John 9:1-12 Pervasiveness of Blindness

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 42:1-13

Introduction: As we see Jesus escape the stoning He continues in His works. What are the works of Jesus, the Son of God?

What ever the Father is doing. What is God the Father doing? Good works. Includes healing, restoring, redeeming, rescuing, repurposing, renewing. Do you see a pattern here? There is much to do here.

Last message we saw that Jesus has exposed the Jews and their awful, blind religion and their religious attitudes. Their pervasiveness blindness is on display. And we will see it today in our examining of John 9:1-12.

Let’s read this together.

This is an action of healing performed by Jesus, God’s only Son. Why is that important? Because He does deeds that only the Father can do. He does the work of the Father here on the earth for the Jews to see.

We are going to see the 3 P’s of the passage that are so prominent in Jesus’ ministry throughout the Bible. Hopefully in your study of God’s work you have begun to see that theme prevail. If not, begin to look for it as you peruse it daily.

What are the 3 P’s that are present in this passage about this healing:

The problem- there is an issue here that requires healing.

The Purpose- the purpose for which Jesus performs the healing.

The Power- the awesome display of provision that Jesus provides.

The thought that the reading must keep on mind of what Jesus has said to the Jews that are present. We see it in chapter 8. Jesus states ‘He is the light of world.” He brings light to the darkness.

The problem. Verse 1. Jesus sees a man born blind. Congenital blindness. Born blind. That’s important. Blind as have never seen the light. Blindness is prevalent in this time. Mostly from a venereal disease like gonorrhea or similar STD. But Jesus also sees the people around Him too. The Jews have rejected Him and He is departing from them, literally. That is a big problem! Moreover, blindness is prevalent upon society. There is much physical blindness and spiritual blindness among this people. There spiritual blindness is the inability form to comprehend the truth. Isaiah 42:7 “To open blind eyes, To bring out prisoners from the dungeon And those who dwell in darkness from the prison.” There is darkness present. This man was born blind but ALL people are born spiritually blind. Jesus sees the problem that darkness is present and it has been embraced by the religious Jewish people.

Listen to the words of verse 2. The disciples are echoing the mindset of the Jewish prejudice. They believed a specific sin had to have taken place. They could not conceive that all are born sinners. Even the people of God. Remember their standing with God could not save them as they believed. They were completely steeped in their legalism. They believed that they were righteous because of their works or their diligence in their obedience. They believed it saved them from the wrath of God. They didn’t understand it is a work of grace, a free gift of God because of the sacrifice. Being the “Children of Abraham” of the Children of God” as they called themselves did not remove them from the judgement that all men stand under. Ezekiel 18:20 ““The person who sins will die. The son will not bear the punishment for the father’s iniquity, nor will the father bear the punishment for the son’s iniquity; the righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself.”

The Jews only saw the direct correlation between sin and suffering. Now if you continue to sin there are consequences that correlate that way. but not generationally.

Jesus shines a light on this in verse 3. The works of God bring light to the darkness. It is for this reason that He came. TO save His people from their sins. Jesus is the Light and He brings light to their darkness for all who would see. But sinful men love the darkness and turn their face to their evils deeds and desires.

Jesus came to do the works of God that we discussed earlier. John 5:36 ““But the testimony which I have is greater than the testimony of John; for the works which the Father has given Me to accomplish—the very works that I do—testify about Me, that the Father has sent Me.”

And John 8:12 “Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.””

We are born into darkness and the pervasiveness of our blindness is complete. We are spiritually blind, natural born sinners and only Jesus changes our state of being. And why does He change our state and this man’s? For the glory of God.

2. The purpose. The purpose for this man’s healing and the reason Christ came. He was sent to bring glory of God! Look at verses 4-5. The works of God again are bringing the news of the gospel. God knows he and we need healing. Jesus is imitating what the Father does. Love the sinner. Sidebar here: I believe we must know the true definition of love and not as the world understands love. Love in the truest sense as God sees it is a such as this. Are you ready for the definition of love, you may want to write this down: sacrificially committed to the good of another.

Jesus has been debating the presence and position that God has given Him on this earth. He has a limited time on the mission before Him. “The night: is coming when none can work. So for the time He is given He makes the point that WE must work. He is bringing His disciples into His ministry. Some will have more time than others and all will be martyred for the sake of the gospel except one. Jesus has days and many of them will have years. How much time do yo have?

We see Jesus heal this man and He heals him in the daylight. Or at least I would like to believe.

He notes the light. Work in the light. They are running out of daylight. Ephesians 5:16 “making the most of your time, because the days are evil.” Work while you can.

I believe there is something we can take from this too. Get it together Christians. Get right before God, allow Him to do the cleansing work in you, remove the sin in your life, get to work time is running out! Romans 13:12 “The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.”

We must remember as children of God, God didn’t save us for us!. Isaiah 49:6 “He says, “It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.””

There’s work to be done. He is doing a work in this man by healing him but there is a purpose behind it all.

3. The power displayed in the healing. Verses 6-7. Jesus could have done this in many ways. Why did He choose to use saliva, and mud? I don’t know. We have seen him do this before is a similar fashion in Mark 7:33 “Jesus took him aside from the crowd, by himself, and put His fingers into his ears, and after spitting, He touched his tongue with the saliva;” and again in Mark 8:23 “Taking the blind man by the hand, He brought him out of the village; and after spitting on his eyes and laying His hands on him, He asked him, “Do you see anything?””

He could have simply said, “see” and he would have had sight, I can’t not think that the way He made humans was from the dirt of the earth and the with that same process have made him new eyes.

Think of this, Jesus added His divine DNA to the earth He made and used it to address the physical dysfunction of this man. Talk about stem cell therapy! Remember Jesus’ words: I am the vine, you are the branches. I am the potter you are the clay as He said to Job.

So why follow all this up with Go and wash? The man couldn’t make himself see but he could follow Jesus’ commands. Jesus was looking for obedience here. Plus, as a bonus, it was the Sabbath and it is another thing that Jesus was not supposed to be doing on that day.

I feel inclined to explain this verse in Sunday school style. The pool of Siloam is translated sent because of it’s location and it’s purpose. It is fed by a spring outside the City walls. The tunnel of Hezekiah brings the water from the spring to pool. This water was the water in the fest of booths that is poured out on the water. It was life giving every time the city was under siege. Remember when we discussed that a drink of water to a man in the desert could save a thirty man but a river in the desert could save a people. This is the cleansing Messianic water that Isaiah is speaking about.

The event of this healing causes many questions to be asked and the faith to be tested. Verse 8 is the opening of their eyes as the neighbor who had witnessed and observed this man daily recognized him as the blind man. Never forget the first step of faith is recognizing the need for a solution, in this man’s case it was blindness.

Verse 9 others are confidently saying the truth but there are always those who doubt what is right in front of them. More and more witnesses confirm and deny. Isn’t it amazing that faith has the power to move us from darkness to light? It moves us to the center of the solution as it did this man, he was in darkness and now he was in the light. He was going to have to deal with that situation because of the interjection of faith. He heard the words of Jesus and he knew he had an issue. He obeyed and now here he was blinking like an owl in the sunlight. Our faith heals us by allowing Jesus to do a work in us. By grace through faith, right? His limited faith had brought him to this place.

Now those around started to wonder at this thing that had taken place. They knew this man. He was blind as is possible, even with his eyes open in their midst. Know anyone like that?

They ask him, how? They were incredulous. Reminds me of the events of John 3:9 “Nicodemus said to Him, “How can these things be?”” the truth is before them and the evidence is available for all to see. Jesus has been preaching and teaching them that He is the Messiah, He is the one. But as Jesus points out to them - they don’t know God so they can’t believe. They choose to remain ignorant. To be unbelievers even in the face of all the evidence. The messenger, the miracles, the message of the Word. Ecclesiastes 11:5 “Just as you do not know the path of the wind and how bones are formed in the womb of the pregnant woman, so you do not know the activity of God who makes all things.”

Inverse 11 the man states the truth of what happened. He heard the voice of Jesus, believed, weas obedient, and was healed. A true salvation story!

They are running out of good questions by this point. I will end with Verse 12. They are literally asking questions to a man who could not see. He’s never seen him or could he give them directions! He has never seen!

Jesus will use the same sentiment when He speaks to Thomas. Blessed are those who believe and have not seen. To those with no faith this can be very perplexing and struggle to believe. Their lack of faith has left blind. Until they see the Light they will remain that way. We have seen physical blindness healed. Next week we will see Jesus address the spiritual blindness that is pervasive in every human.

Let’s pray. Are you blind and want ot see?