I Was Blind But Now I See Series

There’s a whole section of the story that wasn’t read for us this morning that tells how the Pharisees grilled this poor man about the facts of his healing. They accused Jesus of being a sinner for healing on the Sabbath, and said that proved that he must be of the devil. They couldn’t get past the rules, or at least their interpretation of the rules. This seems like as good of a place as any for a Mark Twain quote, Twain said “Loyalty to a petrified opinion never broke a chain or freed a human soul.” For the religious leaders the fact that every I was dotted and every t was crossed was much more important than the fact a man had been given a brand new life.

Jesus summed up his reasoning another time he was accused of healing on the Sabbath when he said in Luke 14:5 Then he turned to them and said, “Which of you doesn’t work on the Sabbath? If your son or your cow falls into a pit, don’t you rush to get him out?”

It is interesting to note that in some translations the word donkey is used instead of son. I’ve heard people use this excuse for any manner of work they do on Sunday but years ago I heard someone say “If your donkey falls in the ditch every Sunday you ought to fill in the ditch or get another donkey.” But that is beyond the point.

The blind man wasn’t really all that interested in theological debates on whether or not he should have been healed when he had been healed.

For him it was a very simple story he sums it up in John 9:25 . . . the man replied. “But I know this: I was blind, and now I can see!”

His life had been made different, he could see what he had never been able to see before, and with that came all kinds of changes. He would have to find work, he would have to get used to how the people he loved looked. As a matter of fact he would have to get used to how everything looked, he had always been blind, he had no idea what anything looked like. He was seeing life through brand new eyes. In another Jesus story a blind man had been healed and when Jesus asked him what he saw he said that he saw people but they looked like trees. I don’t think the people looked like trees nearly as much as they didn’t look like what he thought people would look like.

When you become a Christ follower your life should change, and not everybody will appreciate it. Your habits should change, your priorities should change. When I became a Christian I stopped hanging around some of my old friends because their behaviour made me uncomfortable, and some old friends stopped hanging around with me, because me behaviour made them uncomfortable.

But to the blind man all the changes in his lifer were worth it, after all he was blind but now he could see. And he wanted to share his experience with everyone. In this account he tells his story four times and the even then the religious leaders don’t seem to get it, we pick up the story in John 9:26 “But what did he do?” they asked. “How did he heal you?” I’m sure he felt like saying “If I told you once I’ve told you a dozen times, instead what he tells them is John 9:27 “Look!” the man exclaimed. “I told you once. Didn’t you listen? Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?”