Mensa Otabil - A Deeper Relationship (10/28/2025)
Well, this week we’ve been looking at a remarkable story of a man that Jesus healed. Jesus was the one who took the initiative and approached the man; the man was blind. Jesus made clay and touched the eyes of the man with the instruction for the man to go and wash in the pool called Siloam. The man went, and he came back seeing.
Now, that miracle caused a big consternation in the community; people were puzzled that this man’s situation had changed, so they started questioning him. We read from John chapter 9, verses 14 and 15: «Now it was a Sabbath when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. Then the Pharisees also asked him again how he had received his sight.» He said to them, «He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.»
You know, I couldn’t help but admire this man. His answers are the same; he doesn’t embellish his story. He’s not stressed about it; he doesn’t feel he should answer differently to different people. The neighbors asked him, and he gives the same answer. Now, the Pharisees asked him, and the neighbors were not fully satisfied with the answer that this man gave, so they took him to a higher level — the Pharisees. If you know anything about the Pharisees, they were the normal critics of Jesus Christ; they had issues with him. This time, they had an issue because Jesus had performed this miracle on the Sabbath.
One of the things about the life and ministry of Jesus is that he intentionally did things on the Sabbath because the Jews had given an interpretation of the Sabbath that was not how God intended it. The Sabbath is God’s rest, a time when God gives us rest from our labors and our toils. Jesus felt that the way God gives us rest is to take our burdens from us and to make us better, to deliver us and heal us. So, Jesus gave rest to people on the Sabbath; they rested from their labors, from their pain, from their sorrows, and from their weaknesses. But the Pharisees didn’t understand that Jesus was giving them rest on the Sabbath through the miracle; they thought he was working. They never thought about the people receiving the miracle because those people were not working; they were receiving rest. But you could say that maybe Jesus was the one who was working.
So, they questioned the man because it was a Sabbath. Now, this man was not going to get into a Sabbath debate about whether you can perform a miracle on the Sabbath or not. He just came back to the same thing: «The man helped me, and I am free.» The critical thing I want you to note about this miracle is that at this point, although Jesus has healed the man and the man had this encounter with Jesus, he did not know Jesus personally as Lord and Savior. All he can testify is that Jesus helped him, but he cannot say, «Jesus is my Savior» or «Jesus is the Son of God» or «Jesus is my Lord.» And that’s very important because many times we encounter God or Jesus at a level where he helps us, but we don’t know that he wants us to have a deeper relationship beyond the healing or miracle we have received.
Ultimately, we have to know Jesus Christ not just as a healer or as a good teacher or someone who helped us; we have to know him as our Savior and as our Lord. This means that we have trusted him for our eternal salvation and that we commit our lives to obey him, follow him, and do his will. This is the journey that this man has yet to walk, but at this point, he only knows Jesus as a healer, not as Savior, not as Lord, or as the Son of God. It’s possible for many of you to know Jesus as someone who answers prayer, but you don’t know him as your Lord and your Savior. I pray that you will know him deeper than just your healer.
Let’s pray. Say with me: «Heavenly Father, help me to know and love you beyond the things that you do for me. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.»