Seeing Clearly: Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind

Our Worldview

Have you ever noticed how stuck in our ways we tend to be?

There are usuaully a few issues or topics that we have firmly held views on and it would take a massive shift for us to change our mind on.

Politics and religion readily fall into this category. But it might even include things like which sport is the most entertaining. Or whether death metal shoud actually be considered music or not. It also might include whether you believe various conspiracy theories or not.

When we piece together the deeply held beliefs, we get what we call a worldview. It’s like a lens through which we view and understand things. For example, how we understand who God is and how he operates in this world, will effect how certain experiences and events are interpreted.

We can change our worldview, but it is very difficult and most people will tend to resist it quite strongly.

For example, part of your worldview might include whether you believe climate change is caused by humans or not. Once it’s part of your worldview, any new piece of evidence for or against will be viewed in light of what you already think.

Now, the chances are, if you’re here this morning, or if you’re listening along to the liverstream, the chances are, within your worldview, you believe there is a God who interacts with this world.

Spiritual Blindness

But yet, even for the committed believer, we find there can often be a lot of false things that we believe.

Now I want to clarify something here. You see, sometimes we can know something in our head, but we have trouble believing it in our heart.

Let me give you an example, as Christians we believe we are made righteous before God by faith in Christ alone, and yet heres the kicker - in our hearts, we so often believe we have to prove ourselves with our actions. This then starts to become part of our worldview. If I don’t behave well enough and have enough people validate my efforts, then God couldn’t possibly love me.

Even if we don’t quite articulate that in as many words, it becomes a deeply entrenched belief that is very hard to shake.

Now, when we hold to a spiritual belief that is contrary to what Jesus taught us, I’m going to call that spiritual blindness.

But I want to be clear about this. You see, I’m not just talking about what we theoretically believe. After all, you can get AI to tell you sound Christian beliefs. I’m talking about the worldview beliefs that shape how we see the world. The underlying belief that’s in our heart that informs the decisions we make.

Because it’s often at this level that we fail to see properly, and it’s at this level that we’re so often led astray.

Now, we’re going to use John 9 as our passage this morning and we’re going to see two types of blindness. We’re going to see a physical blindness, but also a spiritual blindness like what I’ve been talking about.

So let’s have a look at the story...

A Man born blind

The chapter itself doesn’t make it very clear where things are taking place, but based on the chapter before and the chapter after, the assumption is that it is they are in Jerusalem.

Now it’s not uncommon to see a blind man on the streets of Jerusalem. There isn’t much work a blind person can do in that time, so they would usually have a spot to sit where they would spend most of their days begging.

Now Jesus and his disciples are walking near such a blind man and it triggers some questions in the mind of the disciples.

You see, they’ve got this worldview that says that if someone is suffering then they must have done something wrong.

You’ll start to see that poorly formed worldviews start to lead to poor conclusions that misunderstand the nature of God and people. This is how spiritual blindness starts.

But on this occasion, Jesus is able to set the disciples straight. He takes them from a very simplistic understanding, to showing the biggers ways in which God works.

And so he says: “Neither this man nor his parents sinned… but this happened so that the works of God might be disiplayed in him”.

Here’s the interesting thing… with the simplistic worldview that they were holding on to, it would have been very easy to just condemn the man. It would also be easy to feel superior to this man because of course you’re better fortune could only be because you’re of superior character. As we’ll soon see, this man is actually going to prove to be of quite good character, better than many of the so called experts in the law - but we’ll get to that in due course.

Healing the blind man

Well, we’re about to get to the actual miracle, where a physical blindness is going to be restored, and we’ll start to see how this miracle reveals an even deeper spiritual blindness, this time not with the disciples, but with the Pharisees.

Now, one thing I love about the miracles of Jesus is that there is never a formula to the way Jesus performs his miracles. Sometimes he does it by just saying a word. Sometimes it’s with a healing touch. Sometimes he requires the person being healed to do something.

On this occasion, however, he decides to spit on the ground, make some mud with his saliva and then placed that mud on the man’s eyes. He then told the man to go and wash in the Pool of Siloam, which he does - and when he came back, the man could see!

So why did Jesus do it this way when he could have just spoken a word? Well, to be honest, I don’t think we can really know. Jesus can do things however he wishes. I suspect part of the answer is that Jesus like variety. I do wonder however if Jesus just wanted the drama and suspense to heighten the display of God’s glory.

The reaction

Well, as you read through the gospels, one thing you’ll often note is that the reactions to the miracles keeps ramping up, and this is no exception.

It actually starts relatively simply. It would seem that most people didn’t see the miracle itself occur, but yet, here is a man that all the locals would have been very familiar with. That’s because a blind man like this would have most likely sat in pretty much the same spot for pretty much as long as anyone can remember.

But now, the man has returned from the Pool of Siloam, but his wandering around, probably admiring all the fine details of everything around him.

And people start doing a double take. Is it him? No, it couldn’t be. People born blind don’t simply start seeing again. It must be someone who just happens to look like him who presumably wandered in from another town and just happens to be in the same general vicinity.

But of course, the man can of course talk, and he confirms, no, it really is me.

Of course they ask - but how did it happen.

And so he tells them what he knows, the man called Jesus made some mud, put it on his eyes, then told him to wash it in the Pool of Siloam. That’s what he did, and that’s why he can see.

They ask him where this miracle worker is, but of course, the man previously blind never actually saw him because during the interaction he was of course blind.

Pharisees

Now these neighbours were one thing - in some ways, you could just say they were curious. But it doesn’t really make much sense, but they reasoned that the Pharisees, with all of their dedication to scripture, would probably be much better placed to help them make sense of it.

So, they go and find some Pharisees, and they bring them to the blind man.

Well, they ask a similar question to what the neighbours asked, and they get the same reply.

Now there is a tiny little aspect of this story which we haven’t been told up to this point. And I suspect it was never mentioned because it really shouldn’t have been particularly relevant. And that is, all of this occurred on the Sabbath.

You see, keeping the Sabbath from any work was a deeply held part of the Pharisees worldview - actually, it was an important part of all Jews. And for good reason, because this is part of the very clear teaching handed down through Moses.

But here’s what happens. Even when we start with something good, sometimes over time, things develop into a bunch of man-made rules. We start to forget what was given to us by God and what was man-made. It’s this added stuff that can so often start the process of blindness.

And so, because of their understanding of how things should be, they form the conclusion: this man cannot be from God because he does not keep the Sabbath.

But here you find with some of these more simple worldviews, things can start to contradict.

You see, some concluded that he can’t be from God, but as others point out, how else would he be able to perform such signs.

They get so tied up in knots that they decide to turn to the man who was healed. I do find it a bit funny that these very learned men are so stumped they need to ask a man who’s been begging by the side of the road his entire life.

But it would seem he has more sense then most. He concludes that he’s at least got to be a prophet.

Now here’s the thing about when your worldview is challenged, you start looking everywhere for something that will explain it in the way that fits with your understanding. So they find the man’s parents and quiz them.

They do confirm that it is there son and that he was born blind, but I think there is a sense in which they can see what the logical conclusion is, but they’re not really interested in upsetting the worldview of the people who hold a lot of sway in society, so they fob off the question asking for an explanation, reminding them that their son is of age.

I think these parents of the healed man are just as spiritually blind as we’re about to see the Pharisees are.

Well, by now the Pharisees have got into full investigation mode. Their worldview is being challenged and they don’t like it.

So, they bring in the healed man again.

This time, if you look at verse 24, they don’t even really ask a question - they make a demand. They want this man to confirm their wordlview. They want the healed man to acknowledge that Jesus, the one who healed him must be a sinner.

But the healed man’s not falling for this one.

At this point, he dodges the question of the sinfulness of Jesus and just sticks with the facts… he does say: “[the] one thing I do know, I was blind but now I see!”

Now, that’s the thing abotu testimonies - you can’t argue with them. This fact that he’s just stated is undeniable.

And so they try to figure out a way around it. Again they ask “but how?”

By this point, I think the healed man is starting to see how stuck they’ve got. At this point he stops being a one-dimensional character, and starts throwing a few jabs of his own.

“Why di you want to hear it again?” he quips, before adding: “Do you want to become his disciples too?”

Well, he’s just waved the red flag at the bull, and not surprisingly, the bulls start charging. They hurl insults him.

You start to see their deeply held wordview. They’re disciples of Moses who has shaped their whole world, but now this next random from who knows where’s come along. The law handed down by Moses is everything to them.

Now, for the healed man, it’s like it all starts making sense. Only a moment ago he was arguing he didn’t know whether Jesus was a sinner or not. But he’s allowed the truth to open his eyes. Not only has he become physically able to see, his spiritual eyes are also being opened.

He declares, he can’t be a sinner. The thing Jesus has done, the thing that no one can deny, can only be done by someone from God.

Well, that’s about enough for these Pharisees. They’ve heard enough. They declare him sinful from birth, and then throw him out!

Finding Jesus

The Pharisees might have thrown him out, but in some ways he becomes more free than ever. Jesus finds him again: “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

“Who is he?” the man asks.

Jesus reveals himself, and at this, the miracle from being blind to having sight is complete in a double sense. That is, he now has both his physical sight and his spiritual sight restored.

The Pharisees on the other hand remain blind.

This despite the fact that they of all people should have sight. Moses spoke of the coming of Jesus, and so because they should have been able to see, their guilt is increased.

Finding our sight

Now, the big question for us here today is: in what ways do we remain blind?

Now in one sense I’m actually not talking about some major doctrine that you’ve got wrong. You know, the reality is, there would be a whole bunch of secondary theological issues that many of us would disagree on. I’m not talking about necessarily getting them all straightened out.

What I’d like us to focus on this morning is rather the gap between what we know in our head, but yet struggle to believe in our heart.

We’ve seen already in this account how beliefs such as a suffering person must have sinned gets challenged, and that when our rules get broken, something can’t be from God.

I think these are actually traps we can fall down as well. That is, we see someone struggle, and it’s easy for us to believe in our heart that they must have done something to deserve it. Or we see someone not fitting in to the way things should be done… they don’t fit with our norms, and so we conclude they must be unChristian.

Stop being judgemental

Well, the first thing we need to do is stop being so judgemental. A judgemental spirit can easily lead to spiritual blindness. A judgemental spirit, like what we see with the Pharisees in this passage, puts up these barriers which then stops us seeing the truth in front of us.

Jesus warned us of not judging - it was one of his big points in the Sermon on the Mount.

When you feel like judging, first hold your tongue. Give it some time. Pray on it. Ask God to first see the plank in your own eye. You take that plank out, suddenly your sight become a lot clearer.

Focus on Jesus

The second thing I want to add to this is that we need to focus on Jesus.

Jesus is the one who restores sight. He’s the one in which things start making sense.

Read through the gospel accounts. Look at the way Jesus talks with people. Look at the way he cares for everyone.

Think about the words he says. Meditate on them and allow them to dwell within you.

But as much as possible, we need to drop our guard and rather than trying to make his words fit into our view of the world, instead, let His Words shape the way you see the world.

Conclusion

I know I say this like it’s something easy to do.

The reality is, the view we have of the world is something that we have formed over many years and we’re not likely to change easily.

But pray that God will soften our hearts so that we can take in the truth. Pray that Jesus will challenge any view that is not from him.

That’s also a prayer for courage, because shapening the things embedded in our heart can be very difficult.

But having the truth and seeing clearly is something that can truly make us free.

Let me pray...