Born blind

Now I am in the book of John. In John 9 the entire chapter is dedicated to a guy who was born blind whom Jesus heals. What I love about the story is the born-blind guy is so willing to take on the Pharisees:

24A second time they (Pharisees)summoned the man who had been blind. "Give glory to God," they said. "We know this man is a sinner."

25He replied, "Whether he is a sinner or not, I don't know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!"

26Then they asked him, "What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?"

27He answered, "I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?"

Now THAT'S going to make a Pharisee bent on taking Jesus down real happy!

But seriously, it is a good representation of what happens when Jesus heals us (maybe not from physical blindness). We gain an understanding about Him that we didn't have before. We sometimes have to take on doubters of what is going on. And then Jesus is around to make sure we are ok.
This can also be applied to spiritual blindness.

You may want to be quiet

So Jesus is ripping a strip off the Pharisees in Luke 11, talking about how they care more about the outward appearance than the inward person.
When He finishes, a person who was not in the Pharisee group, says this:

Luke11:45One of the experts in the law answered him, "Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us also."

Apparently, what Jesus is saying is hitting home! Which is a good thing, I think. However, bringing this up at this time might not have been a great idea. As Jesus proceeds to go on just as long about the "experts in the law" and what they are missing. I bet after that the guy might not have been so happy that he spoke up.

However, knowing the truth is the important thing. Even if you have to hear it in not such a nice way, so I guess that was expedient.

Jesus in this passage shows that He answers questions directly- if we ask questions we have to expect that we might not like the answer.

Determined

Luke 9:38A man in the crowd called out, "Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child. 39A spirit seizes him and he suddenly screams; it throws him into convulsions so that he foams at the mouth. It scarcely ever leaves him and is destroying him. 40I begged your disciples to drive it out, but they could not."
Before when I read this story, I focused on the lesson that I thought Jesus was trying to teach through it. But today when reading it, I looked at the man and the determination that he showed. He took his child to the disciples but they could not drive out the problem. He could have given up, looked at it as his destiny. Looked at his situation as hopeless. But he did not. He believed there was something to this Jesus. Something healing. Like Leia says is star wars "You are my only hope".

Centurion's faith

Luke 7:3The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant. 4When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him, "This man deserves to have you do this, 5because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue." 6So Jesus went with them.
He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him: "Lord, don't trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. 7That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you.

The centurion seems to have been an interesting character. Obviously a good community minded man who has made lots of loyal friends and very kind as he even cares about his servant so much. Humble too. Jesus was amazed by the guy.