*Our High Priest who cannot ignore us!*
_For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Hebrews 4:15_
The gospel of John in chapter 9 tells the story of a man who certainly had no worldly riches and whom no one paid attention to. He had spent his entire life being ignored. He was simply not worth noticing. He was blind; he was a beggar.
Once on a journey, as we drove through an intersection, I saw a certain man dressed in old army fatigues, standing by the road, holding up a sign: “Will work for food.” Almost all people waiting for the light to change would avert their eyes from him. Some peddlers would give him a penny, but more often people pretended not to notice him. That was the life of the man John wrote about! People would try to look the other way; he would try to do something to catch their attention. He was used to being ignored. It was what he did for a living.
For this begger, every stranger was just another face in the crowd of people who ignored him. But not to Jesus. The very first words in this story are that _“as he walked along, He [Jesus] saw a man blind from birth.”_ This is the first miracle in the story. Here is a man not only blind, but invisible. How many years had it been since another human being had turned his face on such a one? But Jesus, who, after all, had many places to go and many things to do ( _“as he walked along …”_) actually looked at him. Jesus saw the hurt and disappointment of a life lived in dependence and anonymity. Jesus saw the hopelessness of a life lived in endless night that would never know dawn.
No one has ever seen like Jesus. Our SAVIOR is our high priest who cannot ignore us. He noticed the way mustard seeds grow and yeast spreads. He noticed when you are mocked and reviled; he noticed you when you where growing up and now you have reached your age. All that you have been through. He has noticed you. No one has ever seen like Jesus.
Your brother in Christ,
Apostle Ashok Martin