Strathalbyn Church of Christ

The Healing of the blind man.

John 9: 1-41 2nd August, 2020

There’s a hymn, ‘Amazing Grace’ that has a line in it -

‘I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see.’

‘was blind but now I see’ could summarise the story we have just heard from John.

‘was blind but now I see’ in the hymn means spiritually blind but now my eyes have been opened and I now believe in the Lord Jesus as my Saviour.

In this story the man’s physical eyes were blind but Jesus gave him sight; and he also came to believe in him.

Let’s see what we can learn from this story.

We are told this man was “blind from birth”. Noticing him, Jesus’ disciples ask Jesus, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" John 9:2

That question suggests that in the disciples’ thinking there was a direct link between this man’s condition and his sin, or the sin of his parents.

The bible does make a general link between sin and sickness, but not necessarily a direct link between a particular person’s sickness and their sin or parents’ sin.

We live in a fallen world now. Sin has come into the good world God created, and as a result there’s a lot of suffering. It’s too simplistic to say that person ‘X’ is sick because he/she has sinned.

And also, the bigger picture includes the sin of Satan.

What’s Jesus’ reply?

“It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be made manifest in him." 9:3

The works of God - his actions of love, mercy and power. This has been allowed so that God’s works may be seen. His blindness is something in and through which God’s works can be made manifest or displayed.

Jesus said, “We must work the works of him who sent me, while it is day; night comes when no one can work”.

The disciples’ question and concern was, ‘How did he get that way?’

Jesus’ concern was, ‘What can we do for him?’

“We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night comes when no one can work." 9:4

There do come opportunities for us to do something for others, to show love and help; let’s take them up while we can.

And then Jesus made a great claim. Last Sunday we considered one of his great “I am” claims, namely “I am the bread of life…"

Well here is another. He says, “I am the light of the world”.

“As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 9:5

“As he said this, Jesus spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle and anointed the man’s eyes with the clay.” Jn 9:6

Perhaps at some time you burnt, say your finger. Did you put some of your saliva on it to ease the burn? Spittle can also be used for hurting as well as healing, like when the soldiers spat on Jesus as they mocked him.

After Jesus had anointed this man’s eyes with the clay, he told him,

“Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means ‘sent’) Jn 9:7

“So he went and washed and came back seeing."

How appropriate that he was told by Jesus to go to a pool meaning ‘Sent’. Jesus was the one ‘sent’ by the Father to give us spiritual cleansing and sight. Jesus is the true “Siloam” to which we are to go.

When Jesus began his ministry, he read in the Synagogue service from the prophet Isaiah and applied it to himself. This is what he read,

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." Luke 4: l8,l9

Well, this man acted on Jesus’ words to go and wash in the pool. He would have found himself tapping his way about a kilometre down the hill to the pool. This no doubt tested his faith, and stretched his faith.

Jesus still looks for an active faith, not a passive faith. He may well give us something to do to cooperate with him, something that involves us acting on his word.

Later this man’s neighbours brought him to the Pharisees, but instead of rejoicing with him that he could see, they accused Jesus of being a sabbath-breaker because he had healed this man on the sabbath, and they considered this to be ‘work’ that shouldn’t be done on the day of rest.

And so some of the Pharisees concluded, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the sabbath." 9:6

They were bogged down with their over-scrupulous rules and regulations to the point that they couldn’t rejoice in this man at last being able to see! A legalistic religion often lacks joy and results in secondary things crowding out primary things.

But not all the Pharisees thought Jesus was not from God because he healed on the sabbath. Some said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?" 9:l6. So there was a division among them.

Jesus can still cause a division between those who have a closed mind and those who don’t.

The Pharisees asked the man, “What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?".

He said, “He is a prophet." 9:7

And so this man has grown in his understanding of Jesus. If a person is open to Jesus and not prejudiced, he/she will grow in understanding of Jesus.

The Jews wouldn’t believe the man had been born blind and now was healed until they asked his parents to verify that he was their son. They were skeptical. The man’s parents answered,

“We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age, he will speak for himself." 9:19,20

Why did they say that?

We read “His parents said this because they feared the Jews for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess him to be Christ he was to be put out of the synagogue." 9:22

And so it was their fear of excommunication that held them back. Do we too need to watch out lest fear of what others might say or do to us might lead us to be less open about our Christian faith than we ought?

So for the second time they called the man who had been blind, and said to him, “Give God the praise; we know that this man is a sinner."

He answered “Whether he is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I know, that though I was blind, now I see.” 9:24,25

This is his testimony - “one thing I know, that though I was blind, now I see."

You and I may not be able to answer some questions about Jesus or the Christian faith that some people might ask us, but we can stick to what we do know and can say ‘Once I was… but now I am’.

For example, ‘Once I lacked hope, but now I have hope.’

‘Once I was full of anxieties, but now I am learning to lean on God.’

‘Once I was unforgiving, but now Jesus is helping me to forgive.’

‘Once I didn’t know God’s forgiveness,but now I do.’

‘Once I was defeated by this thing, but now with Jesus’ help I’m getting on top of it, and if I do fall, he helps me get up again and go forward.’

Perhaps we all could reflect on how Jesus has, and is, changing our life?

Well, the Jews wouldn’t listen to the man and became angry with him and cast him out after he went on to say, “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 anyone is a worshipper of God and does his will, God listens to him. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God he could do nothing.” Jn 9:30-33

What happened to this man that they had cast out? We read of a beautiful thing - “Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, ‘Do you believe in the Son of man."

Jn 9:35.

Jesus still knows when people are given the cold shoulder, or worse, on account of him, and he will stick with them and be their friend. He will be there for you.

“Do you believe in the Son of Man?" he asked.

In other words, do you believe in the Messiah?

“And who is he sir, that I may believe in him?” Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who speaks to you.".

He said, “Lord, I believe and he worshipped him." Jn 9:35-38

Now this man had double vision! He could see physically, and he could see spiritually too!

That’s what really matters - to be able to say ‘I believe,’ and to worship Jesus Christ.’

And Jesus said to the man, “For judgement I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind." Jn 9:39

When you are out driving at night, you may put your high-beam on so you can see well. But it’s not so good if a car travelling towards you has its high beam lights on! You can be blinded.

If you are travelling with Jesus, you will see;if you are travelling against Jesus, you won’t see!

“Some of the Pharisees near him heard this, and they said to him, “Are we also blind?" Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘we see’, your guilt remains.". John 9:40,41

“Are we also blind?" they said; that is, ‘are you saying we can’t see?’

Jesus in effect said - if you couldn’t see you wouldn’t be to blame; but you claim to know God and teach others, and you’ve closed your minds and eyes to the truth, and therefore you’re guilty for your blindness.

Its not that you can’t see, you won’t see.

Jesus gave sight to a man born blind. This was a sign of his claim “I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life." Jn 8:12 & Jn 9:5

“Not walk in darkness” What darkness?

Mental and moral darkness. Mental darkness is not being able to see what is real.

Moral darkness is not being able to see what is right.

But Jesus will bring us out of mental and moral darkness as we follow him.

There’s a painting by Holman Hunt that is titled ‘The Light of the world.’ In the picture Jesus is standing with a lamp in his hand, He is knocking on a door, standing outside the door. It is a dark, overgrown door with weeds, hidden in a wood.

But the point of the picture is that he’s not trying to get in - he has come with a lamp to lead that person out, to get a person out of the dark and lead that person with his lamp into the light, to show the person the way out of his or her darkness.

Is that your experience of Jesus?

Or, do you want that to be your experience?

Jesus doesn’t change - “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever” Heb. 13:8

“He who follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life."

And now to conclude. Jesus Christ is the light of the world, and we who have come to him and believe in him and are in union with him, are now “light in the Lord” says Paul in Ephesians. Let me read what he says, “once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light. (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true." Eph 5:8-10

“walk as children of light."

In other words, walk like people who belong to the light, or live like people who are at home in daylight, letting our behaviour conform to our new identity, radiating the light we are.

In practice this will mean, positively, a life shining with all that is good and right and true, for these things are the fruit of light.

And negatively it will mean, as Paul tells us, “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness…" Eph 5:11

Series: John

Topics: #John