There were several passages that helped me maintain my sanity after leaving an unhealthy church. One of those has become a theme in my life. It’s long, but there’s so much in it. The gist is this:
John 9:13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. 14 Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath. 15 Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. “He put mud on my eyes,” the man replied, “and I washed, and now I see.”
16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.”… [so they asked his parents if this was their son who’d been blind] 20 “We know he is our son,” the parents answered, “and we know he was born blind. 21 But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself.” 22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who already had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. 23 That was why his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”
24 A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God by telling the truth,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.”
25 He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”
…28 Then they hurled insults at him and said, “You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! 29 We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.”…
[the formerly blind man answered them] 34 To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out.
35 Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
36 “Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.”
37 Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”
38 Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.
And so… we have a group of Pharisees that is sure Jesus is a sinner because he didn’t follow their rules, even though what he did was very good and miraculous. In their minds healing a blind man was bad because it was done on the wrong day. So they questioned the blind man. They didn’t quite believe he had been blind at first. (They’d walked by him surely, but they hadn’t really noticed him, perhaps. That in itself says a whole lot.) Then they were upset that he really had been blind and that “this sinner” (Jesus) had healed him on *gasp* the Sabbath. The parents were afraid to answer because they might be kicked out of the temple. The man had to stand alone. Not even his parents would back him just in saying Jesus healed him! They insulted him. He answered amazingly wisely. They accused him of being born in sin and threw him out of the temple. They kicked him out! And Jesus came to him. This is the only passage in the Bible where Jesus went back to someone he’d healed. Some went back to Jesus, but this is the only person the Bible says Jesus went back to… and one of the only people Jesus revealed himself to by saying who he was so directly.
Jesus has a special care, I believe, for those who were spiritually abused. He understands the depth of that hurt and the confusion of the aftermath of spiritual abuse. And he cares, in a deep, gentle, loving way.
Does God punish those who leave abusive churches? Part 1
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