Jesus Opens Our Eyes To The Truth

When I was in the third grade at Carroll Bell elementary school here in San Antonio, I begin having headaches in class. My mom decided to have my eyes checked. And sure enough, I needed glasses. I don't know exactly how long I had been seeing things blurry but when I got my new glasses it was so refreshing to be able to see clearly again. I then understood what I had been missing all along.

This is often how we operate in the spiritual realm. We think we're seeing life for what it is, but when we encounter Jesus and see the world through Him, we see the truth, and we see it clearly.

If you have been journeying through life without Jesus, you have no idea what you have been missing. Today we are going to take a closer look to see how Jesus will open our eyes to the truth. Prayer.

Being a pastor, I am confronted with things from every angle. Phone calls, text messages, office visits, mail, meetings, messenger messages, and the list goes on. I am always thinking ahead in planning things like sermons and such. Many times, I'm so focused on what’s coming up that I’m not so focused on what is happening at the time.

Caran says that I don't listen. And she might be right some of the time. But most of the time my mind is so wrapped up in other things that I am not as focused as I should be in the moment.

This wasn't the case for Jesus. He knew where He was going, ultimately to the cross, and yet He took advantage of every moment along the way to love, teach, and serve people. This was the case in our story today when Jesus and His disciples passed by a blind man on their way out of the Temple complex.

John 9:1-7 – “As he was passing by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” Jesus answered. “This came about so that God’s works might be displayed in him. 4 We must do the works of him who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

******6 After he said these things he spit on the ground, made some mud from the saliva, and spread the mud on his eyes. 7 “Go,” he told him, “wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means “Sent”). So he left, washed, and came back seeing.

I told a short story of this event to the children two weeks ago. Let's look at it in a little more detail. The temple was very crowded. With all the hustle and bustle around the area, it would have been easy for Jesus and His disciples to just walk on by. Even more so, because Jesus was already having to keep a low image in order to escape being stoned by the Pharisees. But this threat didn't keep Jesus from seeing this man. What did Jesus see? He saw a man who had never seen anything. Jesus took advantage of this amazing encounter.

In the first century, it was assumed that any illness or infirmity was the result of sin. The religious leaders looked down on the disabled because they saw them as unclean and sinful. This is one of the main ways Jesus set Himself apart from the religious leaders.

While the religious leaders ignored and even shunned these people, Jesus embraced them. He saw them and their needs. Even Jesus's disciples assumed sin was the cause of the man's blindness. They were unsure, though, whose sin had caused this ailment. Was it his or his parent's? Jesus's answer helped them realize the years of bad theology. What Jesus was about to say would open their spiritual eyes, even as He would open the blind man's physical eyes.

And here comes one of Jesus's truths. "Neither this man nor his parents sinned." And there it is! A new truth to process. One theologian explains this in this way. He says that "God did not deliberately cause the child to be born blind in order that, after many years, His glory would be displayed in the removal of the blindness. He says that what it does mean is that God overruled the disaster of the child's blindness so that, when the child grew to manhood, he might, by receiving his sight, see the glory of God in the face of Jesus. This man who had lived in darkness was about to see for the first time. The Light of the world was going to illuminate the darkness of this man's life. I am reminded of what Jesus said in: