Jesus Brings Spiritual Sight

John 9:1-41 – Jesus opens the eyes of the blind

Student who went around college blind-folded for a day

 Had a lot more empathy for someone who was blind after that experience

 Being blind would be a terrible handicap to have, not being able to witness the creation, limited in getting around etc

 But there is a condition much worse than being spiritually blind and that is spiritual blindness

 The sad part about spiritual blindness is that the person doesn’t realise they are blind

 If you ask a physically blind person if they realise they are blind and they will say yes

 If you were to ask someone who is spiritually blind if they realise they are blind, instead of saying “yes”, you would probably end up with a fight on your hands

In the story we are going to look at today, this is exactly the scenario

 Right from the start, this story is a set up

 In fact this man was born blind in order that Jesus could make this very point

John 9:1-41 As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. 2 “Teacher,” his disciples asked him, “why was this man born blind? Was it a result of his own sins or those of his parents?”

 In a judgmental society, this is what happens. If someone is sick he must have sinned or his parents did

 Ancient paths

 Sins can cause sickness – alcoholism does destroy livers, porking out on wrong foods will make you sick, illicit sex can result in terrible diseases etc

 But to arbitrarily attribute sickness to a sinful lifestyle is not biblically correct

 As we know today, many things cause sickness – genes, accidents, lifestyle

 Jesus adds another reason to the list of what may cause sin

3 “It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “He was born blind so the power of God could be seen in him.

 God is sovereign – he can choose to do what he chooses in order to bring glory to him

 In this case he was using the circumstances to try to show the Pharisees they were spiritually blind

4 All of us must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent me, because there is little time left before the night falls and all work comes to an end. 5 But while I am still here in the world, I am the light of the world.”

 Introduces the concept of Him being the light of the world

 There is no other source for light – not anything else, not the law – nothing can bring us true spiritual light

6 Then he spit on the ground, made mud with the saliva, and smoothed the mud over the blind man’s eyes. 7 He told him, “Go and wash in the pool of Siloam” (Siloam means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came back seeing!

8 His neighbors and others who knew him as a blind beggar asked each other, “Is this the same man—that beggar?” 9 Some said he was, and others said, “No, but he surely looks like him!”

And the beggar kept saying, “I am the same man!”

 He was hard to recognise because our eyes are powerful means of communicating

 Eyes are our window to the world

 Important to teach our kids to look people in the eye

10 They asked, “Who healed you? What happened?”

11 He told them, “The MAN they call Jesus made mud and smoothed it over my eyes and told me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam and wash off the mud.’ I went and washed, and now I can see!”

12 “Where is he now?” they asked.“I don’t know,” he replied.

13 Then they took the man to the Pharisees.

 This is great, let’s tell the minister

14 Now as it happened, Jesus had healed the man on a Sabbath.

 Uh oh! – there goes the celebration

15 The Pharisees asked the man all about it. So he told them, “He smoothed the mud over my eyes, and when it was washed away, I could see!”

16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man Jesus is not from God, for he is working on the Sabbath.”

 Again here is evidence of the setup

 One has to ask the question here, did Jesus deliberately provoke this confrontation?

 Could have healed the man any other day, could have just spoken the word, but he deliberately makes a paste of the mud and places it on the man’s eyes

 He deliberately did work in order to provoke this confrontation