Scripture Introduction
Jesus’ miracles are “parabolic sermons” — they teach by acting out truth. This is especially the case with the seven “signs” John records, the sixth of which we study this morning, a miracle demonstrating the process of salvation. God enters the world, but the world in its blindness cannot see. God will not be stopped by our sin, however; he finds the lost and opens their eyes. And his people worship. Let us read of the miracle of salvation in John 9. [Read John 9.1-41. Pray.]
Introduction
I am intrigued by how the same hot sun both hardens clay and softens wax. So it is with Jesus. The blazing light of God’s love walks on earth and the blind see, while those who think they see remain in the dark – very different responses to the same Son.
There are three main characters in this expertly told short-story. Each offers us profound lessons about God and how to live a life well pleasing in his sight. Let’s begin with Jesus and note that he…
1. Jesus Reveals God’s Response to Sin and Suffering
The previous chapter drew to a close with the Jewish leaders stooping down to pick up stones to throw at Jesus. This chapter opens with Jesus stooping down to make a mud-salve and heal a blind man. Quite a contrast between compassion and condemnation, between humility and pride, between a holy God and sinful men. What do we learn from Jesus actions?
1.1. God’s Plans Are Never Frustrated
Suppose I say something today which makes you crazy. In your frustration and anger, you call me names and chase me from the church. I run to the parking lot, hop in my car, and speed away. I surely would not notice a poor beggar beside the front door. Jesus does.
John 9.1: “As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth.” The man does not see Jesus; he is blind. He does not come forward; Jesus finds him. He does not cry for help; Jesus initiates contact. In the midst of personal attack, scathing criticism, and confused disciples, God does not overlook his needy children. Sinful actions and difficult circumstances do not stay God’s sovereign hand. He keeps his eye on his people and their needs, governing every creature and every action for our best good.
Psalm 33.18-19: Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love, that he may deliver their soul from death….
1Peter 3.12: For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer….
Civilla Martin met a Mr. and Mrs. Doolittle in 1905. Mrs. Doolittle had been bedridden for twenty years. Her husband (Mr. Doolittle) was crippled and confined to a wheelchair, in which he propelled himself to his business every day (long before handicap laws made that a reasonable expectation). Civilla writes: “Despite their afflictions, they lived happy Christian lives, bringing inspiration and comfort to all who knew them. One day while we were visiting with the Doolittles, my husband commented on their bright hopefulness and asked them for the secret of it. Mrs. Doolittle’s reply was simple: ‘His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.’ Civilla was inspired to compose a hymn with these words: ‘Why should I feel discouraged, why should the shadows come, why should my heart be lonely, and long for heaven and home, when Jesus is my portion? My constant friend is He: His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.’”
God’s plan for your best is never frustrated.
1.2. God’s Power is Always Sufficient
There is an old joke told that two golfers were caught in a lightening storm. The first said, “We better run for cover.” The other man said, “Not to worry; I have a foolproof solution.” He went to his golf bag, pulled out a 2-iron, and held it high over his head. The first man asked him what he was doing. He responded: “Even God can’t hit a 2-iron.”
That’s funny because duffers find it so hard to hit the low irons. But I tell you something far harder to do – restore sight to a man blind from birth. Surely this is one reason God gave this particular miracle as a sign of Messiah’s arrival – it cannot be counterfeited!
Luke 7.20-23: And when the men had come to him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?’” (In that hour he healed many people of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many who were blind he bestowed sight.) And he answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” Jesus is quoting Isaiah 35: giving sight to the blind is a sure sign of the Messiah.
Maybe some of you are wondering whether we can count on God’s promises and Word. Does he have power to restore peace to your troubled home? Is his arm strong enough to save you? Can he bring glory out of the ashes of your failures? I tell you the truth: his eye is on the sparrow, and the blind see, and the dead are raised to life eternal.
2. The Healed Man Reveals Faith’s Response to Jesus
I wonder how many cups of water spilled when the blind boy bumped the kitchen table. How many toes were bruised and bloodied when his bare feet accidentally kicked unseen chairs? How often did mom’s face turn scarlet when the neighbors gossiped about her supposed sins and the grief her indiscretions brought in her son. How many bullies punched the blind kid? How many cutting words brought tears to his useless eyes and hardness to his callused heart?
Sin rots relationships, ruins lives, ravages us physically and spiritually. It reduced this poor man to begging for daily bread. What a temptation to bitterness blindness must be! What an opportunity for feeling sorry for oneself!
Of course, Jesus clearly rebukes the idea of drawing a direct line between sin and suffering. (I made that point in more detail in a sermon on this text last year.) Matthew Henry correctly observes: “People took it for granted that this extraordinary calamity was the punishment for some uncommon wickedness, and that this man was a sinner above all men…. But it is inexcusable in those who know the Scriptures, who had read, ‘all things come alike to all’ (Ecclesiastes 9.2), to not realize that the greatest sufferers are not to be looked upon as the greatest sinners. The grace of repentance calls our own afflictions ‘punishments,’ but the grace of charity calls the afflictions of others ‘trials.’”
So we do not connect any particular problem to a specific sin. But neither do we deny what is equally obvious — sin brought misery into the pristine and perfect world which the Lord made: “sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin…” (Romans 5.12).
In Greek mythology, Pandora was the first woman on earth, created by command of Zeus, to torment humanity. Her name means, “all gifted,” because each god gave her a special talent: Aphrodite gave her beauty, Apollo music, Hermes persuasion. She was also given a box and instructed to keep it closed, but Zeus’ gift of curiosity ensured she would open it and unleash all manner of evil on the earth.
That may seem silly, but it is a worldview closer to the truth than most modern ideas. Many people suppose we are evolving into better and more perfect “gods.” But the Bible says we are fallen people living in a fallen world. We do not need time to improve; we need a rescuer to deliver us from ourselves! With that in mind, notice three truths enacted in this parable.
2.1. Faith Is Created By Jesus
This man was not praying, crying out, looking for God. He was not a seeker. He was physically blind; more significantly, he was spiritually blind. He had no eyes to see God, no hope or desire that God would appear.
Do you know your true spiritual state? I fear many remain strangers to God because they pride themselves in their seeking. We imagine that God would be pleased to have us join his team. But the Bible says that we are dead in our trespasses, damned for our rebellion, depraved in our hearts and heads. There is no good in us — all alike are lost in sin and justly deserving of God’s displeasure. Conversion does not begin with your finding Jesus, but when he finds you. Do you know that apart from Jesus’ grace, you are blind to the things of God?
2.2. Faith Obeys Jesus
I hope, next week, to share some suggestions as to why Jesus used spit and mud as a salve. For today notice: this man begged every day. Because he was in a public spot, most everyone know him. He must have had a well-worn path from his begging place back home. Never varying from that path, he is less likely to trip or fall.
Now suddenly, he picks up his cane and clumsily stumbles from the temple toward a pool. People gawked and talked: “What is he doing? Did someone push him into the mud? Has the beggar lost his mind to match his sight?” All the way to the water, problems and doubts plagued him. Then he washes and sees. Obedience overwhelms trouble and doubt.
I wonder where God is telling us to go and wash. Would he have you wash in the pool of forgiveness? In the pool of witnessing to a co-worker? In the pool of mercy to your neighbor? What about the pool of a quiet and gentle spirit, or honoring your father and mother? Will it be embarrassing to change? Yes, likely so. But when you have washed, you will see the world differently. Faith obeys.
2.3. Faith Testifies of Jesus
It is informative that some of the most powerful witnesses in the Bible are untrained. The Samaritan woman (John 4) and the this man both present beautiful and gripping testimonies. Of course, the Pharisees sought to confuse and intimidate him. But his answer is as sure as it is simple: this I know; I was blind, but Jesus made me see.
There is great power in your testimony. God does not give everyone a passion for theological study, but every true Christian can testify to what Jesus did for you. Do you know that you were lost until Jesus found you? That you were blind until he gave you sight? Will you witness to his grace favor?
3. The Pharisees Reveal Self-righteousness’ Response to Grace
Voltaire, the French Enlightenment Philosopher, believed that reason was sufficient for man; we really have no need for God. He said: “If in the market of Paris, before the eyes of a thousand men and before my own eyes, a miracle should be performed, I would much rather disbelieve the two thousand eyes and my own two, than believe it.”
Why do the Pharisees not see the Messiah in the miracle?
3.1. A Self-righteous Heart Focuses on Religious Formalism
Even though Jesus healed a man born blind, in obvious fulfillment of the Isaiah prophecy, these men were focused on their understanding of the details of Sabbath observance.
James Boice: “Jesus was guilty of breaking the Sabbath laws as the rabbis of Israel had constructed them. But these were man-made regulations; and Jesus, who understood God’s laws perfectly, knew it and simply disregarded them. Moreover, they were actually harmful. For they were means by which those who were fundamentally incapable of keeping God’s true law nevertheless buttressed themselves up in the conviction that they were doing all right as religious people, they were going to earn heaven. They also convinced themselves that they did not need God’s grace.” (Commentary, in loc.).
Christians and churches like to make rules. What will we do when God brings in someone who does not keep our rules? Will we focus on their failings, or on our friendship? Let us reject a form of religion which keeps people from Jesus.
3.2. A Self-righteous Heart Cannot See Its Own Sin
Augustine (c. 400 AD): “There are many, who according to common usage are called good people, harmless, honoring their parents, not committing adultery, doing no murder, not stealing, not bearing false witness, and in a sort observing the other duties commanded in the law, and yet are not Christians. And these commonly give themselves airs like the Pharisees here, saying, ‘Are we blind also?’”
Every mature and wise Christian pastor and writer I have ever read agrees: the more you walk with the Lord and the further you progress in faith, the more aware you become of your failings and shortcomings. If your focus and passion are on others’ mistakes, then beware the heart of the Pharisee. Speaking face-to-face with God, they fault Jesus’ behavior, not their own.
3.3. A Self-righteous Heart Refuses to Listen and Learn
John 9.34: “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?”
“The very men who are unmoved if charged with immoral actions, such as simony, adultery, gluttony, or misuse of ecclesiastical power, are furious if told that they are dark and blind about doctrine” (Musculus, quoted in Ryle, 194).
We have separate radio and television for republicans and democrats, for conservatives and liberals. We prefer to nod the head with those with whom we agree than to listen to others’ concerns. But I have found that often the first step in loving witness is not telling the right answer, but listening for what questions are being asked.
The Pharisees were indignant at the suggestion they should listen and learn. For that, Jesus rebukes them. Charles Spurgeon applies this to us: “ It is not our littleness that hinders Christ; but our bigness. It is not our weakness that hinders Christ; it is our strength. It is not our darkness that hinders Christ; it is our supposed light that holds back his hand” (Quoted in Hughes, John, 261).
4. Conclusion
Warren Wiersbe (Walking with the Giants, 92): tells of something that happened to Alexander Whyte, the great preacher of a century ago. Pastor White was in his study one day when a friend came in to tell him about an evangelist who had come to Edinburgh and was criticizing the local ministers. The man told Dr. Whyte that the preacher had said Dr. Hood Wilson was not a Christian. When Whyte heard that, he leaped out of his chair and said, “The rascal! Dr. Wilson not a converted man!” Then the friend said, “And that is not all. He said you are not converted either.” At that, Whyte stopped short, sat back down in his chair, and put his face in his hands. After a long silence he said, “Leave me, friend, leave me! I must examine my heart!”
Jesus’ miracles and the response of the Pharisees asks each of us to examine our heart. You think about that. Amen.
