THE SHUFFLE MAN - FROM PILLAR TO POST - THE MAN BORN BLIND
CHARACTERS OF JOHN'S GOSPEL - THE MAN BORN BLIND John 9
This interesting character is unnamed and we know him only as “a man born blind”. His road of faith was a unique one, where some of the time, he did not know what was happening. However Jesus knew, and had His hand on him the whole time. In dealing with this story, I think we will approach it as one narrative.
John 9 v 1 As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth, John 9:2 and His disciples asked Him saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?” John 9:3 Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents, but it was in order that the works of God might be displayed in him. John 9:4 We must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day. Night is coming when no man can work. John 9:5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
There were many beggars on the streets in Jesus’ time and the disciples must have noticed them in their travels, but this particular one caught their attention. It was Jesus who first saw the man, but it was the disciples who were curious. Their question probably reflected the idea of the day that blindness was a result of someone’s sin. They just did not know whose sin it was, so they asked Jesus. I don’t think they were thinking too well because one part of the question suggested it might have been the man’s sin that caused him to be born blind. How do you sin before you are born? They did not think that through.
The answer that Jesus gave dismissed any such stupid thought. This man’s blindness was in the special will of God that God’s glory would become evident. Works that honour God are those that glorify God. How do we glorify God? We do His works! The Lord’s mission was to do the works of God, and one of those was to heal the blind man. What Jesus meant by night coming when no one could work, means He had these few years to do all the Father had given Him to do. Day was to be a short period for the Lord. Then came the statement of one of the 8 great I AMs of John’s gospel – “I am the light of the world”. As the Light of the World, Jesus can touch any darkness in anyone’s life. If you pour a whole lot of darkness into light it is eaten up. If you pour a whole lot of light into darkness it overcomes the darkness.
John 9 v 6 When He had said this, He spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle, and applied the clay to his eyes, John 9:7 and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent), and so he went away and washed, and came back seeing.
We have here the means of the man’s miracle. It was from clay that man was made, and it is through clay this man is given sight. What was it that actually healed this blind man? Was it the application of the clay, or the washing in the pool of Siloam? Well, strictly speaking, it was neither. It was obedience that gave sight to the man. Obedience is a key work in serving God. In fact there is probably no greater word in Christian service. The blind man obeyed the Lord, just as Naaman eventually did. The man was able to see for the first time what the world actually looked like, but the important thing is that his spiritual eyes were opened. Physical sight is useless when a person walks in spiritual darkness. Spiritual darkness leads to hell, and that is eternal, while physical sight on earth is temporary.
John 9 v 8 The neighbours therefore, and those who previously saw him as a beggar were saying, “Is not this the one who used to sit and beg?” John 9:9 Others were saying, “This is he,” and still others were saying, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the one.” John 9:10 Therefore they were saying to him, “How then were your eyes opened?” John 9:11 He answered, “The man who is called Jesus made clay, and anointed my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam, and wash’, so I went away and washed, and I received sight.” John 9:12 They said to him, “Where is He?” He said, “I do not know.”
We now have the curious, or busybody neighbours. Everyone wanted to throw in an opinion. There was a reluctance to accept the man’s testimony. The world never wants to accept the testimony of a believer. The world is hostile to true followers of Christ. Worldlings can say what they want but let a Christian these days quote from the bible, and like a ton of bricks, it falls down on the believer. Imagine that blind man looking into the faces of his questioners. What would he make of it? The man could only recount what He knew but it did not satisfy the neighbours. Persecution can start early for some people once they are converted. This happens in many cultures. The traditional Greeks will not tolerate a person leaving the Greek Orthodox Church. The Moslem world will persecute and murder converts. It is not much better in Hinduism, Masons and Jehovah Witnesses.
John 9 v 13 They brought him who was formerly blind to the Pharisees. John 9:14 Now it was a Sabbath on the day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. John 9:15 Again, therefore, the Pharisees also were asking him how he received his sight and he said to them, “He applied clay to my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” John 9:16 Therefore some of the Pharisees were saying, “This man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath,” but others were saying, “How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?” and there was a division among them. John 9:17 They said therefore to the blind man again, “What do you say about Him since He opened your eyes?” and he said, “He is a prophet.”
Now we go to the heavyweights, the Pharisees. This poor man could be in no worse place. These Pharisees, the hypocrites, would not accept any miracle from God, especially if it was associated with Jesus of Nazareth. They grilled him, not to discover the miracle of his sight, but to find any sort of evidence to condemn Jesus. It was not truth they were after. These Pharisees were no better than today’s evolutionists who dismiss the multitudinous evidence of creation in order to believe a lie. They will sift creation to find something to hang their atheism on. They found it! Because an ape looks a bit like a man then man must have come from an ape. They are happy with that position because it dismisses God.
These Pharisees placed the legalism of the Sabbath above an unexplainable miracle. Their narrow hearts could not consider any alternative. They could not come to any agreement so they asked the man what he thought (v 17). The man had only ever been a beggar all his life, and learnt what he knew through his ears, but he had learnt enough to know that Jesus was a Prophet. He boldly declared that before this hostile elite of rationalism, and they did not like it. Nothing was equal with the Sabbath, and any great thing that may have happened was subservient to the Sabbath. In these days the Pharisees ruled with a Stalin-like grip on people.
John 9 v 18 The Jews therefore did not believe it of him that he had been blind and had received sight, until they called the parents of the very one who had received his sight, John 9:19 and questioned them saying, “Is this your son who you say was born blind? Then how does he now see?” John 9:20 His parents answered them and said, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind, John 9:21 but how he now sees, we do not know, or who opened his eyes, we do not know. Ask him. He is of age. He shall speak for himself.” John 9:22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Him to be Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue. John 9:23 For this reason his parents said, “He is of age. Ask him.”
Now that poor man had been rejected twice, once by neighbours, then by Pharisees. In the process of condemning the man, the Pharisees called his parents to gather extra evidence of a con job, or something that would accuse Jesus. The world is like that. It will hound and persecute the Christian to find something against him or her. It is an evil world. The passage shows us another trait of human societies – it is fear, a terrible motivation to conform to the world’s standards. The parents were willing to confirm that the man was their son, but they would go no further. Verse 22 is the reason why. The Pharisees had caused people to be afraid, the very same way that Communism works, and the same as what we now see in China. In fact fear is the main weapon used by totalitarian governments with their informer policy. It is becoming a tool in socialist governments also. People dob in “Christian gatherings” in China now hoping for some sort of reward from the anti-Christian government (and as of August 2020 get 12 000 dollars). This has always been at the basis of the fear culture where governments want conformity to their system. Nothing has changed. I just wonder if this same informer policy will operate in the Tribulation when the 666 comes in and Tribulation saints refuse the mark.
Well the parents, in fear, denied their son, passing the onus onto the man born blind. The parents were gutless to use an expression we know in Australia. “Ask him,” was the only defence they could give. This is the third rejection this man experienced.
John 9 v 24 A second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.” John 9:25 He therefore answered, “Whether He is a sinner, I do not know. One thing I do know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.”
Now we have a testimony from the man who was thrown back to the Pharisees. A testimony is where you truthfully tell what has transpired. These evil Pharisees were trying to force the man into a false statement, but he would have none of it. “Give God the glory,” they said to him, (but don’t give it to the man who alleged healed you). He is a sinner. This is so full of hypocrisy; it reeks with hypocrisy. They talk about giving glory to God and at the same time they blaspheme God in flesh among them. These hypocrites are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. They stink in God’s nostrils, to be blunt.
The man’s statement in verse 25 is an honest one. He knew his sight was given to him and he knew a prophet had done that for him. Whether that miracle worker was a sinner or not, he did not know. This is his genuine understanding. He had never seen Jesus with physical eyes, and knew nothing about Him. It is like a bad sinner getting converted and all he knows about Jesus, is that he is saved through Jesus. He does not know all that theological stuff – that comes later. All that a sinner knows at the start, is that God has saved him from destruction.
John 9 v 26 They said therefore to him, “What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes?” John 9:27 He answered them, “I told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? You do not want to become His disciples too, do you?” John 9:28 They reviled him and said, “You are His disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. John 9:29 We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where He is from.”
The grueling continues. They wanted to go over it all again. Now the man is becoming brave, I think helped by God. His answer is a real classic to these evil God-rejecters – “You do not want to become His disciples too, do you?” Everyone was afraid of the Pharisees, but not this man. At that, they reviled him. It means they insulted him, cursed him, called him everything. Their noble declaration that they were disciples of Moses, was just not true. They are liars. They are the false shepherds the Old Testament often speaks about. Moses would have condemned or disowned them. Verse 29 begins with a correct statement – “We know that God has spoken to Moses”, but then their ignorance of the prophetic scriptures comes to the fore. They say they do not know where “this man” (Jesus) comes from, but had they known the Old Testament scriptures, then they would have known, and would have realised. It was Saul of Tarsus who argued in the synagogues against the Jews proving to them from the scriptures that the Lord Jesus Christ was the Messiah, and Paul himself was once a Pharisee of the Pharisees.
John 9 v 30 The man answered and said to them, “Well, here is an amazing thing that you do not know where He is from, and yet He opened my eyes. John 9:31 We know that God does not hear sinners but if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He hears him. John 9:32 Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. John 9:33 If this man were not from God, He could do nothing.” John 9:34 They answered and said to him, “You were born entirely in sins, and are you teaching us?” and they put him out.
What a sermon we have here! From where did this man get the insight and bravery? It was through the Holy Spirit even though He had not yet been given. Verse 31 is remarkable. “We know that God does not hear sinners but if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He hears him.” Then follow another two remarkable verses – “Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, He could do nothing.” Wonderful stuff! Who had ever upbraided the Pharisees before, except Jesus Himself? No one. They hated it. They were not going to be exposed, and because they hated the message, they attacked the messenger. They would go all the way to hell attacking the messengers and in the future will stand before God’s Great White Throne. It is sad that Satan has blinded their eyes. Spiritual blindness is damning.
In verse 34 they said something really terrible to the man. “Entirely born in sins” meant they were calling him a bastard born of the worst whore of a woman. Well never mind. They called the Lord a sinner and a drunkard and a glutton. They attach the word “homophobic” to Israel Folau. What does God say about all this? 1Peter 4 v 14 If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. Matthew 5 v 11 Blessed are you when men cast insults at you, and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely on account of Me.
John 9 v 35 Jesus heard that they had put him out, and finding him, He said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” John 9:36 He answered and said, “And who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?” John 9:37 Jesus said to him, “You have both seen Him, and He is the One who is talking with you,” John 9:38 and he said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshipped Him.
Now at last the man and Jesus meet in full sight and the former blind man could look into the face of the One who cured him with 20/20 vision. “Turn your eyes upon Jesus; look full in His wonderful face; and the things of earth will grow strangely dim; in the light of His glory and grace.” The knowledge of this very new convert is growing and he now understands Jesus as the Son of Man. I was a little curious why Jesus used “Son of Man” which is more the name in Luke’s gospel associated with His humanity. John is the gospel of the “Son of God”. Maybe it has something to do with identifying with the blind man in his former physical handicap; the compassionate humanity of Jesus reaching out. Verse 38 is wonderful for he believed and worshipped. After four rejections the man found acceptance in the Lord Jesus.
John 9 v 39 Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.” John 9:40 Those of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these things, and said to Him, “We are not blind too, are we?” John 9:41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin but since you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.
Now seeing and blindness are contrasted. These verses may seem a bit strange but this is what they mean. We are going to talk in a spiritual sense here. Those who say they can see, do not recognise their blindness before God. A person must come to God knowing he is undone and without any worthwhile quality for salvation. In other words, he is blind to spiritual life and dwells in darkness. The one who recognises he is in darkness, that is he blind before God, that one will see, for he can be converted and have the light of life. If a person does not recognise his lost state before God, then he has not even started on the road to salvation.
If you have never given your life to Jesus Christ, do so right now. Repent of sin and receive Him into your life. Then you will have spiritual sight.
ronaldf@aapt.net.au
