kind of person? What proof are you waiting for to help your faith in Jesus, the Christ?

RESPOND TO GOD

The Jews refused to believe that the man who was blind was healed, so they went searching for proof. Sadly, when they began to see for themselves, they did whatever they could to squash the truth. They knew what the blind receiving sight really meant because they rehearsed the signs of the coming Christ: “Behold your God will come… he will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind will be opened” (Isaiah 35:4, 5). Sometimes when people see the truth, they choose to remain blind. But seeing can lead to believing—and our whole life begins to change.

  • Ask God to give you eyes to see God at work around you and a heart full of faith.