Monday, November 2 –
We
have been reading through the New Testament for ten months now –
congratulations on your perseverance. I
hope it has helped you see the bigger picture of how central Jesus is to the
New Testament. We continue our reading
today in John’s Gospel, reading John 9:1 – 41.
Thanks for coming along with me, and please come back when you’ve
finished your reading.
John transitions from Jesus declaration that he is “the light of the world”
(8:12), to a man who is blind and cannot see the light at all. I can’t imagine life without the ability to
see. I have met blind people who have
made up for the lack of sight with some other great abilities. For example, one of my Seminary professors,
Dr. Aubrey Martin was blind from childhood days, and yet he went on to get a
Ph.D., and memorized the entire New Testament, and much of the Old Testament
too. I still have memories of him
quoting the scriptures with accuracy, and watched with intrigue as he would use
his Braille Bible to look up references.
It is the metaphor of Jesus as the light of the world that makes the
story that follows so significant to John.
“As
he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him,
“Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (9:1-2).
In
Jesus’ day, blind people weren’t given opportunities to do anything, except
begging. The assumption among the general population
was that they, or their family, had done something sinful that led to their
blindness. The disciples made that same
common assumption. The disciples had
listened to their Rabbis teach this, and now they asked Jesus what he
thought. Jesus changes the focus from
the man to God.
“Neither
this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the
works of God might be displayed in him. As long as it is day, we must do
the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.
While I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (9:3-5).
We
notice immediately the pronouns – “him, we, I”.
The common assumption was “he, they” had done something wrong. Jesus turns that around and says God is at
work, we must do the works he is doing, and he adds, while I am still here, I will
always do what leads people to see – that is if they want to see. In 9:5-7, Jesus does something I would never
recommend anyone to do. He spits on the
ground, mixes the spittle and dirt together into a paste, and rubs it on the
blind man’s eyes – what is that all about?
In the creation story, God did the same thing in creating the man – “…the
LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground...” (Genesis 2:7). Jesus sent him away to clean all the dirt off
in the pool of Siloam – which means “sent” –and, as the dirt washed off his face,
for the first time in his life he could see! (9:6 – 8). While everyone should have celebrated the
miracle, it didn’t take long for the joy to get sucked out of the room – why? – because
Jesus had healed him on the Sabbath.
In 9:8
– 12, we can imagine the scene unfold.
First, the neighbors who knew him from birth were astounded that he was
seeing, others were not sure it was the same man! The man explained what Jesus did, and then told
him to do. The neighbors wanted to meet
Jesus, but the formerly blind man didn’t see Jesus – he only heard his
voice. Since they didn’t know how to
find Jesus, they took the now-seeing man to the Pharisees. As the man explained what Jesus did to him,
they come to the conclusion that this could not have been an act of God since
it was done on the Sabbath (9:13 – 16).
The Pharisees began to quiz the man about Jesus, and at once, everything
blew up –
“ Then
they turned again to the blind man, “What have you to say about him? It was
your eyes he opened.” The man replied, “He is a prophet” (9:17).
Perhaps
the words came out of his mouth in a surprising way. He didn’t see Jesus, but he felt what he did
to his eyes. I have often wondered what
the blind man thought when he felt Jesus rubbing the muddy paste on his
eyes. Perhaps he had often been
mistreated and thought here was one more man having fun make a fool out of
him. He went to the pool because it made
sense to wash it off, but what happened when the water hit his eyes, the paste
fell off, and light appeared – a pool, people, the temple, trees, even the
dirt! He was convinced, only God could
have done this. He said to the
Pharisees, “he is a prophet”.
The
Pharisees didn’t believe him and doubted that he had even been blind, to begin
with (9:18). They decided to call his
parents to ask them if this was their son, and was he blind? (9:19). The parents, knowing the Temple authorities
were ostracizing Jesus’ followers were nervous and hesitated to go further
than recognizing their son. “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” (9:20-21). There’s a certain sad comedy occurring in
this. The Pharisees are determined to
make sure everyone sees Jesus as a “sinner” (9:16); yet the now-seeing man
claims he has to be a prophet, and the parents, living in fear that they might
be kicked out of the synagogue don’t know what to say!
The
Pharisees are determined to get to the bottom of what happened, and so in 9:24 –
34, they have a second meeting that turns into a confrontation between the
Pharisees and the man who now sees. They
try to persuade him into saying Jesus must be a sinner – hence evil – in what
he has done. The man can only reply to
his experience – “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!” (9:25). The Pharisees don’t want to “see” what happened,
and they were angered that he stuck to the facts. They pester him like a lawyer repeatedly asking
the same questions looking for inconsistency. Finally, the Pharisees come to the conclusion
that the man is a fake, a disciple of Jesus (9:28), while they are proud
disciples of Moses and the law.
There
couldn’t be a starker contrast than the Pharisee’s stubborn pride and the
healed man’s experience. “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” (9:30-33). Yes!
To the
Pharisees it was the end of the discussion.
They use their authority to throw him out of the temple (9:34). Now the healed man is distanced from the
temple worship he had never been able to be involved in, and from his parents
who don’t want to affirm him and also get thrown out. Jesus finds out what happened to him and
sought him out. His life was changed as
he now not only could see but saw the real light of the world.
“Jesus
heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you
believe in the Son of Man?” “Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so
that I may believe in him.” Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact,
he is the one speaking with you.” Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,”
and he worshiped him” (9:35-38).
The
light of the world has made the blind man see.
John ends the story with Jesus’ warning to the Pharisees:
“Jesus
said, ‘For judgment, I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and
those who see will become blind.’ Some Pharisees who were with him heard
him say this and asked, ‘What? Are we blind too?’ Jesus said, ‘“If you
were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see,
your guilt remains’ (9:39-41).
My
brother Edward makes an insightful comment on all of this: “Jesus took the
initiative to heal the man. It was not the blind man who came to him but Jesus
who reached out to the blind man. Jesus wanted his disciples to understand who
he is and his ability to bring spiritual sight (and life) to those who are
trusting him. If we want to see and grasp spiritual truth, we must come to
Jesus asking him to open our eyes so we too can see. He is the Judge of
mankind. Everyone who ever lived will stand before him especially those who now
are blinded because they refuse to accept the truth about him.[1]
While
blindness is something I wouldn’t want to ever experience, spiritual blindness
– the inability to see that Jesus Christ came into the world to deliver me from
my sin – is a worse eternal trouble.
John wrote this story, but he had prefaced the story in chapter 1,
saying:
“The
true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was
in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not
recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not
receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his
name, he gave the right to become children of God... (John 1:9-13).
Peace
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