May 26, 2002 John 9:1-12; 35-38
“Mud pies and miracles”
INTRODUCTION
I want you to do something for me. I want you to close your eyes. Now, imagine yourself going about your daily activities this way. The alarm goes off tomorrow morning, but your sudden blindness does not prevent you from being able to smack the snooze button. You’ve been doing that in the dark for as long as you can remember. You go to the dresser or the closet to pick out your clothes for the day, but since you can’t see, you can’t tell the color of the clothes you picked out. For all you know, you may be wearing two different colors of socks or an orange scarf with a red blouse. I’ve seen some people who looked like they couldn’t see when they got dressed in the morning. As your vacuuming that afternoon, you hear a screech and a “thwooop”, and you start to wonder, “Did I just vacuum up the cat?” At dinner that night, the kids take one bite of the meal that you prepared and notice that it tastes a little funny. “Mom, are you sure that can was tuna and not cat food?” Now imagine yourself trying to do your job without being able to see. [pharmacist, traveling salesman behind the wheel, teacher] Now open your eyes. Some of you may need to punch your neighbor in the shoulder to wake him up.
In doing this, I in no way intended to poke fun at people who are blind. But I wanted you, for just a minute, to imagine what your life would be like if you had never been able to see and were suddenly granted the miracle of sight. That is exactly what happened in the life of a man that John tells us about in John chapter 9.
In this chapter, John tells us about two different groups of people. The first group is represented by a man who was physically blind. He knew that he was blind. He longed for someone to work a miracle in his life and take away his blindness. The other group is represented by the Pharisees – the religious leaders in Jesus’ day. They were blind spiritually but were unaware of their blindness. They had no desire for Jesus to do anything in their lives. They did not need a miracle, at least that’s what they thought. We only have time this morning to deal with the man who was ready for a miracle, so we will deal with the other group next week.
There’s a reason that we have come to this passage of Scripture today. I believe that there are blind people in this church today. No, I don’t mean that you couldn’t see the sunshine as you drove in this morning, or that you couldn’t see the words in the song sheet as we sang the songs. But there are other things that you cannot see. Some of you cannot see how much God loves you. Some of you cannot see the extent of your sin that makes you so unworthy of that love. Some of you cannot see a way out of a situation that you have gotten yourself into. Some of you cannot see any hope for tomorrow. Some of you have or are getting ready to make some decisions about the direction of your life, and you are blind to the pain that those decisions will bring to you and the people that surround you. Right now, you’re stumbling along, and you’re getting all bruised up because of all the things and people that you’re bumping into along the way.
Do you believe that Jesus can take away your blindness? Jesus is the Light of the world. He can cause you to see. But that depends on another question. Do you want Jesus to take away your blindness? Let’s take a look at how a miracle happened in the man that Jesus encountered that day. By the time that we get done this morning, my goal is that you, like him, will be able to say, “I once was blind, but now, I can see!”
1. Some people are blind to the cause for their blindness – “who sinned?”
A birth is normally such a wonderful experience in the life of a family. Expectant parents anticipate that day and all the joy that will come along with it. After the labor pains are over, and dad has cut the umbilical cord, mother holds the baby for the first time. All the months of nausea and the aching back and sore feat seem so small in comparison to the joy that they now feel as they hold their child. But this time, something had gone wrong. Mom was the first to notice that there was a problem. She went to her husband and voiced her fears. “Honey, have you noticed that Johnny just has that blank stare when he looks at you? When I walk into the room and stand over him, he doesn’t even react to my presence until I say something. Is there something wrong?” Dad just tells her that she’s an over-protective mother with her first child. There’s nothing wrong. This was the child that they had prayed for. How could there be anything wrong? And yet, in the back of his mind, there was something gnawing at him, things that he had noticed. He kept telling himself that things would get better. But they didn’t. Finally, there was no way to deny it. Their son was blind.
The boy grew into a man. His blindness prevented him from doing the things that seeing people took for granted. He couldn’t understand their world, and they couldn’t understand his. But he learned to cope. Never having seen, he didn’t know what he was missing, so that helped to dull the pain of the blindness a little bit. But it didn’t help to dull the pain of the accusations. He had never gotten over the way that people talked to him and his parents. They were so judgmental. Maybe he heard the question that Jesus’ disciples asked of him on the day recorded in John 9.
“Who sinned?” Every time he heard that question, it sent chills up his spine. “Their blaming me for something that happened even before I was born!? How could it be my fault? And their attacking my parents! I love my parents so much! How dare they say those things about my parents when they don’t even know them. If I could see to punch their lights out, I would!” But somebody had to be at fault, didn’t they? And I must be at fault somehow because the bad thing has happened to me.
Bad things like this just don’t happen for no reason. Right? My marriage is or has broken up, so I must have been a bad spouse. I got beat up by my dad, so I must have been a bad kid. I lost my job, so I must have been a bad employee. My kids have rebelled against God and are in trouble with the law, so I must have been a bad parent.
Everything that happens in our lives has a reason behind it. There are at least 4 reasons for the things that happen to us. They are sin, Satan, sanctification, and to show. Repeat those after me ¡V sin, Satan, sanctification and to show. [I don’t usually like to use big words like sanctification, but it was the only s word that I could think of.]
Sin - There are problems that you go through in your life that are created by the sinful actions that you involve yourself in. When a woman gets pregnant by a man that she is not married to, the pregnancy is a result of sin. (Gal 6:7-8a NIV) Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; . . . If you choose to live a life of sin, then you will have to deal with the painful consequences of that sin.
In this category, I would also include bad choices. Not all bad choices are sinful, but all sins are bad choices. If I choose to go out here and buy a car that costs $40,000 with an interest rate of 11% for a loan duration of 8 years, I would consider that to be a pretty bad choice. It may or may not be sinful depending on what my motivation was for buying that vehicle. But regardless, I will be reaping the consequences of that decision for at least 8 years if not longer. Sometimes the pain that we face is a result of our own actions. That’s why the Psalmist said in (Psa 139:23-24 KJV) Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. The first thing that I need to do when there is pain in my life that I don¡¦t understand is to search my own heart and life to discover whether or not I have caused my pain through my sin or my own bad choices. If there is sin, then Jesus offers forgiveness. If I have made bad choices, then I can do as Paul did and leave the past behind, learn from my mistakes and find wisdom from God to not repeat the same mistakes.
Satan - Satan is the enemy of Jesus Christ. Since we as Christians have declared our allegiance to Jesus, that makes Satan our enemy too. Satan hates you and me, and he is going to do everything he can to weaken us in our faith and make us miserable. I believe with all my heart that there is a spiritual battle that takes place every day all around us. (Eph 6:12 KJV) For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Ask yourself, “This thing that I’m going through - is it an attack from Satan? Are Satan and his forces using it to try and make me ineffective in my walk with Christ and cause me to stumble?” If the answer is yes, then you need to make sure that you have on the armor of God spoken of in Eph 6:13ff. The Bible says in James 4:7b “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
Sanctification - Sanctification is the process that we go through in life that makes us more and more like Jesus. It is a purifying process. One of our most favorite verses is (Rom 8:28-29 NIV) And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son . . . The things that we go through in life, good and bad, will allow God to break us, melt us, mold us and shape us into that beautiful artwork that He originally intended for us to be. Sometimes that can only happen through pain. (Prov 17:3 NIV) The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but the LORD tests the heart. Just as gold is purified through fire, so we must be purified through trials that God allows into our lives.
To Show - There are times that God brings pain into our lives to show us and the world that He is the one who is all-powerful, worthy of all the praise and glory, and that we are totally dependent on Him. Do you remember the story of Job? In one day, Job lost all his money, all ten of his kids, all of his possessions, all of his friends, and the support of his wife. On the very next day, he lost his health. His suffering fits into a few categories here. The attacker that brought about his suffering was Satan. God used the attack to purify Job and show him some areas of his life that needed some cleaning. But the original cause of the attack was that God wanted to show Satan that there were people who loved Him so much and were so committed to Him that they would continue to serve Him even when God took His hand of protection away from them. Satan saw, and God received glory. In Paul’s life, God brought some type of physical problem on him, and asked the Lord to take it away. God refused, telling him that God’s grace was sufficient for him. God gave Paul this pain to show him that no matter how far he came in his spirituality and no matter how much he was able to accomplish for God, he was always totally dependent on God’s grace and power to successfully live the Christian life. Sometimes God brings pain to show us our weakness without Him and to show the world His glory.
That was the case in the life of the blind man that Jesus encountered that day. Look at the last part of verse 3 [read it]. Had he not been born blind, then there would have been no opportunity for Jesus to work a miracle in his life, and there would have been no display of God’s power.
Probably nobody else’s mind works the same way mine does. But just in case someone else here is thinking a question that this passage brings up to me, let me voice this question. Does it seem fair that this man should have to go through his whole life up to this point being blind just so Jesus could work a miracle? Did Jesus cause the problem just so He could fix it later and say, “Look what I did!”? That would be the equivalent of a firefighter setting a fire just so that he could get the glory to himself for putting it out! They put firefighters in jail for doing things like that!
Let me answer this question with two thoughts. In the first chapter of the book of Colossians, Paul marvels at Jesus’ role in the creation of the universe. In verse 17 of that passage, he says, “in Him [in Jesus] all things hold together.” What he is saying there is that Jesus not only created the world, but He actively is working to make sure that it holds together and that everything functions just as it should. When a baby is born, and every digit is there, and everything seems to be working perfectly, that is no accident. God did that. But sometimes, God chooses to take away His hand on one particular aspect of that birth. He allows something to go off on its own, and a deformity happens such as this man’s blindness. Jesus did not cause this man’s pain just so that he could heal it later. He allowed it to happen by removing his hand from that portion of the man’s development.
Secondly, we need to remember that we, as individuals, are only a small part of God’s big plan. Look at verses 3-5 [read them]. In these verses, Jesus is talking about the fact that He came to earth to accomplish a mission in a very limited amount of time. This man’s blindness and the miracle that it afforded played a part in Jesus’ fulfillment of His mission. We, as humans, are not pawns on God’s chessboard, but we are soldiers in His army. We have to keep in perspective that there is more to life than just us. If God can accomplish the salvation of 100’s of people through the way that I deal with the suffering that He allows into my life, then bring on the pain. Or even if God can open the eyes of just one person through the miracle that He works in my life, then I’m going to rejoice.
How do you respond to a need, a hurt, a pain in your life? Can I make a suggestion. Respond to it with joy, because a need is an opportunity for God to work a miracle. A need is an opportunity for God to show His power in your life and in His world.
2. Some people are blind to the solution for their blindness (vs. 4-7)
One of the most important factors in this man’s life that was necessary in order for him to receive healing from his blindness and experience a miracle in his life was humility.
Maybe that man overheard the short conversation between Jesus and His disciples. He heard the stinging accusation of the disciples and he heard some other words of Jesus that he didn’t fully understand. Then he heard someone spit on the ground. That was nothing new. People often spit at him for his attempts to beg money off of them. But then he felt something. He felt Jesus touching him and smearing mud all over his eyes.
Now I know that mud baths are the “in” thing as far as spas and health clubs go. But I doubt that very many of you would step down into a pool of mud or allow that mud to be applied to your body if you knew that the liquid used to make that mud was saliva! How gross!
After Jesus finished applying that mud to his eyes, He told the man to go wash his eyes in the Pool of Siloam. As I thought about this passage, I began to wonder why the man obeyed Jesus. There is no record in the text that Jesus promised the man that if he allowed Jesus to put mud on his eyes and go wash, that he would receive his sight. For him to journey to the pool would mean great risk. Jesus and this man were probably near the temple inside the walls of Jerusalem. The Pool of Siloam is outside the walls. It would have been a relatively long journey for the man. The man was usually very careful and slow in his journeys, but his excitement about the possibility of seeing would have caused him to move a little faster than was safe for him. He did not know what he might face along the journey. There were bandits outside the wall. People would see him along the way and laugh at him. “Ha, ha! Look at the blind man. Somebody is making fun of him by putting mud on his eyes! What a joke!” But he didn’t let them stop him. He got a lot of bumps and bruises along the way, but he made it to the pool of Siloam. What made him go? I think the thing that made him go and endure all the risks and all the ridicule was the gentle loving touch of Jesus. No one had touched him with such love and kindness in so very long. They had all avoided him. But Jesus touched him. Somewhere deep inside him, he knew that anyone who could look past what others saw and love him enough to touch him that way could only have good in store for him. Look at what happened at the end of verse 7. [Read it].
If you were to go back and examine all the healings that Jesus did in the Scriptures, you would discover some interesting facts. One is that in almost every instance, there was physical touch between Jesus and the person who needed healing. Jesus wanted to get intimately involved in the lives and the pain of the persons that He loved. A second thing that you would discover is that Jesus sometimes healed immediately, and other times, He healed through a process. Finally, in every case, faith in Jesus resulting in action was always necessary before healing could come. Jesus could have healed this man’s eyes immediately, but He put mud on them and told him to go wash. Why? Because the going and the washing was an evidence of the faith that the man had in Jesus.
A few moments ago, I said that one of the most important factors necessary for this man’s healing was his humility. He had to allow Jesus to touch him in the most sensitive part of his body and do whatever He wanted to do there even if it was humiliating. He had to allow Jesus to smear mud all over his eyes. If you desire healing in your life, then you have to be willing to humbly come to God and allow Him to touch your life in those most sensitive areas that no one else is allowed to touch. It may be humiliating. It may be painful. But you must allow Jesus to touch you. You see, it is those areas of your life that you have been resisting his touch that have been creating the pain for you. If you don’t allow Jesus to touch there, He can’t heal you.
This man also showed humility through his obedience. He, like the servants in the miracle that we studied last week, was willing to do whatever Jesus told him to do. In our pain, in our blinding pain, we want healing from the hurt, and we want it now. We’ve endured the pain long enough. But Jesus comes to us and says, “I’m sorry. I can’t heal you yet. I can’t take away the blindness yet. You haven’t done what I told you to do yet. Your faith isn’t strong enough to cause you to obey me.” And we say, “But Lord, what have you told me to do that I’m not doing?” Let’s start with these:
(Exo 20:1-3 NIV) And God spoke all these words: "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. "You shall have no other gods before me.” I can’t even allow my own comfort to be my God. Have I been serving God faithfully even in the middle of my pain?
(Mat 5:44 NIV) But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, Do you love those who have created your pain? Have you prayed for them?
(Rom 12:19-20 NIV) Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. Do you seek the destruction of your pain-giver, or do you actively work toward their comfort?
(Phil 4:4 NIV) Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! What is your attitude toward the Lord right now?
(1 Th 5:18 NIV) give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Have you thanked the Lord for the situation that you are going through and are you allowing your pain to make you better instead of letting it make you bitter?
Be faithful to God when He has allowed so much pain in my life? You’ve got to be crazy. Pray for the guy who fired me? You’re nuts! Reach out to the man who ruined our marriage when she leaves him too? No way! I’m going to be rubbing it in his face. Rejoice that I don’t have the money to pay the rent? Give thanks that my child is facing surgery that might end his life? Those all sound ridiculous don’t they? But they are all tests of the amount of faith that we have in Jesus Christ. We have faith that He can heal us. That’s great. But do we have enough faith to do what He requires us to do? “But I don’t want to do anything! I just want to sit here and let God heal me!” It doesn’t work that way. You have to humbly allow Jesus to touch you in those most sensitive areas of your life, and you must humbly obey whatever He tells you to do.
It is humility that opens the door to God’s working. It is pride that stands in the way of Him working. It is our pride that gets mad at God for allowing suffering into our lives. It is our pride that tells God that He has made a mistake – that He has no right to give us cancer, to take a loved one, to allow us to lose our job or to let our marriage fall apart. What gives God the right to do those things? He is God! That’s what gives him the right! Who are you to accuse God of messing up! And who are you to refuse to do what God says for you to do until God meets your demands?!
The book of 1 Kings tells the story of Naaman – an army commander who had the dreaded disease of leprosy. God offered him healing if he would come and wash 7 times in the Jordan River. At first, Naaman refused. His pride wouldn’t let him stoop to washing in the muddy waters of the Jordan. But then because of the humble pleas of a servant girl, he went and washed, and he was healed. His pride almost prevented a miracle. His pride almost caused his death. Don’t let that be true of you.
Jesus placed a requirement on the blind man. He told him to go and wash in the Pool of Siloam. Couldn’t he have made it a little easier? There were other places that he could have washed that were closer by. The level of difficulty showed the level of faith. But look at the result again. Vs. 7b “. . . so the man went and washed, and came home seeing.” He did what Jesus told him to do, and he was healed. Some of you haven’t received healing yet because you haven’t obeyed, and you haven’t been washed.
3. Some people are blind to the working of God to heal their blindness. (vs. 35-38)
What seems amazing to me about this whole event in the life of the blind man is that the miracle occurred in his life before he ever knew who Jesus was. Prior to the events of vs. 35, all that he knew was that a man who had put mud on his eyes, told him to go and wash in the pool, and now, he could see. Finally, here, he realizes who Jesus is. And look at how he responds when he realizes who Jesus is. [read vs. 38] Jesus had been working in this man’s life for a long time without the man even realizing it. Even before he was born, God had a plan for him. God had been working. And throughout his life, God had been working – placing people in his life who could teach him the truths of God’s Word, putting him in a place just outside the temple where he could hear the spiritual discussions of the people and wonder at their worship. And He waited until this point in the man’s life to bring all that working to the climactic moment of a miracle.
“It is possible to be touched by God and not know Him. It goes on everyday, and everywhere…The fortunate [people] are the ones who [in response to the working of God in their lives choose to] seek Him out, to find out more about Him...to get to know Him...and the power of His resurrection.” – sermon by Clark Tanner God is working in each of your lives. You may not recognize it as His working. It may just seem like the ordinary birth of a child or an insignificant change in jobs or just another sunrise. But each of those of events is an evidence that God is working in you to open your eyes to His love toward you and your responsibility toward Him. Right now, He may be using pain to open your eyes. How intense is the pain going to have to get before you will respond to what God wants you to see?
CONCLUSION
I want everyone to bow your heads and close your eyes. Most of you in this room have accepted Jesus Christ as your savior. You have had your eyes opened to the fact that you are a sinner, that Jesus died to pay for your sin, and that without accepting that payment, you would die and spend eternity in hell. You’ve trusted your eternal soul to Jesus. But have you opened your eyes to the fact that you can trust Jesus with your everyday life? Have you trusted Him for today? Have you entrusted your finances to Him? Have you entrusted your job to Him? Have you entrusted your marriage to Him? Have you entrusted your kids to Him? Or are you still blind to the fact that He is the only one that can heal your pain in all those areas? In order to receive healing, you have to be obedient. Is it worth it to you?
In a moment, the music is going to begin to play, and I’m going to give you an opportunity to get rid of your blindness and allow Jesus to do the seeing for you. Do you really want Him to? If He does, He might show you some sin that needs confessing or some bad choices that need correcting. You will have to be willing to be thankful for your situation and commit to following Him with all your heart even when the pain is still with you. If you want healing and are willing to be obedient, then when we begin to sing, you come and kneel at this altar and let the Lord remove the mud from your eyes and wash you so that you too can go home seeing.
For some of you, the spiritual blindness has not yet been removed. You are still blinded to the fact that you need Jesus as your savior. The job of the Holy Spirit is to convict of your sin, to cause you to see yourself the way God sees you. Satan wants to keep you blinded. He wants to keep you begging for scraps, when the Father wants to give you an abundant supply. If you want to come and meet the Light of the world, Jesus, then you come to me. I’ll take God’ Word, the lamp unto my feet, and the light unto my path, and I’ll show you how Jesus can touch and change your life.
