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Healing a Blind Man
I have previously talked about the miracles Jesus performed,
Including a time when Jesus healed a blind man.
At that time, I focused on the disciples’ question of who had sinned.
Today, I want to look at some of the aftermath of this particular miracle.
First, we see people who are surprised to see a blind man who can see.
The people saw a man who was blind that can now see.
So they had some obvious questions:
Is this the same guy?
Where is the man who gave him is sight?
Exactly the type of questions you’d expect.
Then they brought this recently healed man to the Pharisees.
Which is where I want to focus our attention today:
You see, Jesus had once again healed on the Sabbath,
And the Pharisees took the Sabbath, or more accurately, their interpretation of the Sabbath, VERY seriously.
And Jesus had not only healed, but made clay, on the Sabbath.
And this did not sit well with the Pharisees!
This quickly escalated into a heated theological debate.
The Pharisees say this man cannot be from God because He did not keep the Sabbath,
At least not within their traditions.
Others ask how can He be a sinner and do such signs?
While the healed man says Jesus is a prophet.
But that wasn’t good enough.
When something seems to good to be true, we tend not to believe it.
The Jews did not believe that this man had been blind,
So they called in his parents and ask them.
Not just whether or not he was blind, but how he received his sight?
Parents, imagine being called into court to explain how your son did something you did not witness?
Now imagine, this is an obviously hostile court, which we will see shortly.
How would you react?
The parents start out with what they know.
That this man is their son,
And that he was born blind.
Then they start to hedge,
We don’t know how he sees or who opened his eyes,
He’s of age, ask him.
They just punted the question back to their son.
Why?
The Jews had already made up their mind.
Anyone who confessed that Jesus was the Christ would be put out of the synagogue.
More than just being kicked out of church, the synagogue was the center of life in any Jewish town or village.
It would make them a pariah.
They wouldn’t be allowed to worship Yahweh.
They wouldn’t be able to buy or sell.
They would be outcasts.
Think of the woman at the well, but probably worse!
All because the Jews had already made up their mind that Jesus had not come from God,
And any evidence to the contrary had to be suppressed or destroyed.
But a wonderful thing happens when you’ve truly been touched by Jesus.
BOLDNESS!
“We already know that Jesus is a sinner… give glory to God and agree with us!”
Think of the arrogance of that statement.
We’ve already decided,
And God is on our side.
We cannot possibly be wrong,
Because God is on our side.
This man must be a sinner,
Because he disagrees with us,
And God is on our side.
We hold these offices as Pharisees,
So we must be right,
Because God is on our side.
Which reminds me of a proverb:
Compare this with how the healed man reacts to this new information.
“If He is a sinner or not, I do not know.
What I do know is I was blind, but now I see”
Did this verse inspire John Newtown when he wrote the hymn Amazing Grace?
I once was blind, but now I see?
A simple statement to stand up to the arrogance this man was being asked to join.
But neither he, not the Jews, were going to stop there.
If, as Albert Einstein said, doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different outcome is the definition of insanity, what does asking the same question over and over again expecting a different mean?
Were the Jews attempting to intimidate this man into changing his statement?
Was this a predecessor to the Spanish Inquisition?
Convert or die!
Or simply the attempt to exercise their position to get the outcome they wanted?
I don’t know, but the man’s response is priceless!
Talk about BOLD!
“You want to hear the story again?
Do you want to become His disciples?”
This is NOT a man who is afraid of the Pharisees.
Would you be this bold in front of your church leaders?
What about a government official?
This man has been touched, healed, by God,
What can the Pharisees do in comparison with that?
You ignorant little peon!
You follow this Jesus fellow, we follow Moses.
And we know that Moses talked to GOD!
As for this Jesus fellow, who knows where He comes from!
Again, the arrogance of their traditions.
We follow Moses, so we cannot be wrong.
The same Moses who killed an Egyptian because he knew he was called to save his people.
The same Moses who was not allowed to enter the promised land because of the arrogance of claiming he could perform a miracle.
You follow this Jesus fellow,
Why He has no pedigree for us to follow.
He isn’t one of us.
Now it’s time for this man to “flip the script” on these Jews.
Sometimes, there is nothing so satisfying as calling out someone’s foolishness,
Well, maybe proving it.
What a marvelous thing your ignorance is!
We know that God does not listen to sinners, yet this man healed my of blindness.
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