Open My Eyes LORD

John 9: A Man Born Blind

The Pride of Prejudice

Your prejudice is based on a premise

John 9:2 ESV

2 And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

Judgement or fate?

The disciples were of the commonly held mindset of the day that birth defects were a judgement of God on the parents.

This is really interesting because they ask, “Who sinned?” He or his parents that he was born blind.

How could he have sinned before he was born.

The truth is, ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and we are all under the curse of sin.

If this was a judgement of sins or sins to be, we would all be born blind!

Spiritually speaking though, we are!

We were!

Our sin blinds us to the reality of God!

God must come along and touch us!

Even then, things are muddy, things are murky,

The curse of sin, the effects of it, the blindness it causes, can only been washed away as we disregard our flesh and obey His voice.

Yet even still, redeemed by grace and reborn by God’s mercy, we ask why did this happen?

We look for logical answers using fallen logic.

Often we build up false towers on poor foundations of popular theology and when it falls, people get hurt.

People die.

When we say “God is good and His people are too.”

We expect that His people will never falter or fail.

When we say “God is good, all the time., and all the time God is good!” we expect that God will always make sense to us, He will always heal us and protect us and give us what we want and never disappoint us.

When life happens and the curse of sin that we as mankind have brought upon ourselves snaps us back to the current realities of our everyday lives, we wonder

Where is God now?

Who sinned?

Why is God punishing us?

People die spiritually and emotionally.

There is collateral damage.

Jesus, however, changes the trajectory of tragedy from the evil of humanity to the goodness of God.

He redeems wreckage and turns tragedy to triumph.

If we focus on failure, we will fail.

When we recognize and acknowledge failure but focus on God’s glory, we will gain victory! We will go on.

Who sinned? Who’s asking?

Romans 3:23 ESV

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Jesus addresses this again in Luke 13:1-5

Luke 13:1–5 ESV

1 There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? 3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. 4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

It’s not always that we look at success as God’s blessing, which is an equally disastrous issue. We can easily fall into the trap of judging others misfortunes as God’s judgment. We must be careful!

We can easily fall into these traps in the church when we get dogmatic in our theology.

I call it, “If … Then… Theology”

More about that as the story progresses!

The disciples saw the condition. Jesus saw the man.

The disciples looked with condemnation.

Jesus looked with compassion.

The disciples were all about the cause.

Jesus was all about the solution!

The disciples questioned the man’s past because of his present, robbing him of his future.

Jesus erased the man’s past by transforming his present and gave him a future!

The Healing

This is a rather unique healing: John didn’t record that the man even asked to be healed. Perhaps the man asked, John just didn’t record it. “If…Then… Theology” would say the man didn’t ask because it’s not written that he asked, then Jesus heals you whether or not you believe or ask. IF Jesus healed this man this way, THEN He will heal you this way!

We’ve all heard or had similar things.

Such thinking limits God because it rules out every other way that He could heal.

We’re much smarter than that though, we list every way that Jesus heals in scripture and say He will only heal in those ways. We get stuck on the form and the fashion, where I believe what God was trying to say through the gospel writers by His Holy Spirit was that He going to heal you how and when He wants, but typically He requires some faith on your part, but it’s not necessary.

We look for reasons why our faith doesn’t work. Maybe it’s our theology, maybe it’s our definition of faith.

I will say that this passage and how Jesus walked up to this man and stuck mud in His eyes with no apparent warning does back up the Biblical truth that we should seek to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit and when we do, we must must must obey Him and leave the results up to Him!

It’s not our job to defend God or defend people.

We represent God to people as we be witnesses (testify) of our experiences with Him.

We represent people to God as we intercede for them.

We can’t always make sense but we can always trust!

Here’s mud in your eyes!

John 9:6 ESV

6 Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud

Can we just pause and reflect that the process of anointing is not always pleasant?

The anointing of God can be debasing in the sight of man, but benefits the anointed and glorifies the anointer.

It is possible he asked to be healed, we don’t know. I think it would be safe to say he did not see this coming!

John 9:10–11 ESV

10 So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” 11 He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.”

Had this man only been touched by Jesus and never obeyed Jesus, this man never would have received his healing.

It is clear here that the man knew it was Jesus, but we get the idea that he hasn’t physically seen Jesus yet.

While Jesus has opened up the man’s eyes to what Jesus can do, the man still is lost as to who Jesus is.

Enter the Pharisees...

John 9:16 ESV

16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them.

There has always been division about who Jesus is!

“If … Then … Theology” limits our perspective, revelation, theology, of who God is. Looking at the scriptures in a segmented fashion or even just looking at them with such limited revelation we say IF this is true THEN this must be true/ or can’t be true!

IF we are predestinated THEN we must not truly have free will.

IF we have free will THEN we must not have been predestinated.

IF God does not allow His children to suffer wrath, THEN we must get raptured before the Tribulation (wrath vs eternal destruction)

IF we get raptured when Jesus is returning THEN rapture must be after the tribulation.

IF God is fully sovereign THEN all things happen for a reason and once again free will is not really free will.

IF free will is a thing and God will give me the desires of my heart, God will answer to my will.

These all feel like very extreme examples, but they’re prevalent in the Church throughout its history and the church is lost in these differences of opinion today!

The Pharisees were so dogmatic, they could not see the truth.

They were blinded to it.

If they had recognized they couldn’t see, Jesus would have gladly opened their eyes.

Since they thought that they were truly experts, they remained blinded by their pride.

Pride doesn’t let you see or receive truth because you believe that you already have it!

How about some more?

“The Holy Spirit is a gentleman. He will never do anything to you or make you do anything that would be uncomfortable.” - Hmmm - if that were true then Jesus wasn’t operating in the Spirit when He rubbed mud in the guy’s face. It couldn’t have been the Spirit of God the knocked Paul to the ground, or that killed Ananias and Sapphira!

Here’s another one:

“God is good. The devil is bad. Sickness is bad, so all sickness is from the devil.” Truth - sickness came from the curse - from man’s own disobedience.

Almost 4 and a half years ago, I did the Pastor’s shoe box challenge and held 48 shoe boxes at once. I could not get those boxes to where they needed to go while I held on to them. I had to release them. Besides, they were empty. I had to let them go so that they could be filled and only carry what I could. 48 boxes looked impressive, but it was meaningless.

Sometimes we hold onto ideas that are empty and concepts that are ineffective.

We need to let them go to let God fill them.

I was blinded by the boxes I held because they were beyond what I could handle. I needed to put them down in order to see. If I remember correctly, they came crashing down, but eventually, they got filled and sent to children in need around the world!

Sometimes we can come to God so proud of our accomplishments and awards, but they’re empty and worthless. They’re only good for drawing attention to ourselves.

The Formerly Blind Man Schools Pharisees

The man born blind - or should I say the seeing man - did not fully know Jesus, but He knew what Jesus did for him. He knew his life was different now.

He testified as to what Jesus did and marvelled that the Pharisees still didn’t believe in Jesus as Messiah!

Acts 9:1–9 ESV

1 But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 3 Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. 4 And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” 5 And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. 6 But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” 7 The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. 8 Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. 9 And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

Saul could not see what he was doing because he was filled with pride, arrogance, dogma, dead religion.

Jesus shone His light upon Saul and blinded him - but now, for the first time, Saul could see!

The scriptures came alive and made sense only in the person of Jesus. Saul recognized his physical blindness and was then prayed for and received his sight.

If you do not recognize that you are dirty, you will not wash and become clean.