"Micheal Bailey Brighton"

ENGAGE

Hello Church!

TENSION

This is week 3 of our series Face to Face with Jesus.

We talked the first week of this series about the Pharisee Nick who came to Jesus at Night, and Jesus told him that he had to be born again, or born from above- to enter eternal life.

We saw how Nick was really confused because his legalistic mind just couldn't understand that God would just give away grace and forgiveness to someone who has not followed all the rules of the Jewish religion.

We saw his progression from darkness to standing up for Jesus among his coworkers, and then coming to retrieve the dead body of Jesus with 75 pounds of burial spices.

This leads us to believe that he did in fact move into the light of Jesus, but scripture doesnt explicitly say that.

Last week, we talked about Samantha and how she met Jesus at high noon at the water well.

Jesus crossed all kinds of lines to talk with her. She was a woman, a Samaritan woman at that.

We also found out that she had been through a lot of pain, either being divorced by, or losing 7 husbands, and now living with a man just to survive.

She was an outcast, but Jesus had compassion for her, and he welcomed her and talked with her about worship and the living water that he provides, that fills a believer up and begins to overflow to their community.

We saw it in her, as she ran back to the city, leaving her bucket to tell them about what Jesus had done in her life.

TRUTH

Today’s story will be from chapter 9 of the gospel of John.

Turn with me there and I will give you the backstory that has gotten us to this point.

At the end of chapter 8, the Pharisee are not happy with Jesus at all. He makes a claim to them that He existed before Abraham did, and essentially that he is God.

Now this is not clever move for Jesus, because the Pharisee held Abraham as one of their highest founders and it caused them to get angry with Jesus and pick up stones and try to kill him, but fortunately, he escaped.

Now he is on the run, and we find him coming face to face with today’s special guest.

John 9:1-7

John 9:1–7 CSB

1 As he was passing by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” Jesus answered. “This came about so that God’s works might be displayed in him. 4 We must do the works of him who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 6 After he said these things he spit on the ground, made some mud from the saliva, and spread the mud on his eyes. 7 “Go,” he told him, “wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means “Sent”). So he left, washed, and came back seeing.

So now we see Jesus, after being ran out of town by the religious leaders, going to the outcasts yet again. Just like we saw the move from Nick to Samantha, here we have the Jews rejecting Jesus and Jesus finding himself in the company of the outcasts.

Much like when Jesus “HAD TO” go through Samaria last week, Jesus HAD TO PASS by this man born blind, I have given him the name Micheal Bailey Brighton.

Jesus was walking and saw a man who was hurting.

He has a special place for the outcasts and the underdogs.

Now, Micheal Bailey Brighton had been born blind. He had never seen anything. His eyes have never worked, and the disciples, who at this point are still really new to this whole following Jesus thing, ask Jesus a question, trying to get to the root of the problem of why this man was born blind.

It was common belief that if you had a disability, it was either because your parents had sinned, maybe worshipping a false idol, and the punishment would be passed on to you as their children, or the other extreme was the thought that God knew you were going to be a sinner, so to punish you, you were born blind.

This probably comes from Old Testament texts like Exodus 34:7

Exodus 34:7 CSB

7 maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But he will not leave the guilty unpunished, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ iniquity on the children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation.

Many people still today believe that not appeasing God leads us to punishment from God. So you can see where they would think that if you are suffering disability like being born blind, God is punishing you for your sin.

Now today we know so much more about biology and why things are the way they are, but we still believe in divine healing that only God can do.

In both of these examples, we see the idea that sins must be punished. So someone had to sin in order for Micheal Bailey Brighton to be born blind.

But Jesus corrects them and lets them know that this man was born blind, so that Jesus could have the opportunity to reveal God’s power.

The night that Jesus refers to in verse 4, is most likely the night of Jesus’ last earthly acts, the night of the last supper as told in John 13:30.

John 13:30 CSB

30 After receiving the piece of bread, he immediately left. And it was night.

He goes on teach about the light, and how the world has light through Him. This a continuation of his teachings from chapter 8 verse 12, where he said:

John 8:12 (CSB)

12 .... “I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life.”

Humans have a birth and a death. And in between, disciples need to work diligently to proclaim Christ’s salvation, so that we can present salvation to others before their night. Humans only have so much time to make that decision to believe in Christ like Jesus taught Nick and Samantha to do.

Jesus then goes on to play in the mud. Well not really mud, but a mixture of his on saliva and clay that was in the ground. Now besides this being really gross, we see an interesting connection back to Genesis 2.

Genesis 2:6–7 CSB

6 But mist would come up from the earth and water all the ground. 7 Then the Lord God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.

When you get water all over the ground, and dust on the ground, you get mud, or clay as its sometimes called.

Here we have Jesus using an element of the creation narrative to restore Micheal Bailey Brighton.

I wonder if Micheal Bailey Brighton knew that it was saliva, or did he have a clue what was going on.

After Jesus rubs the mud on his eyes, he tells him to go wash in the pool of Siloam.

Our first week with Nick, had Jesus talking about being born of water and spirit.

Last week with Samantha, we learned about Jesus’ living water.

This week we have Micheal Bailey Brighton going to the pool to wash his eyes, and when he brings them up and dries them off, he can see everything around him.

The world is brand new to him. He has to learn how to do everything all over again. He wont do anything the same way ever again.

When he leaves Jesus to go wash, he has yet to see Jesus’ face, but on the way back, we find some people that recognize him, or think they do anyway.

John 9:8–12 CSB

8 His neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar said, “Isn’t this the one who used to sit begging?” 9 Some said, “He’s the one.” Others were saying, “No, but he looks like him.” He kept saying, “I’m the one.” 10 So they asked him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” 11 He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and told me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So when I went and washed I received my sight.” 12 “Where is he?” they asked. “I don’t know,” he said.

These neighbors of Micheal Bailey Brighton did not even recognize him when he wasn't begging by the side of the road with his dark sunglasses and white cane.

To them, this man’s identity was entirely wrapped up in his disability. He was living daily with an identity crisis.

How many of us are living that same way?

Are we known by one particular thing and thinking that is all we will ever be?

Like Samantha last week was known and was an outcast for having so many husbands.

Jesus restores the identity of a child of God in him by restoring his sight.

Micheal Bailey Brighton is doing the same thing that Samantha did last week. He is telling his story of his encounter with Jesus in verse 11.

We see in both stories that conversion is immediately followed by evangelism.

The neighbors realize that something is going on, so they bring the man to the Jewish leaders.

John 9:13–17 CSB

13 They brought the man who used to be blind to the Pharisees. 14 The day that Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes was a Sabbath. 15 Then the Pharisees asked him again how he received his sight. “He put mud on my eyes,” he told them. “I washed and I can see.” 16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, because he doesn’t keep the Sabbath.” But others were saying, “How can a sinful man perform such signs?” And there was a division among them. 17 Again they asked the blind man, “What do you say about him, since he opened your eyes?” “He’s a prophet,” he said.

So in these verses we learn that Jesus healed Micheal Bailey Brighton on the Sabbath, which was of course a big Pharisee no no.

So the healing itself is bad enough, but what really gets the Pharisee fired up is that Jesus worked by making clay. This is one of those man made laws that became part of the Jewish religion kept by the Pharisee.

The people bring Micheal Bailey Brighton to the Pharisee, the religious leaders. They interrogate him about what Jesus did and from this we get the Pharisee split, half saying Jesus is not of God and half saying he is.

Micheal Bailey Brighton here makes a profession that Jesus is a prophet, a person whom God has chosen to say or to do God’s will in the world. Just like Samantha last week, Micheal Bailey Brighton is convinced that this is Jesus.

Now when the Pharisee cant get Micheal Bailey Brighton to admit Jesus was a sinner and not of God, they decided to change tactics a little, and attack the blind man himself.

John 9:18–23 CSB

18 The Jews did not believe this about him—that he was blind and received sight—until they summoned the parents of the one who had received his sight. 19 They asked them, “Is this your son, the one you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” 20 “We know this is our son and that he was born blind,” his parents answered. 21 “But we don’t know how he now sees, and we don’t know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he’s of age. He will speak for himself.” 22 His parents said these things because they were afraid of the Jews, since the Jews had already agreed that if anyone confessed him as the Messiah, he would be banned from the synagogue. 23 This is why his parents said, “He’s of age; ask him.”

Talking about throwing someone under the bus!

His parents were scared of being kicked out of the synagogue, so they said the least they could say and avoided anything having to do with Jesus.

They don't even seem happy or excited that their son can see now.

Now the Jewish leaders have confirmation that he was born blind, so they go in for some more questioning.

John 9:24–34 CSB

24 So a second time they summoned the man who had been blind and told him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.” 25 He answered, “Whether or not he’s a sinner, I don’t know. One thing I do know: I was blind, and now I can see!” 26 Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” 27 “I already told you,” he said, “and you didn’t listen. Why do you want to hear it again? You don’t want to become his disciples too, do you?” 28 They ridiculed him: “You’re that man’s disciple, but we’re Moses’s disciples. 29 We know that God has spoken to Moses. But this man—we don’t know where he’s from.” 30 “This is an amazing thing!” the man told them. “You don’t know where he is from, and yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but if anyone is God-fearing and does his will, he listens to him. 32 Throughout history no one has ever heard of someone opening the eyes of a person born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he wouldn’t be able to do anything.” 34 “You were born entirely in sin,” they replied, “and are you trying to teach us?” Then they threw him out.

They try again to get him to tell on Jesus, but Micheal Bailey Brighton gives them one of the most well known sayings from the bible. “I was blind, and now I can see”.

The proof is in the pudding. This guy could care less if Jesus was a sinner or not.

These guys just keep going at him, asking him how Jesus healed him.

I love his response asking if they were so interested in Jesus because they wanted to become disciples of him. In the midst of this, we see him joking with them.

Now of course they take offence to it, and bring up the fact that they follow Moses and the law.

By the end of these verses, the authorities basically circle back to the initial question the disciples asked and they dismiss him as being born a sinner and he had no right to say the things he said to them, and he was thrown out onto the street.

Notice here that the Pharisee didn't have a problem with Micheal Bailey Brighton when he was a blind beggar, it was only when he came face to face with Jesus, and started talking like Jesus.

He began to see through the hypocrisy and called them out on it. And they rejected him as they did to Jesus.

We go on to find Jesus coming back to find the formerly blind man after he had been kicked out.

John 9:35–38 CSB

35 Jesus heard that they had thrown the man out, and when he found him, he asked, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” 36 “Who is he, Sir, that I may believe in him?” he asked. 37 Jesus answered, “You have seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.” 38 “I believe, Lord!” he said, and he worshiped him.

Here we see the man born blind who has just been healed, believing on just the healing and then on Jesus’ word alone, to change his whole life to believe whatever Jesus says.

I dont think Micheal Bailey Brighton recognized Jesus, certainly not by his face, because he has never seen his face, but he may have an idea from his voice.

He calls him Sir, instead of something more personal.

But as soon as Jesus tells him that he was the son of man, he calls him Lord and began to worship him.

Worship is the only response to belief in Jesus. Once we understand who He is and what he has done, we cannot help but worship him with our whole lives.

Miracles in the bible are more than just the miracle. They always teach spiritual truth. In this case we are dealing with light and darkness. Could you imagine the faith that it took for this blind guy with mud on his eyes to walk to the pool at Siloam, were not sure how far it was, but he saw Jesus more clearly when he was blind than the religious leaders who could see.

Jesus healed the man born blind, but he also opened his eyes to spiritual things. He enabled him to see Jesus for who he is.

We see him progress from Jesus being “the man called Jesus” in verse 11,

to a prophet in verse 17,

the man who healed my eyes in verse 30,

a man of God in verse 33

and then Son of Men, or the Messiah, in verses 35 and 36.

Then he finally confesses belief when he calls him Lord and worshipped him in verse 38.

Micheal Bailey Brighton had been kicked out for confessing his belief that Jesus is who he said he is. This is what Jesus was talking about back in Matthew 5:10

Matthew 5:10 CSB

10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.

We could say “blessed are those who get thrown out for telling the truth and standing up for Christ, for theirs in the kingdom.

Jesus notices hurting people. He finds rejected people. The Beatitudes make that clear. Jesus finds rejects and seeks out the poor.

John 9:39–41 CSB

39 Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment, in order that those who do not see will see and those who do see will become blind.” 40 Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard these things and asked him, “We aren’t blind too, are we?” 41 “If you were blind,” Jesus told them, “you wouldn’t have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.

APPLICATION

Jesus here compares blindness to self-sufficiency.

The Pharisee all along have said “WE KNOW”, as if they are the authority and they are the point of their religion. They don’t need GOD, they are their own gods.

They make the rules, they determine who breaks them. They know too much, they see too well.

They are unable to admit that they need help, that they cant save themselves.

Ezekiel talks about a similar situation:

Ezekiel 12:2 (CSB)

2 “Son of man, you are living among a rebellious house. They have eyes to see but do not see, and ears to hear but do not hear, for they are a rebellious house.

Those who have not come to Christ and have not been born again as Jesus taught Nick, are blind.

They are living in darkness.

Micheal Bailey Brighton was a man born blind. He has never seen the world, never seen others.

EC Hoskyns, highlights the uniqueness of Christian conversion in our story: “The man had never seen.… To become a Christian is not to recover what has been lost, but to receive a wholly new illumination.

Frederick Dale Bruner, The Gospel of John: A Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI;Cambridge, U.K.: Eerdmans, 2012), 570.

Like being born again as a baby, we have to be completely changed and surrendered.

Jesus tried with the Jews, but they rejected him, so he sought out a humble and teachable person.

We have to be humble and willing to accept that we might be wrong, and that we can always learn something new to impact our life in Christ.

Through faith, Jesus opens our eyes to our spiritual blindness, and gives us the eyes to see his truths.

The penalty for human sin, is not to be born blind, or to have our kids born blind, but its administered after life, after death, after judgement, and it is either administered to each of us if we haven't accepted his gift of grace, or it was already administered to Christ for us and has already been paid if we have trusted in him.

INSPIRATION/REFLECTION

William Temple writes :

The Gospel of John: A Commentary John 9: Jesus’ and the Blind Man’s Sermons: How the Man Who Always Tells the Truth Honors Jesus

The man blind from birth is every man. For it is a part of that sin of the world which the Lamb of God beareth away (1:29) that by nature we are blind, until our eyes are opened by Christ the Light of the world. (8:12; 9:5)

William Temple, Readings in St. John’s Gospel, 154

Jesus had done a miracle in this man’s life, completely changing its course. When he was blind, he could only sit and beg, but now, now he could do anything, and he is set on the right path as a disciple of Jesus, first and foremost.

Even though Jesus had done the unprecedented, it was not the unpredicted. The Pharisee had their eyes closed and were not watching the world with the words of God that they memorized as children. If they would have been paying attention, they would have recalled the words of passages like Isaiah 29:18

Isaiah 29:18 CSB

18 On that day the deaf will hear the words of a document, and out of a deep darkness the eyes of the blind will see.

Isaiah 35:5:

Isaiah 35:5 CSB

5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped.

and Isiah 42:6-7:

Isaiah 42:6–7 CSB

6 “I am the Lord. I have called you for a righteous purpose, and I will hold you by your hand. I will watch over you, and I will appoint you to be a covenant for the people and a light to the nations, 7 in order to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon, and those sitting in darkness from the prison house.

NEXT STEPS

We found in our time with Nick, that Jesus said that he did not come to the world to condemn it, but to bring life to it, but today we read about the judgement that comes with Christ.

These are not two contradicting statements.

While Jesus was here on earth, he did not execute judgement, but his words reveal that because he was the light of the world, he has access to all of our innermost thoughts and motives.

Because of this he can separate those who say they can see the things of God, but are really spiritually blind, closed off to the faith that Jesus requires, and those who are humble and are open to accepting the things of God.

These are the people who accept the light of the world, and who can really see.

The Pharisee had sight but not light, so they lived in their darkness, whether they felt like they were guilty or not.

Micheal Bailey Brighton did not have sight, but he admitted his blindness during his face to face encounter with Jesus, and was shown the light of the world.

We all should be like the people Jesus in the Beatitudes, in Matthew 5:3-11

Matthew 5:3–11 CSB

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. 4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 5 Blessed are the humble, for they will inherit the earth. 6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. 7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. 10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. 11 “You are blessed when they insult you and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of me.

These are the people that Jesus seeks to worship him in spirit an in truth.

We all need to look at our lives. Are we living a Christ like life?

Are we seeing the Spiritual? or are we blind to spiritual things?

Lets go to God in prayer and ask for vision, ask for the light of Christ to shine on and through us.

Prayer- *based on a a prayer by Patrick.

Lord, don't allow us to hear your word in vain. Convince us of its truth and cause us to feel the power that comes from it.

Bind us to yourself with cords of faith, hope and love that never shall be broken.

God we need your power to hold us, your hand to guide us, your eyes to watch us, your ears to hear us and your wisdom and words to guide us.

Lord we need your presence to protect us daily.

Lord help us to see through your eyes.

Help us to shine the light that Christ brought to the world and left here with us.

Help us to shine it on others and help them to have their eyes opened to the truth that salvation only comes from you Jesus.

Lead us and guide us.

In your Heavenly name we pray,

and all God’s people said,

AMEN.