John 9:1-41 – Jesus opens the eyes of the blind
Student who went around college blind-folded for a day
Had a lot more empathy for someone who was blind after that experience
Being blind would be a terrible handicap to have, not being able to witness the creation, limited in getting around etc
But there is a condition much worse than being spiritually blind and that is spiritual blindness
The sad part about spiritual blindness is that the person doesn’t realise they are blind
If you ask a physically blind person if they realise they are blind and they will say yes
If you were to ask someone who is spiritually blind if they realise they are blind, instead of saying “yes”, you would probably end up with a fight on your hands
In the story we are going to look at today, this is exactly the scenario
Right from the start, this story is a set up
In fact this man was born blind in order that Jesus could make this very point
John 9:1-41 As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. 2 “Teacher,” his disciples asked him, “why was this man born blind? Was it a result of his own sins or those of his parents?”
In a judgmental society, this is what happens. If someone is sick he must have sinned or his parents did
Ancient paths
Sins can cause sickness – alcoholism does destroy livers, porking out on wrong foods will make you sick, illicit sex can result in terrible diseases etc
But to arbitrarily attribute sickness to a sinful lifestyle is not biblically correct
As we know today, many things cause sickness – genes, accidents, lifestyle
Jesus adds another reason to the list of what may cause sin
3 “It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “He was born blind so the power of God could be seen in him.
God is sovereign – he can choose to do what he chooses in order to bring glory to him
In this case he was using the circumstances to try to show the Pharisees they were spiritually blind
4 All of us must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent me, because there is little time left before the night falls and all work comes to an end. 5 But while I am still here in the world, I am the light of the world.”
Introduces the concept of Him being the light of the world
There is no other source for light – not anything else, not the law – nothing can bring us true spiritual light
6 Then he spit on the ground, made mud with the saliva, and smoothed the mud over the blind man’s eyes. 7 He told him, “Go and wash in the pool of Siloam” (Siloam means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came back seeing!
8 His neighbors and others who knew him as a blind beggar asked each other, “Is this the same man—that beggar?” 9 Some said he was, and others said, “No, but he surely looks like him!”
And the beggar kept saying, “I am the same man!”
He was hard to recognise because our eyes are powerful means of communicating
Eyes are our window to the world
Important to teach our kids to look people in the eye
10 They asked, “Who healed you? What happened?”
11 He told them, “The MAN they call Jesus made mud and smoothed it over my eyes and told me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam and wash off the mud.’ I went and washed, and now I can see!”
12 “Where is he now?” they asked.“I don’t know,” he replied.
13 Then they took the man to the Pharisees.
This is great, let’s tell the minister
14 Now as it happened, Jesus had healed the man on a Sabbath.
Uh oh! – there goes the celebration
15 The Pharisees asked the man all about it. So he told them, “He smoothed the mud over my eyes, and when it was washed away, I could see!”
16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man Jesus is not from God, for he is working on the Sabbath.”
Again here is evidence of the setup
One has to ask the question here, did Jesus deliberately provoke this confrontation?
Could have healed the man any other day, could have just spoken the word, but he deliberately makes a paste of the mud and places it on the man’s eyes
He deliberately did work in order to provoke this confrontation
Earlier we talked about God’s sovereignty – as the Creator, He has the right to do what he will with his creation
Well in the same way, Jesus as Lord of the Sabbath has every right to do what he wants on his Sabbath – including work
John 5:16-18 For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath.17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.”18 Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.
We never question the second half of the statement about Jesus claiming to be God, but we sure don’t believe this first part of the statement that he was breaking the Sabbath
Others said, “But how could an ordinary sinner do such miraculous signs?” So there was a deep division of opinion among them.
17 Then the Pharisees once again questioned the man who had been blind and demanded, “This man who opened your eyes—who do you say he is?”
The man replied, “I think he must be a PROPHET.”
18 The Jewish leaders wouldn’t believe he had been blind, so they called in his parents. 19 They asked them, “Is this your son? Was he born blind? If so, how can he see?”
20 His parents replied, “We know this is our son and that he was born blind, 21 but we don’t know how he can see or who healed him. He is old enough to speak for himself. Ask him.” 22 They said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who had announced that anyone saying Jesus was the Messiah would be expelled from the synagogue. 23 That’s why they said, “He is old enough to speak for himself. Ask him.”
24 So for the second time they called in the man who had been blind and told him, “Give glory to God by telling the truth, because we know Jesus is a sinner.”
25 “I don’t know whether he is a sinner,” the man replied. “But I know this: I was blind, and now I can see!”
26 “But what did he do?” they asked. “How did he heal you?”
27 “Look!” the man exclaimed. “I told you once. Didn’t you listen? Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?”
That has to be an inspired question, because it forced them to choose
28 Then they cursed him and said, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. 29 We know God spoke to Moses, but as for this man, we don’t know anything about him.”
Notice the line that was drawn in the sand
This was a confrontation between the old and the new
Between Moses and Jesus
Up to this point the Pharisees were undecided about this Jesus, but when confronted with this question of choosing between being a disciple of Moses or the disciple of Jesus, that was the last straw
30 (Sarcastically) “Why, that’s very strange!” the man replied. “He healed my eyes, and yet you don’t know anything about him!
You claim to be the spiritual guides of the people, yet you don’t know anything about this obvious man of God
31 Well, God doesn’t listen to sinners, but he is ready to hear those who worship him and do his will.
Jesus’ will in this story was for the old ways to be replaced by the new – to embrace Jesus as the true source of light, to no longer worship the old but the new
His will had changed with the introduction of the NC
Notice also the characteristic of those whose prayers God listens to – those who are worshipful of Him and those who do His will
That is the type of disciples we are trying to make in our church – those who are worshipful and do God’s will
Notice also it says God is ready to hear, not always does what we ask
32 Never since the world began has anyone been able to open the eyes of someone born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he couldn’t do it.”
34 “You were born in sin!” they answered. “Are you trying to teach us?” And they threw him out of the synagogue.
Like I said at the beginning, you are more likely to have a fight on your hands than get an admission you are spiritually blind
35 When Jesus heard what had happened, he found the man and said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
This is the question all of us need to be asking ourselves, “Do we really believe in the Son of Man?”
Do we really? Let me ask it another way? Do we believe in the Lord of the Sabbath or the Sabbath?
The point of the Mosaic Covenant Sabbath was to point us to the Lord of the Sabbath
Because Jesus said, “come to me all you who are weary and I will give you rest”
Was Jesus talking about physical rest or spiritual rest?
He is the true spiritual rest. All the Mosaic Sabbath can give us is physical rest, only the Lord of the Sabbath can give us “Spiritual rest”
The Mosaic Covenant was designed to bring us to Jesus
Once we have him, the usefulness of the guide is finished
Once we find the reality, there is no longer any need for the shadow (Col 2:17)
Have we ditched the Mosaic covenant and truly accepted Jesus Christ and his total package
Notice now the attitude of the blind man in responding to this question
36 The man answered, “Who is he, sir, because I would like to.”
Are we reluctant to want to know Jesus because of our past experience
Do we want to get up close and personal with our Lord and Savior
37 “You have seen him,” Jesus said, “and he is speaking to you!”
38 “Yes, LORD,” the man said, “I believe!” And he worshiped Jesus.
God does not want a relationship with us through the Mosaic Law. He wants it face to face
39 Then Jesus told him, “I have come to judge the world. I have come to give sight to the blind AND TO SHOW THOSE WHO THINK THEY SEE THAT THEY ARE BLIND.”
Again, what kind of sight is Jesus talking about here – physical sight or spiritual sight?
Two parts to the second part of this mission – to give sight to those who know they are spiritually blind, and second, to show those who think they have spiritual sight that they are also blind
Its the second part of this mission that has happened to our church – we thought we had spiritual sight, but in reality we were blind as bats
Thank God he saved us
Some people stand in awe of the miracle of physical healing which is great, but Jesus doesn’t even mention the physical healing – He is more concerned with spiritual healing
The greatest miracle anyone can experience is to receive spiritual sight - salvation
And it can only come one way – the way the Pharisees rejected – through Jesus
That ought to make us all stop and think
Are our eyes wide open seeking to know Jesus with all or heart, or are we smug like the Pharisees in thinking we already know the truth and don’t know Jesus
40 The Pharisees who were standing there heard him and asked, “Are you saying we are blind?”
this is the clincher
are you saying we great men of God’s word who know Moses back to front are blind
41 “If you were blind, you wouldn’t be guilty,” Jesus replied. “But you remain guilty because you claim you can see.
They could not claim the sin of ignorance because they knew better
Their sin was one of spiritual pride – they had seen one of the most spectacular miracles Jesus performed, God gave them a sermon about their blindness through the healed blind man, they heard Jesus speak to them directly about their blindness, yet they made a deliberate choice to continue in their old ways
What a shame – they preferred to stumble along in the darkness ignoring the One who could give them sight
That is the equivalent of turning down an offer of giving sight to a blind man – no I would rather continue along in my dark world crashing into things
2 Cor 3:12-18
This chapter is a comparison between the Old and the NC
2 Corinthians 3:12-18 Since this new covenant gives us such confidence, we can be very bold. 13 We are not like Moses, who put a veil over his face so the people of Israel would not see the glory fading away. 14 But the people’s minds were hardened, and even to this day whenever the old covenant is being read, a veil covers their minds so they cannot understand the truth. And this veil can be removed only by believing in Christ. 15 Yes, even today when they read Moses’ writings, their hearts are covered with that veil, and they do not understand.
16 But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, then the veil is taken away. 17 Now, the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, he gives freedom. 18 And all of us have had that veil removed so that we can be mirrors that brightly reflect the glory of the Lord. And as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him and reflect his glory even more.
My job as a pastor is to pry you loose from the Mosaic covenant and hook you onto Jesus Christ
Some of you are making yourselves miserable hanging onto the baggage of the past
As this verse says, if we insist on hanging onto that baggage a veil remains over your eyes
Believing and accepting Jesus, falling down in worship of him and doing his will is the way to remove that veil
Has the question ever occurred to you that keeping the Mosaic Law is not His will any longer
He was telling the Pharisees, I don’t want you to be disciples of Moses any longer, but disciples of me
We have got to be very careful we are not taking a similar stand as the Pharisees did in this story and think we see when in reality we are blind
Paul himself went through a similar experience to what we did
“Why do you kick against the goads?”
All I’m doing is pleading with you is to “just try it”
Let go of the past and embrace the new
The more we embrace Jesus and the NC the more we come to realise how unnecessary the requirements of Mosaic Law are
Jesus is sufficient
There’s not a big risk, you can always go back, but as Paul says, why would you want to go back to shadows after tasting of the reality
We would be an unstoppable church if we embraced Jesus Christ’s covenant the same way as we embraced the Mosaic covenant
God has performed a wonderful miracle in our church – he has given us spiritual sight by removing the veil from our eyes and truly introducing us to Jesus Christ
Lets accept the gift of spiritual sight with gladness and embrace Jesus Christ the light of the world
