The Blind Truth of Redemptive Suffering

John 9:1-7

Intro:

Why do we suffer? Is it the result of random chance? Is it some sort of karmic payback? Are we at the mercy of some sort of malevolent deity looking to squash a meaningless creation? Or can it be used for the redemptive purposes of a loving God for His covenant people? You may recall our studies in Job last year, Jesus and His disciples are presented with the suffering of a particular man and the disciples—much like Job’s friends—want to place the blame somewhere, so a conversation ensues concerning sin and a wonderful sign takes place. The encounter in tonight’s passage gets at the question, ‘Who or what is the cause of life’s difficult providences?’ And we are going to see that because Jesus Christ is the Light of the world we can trust Him in all of life’s hardships. To do this tonight, we are going to look at three things: a problem perceived, a purpose explained, and a procedure performed. (2x)

And with that, let’s get started by taking a look at…

1. A Problem Perceived (v1-2)

As we come to our text this evening, we see our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and His disciples passing by a man who has been blind from birth here in verse 1. Now, this might appear to be a fairly basic statement of fact at first, right? But let’s think about this for a second, ‘blind from birth.’ This means that there was never a time when this man was able to see. This also means that this blindness was incurable by earthly means. Parents, think of your own children, would you not exhaust every option you had to find a cure for your child’s debilitating condition? We have to also remember that a child in these days was also the parents’ insurance policy or 401k. This child would be the one to take care of his parents in their old age. With this in mind, we can see that this man—who was blind from birth—never had sight and had no hope of gaining his sight.

Upon seeing this man, we hear the disciples start to think… They ask, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” The logic here is sound to a first century Jewish person. There is clearly a biblical connection between sin and suffering. For example, death enters the world when Adam and Eve sin by eating the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in Genesis 3. Or, one can look at the Ten Commandments to see this (Exodus 20:4-6):

You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

God has promised generational retribution (i.e., a just payback) for the sins of the fathers unto the third and fourth generations.

For a New Testament example of this, we can turn to Acts 5 with the story of Ananias and Saphira. They sold a piece of property but held back some of the profits for themselves—shorting the apostles and the Church—and then lied about it. We read that they were struck dead for this. After all, our God is a holy and just God, and—being such—He cannot just let sin go on unpunished, it would be contrary to His character. God would cease to be God. Therefore, the disciples are thinking, ‘Surely this man or his parents must have done something to have warranted this blindness.’

And, we do the same things at times. In his commentary on the Gospel of John, John Calvin—that famous 16th century Reformer—says that there are three ways Christians commonly err concerning sin and the misfortunes of others[1]:

1. We are quick to see and condemn others with ‘extreme bitterness.’ If our brother or sister falls on hard times, we assume it is God’s judgment. If it happens to us, it’s just an unfortunate circumstance. He exhorts us to look to our sin first.

2. We often view the adversity that someone else is experiencing with ‘excessive severity.’ We ought not turn the small offenses of others into large crimes while we justify our own sins and minimize the severity of our own actions.

3. We sometimes pronounce condemnation on people who are experiencing hardship. We should not think someone is sinning just because he or she is called to bear a particular cross or experience a specific kind of hardship.

We, like these curious disciples, must not try to read God’s Book of Providence too carefully. There are things going on in this world that we just cannot understand this side of glory as finite human beings.

So, the question stands, ‘Did this guy sin in a way that warranted his blindness?’ If we think about this, it really gets to the heart of our problem with sin as the fallen children of Adam. This man has been blind from birth! That’s not a whole lot of time to be corrupted by sin. Some scholars speculate that this was possibly sin from a previous life, but this illustrates for us tonight the imputed guilt that has been placed upon all of us by Adam’s first sin, the resulting death caused by it, and the depth of our human depravity and total inability to do good unto God—even from the womb, as Adam’s posterity.[2]We just can’t do it. It is as Augustine said, “In Adam’s fall, sinned we all.” We are all fallen human beings in need of a savior. We all suffer from the consequences of the same affliction and that affliction is sin.

As we continue, we hear these disciples saying, “If it wasn’t this guy’s fault, did his parents sin?” The Exodus passage just tells us that God punishes unto the third and fourth generation of those who hate Him. Clearly this man is afflicted, so if he didn’t sin it must have been his parents, right? The disciples are sure someone’s sin is to blame for all of this.

Transition: Isn’t this where we often go when faced with our various trials in life today? We think, “What did I do to deserve this?” “Where did I go wrong?” Maybe in our sadness we cry out, “Is this the result of someone else’s actions?” “Am I just a victim?” We have to put the blame somewhere, don’t we? This brings us to our second point this evening…

2. A Purpose Explained (v3-5)

Jesus quickly responds to His disciples with a hardy, “Neither!” in verse 3. He says, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.” You see, brothers and sisters, there is another reason for the hardships of this life: the display of the power and works of God. We serve a sovereign God who is working all things according to His good purposes. Now, please note that Jesus is not correcting His disciples for seeing a correlation between sin and suffering. “God canand does visit people with afflictions when they disobey” (e.g., the death of David and Bathsheba’s baby in 2 Sam 12:15-23 and Miriam’s leprosy for rebellion in Num 12:1-10), but He is showing them that there is another, third option.[3]After all, sin will always lead to suffering—either in this life or the next—because it cannot go unpunished. Jesus is also not saying that this man or his family did not sin. He is merely stating that this man’s blindness is not the result of anyone’s particular sin, but exists “…that the works of God might be displayed in him.” This blindness is one of Gospel significance because it reveals who Jesus is.

Verse 4 continues, “We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work.” This commission is the reason Jesus and His disciples are there, remember the question John the Baptist’s disciples posed to Jesus and His subsequent reply in Luke 7:18-23?

… John, 19 calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to the Lord, saying, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” 20 And when the men had come to him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?’” 21 In that hour he healed many people of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many who were blind he bestowed sight. 22 And he answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. 23 And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”

Jesus is the One who has come to save sinners. Jesus is Our mighty Savior. Jesus Christ was born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that those who believe in Him would receive adoption as sons.[4] Jesus has a job to do while He is here in the flesh and He is doing it in our passage this evening! Isn’t this Good News?

But, His earthly ministry was only for a time. As the second part of our verse points out, “…night is coming, when no one can work.” Jesus—the Second Person of the Trinity, God incarnate—knew His earthly work would end with His death on the cross. He knew that He would be crucified, die, and be buried. He knew that He would be raised and ascend into heaven and be seated at the right hand of God the Father making intercession for you and me, even this day. And He knew that His disciples would struggle with His absence—which is why He speaks of sending the Holy Spirit later in chapters 14-16 of John’s Gospel.

It is now that Jesus reiterates His ‘I AM’ statement from chapter 8 here in verse 5, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Now, brothers and sisters, we have to remember the importance of these ‘I AM’ statements. Think back to Exodus 3—with Moses and the burning bush—God gives Moses His name in order to convince the Jewish people to leave Egypt for the promised land. In verses 13-14 it says:

Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’”

So, boys and girls, what did God give as His covenant name to the people of Israel? I AM. And what is Jesus saying in our passage tonight? “I AM… the Light of the world.” Do you think Jesus is showing the disciples that He is God? He is! Jesus is God. Here Jesus is repeating what John said in 8:12, “…Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’” We also see this in the beginning of John’s Gospel:

· In him was life, and the life was the light of men (v4).

· The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it (v5).

· The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world (v9).

This is not just a miracle but Jesus is providing a sign that shows He is the Messiah. Jesus is using a blind man to point out the continued spiritual blindness of the Pharisees. These religious leaders who can’t actually see anything, as seen later in this very chapter… And, Jesus is still the ‘Light of the world’ today, it’s just that He is working through the Holy Spirit due to Him physically being in heaven at the right hand of God the Father—God willing, we can discuss that further at some other time… (Pause)

Maybe you are going through a difficult time right now, or maybe you’re walking along someone who is; this purpose that Jesus is explaining to his disciples in our passage tonight is every bit as true today for you and I as it was for those disciples back then. We ought not to read God’s book of providence—or speculate as to whysomething happened, is happening, or will happen—carelessly. Sure, wisdom and discernment should be exercised in one’s life, but we must know who we are and who God is. The Mona Lisa doesn’t turn to DaVinci and tell him why he did what he did… The Creator—God in the case of our lives—is free to do as He wills, so we mustn’t tear someone’s life apart—either our own or someone else’s—in flippant judgment because we can’t connect the dots. God is in the process of writing His story of redemption and He may be doing something beautiful in the difficult things of the lives of those closest to us.

I came across the testimony of a woman this week who, due to a misdiagnosis, was just

devastated by polio in an age when polio was “supposed to be eradicated.”[5]This left her to a childhood spent in hospitals with many painful surgeries. Years later she also lost her infant son to a heart condition when he was taken off a life-saving medicine by a substitute doctor unfamiliar with the situation. The question she wrestled with throughout her life—just like these disciples—was, “Why, Lord?” She was haunted by it. She said that if she just had an explanation, she could understand God’s purposes in them—but we aren’t guaranteed that. She had to trust God and submit to His sovereignty. It was only in surrendering to His plan that a reason was provided. She didn’t have to figure it out and it didn’t have to make sense because God is Who He says He is and He is working out His plan. She finishes:

One day our faith will be as sight, and we will see all of God’s glorious purposes in our trials. But for now, as we wait, we must trust him.

There is always a “why” to our pain. We may never understand it in this life, but this we can know: As we surrender our questions to him, God will answer us with nothing less than himself.

This is the lens through which we need to answer that phone call we never wanted to receive at 3:30 in the morning, this is how we receive the news of that diagnosis, this is how we handle the death of a loved one. As Christians, we take them to Christ and His cross—trusting that they are for His purposes, that they are not in vain, and that they are displaying the works of God.

Transition: So, just to recap where we’ve been so far this evening: we have this problem of a man blind from birth, the question of who’s sin caused his condition, and Jesus’ response that this blindness was not the result of anyone’s particular sin—it was so the works of God might be displayed in him. (pause) What if we began to view the hardships in our lives through this Gospel lens? (pause) What kind of glory would we bring God if the crosses we bear and the tribulations we face pointed to His goodness, His care, and His mercy? (pause) This brings us to our final point this evening…

3. A Procedure Performed (v6-7)

Verse 6 reads, “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…” Can you imagine being this blind man? I bet he never saw this coming! (laugh) Jesus literally spits on the ground, makes some mud, and then rubs it on this guy’s eyes. Think of the faith this man must have exhibited. Even more so, as we see in verse 7, [Jesus tells] him, ‘Go, wash in the pool of Siloam’ (which means Sent).” This blind man has just had his eyes anointed with spit-mud and now Jesus tells him to go to this specific pool and wash himself. Try to place yourself in this man’s shoes for a moment. (pause) Can you imagine what this walk must have been like? (pause) What must have been racing through his mind? (pause) How far away was the pool? (pause) I don’t know about you, but I can’t even make it through the living room in the dark without smashing into some piece of furniture or stepping on some child’s toy, let alone navigate the streets of Jerusalem… This guy receives the mud, hears the command, and—pay attention—he actually does it! He listens. He obeys.

Friend, do youhave this kind of faith tonight? (pause) Pray to God for this kind of faith because only He can grant it. (pause) I think there is an awful lot to learn about the Christian life by looking carefully at our brother in this passage, I say brother because—spoiler alert—he believes in and worships Christ later in the chapter… He receives a remedy that is foolish by the world’s standards—something that could possibly even further the damage to his already useless eyes—and makes the trek to the pool of Siloam because he knows his condition and he knows his desperation. Jesus is offering this man so much more than just his sight, He is offering him hope.

And what is the result? Well, the end of verse 7 tells us, “So he went and washed and came back seeing.” Jesus did what He said He was going to do because Jesus is who He said He was. As our author tonight told us at the beginning of his Gospel:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Jesus can spit in the dirt and make mud to rub in this man’s eye’s because He is God and all of creation is His. Everything was made through Him! He is the great ‘I AM’ and He is life and that life is the light of men. This is the power of our great Savior. This is Who we are worshiping this evening. Surely there was no power in the mud or the water of the pool, it was all of Christ. God made us from the dust of the earth all the way back in Genesis 1 and Christ is simply using the dust of the earth in our passage tonight to restore this man’s sight—this is an object lesson. Our God uses means, and only He can heal and save the blind.[6]

Application: So, what are the hardships you’re facing today? Are you showing those around you the mighty works of God in your life as He brings you through these hardships? Whatever your hardships might be, are you bringing them to your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ? Remember, Christ doesn’t enable us to escape the hardships of this life—we’re never promised that—but He provides meaning for them. You see, we are not created in vain and our suffering is not in vain. It is for Hispurposes. Only He can bring the healing and salvation you are seeking. Only He can provide the cure for your sin and adversity. Only He can give you this Gospel perspective.

Friend, maybe you’re sitting here this evening thinking about asking this mighty Savior for help—this One that can even bring sight to the blind… If that’s you, what are you waiting for? His grace is sufficient for you and He will save for eternity those who confess Him. What could possibly be more urgent? If you would like to talk to someone after the service, please either come to myself, and elder, or one of our members. We’d love to help in any way we can.

Brothers and Sisters, know this Savior—God incarnate, the One who can restore sight to the blind because He is Master over creation—and know His peace. A peace that overcomes any of the ravages this world can throw at us—be it blindness, a pandemic, or death itself—because this exists completely outside of ourselves and is wholly in this Jesus, the One who conquered death on the cross to pay for our sins. Turn to Jesus and know His peace. May God grant it. Amen.

[1]John Calvin and William Pringle, Commentary on the Gospel according to John, vol. 1 (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), 364-365. [2] Calvin, John, 365; Westminster Confession of Faith 6.3-4. [3] R. C. Sproul, John, St. Andrew’s Expositional Commentary (Lake Mary, FL: Reformation Trust Publishing, 2009), 172. [4] See Galatians 4:4-5 [5]https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/if-i-only-knew-why [6] Sproul, John, 174.