Blind Eyes Opened

Introduction

As we continue reading through and studying the gospel of John we are seeing constant images that he is laying out for us of the contrasting light and darkness. Blindness and the ability to see and how they all correlate to the person of Jesus Christ. Remember as John is writing he has this purpose mounted for us to understand. that we may believe and that by believing meaning changing the way we do life from what we want to what Jesus wants we actually inherit eternal life.

Today we find our self in what is actually the 6th recorded miracle of Jesus in the gospel of John and I want to approach the story today with this mindset. John is writing these things that you and I and your mom and dad and your brothers and sisters and your neighbors and friends may see these things, believe them, and because of that have eternal life. That our eyes may be open and that our lives and the lives around us may be illuminated or in easier words. Lit up.

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1) The Condition and the Problem

The condition or the problem that is referred to here is blindness. The story opens with Jesus walking by a man who is born blind and then it continues with Jesus addressing the pharisees who Jesus claimed were spiritually blind. So the question is then? What does this mean? What does all of this mean for me? Today here in 2019.

Well let’s look at what happens in the story. Jesus walks by this blind man and I strongly believe that Jesus looked at that man and he had compassion on him. His disciples then ask “Jesus what has this man done that he is born like this?”

I want to take a pause for a moment, because I believe a lot of us have grown up with a you are going to get punished like Christianity and when you make a mistake you are done for Christianity. Clearly here Jesus makes it strongly known that that is not the case. If this is something that you are struggling with or haven’t quite come to grips with I want to encourage you to read the book of Job and or come and have a conversation with me and we can grab a coffee and talk about it.

We need to understand this whole passage here in John chapter 9 in this context. Jesus is introduced to all of us right at the beginning of the gospel as the light of the world. His whole purpose and mission was to illuminate the darkness and open the eyes of blind men and women everywhere. So that they would know the truth and see the truth.

It is almost refreshing to read, because in the midst of all this controversy with Jesus, John comes back to this purpose story about Jesus mission to seek and save the lost. To open their eyes. John is continuing on and is saying that humanity is blind, but there is one who came to actually open our eyes to the truth that is life transforming and eternal. It is this good news.

It’s funny because this word Gospel has been coming up constantly either in my readings, or my conversations (explain Gospel)

So this is what we are going to do. We are going to look at the responses of 3 different sets of characters to their blindness in this story and we are going to analyze comparatively our life.

2 The Pharisees

What was the problem with the pharisees? I mean these guys seemed to know the rules and the law better than anybody. They seemed to do and say all the right things when it came to the Jewish customs and religion. Their lives seemed to be all put together, but yet in the story we see before us today Jesus still calls them blind. Blind to what? They weren’t physically blind, but Jesus was saying they were blind to the truth, blind to the true purpose of His coming and most importantly blind to who He truly was, the Son of God.So what was their problem?

I am currently reading a book by Timothy Keller called King’s Cross about the person of Jesus Christ studied and looked at through the Gospel of Mark. In this book Timothy Keller makes an interesting claim about the danger of religious zealousy. Meaning those who are radically religious thinking that it brings them close to God.

He claims there is a danger with this process because when you truly believe that your actions bring you closer to God you then believe you are superior to everyone who doesn’t follow the rules the same way you do. You become self absorbed and focused on your performance rather than the performance that was already done for you by Jesus Christ and self absorption is extremely dangerous.

This is what we see in the pharisees and this was Jesus biggest problem with them. They were so focused on themselves that they were blind to the truth that was Jesus. Rather than looking upward and God truly they were looking constantly inward.

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Story of the girl from Timothy Keller’s book.

The focus needs to remain on what He has done for me. What He has done through me. What He will do through me. Satan wants you to look inward but God wants you to look upward.

3) The Parents

The second group of people I want to focus on in this story is the parents. I find it extremely amusing that the pharisees go and get the mother and father of this blind begging man. Like boy where are you parents cause you are in big trouble. You see the purpose the Jewish leaders were trying to fulfill was to affirm that this man and Jesus must be lying. To find this out we will go and get the parents and see to it that they are lying. To their disappointment the parents say that no truly he was born blind, but then the parents refused to answer the second question. Instead the parents stated that this man is old enough. We don’t need to answer for him anymore why don’t you ask Him.

Now as a human it is easy to associate with the fear that these parents must have held. The parents were afraid that they would be thrown out of the synogongue. That isn’t just getting kicked out of a church service, but that would entail them often times being removed from the Jewish society as well. All of their friends and neighbors would have to comply with this situation. You can see why the parents would have been afraid, but their fear was so strong that they could not even rejoice in the fact that their son who had been blind from birth could now see. Their fear robbed them of joy and the experience that Jesus wanted to provide them along with their son.

Fear is a liar and fear is our big time enemy, because fear tells us that the thing that we are worried about is somehow more powerful than the truth that we should be rejoicing in. Fear holds many of us in its grip and because of that we aren’t allowing ourselves to experience something so great. We are still blinded by the fear.

Here is the beautiful thing about this story. Jesus came even to open the eyes of those who are blinded by fear and allow them to walk a new life of love. Love is the true vision that God has intended us to see with. Replace that heart of fear and fill us with a heart of love.

Here is the other thing. Most of us that are dealing with crippling fear whether that be of man or of circumstance are gripped by fear because we are relying like mentioned earlier on ourselves rather than relying on the one who has the power to change us from the inside out.

Skip to the story of Jesus calming the storm.

4) The Blind Man

The last person I want to focus on is the blind man.

The light (8:12) has been conquering darkness (1:5). The Pharisees have been doing everything they can to impede Jesus and prove him a false prophet. They have expelled the man from the synagogue, and now Jesus has found him. Jesus has often taken the initiative in seeking potential disciples (1:43, 48; 4:7; 5:6), and once more he takes control, as will the Spirit at the next stage of salvation history (16:8–11).

The man has never laid eyes on Jesus until this moment. He was sent to wash the mud poultice off his face as part of the healing process (9:7) and then went home. His knowledge of God’s truths is still incomplete, so Jesus comes to fill in his gaps. Jesus’ direct challenge here (“Do you believe in the Son of Man?”) seems abrupt, but it is the perfect beginning.

Look at the man’s response. Who is he sir .... Tell me so that I may believe. How different is that from the response of His parents?

Here is the difference with this man’s response. He is relying totally on the person of Jesus. He saw there was nothing that He could do to make himself see again and Jesus came through for him so who better for him to put his trust into than the person of Jesus at this moment.

Essentially this man was saying if you did this for me how much more could you do in my life. Of course I will follow you.

There is this huge epidemic today in America that I see. It is the epidemic of trusting in Jesus. Questions rise up. How do you trust someone you can’t see? How do you know that He truly loves you? How do you know He wants to save me? Or I have gone through a lot of pain. How could a God that loves me send me through this?

Here is the thing about God. He is vast and we try to somehow limit his vastness to what we can understand.

There is a big problem that religion poses and that is self absorbption. To be a