John 9:1-7

Welcome to BT and our looking for ligth series where we examine the life of Jesus in John.

The scene we will look at in this episode is a good one. It hits me where it hurts. Its geta why we do these videos. We are looking at a scene from Jesus life recorded in John 9. They disciples come upon a real human problem.

What do you do when you see a big problem? We all have different ways to tackle problems - Face them head on. Ingore the problem and it’ll go away. Some people are thinkers, some are planners, some are doers, do you measure twice and cut once? Maybe you form a committee that will make recommendations to another committe who will then get several contractors to present plans to solve the problem. Maybe you say - I’ll fix it myself and move on. Maybe you ignore the rules and say you’ll ask forgiviness instead of permission. We tackle problems differently.

In this story the disciples and Jesus tackle a a real human problem about how to respond to a person in need in two completely different ways.

The disciples way is just the wrong way. Its this human way that i see myself doing all the time. And jesus response to the problem - its fantatice. he is so much better at being a human than we are. He’s got a better way. And I’m going to tell you about. So lets read the story and see these two responses.

9 As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. 4 We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 6 When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes, 7 saying to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see

Jesus and his friends are walking and along the path is a blind man. This is a somewhat common occurance. A blind man would have a hard life where he would have to beg money to survive. This is a difficult life - it is a disatvantaged life. he is missing out on many of joys, possibilities and gifts of life. He must beg and he can never see all the beauty of God’s creation. this is A problem.

The disciples see a man blind from birth. They come upon his hardship.

They say Rabbi, who sinned ? this man or his parents. Notice they say rabbi- this is teaching converstaion. the disciples are saying oh look a blind man - teach lets have a religious discussion. . Lets talk some theology. Lets talk some hypothetical. Who sinned? Did this man sin or did his parents?

They wanna talk shop. they wanna have an abstract conversation. While a man is hurting right in front of them.

And for the record according to their own scriptures and faith this is fairly bad hypothetical discussion. Their great command is to love God and love man. They don’t start with - What does God want us to? How can I love God when I see this man? They don’t ask how can I love my neibhor as myself? They get into a much more abstract matter - how did this all come about?

They ask a hypothetical. Who sinned? this man or their parents. They are asking the wrong questions. They see need. They know the great commands of their faith. They know the great theology of their faith and they wade into some other stuff - lets have a predestitaion or free will conversation here. Is this because of something he did or maybe god knew who do bad stuff, or maybe his parents were bad people adn this is punishment.

. Christiants, boy oh boy we can do this. We can ask all the wrong questions. We can get excited about a bunch of hypotheticals. I think its human nature, but I personally can get into rabbit holes about who to blame. I can pride myself in having interesting conversations about what is wrong and why and all the ways I could make things better.

People, humans (and especially Christians) one thing we often do is have conversations about letter things, less clear things to avoid the big clear things that God has already told us to do. Even if you don’t believe in God I would bad that you spend time avoiding you own conscience . MAybe you get into the hypotheticl to avoid what your conscience demands of you.

If that’s you. If you are willing to admit that you spend too much time just having some hypothetical conversations when facing real concrete problems in front of you then let Jesus response be a word to you today.

Jesus swats that away - neither this man or his parents sinned, but this ia moment for God’s work to be revealed in him.

Four moves Jesus makes in meeting this struggling man - Move - reject the hypotheticla and Bring this to. Jesus brings this situation into a God framework. This is an opportunity for God to work. this is an opportunity for God’s glory.

MOVE TWo. Jesus and his people are commanded to do God’s good work then the opportunitiy arises. Jesus and his people are sent from God. They must do the God work as long as they can (maybe there are dark times where that is hard - but if you see daylight to do some God work then do it.

God gives us work to do. jesus says that God sent him to do work in the day time. If Iam in this world I am to be the light of the world.

Move 3 - Jesus goes righto the source of the problem to bring healing. He spits on the ground he makes mud. He gets close to the hurting man. he touches the man - and oh oh oh oh oh do not miss why jesus is so much better than us and braver than us - HE touches the man right where his pain is. (not 20 feet away asking who sinned) - there is pain in his eyes. I’m going to go touch his eyes.

this is an aside - but for you -know this - Jesus is the one who will come right to your deepest pain and touch that and bring healing - and you might hate it! Because it’ll probably hurt. And it might embarrass you and it might be icky. He might have to spit and make a mud cake and do something all wierd to you - But he comes right to the paint to bring the healing.

4th move -he invites the man in faith to participate in his healing. Jesus calls the man to an act of faith - Go wash in the pool of siloam.

Do you know oh christian your a sermon in shoes. Do you know oh christian your a sermon in shoes.