Random sermon (written by me!)

Right so last Sunday we had to do this Youth Service in church. It was kind of a stupid time to do it cos half of our seniour youth where over in Australia enjoying the sun [lucky blighters!]. But anyway we soldiered on and had an awesome service. Mum wasn't sure if we needed an extra sermon or not so she got me to write one for her. I'm not to fond of getting up and talking so was pretty relieved that I didn't actually have to. Still, it's not to bad a sermon if I say so myself so here it is for you to read/get inspired/use if you really want to.....
John 9:1-12 [Jesus heals the blind man by putting mud on his eyes]
Jesus broke all the rules.
The Pharisees were into their rules. They had rules for everything, from praying to eating. And one of their fiercest rules was you were never, ever, ever allowed to do anything on the Sabbath Day. You could go to the synagogue, but that was about it. No baking, no walking more than half a mile, no healing, and no work.
Sheesh. I’m glad I wasn’t a Jew.
Jesus did not follow all these rules. That’s probably why the Pharisees hated him so much. Now back then there was all these other wandering rabbis with all their disciples, but usually the Pharisees just ignored them. The rabbis did their thing and the Pharisees did theirs.
Not so with Jesus. From the start when he was teaching the elders in the temple when he was only 12, there was always something about him which annoyed them. He constantly clashed with them over everything.
So there’s this begger on the side of the road. A common experience in those days. Jesus’s disciples then asked a question which was the typical worldview of the day. “Hey Jesus-this guy’s blind cos he or someone from his family sinned! Right?”
They saw a man who had been cursed with blindness through some fault of his own. Jesus saw a miracle waiting to happen.
So he spits, and makes up some mud. Meanwhile the disciples are looking on with skeptical looks as if they’re thinking “What on earth is Jesus doing? Has he forgotten it’s the Sabbath and that that he’s supposed to be staying clean?”
Then Jesus does something even weirder than making mud pies out of his own spit. He shoves the muck on the begger’s eyes and tells him to walk - yes walk - more than a mile to the pool of Siloam to wash the stuff off his eyes.
The disciples are pretty stunned. They are kind of in the backing away stage, as in What-on-earth-am-I-doing-hanging-around-with-weirdo-who-breaks-all-the-rules-man-I-hope-the-Pharisees-don’t-see-this-they-will-be-so-stinking-mad!
So off the blind man goes. And they never see him again. At least not as far as we know.
But the story’s not over for the blind man. He goes and washes his eyes in the pool and whoosh! He can see again!
The ex-blind-man throws away his walking stick and heads off home. On the way he bumps into a bunch of his neighbours. And at first they have no idea who he is. It’s not very often you see that blind-Simeon-guy-from-over the-road come back from begging jumping up and down and looking at you.
When they finally got who he was they asked who did such a miracle. He says this guy called Jesus put mud on my eyes and told me to go wash in a pool. They recoil back “Whoah man that’s so not kosher!”
The ex-blind man agrees and then they ask him where Jesus is. Who knows why, they probably wanted his autograph or him to fix their bunions.
Of course, the blind man has no idea where Jesus is, so all mildly disapointed (except the ex-blind man) they head off home.
That appears to be the end of the story.
The thing I love about this is Jesus didn’t just confirm to the rules of the day. He healed because it was the right thing to do, not because that’s what everyone expected him to do. He didn’t just follow the crowd-he lead the crowd! He didn’t just make mud, he made supernatural mud healing cream! He healed on the sabbath because the man needed to be healed, and because his disciples needed a lesson or two in faith. Through God you can break free of the things which restrict you most and your eyes will be opened by the most crazy thing there ever is. In God’s hands, mud can be a miracle.

Jordan