Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind
1 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. 4 As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
6 Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. 7 “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
8 His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some claimed that he was.
Others said, “No, he only looks like him.”
But he himself insisted, “I am the man.”
10 “How then were your eyes opened?” they demanded.
11 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.”
…A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.”
25 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!”
26 Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”
27 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?”
28 Then they hurled insults at him and said, “You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! 29 We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.”
30 The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does his will. 32 Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”
34 To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out.
My Understanding: As he went along, Jesus saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked Jesus who had sinned, that this man was born blind. Jesus assured them that the man’s blindness was not a result of anyone’s sin, but that this had happened to him so that “the work of God might be displayed in his life.”
God’s Sovereignty
I believe this goes to the issue of the sovereignty of God in our lives. One of my favorite passages of scripture is found in Psalm 139 where it says that God “created my inmost being;” he “knit me together in my mother’s womb; his works are wonderful;” and “all the days ordained for me were written in his book before one of them came to be.” It was no accident that this man just happened to be born blind or that Jesus might just have happened to see him as he was traveling along. God allowed this man to be born blind so that when Jesus healed him, God could display his work in his life.
Some people may have a difficult time accepting this, but I believe with all my heart that God is completely sovereign over all things, that he created each one of us, and he placed each of us in the homes and families which he had for us, even knowing the suffering we might have to go through and the life experiences we would encounter. If God is all powerful and all knowing, and he is love and is full of compassion, kindness and mercy, and if we are born handicapped or are born into a family with abusive or neglectful parents, then we must reach the conclusion that either God is limited in power and sovereignty and thus could not have prevented our circumstances, or else he is all powerful and all knowing and he willingly chose to have us be born as we are and in the families from which we came.
I believe Jesus was saying here that the man was not born blind due to someone’s sin, but rather he was born blind by God’s providence in his life, for God’s purposes, so that God could display his work of healing, mercy and grace in the man’s life. If the man had been born with physical sight, he may have remained spiritually blind and may not have been receptive to the gospel of Jesus Christ at all. God knows our hearts because he made each one of us, and he knows what it will take for each one of us, too, to be receptive to his words and to coming to faith in Jesus Christ. Yet, not only was this for this man’s benefit, but the change in his life has been for the benefit of everyone who has heard his story of healing for the past 2,000 years. So, we should never ever question God’s sovereignty!
Jesus spit on the ground, made mud with his saliva (kind of gross, huh?), and then he put it on the man’s eyes and told him to go wash in a specific pool, the name of which meant “Sent.” So, the man did what Jesus said to do and he came home seeing. Awesome! This is such a wonderful picture of salvation. I picture the mud on the man’s eyes as representing our sins which blind us and keep us from seeing through spiritual eyes. The washing in the pool represents Jesus cleansing of our hearts in removing the guilt of our sins from our lives. And, when the man did what Jesus told him to do (obedience), the man came home seeing. And, if we are to come to faith in Jesus Christ, we must also allow him to cleanse us from our sins so that we can receive our spiritual sight and can come home seeing, too!
The Testimony
The people who had known the man prior to his healing asked him how his eyes were opened. He told them that the man they call Jesus put mud on his eyes, told him to go wash, and then he could see. I love it! What a wonderful testimony, and so simple! The people wanted to know where Jesus was but the man did not know. Then the people took the man to the Pharisees.
The day on which Jesus healed the man was the Sabbath. The Pharisees did not like it when Jesus healed people on the Sabbath, because they thought he was breaking the Sabbath. So, they began to question the man, and the man told them the same thing he had told the people who knew him. The Pharisees did not believe Jesus was from God for he healed on the Sabbath. They were so concerned with keeping the letter of their laws that they failed to follow the spirit of the law and God’s great commandment of loving our neighbors as ourselves. So, they asked the man what he thought about Jesus. He replied, “He is a prophet.”
The Jews would not accept the man’s testimony that Jesus had healed him of blindness and that he had been blind since birth, so they inquired of the man’s parents. The man’s parents were afraid of the Jews and what they could do to them, so they deferred the questions back to the son, except for affirming that he was their son and that he was born blind. So, the Pharisees questioned the man again, and they tried to trick him into saying that Jesus was a sinner, i.e. one who lives a sinful lifestyle. The man stood to his testimony, though, and stated clearly that he had no knowledge of whether or not Jesus was a sinner, but one thing he knew: Once he was blind and now he could see! Awesome!! I love that testimony.
When people begin to question us about our beliefs and they try to trap us by trying to get us into some kind of theological argument for the purpose of tearing apart our testimony of faith in Jesus Christ, this man’s testimony sets a wonderful example for us in keeping our heads and in not giving way to their intimidations, but remaining firm in what we know.
So, they asked the man again. I am certain some of us would have gotten pretty frustrated with the Pharisees at this point. It was obvious they were just trying to intimidate the man into recanting his testimony. Yet, he turned the tables on them when he asked them if they wanted to become his disciples, too. Then they hurled insults at him, because they didn’t know how to answer his question.
People do that sometimes when they feel backed into a corner and don’t know how to respond, so they come out fighting. Yet, the man stood firm and refused to be intimidated by them. This antagonism, directed toward the man, seemed to encourage the man to take even a stronger stance than he had before. To him, if Jesus was able to heal him of his blindness, then he must not be a man who lives a sinful lifestyle, because God does not listen to those who regard sin in their hearts, but instead, God listens to the godly who do his will.
Then, the Pharisees shot back at the man with a cheap shot, because, again, they did not know how to respond. It amazes me how many times people respond with cheap shots when they feel that they are being confronted with their own sin, as though it will make them feel better about themselves if they can make someone else look bad. As well, the Pharisees reacted with much pride and arrogance. “How dare this man who had been a beggar try to tell them anything?” they thought. So, they threw the man out!
You know the really sad truth about this whole thing? This is still being done today in the church by pastors and teachers and elders who have what I call “God complexes,” to where they think they are in a position above other people and no one should suggest to them that they might be doing something they ought not to do, or that they might be teaching a falsehood, especially if it is coming from someone they consider a nobody.
Yet, Jesus was not like those religious leaders and he is not like many of the religious leaders of today, either. Jesus heard that the man had been thrown out, and he went looking for him. And, he asked him if he believed in him, to which the man responded, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped Jesus.
I truly believe that those who have gone through such difficulties in life and who have been mistreated and rejected by those in authority or in spiritual authority over them, who are supposed to love and protect them, can have a much deeper appreciation for what Jesus has done for them in setting them free and in offering them his grace and mercy in the time of their need. And, that is perhaps why God allows us to go through times of suffering because, if responded to correctly, those times can be great tools in maturing us and in making us stronger in our faith and commitment to Jesus Christ.
Then, 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 heard him say that and asked if they were blind, too. They must have felt that Jesus was inferring that in what he said. Yet, Jesus told them that if they were blind, they would not be guilty of sin, but now that they claimed they could see, their guilt remained. Wow! Jesus was basically saying to them that if they had acknowledged their blindness, then they could have been set free from their sin, but because they claimed to have spiritual sight, when they did not, their guilt remained.
Conclusion
God/Jesus is the creator of mankind. He knit us together in the wombs of our mothers. All the days ordained for us were written in his book. In other words, God is sovereign, i.e. he is the supreme ruler and authority over all things and people on the earth. Nothing that exists in all of creation has come into being without his knowledge, will and power at work in bringing it to life and existence. His divine will and purpose is in all that he has created. So, none of us are accidents or mistakes or overlooked or are here where we are because God was somehow asleep or neglectful. If he placed us in the wombs of our mothers and he knit us together in those wombs, then his divine power and will were very much involved in who we were when we were born, including what families we were born into.
God/Jesus allows the circumstances of our lives, though he never tempts us or leads us into sin, in order to mold us and to shape us into the people he wants us to become. We can choose to either be moldable and to become the people he had destined for us to be, or we can resist his will and purpose for our lives. The man who had been born blind decided to accept what Jesus had for him. He allowed him to put a combination of human saliva and mud on his eyes, and he did what Jesus told him to do when Jesus gave him instructions, and because he was willing and because he obeyed, he came home seeing more than just with physical eyes, but his spiritual eyes were opened, too.
In contrast to this man’s response to Jesus was the response of the religious leaders and some of the Jews of Jesus’ day. They were proud and arrogant and they were all caught up in following a set of man-made rules that they thought made them more religious than other people, but it didn’t, because the rules they followed had nothing to do with a change of the heart. It was all for show for people to see. And, because Jesus was genuine, truthful and was the “real deal,” they were jealous of him and threatened by him, and they were insulted by him, as well, because he exposed their hypocrisy. So, their response was to reject him, accuse him falsely and to try to discredit him.
We all have a choice in this life in how we choose to respond to the circumstances of our lives and to Jesus Christ. The man born blind made the right decision, and he came home seeing. Some of the Pharisees and some of the Jews made the wrong decision and they remained in their blindness and the guilt of their sin was ever present with them. What path will you choose today? Are you willing to obey and to know God’s love, power and forgiveness in your life? If you have not yet made that decision, I pray you will make it today while you still have today.
Willing / An Original Work / August 17, 2011
I am willing to obey You;
Have Your Spirit live within me;
Know Your power; be Your witness
To a world who needs You greatly.
Love within me spread to all men,
So that they might come to know Him;
Know His power; His forgiveness;
Be transformed into His likeness.
Holy Spirit, come in power,
Change our hearts within this hour.
May we be like Jesus always;
Be a light that shines in darkness.
Song Lyrics @ Public Domain
Link to song
No comments:
Post a Comment