When it comes to working, Americans have some pretty strong opinions.

• A study in 2022 showed only 20% of workers are passionate about their jobs.
• 26% of American employees want to leave their job. [i]
• In 2019 85% of US workers were happy with their jobs[ii].
• However, that has dropped to only 65% in 2022.[iii]

I don’t know where you fall into these statistics about work, but God wants you and me to join Him in a very important work!

The encounter in John 9:1-5 provides Jesus the opportunity to teach us something about being His follower. As a bonus, a man blind from birth is healed.

In verse 1, there is a subtle statement that speaks volumes about the character of Jesus, “as he passed by, he saw…“

How often are we so focused on a task or where we need to be that we don’t take notice of those around us? By having tunnel vision, we may miss an opportunity to impact someone’s life.

Interruptions may be moments God orchestrates to bring hope to someone in need. Jesus saw the man, stopped, and showed compassion.

We don’t know his name, but we learn he was blind from birth. So all he has only known is darkness.

Yet when the disciples saw this man, their first question was, “who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” The disciples were looking for someone to blame for why he was born this way.

This was a common misconception among many people. Remember how Job’s friends and wife were convinced Job committed some sin, and that’s why God was punishing him?

While it is true that sickness, pain, and death are the result of sin entering the world, it’s a gross exaggeration to apply that truth to personal sin. God withholds judgment until the final day, giving everyone time to repent.

A compassionate mindset will enable you to see what others can’t see. Jesus will illustrate an important spiritual truth using his physical condition and heal him in the process.

This man’s physical blindness is symbolic of humanity’s spiritual blindness, the inability to see God. As Jesus heals him physically, He demonstrates how He is the only one able to forgive mankind and open their spiritual eyes.

People use repetition to make a point. But when you read something repeated three times in a single passage, it’s likely very significant. And when you see it repeated four times, you better stop everything you’re doing to understand what’s being said.

Four times in two verses, the word “work” is used. First, we need to understand the context of this passage.

In the chapters before and after our main text, Jesus claims to have the authority to forgive sin and His claims of being God. In the Gospels, we read in several passages about Jesus’s purpose and the work He came to accomplish, i.e., Luke 19:10, John 3:17, Luke 4:18-19.

Jesus’ sole mission was to pay the price for your sin debt and mine. His goal was to bring us back into a relationship with God!

The work Jesus refers to in John 9 is the work of sharing the good news that God forgives sin and wants to have a relationship with you.

“We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work.”

In Bible times, when the sun went down, work stopped. The fields and the streets emptied as people returned to their homes. This fact is also established in Genesis during creation as the night ended the workday.

This figure of speech illustrates how a time will come when we won’t have the freedom or ability to share the Gospel message openly. So while it is day we need to work the works.

We have a job to do!

The message is simple. God so loved the world that he sent his one and only son so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

If you ask Him, He will erase your sin debt and give you a new life. When you do this, God takes up residence in your life, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, you’ll be able to overcome the control of sin through faith living.

Instead of sin separating you from God, He will separate your sin from you as far as the east is from the west.  

You are living proof of what God can do! It’s time for us to work the works.

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[i] https://www.zippia.com/advice/job-satisfaction-statistics/

[ii] https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/01/85percent-of-us-workers-are-happy-with-their-jobs-national-survey-shows.html

[iii] https://www.zippia.com/advice/job-satisfaction-statistics/