“Truth is incontrovertible. Ignorance may attack it and malice may deride it, but in the end, there it is.” Winston Churchill

The concept of truth has fallen on hard times lately. Something I grew up assuming everybody knew existed is not a given anymore. Post-modernism has rendered truth relative to each individual, personal experience has trumped it, and fiction has cast waves of doubt upon it, but in the end, there it is. Or perhaps we should say, there he is, because Jesus is the one who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”

That would mean that John the Baptist looked at Truth when he said, “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)

Peter answered Truth, “You are the Christ, the son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:16)

A Samaritan woman had a conversation with Truth and said, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did.” (John 4:29)

A man born blind to whom Truth had given sight, said, “Lord, I believe,” and worshiped him. (John 9:38)

The council of elders asked Truth, “Are you then the Son of God?” and Jesus replied, “You are right in saying I am.” (Luke 22:70)

And Truth said, “He who believes in me has everlasting life.” (John 6:47)

Pilate stared Truth in the face when he said, “What is truth?” (John 18:38)

A criminal hanging on a cross looked over at Truth in a similar circumstance as he and knew there was something different about this man. “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And Truth replied, “Today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:42-43)

A Roman soldier who felt the earth shatter when Truth died, said, “Surely he was the Son of God!” (Matthew 27:54)

Mary Magdalene saw the Truth alive again and said, “I have seen the Lord!” (John 20:18)
Thomas touched the wounds of Truth fresh from the grave and said, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28)

And two men dressed in white said to a crowd of followers who had just seen Truth pass into the heavens, “Why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go.” (Acts 1:11)

“Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.” (Philippians 2:9-11) In other words, everyone will eventually recognize the Truth.

“Truth is incontrovertible. Ignorance may attack it and malice may deride it, but in the end, there it is.”

And there he will be.

Question: How will you choose to respond to the Truth today?

About this Author: John Fischer

Chapter 9 – Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind

¹As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. ²“Teacher,” his disciples asked him, “why was this man born blind? Was it a result of his own sins or those of his parents?”

³“It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “He was born blind so the power of God could be seen in him. ⁴All of us must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent me, because there is little time left before the night falls and all work comes to an end. ⁵But while I am still here in the world, I am the light of the world.”

⁶Then he spit on the ground, made mud with the saliva, and smoothed the mud over the blind man’s eyes. ⁷He told him, “Go and wash in the pool of Siloam” (Siloam means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came back seeing!

⁸His neighbors and others who knew him as a blind beggar asked each other, “Is this the same man?that beggar?” ⁹Some said he was, and others said, “No, but he surely looks like him!”

And the beggar kept saying, “I am the same man!”

¹⁰They asked, “Who healed you? What happened?”

¹¹He told them, “The man they call Jesus made mud and smoothed it over my eyes and told me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam and wash off the mud.’ I went and washed, and now I can see!”

¹²“Where is he now?” they asked.

“I don’t know,” he replied.

¹³Then they took the man to the Pharisees. ¹⁴Now as it happened, Jesus had healed the man on a Sabbath. ¹⁵The Pharisees asked the man all about it. So he told them, “He smoothed the mud over my eyes, and when it was washed away, I could see!”

¹⁶Some of the Pharisees said, “This man Jesus is not from God, for he is working on the Sabbath.” Others said, “But how could an ordinary sinner do such miraculous signs?” So there was a deep division of opinion among them.

¹⁷Then the Pharisees once again questioned the man who had been blind and demanded, “This man who opened your eyes?who do you say he is?”

The man replied, “I think he must be a prophet.”

¹⁸The Jewish leaders wouldn’t believe he had been blind, so they called in his parents. ¹⁹They asked them, “Is this your son? Was he born blind? If so, how can he see?”

²⁰His parents replied, “We know this is our son and that he was born blind, ²¹but we don’t know how he can see or who healed him. He is old enough to speak for himself. Ask him.” ²²They said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who had announced that anyone saying Jesus was the Messiah would be expelled from the synagogue. ²³That’s why they said, “He is old enough to speak for himself. Ask him.”

²⁴So for the second time they called in the man who had been blind and told him, “Give glory to God by telling the truth,* because we know Jesus is a sinner.”

²⁵“I don’t know whether he is a sinner,” the man replied. “But I know this:

I was blind, and now I can see!”

²⁶“But what did he do?” they asked. “How did he heal you?”

²⁷“Look!” the man exclaimed. “I told you once. Didn’t you listen? Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?”

²⁸Then they cursed him and said, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. ²⁹We know God spoke to Moses, but as for this man, we don’t know anything about him.”

³⁰“Why, that’s very strange!” the man replied. “He healed my eyes, and yet you don’t know anything about him! ³¹Well, God doesn’t listen to sinners, but he is ready to hear those who worship him and do his will. ³²Never since the world began has anyone been able to open the eyes of someone born blind. ³³If this man were not from God, he couldn’t do it.”

³⁴“You were born in sin!” they answered. “Are you trying to teach us?” And they threw him out of the synagogue.

Spiritual Blindness

³⁵When Jesus heard what had happened, he found the man and said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man*?”

³⁶The man answered, “Who is he, sir, because I would like to.”

³⁷“You have seen him,” Jesus said, “and he is speaking to you!”

³⁸“Yes, Lord,” the man said, “I believe!” And he worshiped Jesus.

³⁹Then Jesus told him, “I have come to judge the world. I have come to give sight to the blind and to show those who think they see that they are blind.”

⁴⁰The Pharisees who were standing there heard him and asked, “Are you saying we are blind?”

⁴¹“If you were blind, you wouldn’t be guilty,” Jesus replied. “But you remain guilty because you claim you can see.

Next: Chapter 10