Scripture Introduction
My sister sent me a newsletter from Timberdoodle, a supplier for homeschooling families. The article noted a problematic teaching in a Children’s Study Bible used in Sunday school. Referring to Matthew 3.12, the footnote said, “This means that Jesus will come to separate the good people from the bad people, saving the good and punishing the bad.”
The author of the newsletter commented: “In the past year, thanks to the gospel-saturated teaching of Tim Keller, our family has become keenly aware of how religion has infiltrated the church and turned a massive number of people away from the gospel. Religion says that if I am good enough, then God will love me, a way of thinking which leads to either spiritual pride or crushing despair. But the gospel says that God loves me, and so I want to be good. If we believe Romans 3:10, which says that ‘None is righteous, no, not one,’ how then do we dare say that the good go to heaven and the bad to hell, for there are no good people?”
She when on to describe how she taught the children our problem with sin: “In class we talked about poke cakes, those cakes which you bake, then poke holes in and fill those holes with flavorful syrup. Imagine if, instead of sweet syrup, it was a slurry made of barnyard manure and pond water. Covered with thick frosting and a substantial amount of colorful sprinkles, that cake would look good, but at its core, it would still be bad…. That’s why we all desperately need a Savior…. How thrilling it is to understand that there is nothing that I could or should ever do to make God love me more than He does today. If you can help your children to grasp this truth, you will save them from the barrenness of religion.”
In John 9, Jesus cures in order to confront the religious barrenness which plagues the Pharisees. This passage is recorded in the Bible that we might see Jesus as God’s solution for hardness of heart and dryness of soul. [Read John 9.1-41. Pray.]
Introduction
The current issue of By Faith, our denominational (PCA) magazine, features a story on Steve Moore’s struggle after a car wreck radically changed his life. Steve “lost many things precious to him in a heartbeat – his health, his livelihood, and his trust in a loving God. This 64-year old military man and former elder who had prided himself in his self-sufficiency and strength found that those traits no longer worked in the spare economy of chronic pain and illness. Gone was the casual ease of productivity, reliability, and self-determination. A new currency was required – one steeped in humility, dependence, and endurance.” Moore, who now must use a walker and motorized cart to move around said: “After the accident, I realized that I didn’t know how to accept help. That was a very hard things for me to learn to do.”
Many of us find accepting help a very hard thing to do. We generally fail at it. We prefer to hobble on our own. But what if the sidewalk moves, carrying us backward faster than we stumble forward? Could we be losing ground and not even know it? The Pharisees were.
Day in and day out they strove to please God. They could see the goal – just ahead. The law promised: “this commandment…is not too hard for you” (Deuteronomy 30.11). “It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it. See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God…then you shall live and multiply” (Deuteronomy 30.14-16). “Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live” (Deuteronomy 30.19b). I can see what I need to do – but with every stumbling grasp, they found themselves further away. Their “religion” failed them; self-sufficiency would not bring them close to God.
So God — with love, compassion, and astonishing mercy— God forms within the womb a man whose eyes do not work, in order to demonstrate his solution to a religion that cannot see. Jesus’ healing is a living parable, teaching by action with a two-fold challenge.
First, each of us must ask with whom we identify – the man born blind or those who have their spiritual life together. Do you see yourself as one who cannot see, or one who sees pretty well on his or her own?
Second, we must ask if we see like Jesus. Those who count on Jesus to save and sanctify, must call him Lord and follow in his footsteps. Jesus finds a man born blind in order to challenge his disciples. From now on, they must practice ministries of mercy, they must be trained to witness to their neighbors, they must confront their own tendency toward relationship destroying self-righteousness.
Jesus’ work cuts both ways. It calls us to faith by confronting our blindness; at the same time, it calls us to obedience by confronting our complacency. Three things I would ask you to consider from John 9…
1. We Must Overcome the Blindness of Sin Through Mercy and Compassion
This man’s blindness is not connected to some sin he or his parents committed. But without sin in the world, there would be no blindness, no sickness, no cancer, no death. Sin devastates in every direction. Sin offers no mercy, knows no boundaries, stops at no gates or barbed-wire borders.
But Christianity is the story of God’s overcoming sin and suffering. The Bible tells how God restores mankind from the misery that sin brings to the bliss walking with him in holiness and happiness. And Jesus’ healing of the blind proves his compassion and care for hurting people.
We do not know why Jesus used spit and dirt, though commentators through the years have offered creative answers. One said that Jesus was re-enacting creation, making mud because God made mankind from the dust of the earth. Another went further – suggesting that Jesus actually made new eyeballs out of the mud and stuck them into empty sockets. Some say that the only significance of spit is that there was no water available. But a Waldensian pastor named Ecolampadius said that the spittle was an emblem of Christ’s divinity and the mud a symbol of his humanity. Another pastor said that this was a special sign to the Jews because it reminded them that Elisha healed Naaman in 2Kings 5 by requiring him to wash in the Jordan. We simply do not know why Jesus did this; God would have us concentrate on what we do know.
We know that sin causes everyone to be born spiritually blind. By God’s common grace, few babies are physically blind; but by our common humanity, all are blind to the things of God. Apart from grace, no one believes that happiness results only from holiness. Apart from God’s mercy, no one admits they manipulate situations and people to their own benefit. Apart from God’s compassionate salvation, no one sees their pride which prevents repentance and reconciliation.
Now before any say, “I’m not blind,” note well Jesus’ application to the Pharisees: John 9.39-41: Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.” Forgiveness requires owning your spiritual blindness.
Second, we know that God’s grace is given by a variety of means. Jesus heals this man through a salve and a wash in the pool of Siloam. Others he healed by a word. Some he touched; others he never met. It remains so today. Some become Christians through a crisis event as an adult; others cannot remember a time when they did not believe. Some were saved when they walked the aisle and prayed the prayer; others through a long process of sermons and Bible studies culminating in a gradual recognition of the glory and grace of God. Some of us find conferences to be a huge help in their spiritual growth; others find private meditation and prayer to be more beneficial; still others need more one-on-one accountability and discipleship. Let us not demand from others the same miracle of salvation or process of sanctification that we have experienced, but let us rejoice in the variety of the workings of the Holy Spirit when and how he pleases.
Third, we know that faith is required in order to see. There was no medical reason for the mud to heal; nor would he imagine that the pool of Siloam contained magic powers. He simply believed Jesus, and his faith produced action. Trust and obey, for there’s no other way.
Do you see your blindness? Do you trust Jesus to heal? Are you obeying his word in a response of faith? Jesus asks each of us to see ourselves as blind and accept his healing. That is one direction this text speaks – will we own our blindness?
But there is more. Jesus leaves his disciples and us with a ministry model of mercy and compassion. N.B., John 9.4: “We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work.”
Jesus knew his time was limited – three years were allotted. Rather than waste a moment with frivolous and unfruitful activity, his eyes search to and fro to see who might benefit from his service, who needed his touch of mercy, who would respond to the call of grace. Should we not practice the same?
Are there not opportunities pressing on us from every direction for works of mercy? Thousands of blind folk are watching their TVs within one mile of this building. They will not come here because they cannot see us. But has not Jesus given us his light to see them? He asked us to feed the hungry, care for the homeless, clothe the naked, fight against injustice, give cold water in his name. Are we not needed to provide mortgage counseling services for those near foreclosure? Should we not provide marriage seminars and counseling?
The church we planted in Omaha has monthly grilling and music events on Friday nights for the neighborhood. Everyone is invited for free food and games while musicians have a chance to hone their skills. Forest Park has community events; should we not?
You probably know the saying, “People do not care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Do we really care, or do we still need God to change our hearts? If we do care, are we willing to show it?
I understand the fear that works of mercy fall short of the gospel and lead us down a spiral of social services. But note well the order in this passage: Jesus cares for physical needs first, then later brings to him the word of salvation.
Tim Keller writes in his book, Ministries of Mercy, 38, “Evangelical Christians today are by no means against helping the needy and hurting. Yet ‘social relief work’ is generally looked at as a secondary duty. It is something we get to if there is time and money in the budget, after we are satisfied with our educational and evangelistic ministries.”
God is calling us to radical acts of tangible love for our neighbors. Will we work the works of him who sent Jesus?
2. We Must Overcome the Blindness of Sin Through Witnessing and Evangelism
You know this so I will not dwell on it. Simply observe: Jesus must find the man and give him the content of the gospel in order to call him to faith. Jesus speaks clearly, both to the man healed and to the Pharisees: “I am the one in whom you must put your hope. I am the Son of God who has become man. I am the solution to blindness – both for your eyes that do not see and your heart that will not. You must give up self-reliance and self-sufficiency – for your good works do not please God.
Sri Lankan evangelist D.T. Niles: “Christianity is one beggar telling another beggar where he found bread.”
Is it possible that our lack of enthusiasm for evangelism comes because either we do not believe we are really beggars, or because we have not found bread? Whatever the cause, may God revive us and press down into our church a willingness to take risks for the cause of spreading the Gospel.
3. We Must Overcome the Blindness of Sin by Rejecting Self-sufficiency and Self-righteousness
Few things are as blinding as the darkness of our own self-sufficiency. The Pharisees saw clearly others’ sins. They were certain that Jesus broke the Sabbath. They were positive that prophets do not eat dinner with prostitutes. They were convinced that women were not to be treated with respect and equality.
So Jesus patiently but persistently points to their own faults and failings. But these they could not admit, for their performance guaranteed them a place close to the heart of God. So how will it be different for us?
Brian Chapell, Holiness by Grace, 75 [Speaking about the same problem of self-righteousness, though from another text]: “To make us realize how great is our need of repentance, Jesus gives us a special perspective in this passage. To expose this young ruler to the depth of his sin, Jesus, who knows that the young man will not face his sin, confronts him with ‘the evil of our righteousness.’ The early American evangelist George Whitefield first used this phrase to confront the self-righteous with the inadequacy of their own goodness to qualify them for heaven.”
How do discover the “evil of our own righteousness”? Here are some diagnostic questions (though we should note that the “answer” which reveals a problem with self-righteousness is often the “correct” answer).
• How often do you admit your failures in conflicts with your spouse (as opposed to pointing out his or her sins)? Would your spouse answer differently?
• Do you perceive others’ sins as coming from bad motives while yours result from mistakes or errors?
• How much freedom do you have to admit your contribution to the relationship problems and conflicts you are in?
• Do you see yourself and your church and your works and your family as pleasing God more than others?
• Do you often categorize “those people” (whomever they may be) as displeasing God?
• Do you fret about others getting the justice they deserve?
• Do you regularly overlook sins and slights against you?
• How do you feel when your contributions and sacrifices are not recognized? When your efforts are criticized?
• When conflicts arise, do you easily sympathize with others’ grievances?
• Do you think others would please God if they tried harder?
J. C. Ryle said: “You cannot search your heart too diligently, for this self-righteousness is the subtlest enemy of all. Beware of thinking, as the devil would have you, that the parable is a very good one for everybody else—but does not exactly touch your case…. The Pharisees were not rejected because they were moral men—but because they were proud and self-righteous….”
Jonathan Edwards, Religious Affections, (on self-righteousness): “He that is under the prevalence of this distemper, is apt to think highly of his attainments in religion, as comparing himself with others. It is natural for him to fall into the thought of himself, that he is an eminent saint, that he is very high amongst the saints, and has distinguishingly good and great experiences…. Hence such are apt to put themselves forward among God’s people…. This they do, by being forward to take upon them the place and business of the chief; to guide, teach, direct, and manage…. They are yet apt to expect that others should regard them, and yield to them, as masters in matters of religion.”
4. Conclusion
The story is told of a carpenter nailing shingles when he lost his footing and started to slide off. As he was sliding he began praying, “Lord, oh, Lord, help me.” Still he kept sliding. Again the man prayed, “Lord, oh, Lord, help me.” He kept sliding until he got to the edge and a nail sticking up caught hold of his pants. After he came to a stop he said, “Never mind, Lord. The nail has hold of me now.”
Crises may cause us to cry for help. But a true Christian feels his blindness every moment. He or she is constantly calling out for help, and joyfully receiving God’s grace. Will you come and follow Jesus?
