Healing the Man Born Blind

NOTE:

This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.

Engagement

Back in my days as a CPA, one of my clients was a uranium mine. So as part of the audit I was doing, we needed to go down into one of their mines to inventory their equipment. So we put on all of our gear and took the elevator down into the mine, which was deep underground. It was wet and cold, but the one thing I remember most is how dark it was down there. At one point, the employee who was with us had us all stop and turn off our headlamps, which was the only source of light in that part of the mine. When we all did that it was so dark that you literally couldn’t see your hand in front of your face.

Tension

For the short time that those lights were off, I got an idea of what it would be like to be totally blind, and it was pretty scary. But, as we’re going to see this morning, it’s not nearly as scary as being spiritually blind.

Truth

Today is the next to last Sunday in our current sermon series, Seven Signs. In this series, we’ve been looking at the seven signs that John records in his gospel account. Each of those signs reveals something important about Jesus and John includes them in his gospel account to convince his audience that Jesus is the Son of God so that they would put their faith in Him and receive eternal life.

So it’s no surprise that the sixth sign that we’ll study together this morning reveals something important about Jesus. But unlike the first five signs, the greatest value in taking a look at this sign may very well be in seeing how four different people or groups of people respond to that sign. That is because their responses are a great picture of the possible ways that we can respond to Jesus even today. And that is relevant to both our personal relationship with Jesus as well as how we share our faith with others. So regardless of where you are in your walk with Jesus today, this message has something important for you.

The events that are recorded in John’s gospel account from chapter 7 through the first part of chapter 10 all take place in Jerusalem during the Feast of Booths, which is also known as the Feast of Tabernacles. That feast included a number of practices that served as a background for Jesus’ teaching during that time. One of those practices provides important context for the sign that we’ll study today. Each night during this eight day feast, there was a ceremony called the “illumination of the Temple” which involved the ritual lighting of four 75 foot tall golden oil-filled lamps in the Court of Women. These lamps were to remind the people of the pillar of fire that had guided Israel in their wilderness journey. They were so bright they would light up the entire city. of Jerusalem.

It is against that backdrop that Jesus had earlier declared Himself to be the “light of the world”, which would have undoubtedly brought to mind this Old Testament prophecy of the Messiah:

Isaiah 9:2 ESV

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.

With that background in mind, we are now ready to read the account of the sixth sign that is recorded at the beginning of John chapter 9. Although we are going to talk about most of the chapter, I want to make sure that we have enough time to focus on the application of this sign to our lives, so I’m not going to read the entire chapter. But I do encourage you to do that on your own. When you do that, you are going to be reading with a smile on your face, because there is actually a great deal of humor in some of the dialog that occurs there.

John 9:1–7 ESV

As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.

Here’s the main idea we’ll develop this morning.

This sixth sign shows that Jesus is the light of the world who came to give spiritual sight to all who trust in Him

In his gospel account, John makes frequent references to darkness and light, going all the way back to the opening words of the book:

John 1:4–5 ESV

In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

And before He performs this sign, Jesus gives us a clue that it is about more than just physical healing when He once again declares Himself to be the “light of the world”.

As I mentioned earlier, probably the most valuable lessons for us from this sign come from looking at the responses of four different people or groups of people to the sign. And as we do that we’re going to see that quite ironically, the blind man is the only one who ends up seeing spiritually while those who can see physically end up being blind spiritually.

So let’s dig right in to those four responses:

Application

FOUR RESPONSES TO THIS SIGN:

Neighbors (vv.8-13) - blinded by distraction

The neighbors couldn’t even agree if this was the man who had previously been a blind beggar, even though he kept insisting he was that man. But their bigger problem is that their focus was in the wrong place. They were more concerned about understanding the mechanics of how Jesus healed this man than they are about knowing Jesus. They are mostly interested in how Jesus healed than what that healing revealed about who He is.

We’ve talked about this before, but I’m convinced one of the reasons that Jesus never seems to heal the same way twice is because He doesn’t want us to get caught up in the methods rather than looking to the person of Jesus. There are several accounts of Jesus healing a blind person in the gospel and He does it differently every time. One time he touches the person, another time He merely speaks and heals him. Here he spits on the ground and makes mud with His saliva. I don’t imagine that any of us would choose to be healed that way.

And I’m pretty sure Jesus intentionally chooses that method to provoke another confrontation with the Jewish religious leaders. Some of the superstitious Gentiles believed saliva was a cure for eye disease. But the Jews found that practice to be so disgusting that they had made their own laws that prohibited healing anyone with spit. Although, as I’ll discuss more in a moment, the Jews are primarily blinded for another reason, they too are focused on the how and not the who.

I don’t think that is a whole lot different than those who get distracted from putting their faith in Jesus today because they focus on some peripheral issue. They deflect the conversation away from Jesus by trying to argue about things like evolution, or abortion, or homosexual marriage, or why God allows bad things to happen to people. Those are all important issues that God addresses in His Word. But they are not nearly as important as the fact that without faith in Jesus, that other person is going to face an eternity separated from God in a place of horrible everlasting punishment.

So...

How do I deal with the person who is blinded by distraction?

Turn the conversation back to Jesus

That’s what the blind man does here. He doesn’t get caught up in arguing about whether Jesus violated some Jewish law or whether He was a sinner. He just kept telling everyone who would listen what Jesus had done for him.

I’ve found that I can effectively do that by saying something like this:

“Those are all really good questions, and I’d love to have a conversation about them some day. But because I love you, I’m much more concerned about your eternal destiny, and while those other issues are important, they don’t matter nearly as much as what you do with Jesus. So could I tell you what Jesus has done for me and what He can do for you?”

Pharisees (vv.14-17, 24-34) - blinded by religion

When I’m using the word “religion” here, I’m referring to a man-made system of trying to approach God. Religion almost always includes a set of rules for people to follow as well as required rituals and traditions. And what the Pharisees had developed certainly fit that description. It’s really instructive here that they call themselves “disciples of Moses”. I’m pretty confident in saying that God never called anyone to be a disciple of Moses, or of any other human for that matter. These Pharisees were more devoted to the Law than they were to the God who had created and communicated that Law through His servant Moses. So when Jesus acted in a way that didn’t fit their religious system, they wrongly concluded that He couldn’t possibly even be from God, alone be God in the flesh.

Those Pharisees were a lot like modern-day politicians. I think that for the most part they genuinely set out with good intentions. They created a long list of man-made laws because they thought that by doing that they could help people remain on good terms with God. But over time, those good intentions came to be overshadowed by the perks of being a Pharisee. In general they were held in very high regard by their fellow Jews. People sought out their opinions and advice. They got invited to all the prestigious social events and they benefitted financially from their role. So when something or someone threatened their power and influence they fought to hang on to what they had.

So just like we saw with the healing of the official’s son, when Jesus miraculously heals this man, instead of rejoicing that he has been healed, these religious leaders are more concerned that Jesus is breaking their man-made laws concerning the Sabbath. And once again, they miss out on the fact that the God they profess to worship is standing right before them in the flesh.

Unfortunately we see the same thing happening today. So many people are so caught up in some kind of religious system that they fail to ever enter into a personal relationship with Jesus by trusting in Him alone as the way to God. They are slaves to man-made rules and religious rituals that they think make them right with God. Unfortunately, there is pretty good evidence that even a large number of people who call themselves Christians fall into that trap. While they might even believe that Jesus is the Son of God and say they are trusting in Him, at the same time they are also hanging on to their religion and believe that by doing so they are somehow earning favor with God.

So...

How do I deal with the person who is blinded by religion?

Turn the conversation to God’s grace

That’s what the healed man does here. He doesn’t argue about the Law or the religious traditions of the Pharisees. As he is questioned over and over by the Pharisees, he just keeps pointing them back to what Jesus has done in his life. And he makes it clear that he has done nothing to earn or deserve the healing he has received. He understands that this is an undeserved gift from God.

This is where a good dose of humility comes in handy in our lives. When others want to argue about religion, rather than quarreling about those things, we can often steer the conversation in another direction by talking about how Jesus has extended His grace to us. We can share how we came to the realization that we were sinners who were incapable of following all the rules and keeping all the rituals so we had to trust in what Jesus already did for us instead of what we could do for Him.

Parents (vv. 18-23) - blinded by fear of others

To me, the response of the parents is the most baffling of all here. Let me ask any of you who are parents how you would respond if your son who had been born blind suddenly could see? I don’t really think I’d care what anyone else thought. I’d be celebrating with all that I had and I’d sure want to meet the man who had healed him so I could thank him. But this man’s parents are so afraid of the Pharisees and the possibility that they could be put out of the synagogue that they basically tell the religious leaders, “We know nothing. Go ask our son. He’s old enough to speak for himself.”

Today, there are a lot of people who fail to put their faith in Jesus because they are blinded by their fear of others. I know that is true because I was one of those people at one time. I wasn’t really introduced to the gospel until I was in college so when I began to be convicted about my need to make Jesus my Savior, I initially was worried about what my family and friends would think.

I’ve come to learn that this is a legitimate fear because often when we commit our lives to Jesus, it’s very possible that family members and friends will reject us. And others may not reject us completely, but certainly the nature of our relationship with them will change. I know for me, once I became a disciple of Jesus, my relationship with some of my best friends from high school and college became a lot more distant. Obviously today, I realize that my relationship with Jesus more than makes up for that, but at the time, that fear of others could have easily prevented me from committing my life to Jesus.

So...

How do I deal with the person who is blinded by the fear of others?

Express empathy and offer support

I will be the first to admit that this really goes against my nature. I tend to be more like the Pharisees who just want to get to the facts and then tell the other person to just “suck it up”. But as we’ve just discussed, this is a legitimate fear for a lot of people. Many of them have something important or significant they will lose if they commit their lives to Jesus.

What they don’t need is a lecture or for us to just tell them to forget those other people or to tell them everything will be OK. They need someone to come alongside them and let them know that we understand their feelings and promise that we’ll be there for them no matter how others respond to their decision.

Formerly blind man (vv. 35-38) - sees by faith

Everyone who had physical sight missed out on seeing who Jesus is. The only one that saw that clearly was the blind man.

It is easy to read this account and miss out on all the obstacles this man had to overcome in order to see Jesus. The first test was how was he going to react to the strange and even gross method that Jesus used to heal him. Would he object or pull away or would he accept Jesus’ methods even when they weren’t what he expected?

Then think about what he must have been thinking when Jesus told him to walk to the pool of Siloam and wash. Remember that he is blind and it couldn’t have been easy to get to the pool on his own and there is no evidence here that he had someone to help him. But because he believes Jesus and acts on that belief, he is able to see, not just physically, but also spiritually. When Jesus asks him if he believes in the Son of Man, he not only voiced his belief in Jesus, but he backed that up by worshiping Him as well.

Action

This sixth sign shows that Jesus is the light of the world who came to give spiritual sight to all who trust in Him

I am really excited about this message because regardless of where you are in your walk with Jesus, there is something very practical you can take away from this message today.

I’m going to start with those of you who have already received spiritual sight and committed your life to Jesus. Just like this man was physically blind, all of us were spiritually blind at one time. And just like Jesus sought this man out even when he wasn’t seeking Jesus, Jesus sought us out when we weren’t seeking Him. And He brought spiritual sight to us when there was nothing we could do to receive that on our own.

So the first thing I want to encourage you to do is to pause right now and spend just a couple minutes in prayer right where you are thanking Jesus for being the light of the world and bringing spiritual sight to you.

[Prayer time]

The second thing I want to point out to those of you in that group is that even though I haven’t yet used the word yet this morning, we’ve been talking a lot about “evangelism” this morning. I hesitate to use that word even now because for some reason we’ve made that way more complicated than it needs to be and even the mention of the word can scare off a lot of Christians. You probably weren’t even thinking that this blind man engaged in evangelism, but that is exactly what he did here. And it was pretty simple, wasn’t it? He just told the Pharisees what Jesus had done for him. He didn’t need to have any special training or education to do that. And that, along with the three things I mentioned earlier - turning the conversation to Jesus, turning the conversation to God’s grace and expressing empathy and offering support is something everyone one of us can do. So next time God gives you the opportunity, will you help someone else receive their spiritual sight?

Finally, let me talk to those of you who have never received that gift from Jesus. I am convinced that the very fact that you’ve joined us today is evidence that Jesus is seeking you to give you spiritual sight even if you aren’t seeking Him. But He won’t force you to receive that gift. Like the blind man in this account, you must believe and obey Jesus even though you might not totally understand His methods.

I’ll be the first to admit that it really doesn’t make a lot of sense that the way we are made right with God is through the death and resurrection of Jesus. Frankly that doesn’t make any more sense that being healed from physical blindness by having Jesus spit into the dirt and make mud to put on this man’s eyes. But in truth that is really the only way we could ever be made right with a holy God and receive our spiritual sight. Jesus, as the perfect, sinless man, is the only one who could have taken on Himself the penalty that we deserved for our sin and paid that penalty on the cross. And then He rose from the dead to prove His power over sin and death.

Although I have shared with you this morning how you can receive your spiritual sight, there is actually nothing I can do to convince you to make that decision today. Only Jesus and the Holy Spirit can do that. so as we close, let me pray for you.

[Prayer]

Inspiration

Without the work of Jesus in our lives, every single one of us would spiritually be just as blind as I was physically in that uranium mine many years ago. But Jesus, the light of the world, will overcome that darkness if you’ll let Him.