Lent | The God who heals

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Magic Eye Image

It used to take me half an hour to get an image to appear. I was seeing but could not see. It was so frustrating.

In today’s scripture, Jesus does something very similar.

We’ve been following this path.

from the loving heart of our God in heaven who chose to love us and save us

Then we rejoiced in our marvelous God who would become flesh and blood for us

Then we heard Jesus’ call with amazement as we discovered that Jesus knows us and calls us to follow him

Then last week we heard Jesus tell us the truth, both the bad news and the good news.

And today we’re going to rejoice with the formerly-blind man and give “Glory to the God Who Heals Us” so we can see and believe.

John 9 is a loaded chapter, and we’re not going to unpack all of it tonight, so feel free to read the whole chapter this week to gain even more insight.

Tonight we’re going to focus on the great irony that the blind man can see the truth, but the Pharisees whose eyes work just fine, are blind to the reality of who Jesus is.

I’ll point out some of the irony for you. (Explain the text, possibly including:)

We didn’t read the part that said this, but this takes place on the Sabbath.

The Pharisees can’t see what the Sabbath is for. They think it’s about following their zealous rules. But it is really about rest, the Word of God that restores, grace and mercy, and healing.

Pharisees make it about “do this.” The blind man experiences from Jesus the opposite: “It is done for you.” Because of Jesus’ power, he can quite literally see. And we’ll discover that he can spiritually see too!

The Pharisees can’t see that it’s better to be Jesus’ disciple than Moses’ disciple.

John 9:28 ESV

And they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses.

But the blind man is happy to be Jesus’ disciple.

It’s not that Moses and Jesus are on different teams or something like that, but Moses and the Old Covenant are meant to point forward to Jesus, to be replaced by Jesus.

The blind man can see that this Son of Man Jesus is the hope and answer everyone has been waiting for.

The Pharisees do not know where Jesus has come from, but the blind man can see that someone who opens the eyes of the blind is from God.

Isaiah 42:6 ESV

“I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations,

Isaiah 42:7 ESV

to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.

We too can see by faith that Jesus is the fulfillment of the promise of the Messiah,

He’s the one who has come to bind up the brokenhearted, and fan into flame the flickering candle of faith

He’s the one who heals our sin-sick souls,

He’s the one who even has the power to restore our bodies.

Ultimately, we are trusting Him to keep the promise that He will raise us up from the dead, because that is when and where we will have full, complete, eternal health and wellness.

If He heals us of this or that here and now, we rejoice. But someday, He will raise us from the dead. How much will we rejoice then?–When we see Him with our own eyes?

The blind man was healed, and then could see who Jesus was by faith, even though he hadn’t yet seen him with his physical eyes.

He has this entire debate with the Pharisees and gets kicked out of the synagogue before he even saw Jesus or had a follow up conversation with Jesus.

That’s a remarkable faith, one that we should follow, especially since we too walk by faith and not by sight.

But as Jesus says later to Thomas after the resurrection.

John 20:29 ESV

Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

But Jesus was so gracious to the formerly-blind man that he made sure they had another interaction.

John 9:35 ESV

Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

John 9:36 ESV

He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?”

John 9:37 ESV

Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.”

John 9:38 ESV

He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.

It’s a beautiful conclusion to the story of the blind man.

Well, it’s a “conclusion” for us because we don’t hear any more of this man’s story. But for him, his story was really just beginning, wasn’t it?

Imagine his new life with eyes that worked!

Imagine his new life with a faith that looked to Jesus!

That’s the new life we have too.

Look up magic eye when you get home. See how much time of squinting and focusing it takes. see how frustrating it can be to not see something that others seem to, something from a book designed to entertain children.

But when the moment finally comes, and you see what has been there all along, when you truly see. you won’t believe how something could be so powerful, so obvious, was right there the whole time.

and once you see it, you can never unsee. you can never forget.

In a much, much greater way, we have that moment when it finally comes together for us, that moment of clarity, when Jesus heals us, and the scales fall from our eyes, when our eyes of faith are opened, and we can see God’s plan, we see what God is doing, we see His great mercy, His great grace.

We see all that God has in store for us.

We see that God has kept and is keeping all His promises.

We see heaven open before us.

And best of all, we see all this because we see Jesus – the Son of God, who washed us in our baptism,

who shines the light of His Word, and by the strength of the Spirit, we who were once blind can now see. “Glory to the God Who Heals Us” so we can see and believe. Amen!

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