The Blind Man
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Now I see
Now I see
Today where going to have a quick theology lesson, and then some application of this story. (I hope you don’t want to leave today right at 11…
There are just some things we can’t see! Our eye test this week at home revealed that my sight is very impared without glasses.
Life is dark without Jesus!
As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
9:1 – The man is born blind. Jesus healed many blind people, but this is the only case recorded of a man who was born with blindness being healed.
In fact, there are no Old Testament stories of the giving of sight to the blind.
The only example outside of the NT is Saul to Paul in Acts 9, but when examining the ministry of Jesus, there are more instances of him healing blind people than any other type of miracle.
(Matt. 9:27–31; 12:22ff.; 15:30ff.; 21:14; Mark 8:22–26; 10:46–52; Luke 7:21ff.)
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
John continues to develop on this theme of Jesus, the Light of the World, in the story of this blind man.
9:2 – The Jewish people held the opinion that this man’s condition was directly linked to sin, his personally or someone in his family
Old Testament legalism
You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,
1. The incorrect conclusion is that every “bad effect” in someone’s life had a direct correlation to sin.
We do this all the time!
Flat tire, God must be mad at me.
We often fall into the Pharasee thinking, where our actions merrit Good or Bad in a cosmic sense. We become superstitous bordering on Hinduism and the teaching of Karma.
o The conclusion that bad things come from direct correlation to sin goes farther than the Bible regarding suffering.
God can bring glory to himself through healing —or through not healing, as we learn later in the New Testament from the struggles of the apostle Paul. The focus is not on the comfort of the creature but the exaltation of the Creator.
So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.
The ultimate cause of suffering and evil in the World is Sin, but we can’t assume a connection between suffering and someone’s personal sin.
Notice here – the disciples want to use this man’s condition as an illustration for a theological debate; it’s much easier to discuss abstract theological issues like “sin” instead of taking action to minister to real suffering in the life of another person.
9:3 – This opens some interesting discussion for us today
· This man’s condition was not directly tied to his sin or the sin of his family
· Is Jesus saying that God ordained this man’s suffering so that at this point in history, Jesus could heal him?
o The real question: Does God cause people to suffer?
· First observation – don’t take this text too far beyond what is happening in that moment. Jesus is making a comment regarding this man’s specific condition.
· There are times in Scripture when God permitted suffering and used it towards his plan of redemption.
o Joseph
You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first,
· Sometimes, Suffering is:
There is no punctuation in Greek and the English punctuation can sometimes make the nuance of this text difficult to see.
In English we understand that punctuation is important. Ella told me a discussion she had in English class once, “Let’s Eat Grandpa” or “Let’s eat, Grandpa” two totally different meanings.
If we omit the period and the end of vs.3 and read it flowing into vs.4, I think it paints a better picture of what is happening.
Consider this as the big idea for 9:2-4.
“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus. “But so that the word of God might be displayed in his life, we must do the work of him who sent me while it is still day.”
· Jesus must do the work of God so that God’s work can displayed
· God had not made the man blind in order to show his glory, rather, God sent Jesus to do works of healing in order to show His glory.
9:4-5 - Understanding this verse can be difficult without some interpretive principles.
We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
The clue may lie in the hermeneutical principle of progressive revelation.
hermenutics is simply the process of studying the bible to discover it’s intended meaning.
progressive revelation - something that God brings additional understanding too in time.
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel”
(which means, God with us).
Jesus was constantly hinting to his disciples of a time in the near future when he would die and had not yet revealed to them the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer.
Jesus never stops being the light of the world, but while he was on earth his light shined brightly and exposed sin, convicted men of righteousness, which is exactly the ministry of the Holy Spirit now.
Theme: Light and Dark
Remember why John wrote.
but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
John is building a case for use using a compare contrast and he focuses on the theme of Light & Dark.
The contrast that comes to the forefront of this story:
a simple man, born blind, always on the begging end of life, in desperate need..
Self sufficient, religious, learned, self righteous men.
This is a famous story in Scripture, and in our remaining time I’d like to turn our attention to the progression the revelation of who Jesus is through this man’s healing.
There are four cycles of interviews that happen in John 9:8-33, which build upon one another towards a “Christological Theme” of the divinity of Christ.
John is confronting his readers with a story that demands an answer
John 9:8-13,We read of the neighbors of the blind man.
No telling how many hours went into debating if this man was indeed the same blind man they encountered every day.
When they finally exhausted this man:
Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.”
We learn our first fact in John 9:11, it was the man call Jesus:
Now the the people verrified his identity & that Jesus had been the one to heal him… they took the man to the religious leaders.
They don’t reject the miracle, but they aren’t sure what to make of it either.
John 9:14-17 we now see the Pharisees’ interrogation of the man.
The religious leaders are sceptical of the miracle either.
This miracle brought division among the leaders, as some were more focused on the fact that Jesus did this on the sabbath.
It is in the midst of this debate that we see the next progression of who Jesus is.
He is a prophet.
So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.”
John 9:18-23 The Man’s Parents
The Pharasees had a dfficult time accept the mans testamony and affirm the miracle of Jesus. SO, they bring in his parents.
Mom and Dad are fearful because of the next thing we learn of Jesus.
(His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.)
The author is building his case and writing of a miracle that could not be disputed.
Yet to confirm that Jesus, the Prohet, the Christ… was anything more than a sinner would bring excommunication from the temple.
John 9:24-33 The formerly Blind man again
The man can’t deny the miracle, and is unable to comment on the acusation that Jesus is a sinner.
Here’s where we see the sharpest divide between Light & Dark.
Between open and closed hearts.
The blind man boldy ask the religious leaders.
He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?”
In the exposing light of Jesus, these men reveal who they really are.
And they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses.
At this man’s confession the “Heap Abuse on Him.”
I love this man!
The man answered, “Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes.
This is where we see the final progression in the story affirming the identity of Jesus
If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”
The man Jesus, The Prophet, The Christ, Who Comes from God.
Jesus returns to the man:
Here’s the most important question friends.
Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
Jesus had addressed this man’s physical blindness and has returned to now address is spiritual blindness.
He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.
The antagonist of this story boast in their confidence, their knowledge...
The hero of this story, the blind man, returns to Jesus rejected, kicked out of the synagoge, borderline betrayed by his parents, abused by religious leaders, and completely empty.
And the empty man is filled. Yet those who rejected Jesus, the Prophet, the Christ, who came from God… are left in Darkness.
But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.
And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
How about it friends?
Are you ready to come to Jesus empty, broken, rejected by others, yet loved by the Creator?
For the second time Jesus announced that he was the light of the world and demonstrated physically and spiritually how dark life is without him.