The Best Part

So, I began this morning reading and writing about John 9:1-41. But it was such a long passage of Scripture that it ended up being divided into four sections, and this last section is “the best part,” I believe. But let me first give a synopsis of what has taken place so far. 

Jesus healed a man who was blind from birth. The man’s neighbors asked him how his eyes were opened, so he told them that a man named Jesus had healed him, basically (shortened version). So they brought the man to the Pharisees who again asked him how he had received his sight, and so he told them. But their response was that Jesus was a sinner, and that he was not from God, because he healed this man of his blindness on the Jewish Sabbath. But the man believed Jesus to be a prophet.

The Jews didn’t believe the man and so they asked his parents, but they didn’t really want to say anything for they feared the Jews, i.e. they feared identifying at all with Jesus Christ lest they be put out of the synagogue. So, they said, “He is of age; ask him.” And so the Pharisees again asked the man what Jesus did and how he opened the man’s eyes. But the man said, “I have told you already, and you would not listen.” And he had more words with them, as well, but he spoke with much courage and wisdom.

But their response to him was to treat him as though he was a nothing, as though he was not worth their time, as though he was inferior to them because they were so important and so educated, perhaps. So with much arrogance and pride they said to him, “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” Wow! They really thought they were so much better than this man. And so they cast him out. And there are many such people today who will readily cast us out, too, if we speak the truth of God’s word to them.

John 9:35-38 ESV

“Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’ He answered, ‘And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?’ Jesus said to him, ‘You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.’ He said, ‘Lord, I believe,’ and he worshiped him.”

Now, this brings tears to my eyes. Why? Well, for one, I have been treated like this man was treated, and by religious people, and by some pastors and elders of “church” congregations, and for speaking the truth – not out of order, but in order, and with permission. They have treated me as though they are superior and I am less, and as though they are important, but I am not. And as I said in the previous writing, some of them did cast me out or invite me out, but not for doing wrong, but for doing right.

But then this is the BEST PART! And this one is cause for rejoicing. For where some of “the shepherds of the flock” on this earth rejected this man, and they rejected me, and perhaps they have rejected and mistreated you, too, Jesus received us! He’s the best!! But he received us because we believed in him. And this man really received Jesus before this, not in the way of in salvation from sin, but he did not denounce Jesus when the Pharisees did, but he stood up for Jesus against them.

For the man told the Pharisees, “We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him.” And how do we know this man was speaking the truth? It wasn’t refuted in the Scriptures, number one. And number two, Jesus taught it:

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” (Matthew 7:21-23 ESV)

And what did Jesus say here in John 9:39-41? 

“Jesus said, ‘For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.’ Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, ‘Are we also blind?’ Jesus said to them, ‘If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, “We see,” your guilt remains.’”

Now we have to read and understand this in the context. If we try to interpret this outside of this context, and outside of who these words were addressed to or for, we might easily come up with a faulty interpretation. Jesus knew that some of the Pharisees were nearby, so he knew that they could hear him, and so this really was in response to how they treated the man, I believe, and to how they treated Jesus. But it was also commending the man for his faith, I also believe.

So when Jesus was talking here about seeing and not seeing he wasn’t talking about physical blindness and physical sight, but he was speaking of spiritual blindness and spiritual sight. But he was also speaking of seeing in a negative sense and of being blind in a positive sense. So, what did he mean by that? His conversation with the Pharisees gives us that understanding, for they were people who thought they were guides of the blind and that they had the key of knowledge and didn’t need Jesus.

So, the Pharisees were content that they had all the light they needed and that they, themselves, were full of spiritual enlightenment. So they saw themselves as those who could see, who had knowledge and insight and understanding superior to everyone else. But they didn’t, for Jesus described them as those who do not practice what they preach, and who lead people to hell on the promise of heaven, and who appear righteous on the outside but inside are full of wicked deeds, greed, hypocrisy, and self-indulgence.

So they were the “seeing” who needed to become “blind” like the man who was born blind so that they realized their own depravity and their need of Jesus, i.e. they needed to recognize their own sinfulness so that they would humble themselves and turn from their sins to follow Jesus Christ with their lives in obedience to his commands (New Covenant), which is what the man born blind did, because he knew that he needed Jesus. But this is not teaching that those who are truly righteous in the sight of God need to be more sinful and less holy, like some people are suggesting. Know the truth!

When I Go Home

By G. M. Eldridge

“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes…” Revelation 21:4

In the moment He appears

And the light from heaven shines,

I’ll forget ev’ry fear,

Ev’ry pain I’ll leave behind.

Then I’ll see Him as He is

And I’ll know Him as I’m known.

Ev’ry tear wiped away when I go home.

Ever present is the tho’t 

That a moment waits for me

When unworthy as I am,

His glory I will see.

I will empty all my praise

Before my Father’s throne.

Ev’ry tear wiped away when I go home.

If the trial I endure,

And your presence I can’t find,

Be near me, Lord, I pray,

Bring back unto my mind

That your promises are firm

And I’m never on my own.

Ev’ry tear wiped away when I go home.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z98Zvr1CyXg 

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