Say, Can You See? Series

I like the quote I found from Warren Wiersbe: “The people who jest about faith don’t realize how big a part it plays in everyday affairs. It takes faith to get married because marriage vows are basically promises. It takes faith to send children off to school. It takes faith to get a prescription filled. It takes faith to eat in a restaurant, deposit money in a bank, sign a contract, drive on the highway, or get on an airplane or an elevator. Faith isn’t some kind of religious experience for the elite; it’s the glue that helps hold people’s lives together. But remember, faith is only as good as its object. If we trust people, we get what people can do; if we trust money, we get what money can do; if we trust ourselves, we get what we can do; if we trust God, we get what God can do.” That trust in God is the subject at hand right now.

Faith. It’s the premier condition to receive salvation! Heb. 11 says without faith we can’t please God! Want to please God? I need faith. You need faith!

Still, sometimes you amaze yourself with your lack of that one basic thing in your relationship with God. You have doubts, or you find yourself behaving as though you never even believed in God in the first place. Inside, you sound like the man in Mark 9, "I believe! Help my unbelief!"

I have good news: John’s gospel is all about building our faith. John says that in the book itself:

John 20:30-31

Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

So, you can figure that John’s gospel is going to invite you to faith in Jesus. The 9th chapter of the book is a story of a man coming to such faith. My hope is that by looking at his story, you might understand what it will take to make your faith grow too. In a short time, he was a man who was changed. A changed heart, that meant a life forever changed.

I doubt any of us here can fully relate to the man who takes up chapter 9 of John. Remember, we’re reading the story of a man who has never seen anything in his entire life. Nothing. Suddenly, he can see. What would you be doing? My guess is, something other than standing in front of the Pharisees to hear them argue about their man-made Sabbath regulations. But by the end of the chapter, I’m glad that this man was there to speak.

There aren’t many places for a blind person to make a living where he was living, so he basically hung out at the temple gate and begged with the others. But he was more than just blind in his eyes. He was spiritually blind too – him and most of the rest of the Jewish people.

The day he was healed wasn’t too unusual. No doubt, there were many people who acted like he couldn’t hear or feel either. It wouldn’t have been too unusual for them to pass by and pontificate about his condition. Like the disciples, there were people who seemed to care more about why he was blind than how he felt. So the disciples want to know – why is this man blind? Was it his parents’ fault? Was it his fault? (even though he was born that way!) Why the blindness?

John 9:3-7 "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. As long as it is day, we must do the work 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." Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. "Go," he told him, "wash in the Pool of Siloam" (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

It wasn’t the only time Jesus used good ol’ spit as He healed someone. In Mark 7 and 8 He healed a deaf man and another blind man and used spit. Scholars aren’t precisely sure why Jesus chose to do it this way. One thing is sure, though – this blind man had mud in his eyes and it wasn’t coming off unless he went and did something about it. Jesus sent him to a pool called Siloam. John points out to us that this means “sent.” Coincidence? I doubt it. Wouldn’t it be neat to learn that 700 years earlier this pool was named “Sent” because Jesus was going to send this guy there?!