Your Faith as an Affront

8 The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” 10 So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” 11 He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.” 12 They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”
13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. 14 Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. 15 So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” 16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them. 17 So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.” (John 9:8-17 (ESV)
“He is a prophet”. The blind man doesn’t know where Jesus is. He hasn’t actually ever seen Jesus. He couldn’t point him out if he wanted to. But he has been made to see and now people are harassing him about it. Rather than rejoicing with the man for receiving sight they bicker about breaking the Sabbath. Some are smart enough to see that if it was a sin to be healed on the Sabbath then it would not have happened. If Jesus was a sinner he would not be able to do these things. The Pharisees are upset though, and will not let common sense get in the way of their interpretation of the law. They want to hang someone so they ask the man, and he answers the only way he can, “He is a prophet.”
He is a prophet. We know that Jesus was more than a prophet, but he was not less. The man can see, and he confesses what he sees. This is the way of faith. It confesses what it knows even in the midst of danger. But it does bring danger. When we are baptized and brought to faith so that we see Jesus Christ for who he is, others will not be happy. Their worldview, their understanding of themselves, everything they believe about what is good and bad is shattered by this idea that Jesus is God. Your faith is an affront to their faith.