“Dealing with blind Spots”
John 9
Yes it’s a lengthy passage but to know the whole story we must read the whole story. So last week we looked at Jesus changing the water to wine. That was the first sign Jesus performed. This is the sixth. Remember that a sign is a miracle that always points to a deeper truth and you will see that as we move through the passage.
The disciples and Jesus were traveling together when they saw a man who was blind. And somehow they recognize that the man had been blind from birth. Immediately the disciples asked Jesus a theological question— here it is— teacher, who sinned, the blind man or his parents? Who caused this blindness? One of the teachings from the OT law came to be known as the Deuteronomic formula which went like this
• if you do good, good things will happen to you
• if you do bad, bad things will happen
So they would’ve heard that teaching and they chose to follow it. This is likely why they asked the question. Jesus tells them quickly— neither of them sinned. There is in fact a bigger reason this has happened:
God puts himself on display through his people
so that the lost can be reached.
Remember, a sign always has a larger purpose than just the miracle in itself. The miracle mattered; you don’t believe it, ask the blind man. His world was completely changed. Jesus then goes to work immediately and he has an interesting formula to cure blindness. Here it is:
Dirt plus spit plus water equals new eyesight
Now the folks at one of the eye clinics may not support that but it worked for Jesus. Jesus basically made mud pies, rubbed on the man’s eyes. He then instructed the man to go and wash in the Pool of Siloam. There was an underground tunnel that had been dug that extended about 1/3 of a mile between the main spring and the pool so the water could be moved/used.
So the man went and washed the mud away and came back seeing. People recognized the man--he had probably sat in the same location daily, apparently to ask for money or food and his neighbors noticed him and said hey that’s the guy we have seen begging. Some agreed. Others said no it’s not him. But the man says to them, yes I am the one! So now they have a question for the man who had been blind. How did this happen? So he explained the process. Dirt + spit + water= sight. These neighbors brought the man to the Pharisees. This group— the Pharisees are mentioned dozens of times in Scripture... And let’s just say they loved the law and they were quite legalistic. Needless to say, none of this made any sense to them. So they asked again. We want a different answer; one we understand. Because this doesn’t fit our theology. The man gives them the same answer and now they come to this conclusion. This man was blind. Jesus spread mud on his eyes. Now the man can see. So here was their conclusion. This man, Jesus does not honor the Sabbath. You see their thought was that anyone who did not keep the Sabbath could not heal. Because that made them a sinner. And if a man was a sinner, he could not perform miracles. Never mind that a man who was blind had been miraculously healed—apparently this did take place on the Sabbath and putting mud on his face involved work and that was not allowed to happen.
Ridiculous. This is how they twisted the law to benefit themselves. And what happened in this would occur many more times is that the Pharisees and other unbelievers would miss the big picture. Here it is:
Jesus did not come to abolish the law; he came to fulfill it. Matthew 5:17.
Paul says the OT law was our guardian/protector until Christ came. Then everything changed. But legalists don’t like change—they don’t know why they do things a certain way--it may not even be the right way or the best way--it’s just what they had been taught. You may have heard of the man whose wife sent him to the store to buy a whole ham. After he bought it she asked him why he didn’t have the butcher cut off the end of the ham. So he asked his wife why she wanted the end cut off. She replied that her mother had always done it that way and that was reason enough for her. So the wife’s mother was visiting and he ask her why she had always cut off the end of the ham. She said well because my pan was always too small to cook it in one piece.
This describes the Pharisees for sure. So again they asked the man who had been blind. If you’re keeping track, this is the third time. And this is what he has to say about the one who healed him... He is a prophet. Now remember, John the Baptist was the first profit these people had seen for over 400 years so this was a big deal. A prophet roaming around Israel, healing blind people? Impossible! So is like okay, the lawyer comes out in them and they say okay we don’t like this witness, we want a new one. Let’s talk now to the parents. Their first question of the parents is to clarify. Is this your son, the one you say was born blind? How then does he now see?
The witness says Yep that’s him but we have no clue how he can see. Ask him yourself. I’m guessing at this point that the parents are experiencing a mixture of elation and fear at the same time. In elation because he can see; fear because they could be banned from the synagogue. We believe that Christians were already being persecuted for their faith-the beginning of that tradition of excommunication could’ve been right here in Jerusalem. So again they call the blind man to give glory for his healing to Jehovah God, not to Jesus, accusing Jesus of being a sinner.
The blind man responds by just offering the simple truth, look guys; whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know—in fact I don’t care. This is the one thing I do know. I was blind and now I can see. Nothing else really matters. If you have experienced healing of any disease you know the feeling. Was it the chemotherapy, the radiation... Was it the surgery... Maybe it was just a good medical staff. But does it really matter? We just want to be well. And that is what had happened. So what do they do? They asked him again. Their method of operation seems to be if we just keep badgering the witness; if we keep asking the same question, perhaps we will get the answer that we want.
But by this time the fellow is mildly aggravated--I can imagine his voice tone here as he says I already told you and you didn’t listen. Why must I say it again? Then he poses a question to them-here it is-do you want to become his disciples too? They come right back and they said look, we follow Moses. We know God has spoken to him. Remember he’s the one that went up on the mountain and got the 10 Commandments. He’s the one that raised his staff and parted the Red Sea. But this man, referring to Jesus, we don’t know where he is from.
The blind man then says well that’s amazing— you don’t know where he is from but he gave me sight. It’s like, who cares where he’s from! Again they fire back with their shortsighted theology and said God is not involved in this because God doesn’t listen to sinners. And we’ve never heard of anyone having their sight returned.
Now you may not recognize that there is no history of this ever happening at this point. There’s no OT record of anyone being healed of blindness. None. But when we examine the ministry of Jesus there are more instances of the healing of the blind than any other miracle. Seven to be exact.
Well they don’t like his answers so the Scripture says they threw the man out—probably meaning out of the synagogue. Look at verse 34. Early in my ministry I served a small country church—a farming community and I read some of the history of the church while I was there. And I found that they had thrown one young girl out of the church because she had gone a hayride. Apparently the Pharisees are still with us today. By the way we don’t practice that here.
We pick back up at verse 35. Jesus now stands up for the man they have thrown out of the synagogue. He asked the man a simple question… do you believe? The man says innocently, who is the Son of Man do so that I can believe? Jesus says I am He. He then says, I believe Lord and he falls down and worships him.
I’ve been focusing my reading on the topic of leadership. So I have read 8 books so far this year on the topic of leadership. Here is a principle that is taught: leaders must model the way because people follow what they see. Stanford University now says that 89% of everything we learn; we learn visually. That’s why the apostle Paul would say, remember what you saw in me and then do it. The blind man saw for the first time. And he understood. And he then believed. There are many things that can be blind spots for us—others see them—but we don’t. And it takes someone who does see them to point them out. Because all of us have them. If you have never given your life to Christ I guarantee you there is a blind spot in your life. There’s something that you have not been able to see as of yet that will allow you to make this particular choice to follow Christ. Today could be the day that you open your eyes for the first time to the gospel.
ADMIT YOU ARE A SINNER. CLAIM FORGIVENESS. WALK WITH JESUS.
