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Today we are going to finish our study of John 9. I encourage you to open your Bibles to John 9, and follow along.
Jesus has just come from the temple after clearly declaring that He is God by using the very name that God gave to Moses.
The Jews were incensed that Jesus would claim to be God, and tried to seize Him, but He slipped away.
As Jesus was leaving the temple area, He saw this man who was born blind.
The disciples were distracted from the suffering and were more interested in the philosophical question of who was at fault, when they had Jesus there who has already healed people who were blind.
Jesus tells them that this man was there that God would display His work in Him.
Then, Jesus told His disciples that while He was in the world, He was the light of the world.
We looked at that portion of John 9 the last two weeks.
Today we are moving through the rest of the chapter.
Why this method?
Why did Jesus spit and make mud?
Why put this on the man’s eyes?
Why tell him to go wash it off?
In the past, as Matthew recorded it in Matthew 9:29, Jesus touched two blind men and they could see.
In Matthew 12:22, Matthew 15:30 and Matthew 21:14 Jesus healed multiple blind people, and no mention of any ritual is made.
In Matthew 15:34 Jesus healed two blind men after touching their eyes.
We know that Jesus could just speak and people would be healed.
Sometimes He touched people and healed them.
I think that touch was a way of showing the people how much he cared, especially when he touched the lepers.
But, why, on this occasion, did Jesus make mud and tell the man to wash?
I think there are two answers here.
One: Jesus did not go about creating a ritual.
People are too quick to latch onto rituals and think that the rituals have power.
It is not any ritual that has the power to heal.
It is Jesus who has the power to heal.
Acts 19 - rituals, talismans, incantations, words of power
Second: I think Jesus was using this man to fulfill His role of being the Light of the world.
He had a purpose for sending this man to the pool of Siloam.
Why the Pool of Siloam?
Remember that Jesus is in Jerusalem for the Feast of the Tabernacles.
During this feast, the priests would make trips from the Pool of Siloam to the temple to pour water at the base of the altar.
“Pilgrims to the feast watched this ritual, which Jews throughout the Roman world thus knew; it was even commemorated on souvenir jars they could take home with them.”
Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), Jn 7:37.
Jesus knew that people and priests would be there, and He the Light of the World, wanted them to know what He had done.
Here was a man who was commonly known to be blind from birth, and he was going to be healed for all to see, one of the three Messianic Miracles!
(The healing of leprosy, the casting out of a mute demon, and the healing of one born blind)
Also, during this last day of the feast, Jesus had been repeatedly tellling the people that God sent Him.
Sent
Now, this man would show up at the pool called sent, and be healed from His blindness!
Something only the One sent by God; that is, something only God, the Messiah could do.
This was Jesus showing clearly that He is God the Messiah!
But how did they react?
The people’s reaction
First, denial.
This couldn’t be the man.
It just looks like him.
Why?
Because no one born blind had ever been healed.
It just doesn’t happen.
But yet, here he was!
It was him!
So, how did this happen?
I love his answer.
the man they call Jesus.
He had never seen Jesus.
He had only heard about him.
But he knew that Jesus healed him.
Well, this was a Messianic miracle!
What could this mean?
This goes back to chapter seven when the people were wondering about Jesus, “Is he the Messiah?” John 7:26.
How did the Pharisees respond to this?
The Pharisees’ reaction
He does not keep the Sabbath.
This could have been because Jesus spit, which was work because you are watering, or because he made mud which was work of kneading.
The Pharisees were know for coming up with rules about what was work so they would not break the Sabbath.
But, on the other hand, this was a miracle.
How do we answer that?
I love the man’s answer!
He is growing in his understanding.
Before, he said the man Jesus.
Now, he realizes he is more than a man.
He is a prophet, one sent by God!
Well, this did not satisfy the Pharisees, who were really out to get Jesus.
They already tried to seize Jesus twice during this festival.
How, do they stop the crowds from following this Jesus and calling Him the Messiah?
Ah! maybe he wasn’t really blind!
Deny the miracle!
The parents’ response
They were afraid.
Being cast out of the synagogue would make one a social outcast.
It would basically drive them away from friends and family.
They would lose everything.
And if they livelihood depended on buying and selling, they would likely lose their customers.
While I imagine the parents had to be thrilled about what Jesus did for their son, their fear of man kept them from opening up.
The man’s response
The same thing the Pharisees already said and knew from verse 16.
This man knew it, and came to the logical conclusion, This man is from God!
The Pharisees were unwilling to accept it.
This man accepted it!
This man had not see Jesus.
He did not see what Jesus was doing.
But he knew Jesus healed Him.
He accepted what he knew.
He had faith!
Don’t believe the lie that Christianity is a matter of blind faith.
Christianity is a matter of faith because we see what God has done.
We may not see all, or understand all, but we have faith because God has shown the light of the truth of who He is and what He has done upon us.
They could not argue the facts, so they resorted to what many still resort to today… character assassination.
Growing in faith
I love the progression.
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