Jesus is the Sight to the Blind

Mission and Vision

Isn’t it cool that when our lives have been transformed by Jesus people don’t even believe we’re the same person

We are continuing our sermon series on the 7 signs

Remembering that just like lent… this season that isn’t really about what we give up, but it points to something greater which is what we should gain in Christ

Just like Lent, The miracles that are performed in this series are a sign that point to something beyond themselves

The reason we have the 7 signs is as John says in ch 20:30-31… so that we can believe that Jesus is the son of God and so that we can come to a saving knowledge of him that is believe in Jesus

Today we are tackling sign number 6

As we know it is Palm sunday, and we are going to tie in the triumphal entry… but we are going to continue the focus of the sermon series which is on the signs… what Jesus was pointing to during his ministry in John

READ ,

PRAY

This is one of my favorite miracle accounts in the NT

Mostly because of how ridiculously the situation devolves into an arguement about the wrong thing

Have you ever been in a conversation with someone and they focus on the wrong part of the story?

Like if I were to tell you the story of the day my wife went into labor with isaiah

We went to wendy’s before Kylie Jo’s appointment and we found out at the appointment that Kylie Jo was already really dialated to an 8 and so we had to go directly to the birth center

We went to kansas city for our vacation and it was a blast

And your response was… what’d you guys get from Wendys?

Where do you work that allows you to have vacation

wrong part of the story!

It

We see the pharisees focusing on the total wrong part of what happens

They are bringing in surprise witnesses to ask whether or not this guy was blind from birth!

But unfortunately we gotta skip all those parts today

Just like in all the other signs, there are tons of moments in this telling that are beautiful teaching moments and there is so much you could glean from what Jesus does… But I want to focus on one point today

Jesus is the sight to the blind

There’s one thing that we could preach a whole sermon on, but I’m just going to briefly mention it

The fact that the disciples asked JEsus who sinned so that this man was born blind is such a blessing to us today

One of the hardest things to wrap your brain around is why do certain things happen to some people and not to others

as human beings we want to determine causality. We want to find something that we can see cause and effect. We like the simplicity and how neatly it is to categorize issues in our world if we can simply point to something and say X caused Y

But Jesus’ answer here gives us heavenly wisdom… we don’t need to know the exact nature of the why except that whatever happens is so that the works of God might be displayed

So after this moment we see Jesus telling his people that he is the light of the world… just moments before healing the man of being blind

Jesus both literally and spiritually brings light into this man’s life

He is

He does so in kind of a gross way, most would say

I mean how would you like it if someone made some spit/mud and rubbed it all over your face

But there is actually some really cool imagery in that that we will come back to

So after Jesus heals the man there is this huge debacle regarding what actually happened and when and who dun-it… but then we get back to Jesus in vs 35

Jesus finds this man who had been excommunicated by the religious leaders and he gives him the gospel

Jesus shares with him that he is the son of man and that he is the one that we need to believe in

He also shares with him that Jesus came into the world for judgment so that the blind may see and those who see may become blind

And I’m sure you’re like what the stink does that mean

The cool thing about light is that we not only see it, but it’s only because of light that we can see anything else.

we see because light bounces of of things and into our eye and we are able to process that information and our brain creates a picture based on the amount of available info. The more light, generally, the more info, the better the picture

So when Jesus is saying that he is the light of the world, he’s not only saying that people can see how bright he is

but he is saying that it is only because of his light that we can properly see anything

It is only by the light of the grace of God, the love of God, the peace of God, the knowledge and wisdom of God that we are able to properly see the way things are

The more Jesus we have in our lives the better we see not only him, but everything

What Jesus is telling the man here is that he came to shine his light in the world, and those who have been searching and really trying to make out what is good and true will be able to see that through and because of Jesus. Whereas those who have gotten used to navigating in the dark… when the bright and pure light of Christ starts to shine its blinding.

Have you ever been in a dark room and then walked outside in the middle of the summer and for a minute you are disoriented and blind

That’s exactly what Jesus is saying here

He has come to bring sight to the blind. To those who are stumbling around trying to get ahold of some light… Jesus stoops down and opens our eyes and heals us

For those who are only trying to see certain things … that is they want the truth of God to illuminate only what they want to see and they want to ignore the rest… it is those people who will have to come face to face with the brilliant light of Christ and unless they allow him to open their eyes, they will be blinded. That is they will be lost.

What Jesus said to the pharisees near him in vs 40-41 is this… if you are blind you have no guilt, but you are claiming to see therefore your guilt remains

He’s telling them that if they had been blind and acting out of their inability to see the truth…That is if they had been sinners seperated from the truth of God’s word and relationship… there would have been grace for them to repent and be healed

But as long as they go around claiming that they can see find, all the while acting blind… they will have to take their guilt

As long as they claim to be teachers, mature believers, sanctified folks, holy… and yet they continue to live their lives apart from God, they will not ever experience the “with God” life on this side or the other

Now the manner in which Jesus healed this man… this is what I want to close with

Each of us is the blind man

from birth there was nothing that we contained in and of ourselves that enabled us to see things clearly

We were all blind to the things of the lord

we were all born with a sin nature and a desire to have our own way

But in the fullness of time, while we were yet sinners, before we could earn a single thing, while we were still blind… God sent his son.. The divine became flesh just like the saliva mixed with the mud… God became flesh

Not only do we need to have Jesus applied to our lives but we then have to be baptized in the sent one

we have to be baptized into the life of Christ who was sent from the father and who sends each and every one of us back into the world to proclaim that we were once blind… but now we see

As Jesus was entering into the City of Jerusalem on that Palm Sunday

There was a crowd of people proclaiming Hosanna… asking Jesus to save them as they acknowledged that he was supposed to be king

They were asking for Jesus to shine his light in the area where they wanted his light

They wanted him to free them from the oppression of the romans but what they didn’t understand is that Jesus came not just to shine light out there but to shine light in our hearts

And we see there were some that were given sight because of his light… but there were crowds of people that remained blind as a week later they were trying to snuff out the light of the world.

Time for response