The seeing Blind

Jesus Heals the Blind Man

Big Idea: “It’s all about what we know not what we show”

We are all responsible with what we do with the knowledge of the Light that we have been given. It’s about what you know to be true as apposed to what you show or experience to be true.

INTRODUCTION

WE ARE LIKE AN EIGHT YEAR OLD BOY WITH A BROKEN TOY

Imagine an eight-year-old boy playing with a toy truck and then it breaks. He is disconsolate and cries out to his parents to fix it. Yet as he's crying, his father says to him, "A distant relative you've never met has just died and left you one hundred million dollars." What will the child's reaction be? He will just cry louder until his truck is fixed. He does not have enough cognitive capacity to realize his true condition and be consoled.

In the same way, Christians lack the spiritual capacity to realize all we have in Jesus. This is the reason Paul prays that God would give Christians the spiritual ability to grasp the height, depth, breadth, and length of Christ's salvation (Eph. 3:16-19; Eph. 1:17-18). In general, our lack of joy is as Shakespeare wrote: "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves" (Julius Caesar, Act 1, Scene 2). We are like the eight-year-old boy who rests his happiness in his "stars"—his circumstances—rather than recognizing what we have in Christ. Our story this morning is a sad one but an all to true reality of those who see only the reality in their own eyes but are truly blind and those who are blind and know the state of their blindness and desire to truly see. We are like the eight year old boy crying out with the broken toy to be fixed. We do not have enough cognitive ability or power realize the true condition of our blindness.

*This Chapter is among some of the most humorous parts of scripture and yet one of the most sad scenes in scripture. This is probably one of the most unified chapters that displays the gospel. The whole idea of giving sight to the blind. One of the idea’s of coming into the Messianic age is the receiving of sight by the blind.

1. Knowing the state of our blindness helps us to see the light of our Salvation.

We are all at different stages of blindness. Some know they are blind but others fail to recognize the state of their blindness.

This passage should compel us to take a hard look at our state of blindness. Those who know their state of lostness are in a much better place than those who assume they see but are truly the ones who are still dead in their sins and in need of the light of Christ to open their eyes.

The blind man represents the majority of the world who are wondering around in darkness unable to see the light because of the curse of sin and death that they were born into.

The Pharisees represent those who were born into the light of their legalistic sense of morality. They assume the can see but in reality they are walking in just as dark a night as the man born blind. The only difference is they do not know it, the blind man knows his state of blindness without any hope of regaining his sight.

LIGHT HAS A TWO FOLD EFFECT

1)Light brings salvation to those who are blind.

2)Light brings the shadow of judgment to those who will not come into the light.

Suffering of this nature was always thought to be due to a personal sin. The only question is whose sin caused the man to be born blind. So since the man was blind from birth it meant that his sin had to either have happened while in his mothers womb, pre-birth, or his parents had committed it prior to his birth.

BIBLICAL TRUTH: "Sin has produced a suffering world, but an individual's personal suffering is not always attributed or a direct result to his or her personal sin. Sometimes of course it may be, as when suffering results from drunken driving or sexual promiscuity. This was the issue between Job and his grinds, and the lesson of the book of Job is God's dismissal of that simplistic theology of suffering. It is here dismissed by Jesus.

Today's Popular Religion: People live in fear of breaking the rules in order that some punishment be visited on them, specifically expressed in Hinduism and it's doctrine of Karma (what goes around comes around), the consequence of it's actions, so that good is rewarded by a 'higher' life in the next reincarnation, and evil is punished by a 'lower'. Hindu thought would therefore offer a further possible answer to the implied question in verse 2: 'did he sin in a previous life?'

ILLUSTRATION: My wife and I driving back from Victoria saw a young man with his car parked on the side of the highway. Apparently not in distress just sitting in the middle of the grass.

NOTE: Jesus does express that the time is urgent because we have only this one life in which to work for God. There are no more lives to live!!!!!!! There is no second life to get it right.

The link between sin and suffering also resurfaces in certain theologies of healing. For example in order for a sick person to be made well it is necessary for them to repent of their sins, or their unbelief, or their broken relationships, or their lack of faith, or their unwillingness to pray and thank God for their illness, and so on.

THEOLOGICAL SOUNDING: There is a grain of truth that sickness may have some relationship to some sinful situation in the past, dealing with the past sin may have a factor to play in the healing process. However when that insight is universalized so that all sickness is related to sin we are using a wrong theology and a dishonoring assault on God himself.

NOTE: The existence of human suffering and blindness is a call to work, not simply to reflect (4). The bigger picture is the link to the anticipation of the coming ages when the risen Lord will be at work in the world through his people.

Matthew 24:45-51 "When the master returns he expects to find his servants busily applying themselves to the work he has left for us to accomplish"

Ephesians 2:8-10 "We get the free Gift of God's grace through his son Jesus Christ, but most of us miss verse 10 that you were created for good works, which Christ prepared for you before you came to know Him as your Lord and Savior."

Jesus heals the man by applying some mud pies made with his saliva and dirt. "

(Historical Background) "There were some primitive beliefs in the first century concerning the magical powers of the saliva of heroic figures. Some have tied the dirt used to make the mudpacks with the forming of man out of the dust of the earth in Genesis.

*Jesus sends the man to the pool of Siloam=Sent, perhaps the man needed to be involved in the healing process by some simple act of obedience to Jesus.

*The man obeyed and came home seeing!!!!!!

2. Knowing the person of our healing helps us to see the lesser God of this world.

ILLUSTRATION:

Consider a headline that recently ran in the Washington Post by a cosmetic surgeon. What do my cosmetic surgery patients want. To look better in Selfies. Younger patients recognize flaws that really are not flaws at all. The surgeon indicates that not too many years ago the average patient at her clinic was 47 or 48 years old and 80% female who generally wanted to look like a younger version of herself or a more idealized version of their own appearance.

The surgeon say’s that in the old day people would come in wanting a face lift, eye lift, or botox injections or what do you recommend. Today the average patient is 38 or 39. She will come in fixated on a specific flaw and often knows exactly what procedure she wants and are much less realistic about what can be achieved. There’s a reason for the rapid and radical change, selfies. Consider the very existence of something called a selfie. The self taking photograph is warping the confidence of much younger people in disturbing ways. In one consultation a woman asked me if surgery could give her cat eyes like those placed on selfies. A 20 year old came in saying she needed a face life to which the doctor responded not 20 year old needs a face-lift.

Everywhere you go people are spending too much time looking at themselves. It all goes back to the knowledge of what we know to be true. The first lesser God we see expressed in our culture is the God of Experience.

INTERVIEWS

The Lesser God of Experience

13-17

1st interview The first one was by his neighbors, who were not even sure he was the same person. The point is made of this being done on the Sabbath which is a matter for the Pharisees so he is then taken to them for questioning.

*A good man would not break the Sabbath.

*The man asked to take sides by giving his view of Jesus. (response he is a prophet) this indicated that he sided with Jesus.

*Pharisees question whether the man was even blind in the first place.

24-34

2nd interview was done with the man's parents.

*The parents confirm the miracle but are evasive about how it happened. The reason given is fear of siding with Jesus would mean excommunication from the synagogue (22).

NOTE: Obviously the parents saw the miracle that had happened but are not the first or the last among parents who trim their convictions to the passing breeze. Perhaps having a seeing son was not an attractive things to the parents, begging was after all a fairly lucrative source of income in some cases.

24-34

3) The beggar is recalled for a second hearing. The Pharisees want the man to own up and show that he recognizes the truth of God by admitting that this prophet of his was in fact a transgressor of the law, and common sinner rather than giving God the glory for the miracle.

The encounter at this point is a clash between merely theoretical and experiencial worlds; not for the first of last time the experiential wins hands down.

ILLUSTRATION: The world of Experience we live in that has overtaken our senses and dulled us to seeing the lesser God we are following in this world.

The Blind Man Needs to Be "Born Again" to See

In a book titled, An Anthropologist on Mars, neurologist Oliver Sacks tells about Virgil, a man who had been blind from early childhood. When he was 50, Virgil underwent surgery and was given the gift of sight. But as he and Dr. Sacks found out, having the physical capacity for sight is not the same as seeing. Virgil’s first experiences with sight were confusing. He was able to make out colors and movements, but arranging them into a coherent picture was more difficult. Over time he learned to identify various objects, but his habits—his behaviors—were still those of a blind man. Dr. Sacks asserts, “One must die as a blind person to be born again as a seeing person. It is the interim, the limbo…that is so terrible.”

The lesser God of knowledge

Pharisees Response: Tell us again about your healing. Man's response is priceless, "I have already told you what happened but you would not listen, why do you want to hear it again, do you want to be his disciples too? (implies that he himself is ready to be counted as one of Jesus disciples.)

BOTTOM LINE: The Pharisees were more committed to their tradition and law of Moses than to the object of their worship.

No-one can ponder the tragedy of the Pharisees without asking deep and disturbing questions. Here were men who revered the Scriptures and were zealots for pious behaviour and practices, such as prayer and fasting. They were frequently in worship and gave most sacrificially to God’s work. Yet they were among the principal instruments in the hands of Satan in having Jesus destroyed. The Pharisees are not an extinct breed. Whenever we find ourselves valuing the letter of God’s law above its spirit; whenever we find ourselves unable to rejoice in the saving and renewing of lives simply because the instrument used was not someone who dots all the i’s and crosses all the t’s of our theological group; whenever we lose the daily, hourly sense of joy in the grace of God by which alone we know him and live before him, then we need to beware.

THE ONLY SECURITY AGAINST PHARISEISM IS GRACE

Luther’s observation, ‘there is no cure for spiritual pride like a little over-eating, over-sleeping or overdrinking’ is to the point; spiritual Pharisaism may be similarly cured.

*The man's final thrust is to offer amazement at the men's ignorance.

3. Knowing the cost of our sight helps us to see life from a new perspective of purpose.

1)The purpose of our Worship

*Jesus seeks to minister to the man and help him fully understand.

"Do you believe in the son of man?" Seeing Jesus for the first time, and having experienced his delivering power the man's first response is WORSHIP.

Worship is implicitly tied to seeing and believing.

FOR JUDGEMENT I HAVE COME INTO THIS WORLD.

2 Main purposes in Jesus coming.

1) To bring sight to the Blind

2) To call out those into judgement who think they see but are really blind.

Jesus did not come primarily to condemn or pronounce damning judgement. he came specifically to save sinners in this lost and fallen world. But his coming does result in both salvation and judgement. The light shines in the darkness. Those who welcome it are delivered into the light, but those who refuse it turn away into deeper darkness.

2)The purpose of our sight

The same light both:

1) Dispels darkness

2) Casts shadows.

"Are we blind too?" If they were without any moral responsibility for their response to Jesus, the light of the world, they would be blind but with a good blindness."

But since they are held responsible for what they do with the light by rejecting it, their guilt still remains, a terrible condition."

This incident by John is an important illustration of the meaning of FATIH!

CONCLUSION

The man expresses the human condition before meeting Christ - blind from birth. (implication of being born into a fallen world in that no natural spiritual perception, cf their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened' (Rom.1:21). 'The blind man represents fallen humanity languishing in the darkness of their ignorance without hope of Salvation.

The man models the way of Salvation by turning from darkness to the light of the world. note the growth in the healed mans perception and perspective. The man they call Jesus (11), he moves on to He is a prophet (17), he opened my eyes (30), he is from God (33), and finally to, 'Lord, I believe,' and he worshipped him (38). Faith is a journey towards Jesus up to the point of commitment to him as Lord. When that happens sight is born.

The man models the repercussions of coming to believe in Jesus.

They may be highly upsetting both for ourselves and our families. The difference in our perspective and outlook may be a rebuke to those around us, bringing to the surface attitudes which we would prefer had been left hidden. Christ can cause division Mt. 10:34-36, we need to be ready for it, whether we can fully articulate what Jesus has done for us to the satisfaction of others in the end we may simply have to testify -

ONE THING I DO KNOW. I WAS BLIND BUT NOW I SEE! (Even though such a reply may seem unsophisticated it can be effective, and bring pleasure to the Heart of God.

The Story expresses the division which the coming of Jesus produces (39). To those who respond by coming to the light (3:20-21), casting themselves upon the mercy of Christ, his light shines savingly and renewingly. But those are judged who refuse to come to the light, stubbornly clinging to the light that they claim is already in them. They go out into the darkness in which no light will ever shine.

VISION IS THE ART OF SEEING INVISIBLE THINGS