New Eyes

New Eyes John 9:1-42

1. What caused this man to be blind?

• Jesus is walking down the road with his disciples. They come across a man “blind from birth.” Seeing him, the disciples ask their master a question: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

• This handicap, misfortune, and disabled one this person is a human being, with feelings and hopes and dreams.

• Very likely, the man heard them talking with Jesus about him. Who sinned this man or someone else?

• No doubt it’s a question he has heard many times before. Most people assumed, in those days, that any serious health problem or disability was a punishment from God.

• This man has grown up with all the world telling him he is cursed.

• Surprisingly, Jesus answers, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned.”

2. We do not know why the blind man is blind but we know Jesus fixed the blindness with a spit

• “the ick factor” — Jesus spits on the ground and makes a mud out of dirt then spreads it on the blind man’s eyes.

• Sometimes Jesus healed by touch, sometimes by a word,

• In Mark, chapter 10, Jesus heals a blind man named Bartimaeus simply by saying, “Your faith has made you well.”

• Many probably passed by the blind man an spit on him because after all they thought he is cursed if God.

• But this spit of mud is spreads over the man’s blind eyes. Then he tells him to go wash it off, in the Pool of Siloam.

3. The Blind man has new eyes because he did what Jesus told him to do.

• John tells us the man does as Jesus instructs, washing his face in the Pool of Siloam

• Once he’s done, it’s as though he has new eyes. For the first time in his life, he can see!

• You would think there would be rejoicing for the blind man but not so

• Remember the people and disciples said who sinned him or someone else to cause the blindness. He was cursed of God Jesus changes the curse to blessed.

4. The New Eyes We Need New eyes. That’s what the man gets from his encounter with Jesus.

• New eyes in the physical sense and new eyes in the spiritual sense as well.

• What sort of new eyes do we need?

• We need eyes that sees people as Gods people with potential

• We need eyes that see our world as a place where God is and miracles happens

• We need eyes that see Jesus not just as a historical figure, a wise teacher, an ethical example, or

• We need to see Jesus as a risen Lord who walks beside us, who speaks to us,who guides us in the way we should go? Do we see him as our Lord and our Savior?

• Jesus seeks us out, as he sought the blind man. He asks us if we, too, believe in the Son of Man — and if we know the one speaking to us is he.

• Jesus wants to give us new eyes of hope, joy, resurrection, new eyes of life, new eyes that . “One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!"