Who Sinned? Series

"Opening the Eyes of the Blind" is our new sermon series starting today and for the next three weeks. We will explore John chapter 9 and the events surrounding Jesus bringing sight to a man who was born blind. Please, I encourage you to read ahead. Read the whole chapter and meditate on it. We will see that the real miracle was not the so much as the opening of the eyes as much as it was the opening of the heart.

We are acquainted with the saying, “There is none so blind as those who will not see.” We will see that there are many types of blindness. This chapters ties in very closely with John 8 where Jesus says:

John 8:12 (NKJV) Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”

Right off the bat we can see the relationship here. The world is walking in darkness. The word has been blinded.

2 Corinthians 4:4 (NKJV) whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.

The God of this age, Satan, has blinded the world. Only the light of Jesus, the light of gospel can open the eyes of those so blind. Today, we will deal with the spiritual blindness of the disciples. They ask Jesus a question out of ignorance about the blinded man. The question they asked is: "Who Sinned?"

John 9:1–5 (NKJV)

A minister, a Boy Scout, and a computer expert were the only passengers on a small plane. The pilot came back to the cabin and said that the plane was going down but there were only three parachutes and four people. The pilot added, "I should have one of the parachutes because I have a wife and three small children." So he took one and jumped. The computer whiz said, "I should have one of the parachutes because I am the smartest man in the world and everyone needs me." So he took one and jumped. The minister turned to the Boy Scout and with a sad smile said, "You are young and I have lived a rich life, so you take the remaining parachute, and I’ll go down with the plane." The Boy Scout said, "Relax, Reverend, the smartest man in the world just picked up my knapsack and jumped out! [1]

The fact is, the world is like that smartest man in the world. They only see what they want to see. They assume and miss the obvious. The disciples missed the obvious for the want of theological discussion. We will deal with the Pharisees later in the weeks to come, but the disciples were not seeing too clearly either:

John 9:1 (NKJV) Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth.

Jesus was walking through Jerusalem with his disciples and they came across this blind beggar. This blind man had been blind since birth and in that day the only thing a blind man could really be expected to do was beg for a living. It is obvious that this blind man was well know. People knew he was born blind, they knew his parents. This place where he begged was probably his place to beg and he had been begging in that spot for many years.

Being blind since birth conveyed a since of hopelessness. We read in verse 32 that no one born blind has ever had their eyes opened. In fact there is no OT record of anyone giving sight to the blind. So here is this man, begging, because he has been blind since birth. And what do the disciples do?

John 9:2 (NKJV) And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

Rather than deal with the situation with compassion, they turn it into a theological discussion. they could have asked Jesus about how to alleviate suffering. Can you see the disciple’s blindness? It is easier to talk about needs, causes and effects than do to something about it.

Not only that, their question to Jesus, the question itself is flawed. Is suffering caused by a specific sin? How can a man sin and cause his own blindness at birth? It was one of the prevailing false teachings of the day, the belief that a person can sin before birth. That a baby in the womb can commit sin.

Then there is the sin of the parents. But the OT teachings are clear. Each individual are responsible for their own sins.

Deuteronomy 24:16 (NKJV) “Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall children be put to death for their fathers; a person shall be put to death for his own sin.