Eyes to See- Jesus Heals the Blind Man
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Introduction
Introduction
We ended last week talking about the concept of Jesus’ lordship. We don’t make Jesus Lord. He is Lord. He is the holy, sovereign God and creator of all.
Trust me when I say, He is Lord, regardless of our opinion of things.
We recognize and submit to His Lordship.
As we talk through the stories of Jesus in this series, we are looking for a central theme of Jesus presentation of the Gospel.
When we started this series, we looked at what Jesus means when He says He is Lord (Kurios)
That means we are “doulos” slaves
The Gospel doesn’t call for us to accept a teaching.
The Gospel calls us to surrender to Him.
We saw that he told Nicodemus, “You must be born again”
Jesus would not build on Nicodemus’ life. He had to give it up and start over as something new.
Jesus pointed Nicodemus’ sin and identified Himself as the only path to salvation
We looked at Jesus’ interaction with the woman at the well
She was the opposite of Nicodemus. He was high and mighty. She was lowly, sinful and weak.
Jesus crossed all lines of culture and decorum and spoke with her.
He presented His Gospel to her, a sinner and outcast.
But before she recognized Him as Lord, she had to come face to face with her sin and His holiness.
It changed her life and the lives of many in her village.
Last week, we looked at the Rich Young Ruler
Jesus showed us that His Gospel is not a Gospel of gaining eternal life as the primary outcome
It is about Him.
He thought he was righteous. He thought he followed all of the rules.
He didn’t need a savior. He thought he only needed eternal life.
He walked away sad, because He did not embrace the Gospel Jesus presented.
As we present the Gospel in this series, I hope you are finding that it is much different than is often presented in the world today.
The Gospel is often boiled down to a few historical facts and theological truths that we nod our heads to and agree about.
Do you believe Jesus died on the cross?
Do you believe that He died for your sins?
Good to go!
These are true! I am not saying they are not. But this sounds like nothing Jesus said to anyone.
He asked everyone to acknowledge their sin.
Recognize Him as Savior
Submit to Him as Lord
Follow Him in humility and obedience.
This requires faith.
This requires an understanding of who He is and who we are
In this posture of submission and humility, we experience something given to us.
Not demanded by us. But gently placed into our lives.
Grace.
Today is the last sermon about the Gospels as Jesus presented it to the people who came to Him.
Next week, we will look at how Jesus presented the Gospel through His parables.
We will look at the man who was born blind.
This is a really long passage and I want to read it so we can understand the whole story.
There are all sorts of sermons that can be found in this passage.
But we are here for one purpose. The Gospel.
That is what we are going to mine out of our text today.
As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth.
His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.
As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.
While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes.
“Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?”
Some claimed that he was. Others said, “No, he only looks like him.” But he himself insisted, “I am the man.”
“How then were your eyes opened?” they asked.
He replied, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.”
“Where is this man?” they asked him. “I don’t know,” he said.
They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind.
Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath.
Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. “He put mud on my eyes,” the man replied, “and I washed, and now I see.”
Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others asked, “How can a sinner perform such signs?” So they were divided.
Then they turned again to the blind man, “What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened.” The man replied, “He is a prophet.”
They still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man’s parents.
“Is this your son?” they asked. “Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?”
“We know he is our son,” the parents answered, “and we know he was born blind.
But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself.”
His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who already had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue.
That was why his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”
A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God by telling the truth,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.”
He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”
Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”
He answered, “I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples too?”
Then they hurled insults at him and said, “You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses!
We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.”
The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes.
We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will.
Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind.
If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”
To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out.
Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
“Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.”
Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”
Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.
Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”
Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?”
Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.
Pray
We are going to break this story down into a few manageable chunks.
First, we look at the miracle.
Now before we dive into this, I want to highlight something. This seems like the Pharisees were being a bit overly contentious. It’s like they had set in their minds to hate Jesus.
I want to set the stage for this story by reading the last verse or two from the previous chapter.
The Pharisees had heated up the questioning of Jesus. Jesus called them on it.
Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say.
You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
“Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”
At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.
To say that Jesus and the Pharisees had a strained relationship was mild.
The Pharisees had already determined that Jesus needed to be killed.
So with this brewing in the background, we see the story of the blind man pick up.
As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth.
His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.
This is the only recorded miracle that explicitly says that a person Jesus healed had a congenital issue.
He was born blind. There would be no question about this man’s blindness. Everyone knew him. He was the blind guy.
They had a belief that physical ailments like this came about because of sin.
If you were sick, it had to do with sin.
In some way, it was God’s curse for sin upon you.
It happened like this with Job
It happens in some peoples thoughts today.
Either he had sinned in the womb. Or, his parents had sinned and they were cursed with a blind child.
Jesus said, “It wasn’t because of sin. It was so God’s glory would be seen.”
There is a lot here. If you have questions, please let me know.
But we are here to see the Gospel, not dive headfirst into a discussion about why God allows pain.
Know that God had a purpose and a plan. The blind man didn’t see it, but Jesus did.
As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.
While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
Jesus is going to circle back around to these words later in this story.
But He is saying, “I am here in the flesh to do the will of God. What I do aligns perfectly with God’s will and nature.” The time is coming when the work I am here to complete will no longer be able to be completed.
He is speaking of His death and resurrection.
While He is in the world, He is the light of the world.
Like I said, we’ll get back to that.
After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes.
“Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
Jesus spits on the ground and heals the guy.
Again, in the interpretation of this passage, we need to ask the question, “Is this prescriptive or descriptive”
If it is prescriptive, then we have a mandate to spit in the dirt and wipe it on all of the blind people we see.
This would be a bit odd.
Jesus doesn’t command us to do this. He also heals other blind people in other ways, so it is not likely this passage is prescriptive.
If it is descriptive, we don’t need to dig too deep into why Jesus used this method. We frankly don’t know why.
But it is what Jesus did. We know that because the Scriptures say it happened that way.
Anyways, the guy is healed.
After a lifetime of blindness, he can now see.
This is unheard of. This is amazing. This is the big news in town.
The questions all begin.
His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?”
Some claimed that he was. Others said, “No, he only looks like him.” But he himself insisted, “I am the man.”
“How then were your eyes opened?” they asked.
He replied, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.”
“Where is this man?” they asked him. “I don’t know,” he said.
What happened, “This guy named Jesus made mud and put it on my eyes and now I can see”
There isn’t much more to say.
Jesus didn’t call him to follow. He didn’t say anything other than “Go wash yourself”
Then the real interrogation begins.
I don’t know if this starts because some of the people knew of the tension between Jesus and the Pharisees, or if they knew an act of God had just happened and they wanted the Pharisees to see.
Either way, some knucklehead brings the Pharisees into the story.
They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind.
Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath.
Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. “He put mud on my eyes,” the man replied, “and I washed, and now I see.”
Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others asked, “How can a sinner perform such signs?” So they were divided.
They bring the guy to the Pharisees and clearly he can see.
He tells them the same simple story.
I was blind, Jesus made mud and put it on my eyes and told me to wash.
I did it and now I see!
John tells us that this event took place on the Sabbath
The Jews had created hundreds of laws about the Sabbath.
It is all rooted from the 10 Commandments where it says, “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.”
They did this by creating all kinds of rules that “made it holy”.
This event had all sorts of problems attached to it
Jesus had made mud— Broke the Sabbath law
Jesus had healed— Broke the Sabbath law
Jesus told this guy to walk— This may have broken the Sabbath law
Jesus told this guy to wash— This also may have broken the Sabbath law
The Pharisees now have a dilemma.
Either God is at work and their laws were disregarded by God.
But they made all of these laws to honor God, so that couldn’t be it.
Or this was not a miracle.
But they could clearly see that this guy could see.
Then they turned again to the blind man, “What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened.” The man replied, “He is a prophet.”
They still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man’s parents.
“Is this your son?” they asked. “Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?”
“We know he is our son,” the parents answered, “and we know he was born blind.
But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself.”
They ask the man what side of the dilemma he rests.
This was not a question of wanting to know his opinion.
This was a challenge. They had already drawn up lines in their minds.
Jesus was not the Messiah. Now they were dealing with a man who was blind, but now he could see. They had to explain it away somehow.
This man was being tested to see if he was an innocent bystander or a follower of Jesus.
In their attempts to work their way out of this dilemma, they try to determine if this was in fact a miracle.
Sadly for them it was. The dilemma remained.
His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who already had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue.
That was why his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”
His parents didn’t want to share their opinion, because they might be thrown out of the synagogue if it appeared they aligned with Jesus.
Excommunication from the local synagogue was a terrible thing
This was the social and religious hub of the community.
Excommunication meant that they would be cut off from everything
People wouldn’t buy or sell from them (boycott)
They were excluded from religious gatherings and worship.
They were not even given a funeral when they died.
A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God by telling the truth,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.”
They pushed harder. They were set in their hearts that this could not be from God because it didn’t validate them.
They embraced the law. The law was their god. They justified themselves by the law.
Now, someone had broken their law and a miracle had occurred.
Clearly the man had been healed.
The only other option for the dilemma was that it was the work of God.
However, they threaten the man, trying to get him to admit that this was all a hoax.
He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”
His story remained simple and true.
He actually did give glory to God by telling the truth.
The Pharisees would not accept this answer.
The response and truth was simple. But they refused to open their eyes to see it.
They were willfully blind.
The irony is that the blind man was the one who could see
Those who claimed to be able to see, were blind.
Their blindness came to the surface in a rage.
Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”
He answered, “I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples too?”
Then they hurled insults at him and said, “You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses!
We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.”
This man had been born blind. He could now see. The joy he must have been experiencing was profound.
These people were interrogating him rather than celebrating.
They didn’t want to see the miracle. They did not believe he was truly healed. They wouldn’t believe the most simple story.
I believe this guy was frustrated with their response and began to call them on their blindness.
Are you asking these questions so you can have the correct information to be His disciples?
They then condemned him as one of Jesus’ followers.
They said, “We are disciples of Moses” That is the father of the law.
We obey him.
We know God spoke to Moses, but we don’t even know where Jesus came from.
The man responded
The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes.
We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will.
Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind.
If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”
To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out.
He says, “We can all see your dilemma. It is clear. This man is from God. He did this miracle.”
If he wasn’t from God, He could do nothing.
They called him a sinner and threw him out.
He was thrown out of the synagogue.
It is ironic because he was blessed with sight, and as a result was excommunicated from the religious community.
Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
This is a powerful moment where Jesus presents the formerly blind man with the Gospel.
He says, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
The phrase, “Son of Man” carried with it numerous OT contexts pointing to the Messiah.
He is not asking, “Do you believe these prophecies are real” This was not an intellectual question.
This was a heart question.
“Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.”
Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”
The man recognized that this was the work of God.
He wanted to believe in the Messiah.
This wasn’t intellectual. He wanted to align His heart and surrender to the Messiah.
This was not about a healing. This was about the Almighty God reaching out to this man and he was not going to miss the opportunity.
Remember, this guy had not seen Jesus over the course of the miracle.
He was blind, then had mud rubbed in his eyes. Then he left and washed off.
Jesus was not there when he washed. He had not seen Jesus.
Now he was face to face with Jesus and Jesus was claiming to be the prophesied Messiah.
Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.
He was booted from a place of worship and in the process found the One to worship.
Worship
It is a response to a God who has revealed Himself to you.
Jesus had revealed His nature.
Worship--
Purpose of a miracle--
Eyes focused on the eternal, not just his eyes--
Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”
Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?”
Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.
Jesus again connects sin to the Gospel
The Pharisees saw no sin in themselves.
They were too busy trying to point out the sin in others that they never looked inside.
They could not see. They were blind. Their blindness was exposed in this story.
But to the sinner, they were given the light.
Do you remember what Jesus called Himself at the beginning of this passage?
While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
Conclusion
There are those who claim to have all of the answers. They look the most religious........
But unless they recognize that they are blind and in need of a savior, they are blind and will never see.
Grace is only for those who recognize their need for Jesus.
Their need as sinners living in rebellion of a holy God.
A God who is holy and has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ as savior.