Healing of the Blind

First Impressions are very important for anyone.

However, if you meet someone that is a little different, in actions or looks, you may begin to wonder why.

Someone who acts a little different than what we would call normal

Do they have a form of Autism?

Do they have another mental disorder?

Someone with disfigurement or physical aliment

was it caused at birth

Did they have an accident at some point.

We don’t like to judge, and rarely will we ask why a person looks or acts the way they do.

My son is little different due to his Autism

I do feel like I need to explain a little more on who he is when we meet someone new or in a new place.

I honestly have wandered what has caused his Autism.

Was I something hereditary?

Did I do something wrong during the pregnancy.

Even still, I know that I love my son and I would not want him to be any other way.

Let us Pray and then read John 9:1-12

John 9:1–12 NRSV

As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes, saying to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see. The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” Some were saying, “It is he.” Others were saying, “No, but it is someone like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” But they kept asking him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ Then I went and washed and received my sight.” They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”

So we see the big assumption made by the apostles.

They ask Jesus to answer this question probably because it was the safest way to get the right answer to their curiosity. Can we really blame them?

It was a belief that those who were born with a disability were either cursed from birth or that their parents committed some sin to cause the disability.

So again, let us not put the apostles as bad people for asking the question. They had a genuine concern, which led to this spiritual question.

What are curses, and was this man cursed?

Does sin cause all bad things to happen, even to babies born with life-altering conditions?

Jesus answer is not a general one, but one for this man.

Sin does cause bad things to happen, but we cannot blame the man or his parents for his condition.

God works through the bad, and makes it good. His glory, grace, and mercy trumps all the wrong in this world.

Verse 4 Jesus teaches them that they must do the good works like He is doing the good works of the Father who sent him.

More than asking the questions, but work to restore, build up others, and help each other heal.

There will be a time when Jesus would not be with them and could not teach them any longer.

So Jesus does something that might be disgusting, even during His time.

Pagans and witches use spit in their spells for healing or to share their magic.

In Jewish culture, spitting on someone was an insult, as it is now, and makes them unclean.

Romans would spit on Jesus during the time of His crucifixion.

However, Jesus always has a deeper meaning and reason for the things he does.

An interesting note is that some biblical scholars find a similarity in the way God created the world with water and land.

Also to the analogy of humans being like clay. Remember, Jesus is the living water.

Then Jesus SENDS him to the healing waters of Siloam which means “sent” and, that we learned about last week, to wash the mud off.

So he does and Jesus said and is healed.

People don’t even recognize him now.

The Pharisees at this point had made the connection that it is Jesus who healed him.

I has stopped thinking anything negative when it comes to my son.

I truly believe God made him this way for a reason. God’s glory and mercy shines through him.

I did nothing wrong, and he is nothing bad. There is no reason for him to be any different.

The past week, Brendan Fraser won Best Actor and thanked his oldest son who happens to be on the Autism spectrum.

He commented on how he doesn’t understand cynicism or jokes, but is an all-around happy person. I can relate as a parent.

He went on to say that “He wouldn’t have (his son) any other way.” And again, I can agree

This story isn’t just another miraculous healing story of Jesus.

The big meaning isn’t that Jesus healed this man who had been a blind beggar since birth. Yes, this happened.

Jesus said, “So that God’s work might be revealed in him.”

Then told his disciples to He needed to work quickly, because a time will come when he will not be physically with them.

We continue on His work, as we have been taught and called.

Sometimes we are the ones blind. We see things as they ought to be. When something is not the way we believe they should be, we try to fix it or make it better.

We need our eyes opened to different things.

Our own sins, or the sins of our family are nothing more than an opportunity for God to do a good work through us.

God gives us healing

We can give love and grace and healing.

God does amazing things through the least of us.

God can do amazing things through the worst of us.

The most unconventional ways can be little miracles of God.

How has God amazed you?

In what unconventional ways has God made you special?

Look at all the different people around you, how has God made them special?

What amazing things can God use you even in your difference and uniqueness?

How can you be kinder and more loving to those who are different?