And they reviled him, saying, "You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from." The man answered, "Why, this is a marvel! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if any one is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. Never since the world began has it been heard that any one opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing." They answered him, "You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?" And they cast him out.
John 9:28–34 (RSV)
'I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken.' Oliver Cromwell, 3 August 1650 to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
It was the 'bowels of Christ' that grabbed my attention. This was not the sort of thing we used when we spoke of Jesus in confirmation class. I know Pr. Jolivette never said anything close to that as he preached. It sounded blasphemous, but not quite.
Once I got over the shock of 'the bowels of Christ', I read the even more disturbing part of the statement, 'think it possible you may be mistaken.' Standing in the hallway outside my professor's office, my freshman self had an epiphany.
No matter how confident you might be on any given topic, it would help if you entertained the thought that you could be mistaken. It does not mean that you must be paralyzed by self-doubt at every turn. You could at least think that there might be something you do not know or understand.
The Jews could not let themselves imagine that Jesus' healing a blind man was a good thing. They grilled the man, again and again, looking for a flaw in the witness of his healing. The Jews had already determined that Jesus was a sinner. He had to be, for His actions did not square with what they knew God would do.
The Jews would not let themselves rejoice in the wonder of a blind man seeing God's creation. They had God so neatly boxed that not even the very glory of the Father at work in Jesus would sway them.
Rather than consider that they may be mistaken, they cast out the man for the 'sin' of believing in the One who had healed him. They rejected Jesus out of hand for the same reason.
It is an ongoing challenge to the Church not to be so sure that we know how God works in the world. True, God works through the means He has revealed to us in Word and Sacrament. It is also true that God is at work in ways we may not always understand.
The Church's history is full of people who thought they knew better than God, only to learn that they were indeed mistaken. God lifted them out of their error and set them on the path of the Gospel. It worked in the life of St. Paul. It can work for us.