Are we willing to risk for the sake of giving God glory? Are we willing to potentially ruin our reputations or our financial situations or even our positions within our communities or the marketplace so that God would be glorified?
There are moments when this is the question that we have to answer:
Me? Or him?
Do I choose my security? My comfort?
Or do I choose God’s glory?
Jesus had healed a man who had been blind from birth. Even Jesus’s disciples had fallen into the trap of the story that had been told by the local Jewish leaders as an explanation for why this man had been born blind: Either this man was a sinner, or it was his parents. One or the other.
And so the disciples asked Jesus, which one was the sinner? Surely this is true, isn’t it? No, Jesus explained. This is only that God’s works would be shown in this man. And so Jesus healed the man and he was able to see!
Now the Jewish leaders came to the man’s parents for an explanation. How was their son healed?
“We know he is our son,” the parents answered, “and we know he was born blind. 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.” 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. That was why his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”
John 9:20-23
Did the man’s parents know that Jesus had healed their son? Yes.
Did they think that Jesus was the Messiah? Very likely.
So what was the problem? They weren’t willing to risk being put out of the synagogue. They preferred their position in the society. They preferred their position in the synagogue. As a result, they were willing to deny what they believed before others, especially those in authority, and keep what they had.
And what was their prize? What was their reward? They could stay in the synagogue, the very place led by people who were denying that their son was healed, preferring instead to continually declare that either they, or their son, were sinners that deserved the punishment of their son’s blindness.
So, because the parents deferred the response to their son, the Jewish leaders called him in. He had, in fact, already told them once what had happened, but the leaders weren’t satisfied with his response, so they wanted to hear from him again, hoping that he would change his story.
The man, of course, knew the consequences of his testimony. He knew as well that he could be thrown out of the synagogue. He knew as well that he could lose whatever position, or whatever place in the society that he had.
But he was willing to risk it all. The man was willing to speak of what he knew and what he believed.
And why? Because his life had changed. He was blind and now he could see:
The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”
John 9:30-33
Unfortunately, the man did have the pay the penalty for not aligning himself with the Jewish leaders. Those who were in charge of the synagogue did have a specific idea of what they wanted the man to say, but he wouldn’t say it. The man knew what had happened to him. He knew that he had sat in darkness for decades, and now he saw the light. And that was enough for him. He would speak of what he knew. He would speak of what he had experienced.
The consequence, though, was that he was thrown out of the synagogue. He had taken a risk and, at least within the context of the society that he lived, it didn’t work out. He was willing to risk and he was punished for his right stand.
But there was a reward that was even greater. Instead of maintaining whatever position he had in the society, this man found Jesus. He went to Jesus and looked into the face of God. He found and heard the Son of Man. And he worshiped him.
We also have moments in which we can risk for the cause of Christ:
Do I speak with this person about Jesus and risk my relationship with them? Or risk what they would think about me? Or do I stay silent?
Do I take on this ministry? Or this project? Do I risk looking like a fool if it doesn’t work? Do I risk losing my money or my position? Or would it be better to stay as I am?
Should I move somewhere? Should I risk changing my job? Or my source of income? Or should I stay where I am?
Reckless risk is foolish. There is a type of risk that makes no sense and lacks wisdom.
But there is a type of risk that is simply overcoming fear. There is a type of risk where you are simply allowing God to use you. You are overcoming the inertia of where you are currently, or who you have been up to now and you place yourself in a position where God can do what he wants to do.
Risk is required if we want God to use us. Fear is found within each of us. For those that God is using in great ways and those that God is using in small ways, every one of them has been afraid. Afraid to fail. Afraid to get hurt. Afraid to lose.
Yet they were willing to take a risk. They had faith that God would use them, and so they started. Or they spoke. Or they went. This is the nature of faith. Not faith in themselves, but faith in the one that goes with them. Faith that the works of God would be shown in them, just as they would be in the man who had been born blind. Faith that it is OK to take a risk.