Investigating the Bible: New insight, new behavior

By DAVID CARLSON PASTOR

The late Stephen Covey, in “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” described his experience on a New York subway when a man and his young children boarded. The children began to run around, being loud and rude to all the passengers.

Covey, irritated that the father did nothing to stop their wildness, said: “Sir, your children are really disturbing a lot of people. I wonder if you couldn’t control them a little more?” The man replied, “I guess I should do something about it. We just came from the hospital where their mother died about an hour ago.” Covey’s attitude immediately changed and he offered to help the man. In the Bible are many stories where new insight leads to radical changes in behavior.

Blindness in Jesus’ world was considered God’s judgment for past sin. The blind were branded as sinners and could be forced to beg if they had no family to help. Even today, when people through no obvious fault of their own suffer illness or losses, some may quietly think this is karma. As Jesus and his disciples walked by a man blind from birth, they asked: “‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.” (John 9:2-3, English Standard Version used throughout.)

Jesus affirmed that both the parents and the blind man had sinned. However he offered a different purpose for the man’s suffering: To be a living billboard for God. Soon after, Jesus used miraculous power to give the blind man sight. Since Jesus had healed him on the Sabbath, the Pharisees coldly said this was sin. When the newly sighted man defended the actions of Jesus, saying “If this man were not from God, he could do nothing’ (John 9:33), the Pharisees promptly threw him out of their synagogue.

Some changes in perspective take time. Job was a wealthy patriarch in days long before the birth of Jesus. God permitted Satan to destroy his perfect life, taking all his wealth, killing all his children, and even torturing his body with painful sores. Over several weeks Job is counseled and reprimanded by unhelpful friends. Job defended his resentment toward God and asked to die. God then spoke directly to him and finally Job understood: “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted … I have heard you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:2, 5-6).

Some shifts in our beliefs happen when we look at others. Dr. David Jeremiah wrote about Jimmy Durante, a popular comedian from 1920 through the 1970s. His self-deprecating humor focused on his oversized nose, which he called his great schnozzola.

During World War II, he entertained troops and was invited at the last minute by a military leader to perform for another large group. Durante was running late. “Okay,” he said. “But I can only stay a few minutes.” He told some jokes; however, after the few minutes passed, he didn’t stop. He stayed over 30 minutes, to the delight of the men. The leader asked him why he stayed. Durante explained, “As I started my set, I looked down at the front row of soldiers. Two men were sitting side by side. One had lost his left arm and the other his right. They laughed and clapped throughout by each using his one arm with the other. When I saw that, I couldn’t leave!” The suffering of Jesus is inspiration for believers: “Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.” (Hebrews 12:3-4).

David Carlson Pastor (yes, that is his last name, not his profession) is a Polk County resident and graduate of Bethel Theological Seminary in Minnesota (M.Div., M.Th.)