Sermon Tone Analysis

I was Blind, I Now See

Intro

Long before Jesus’ birth God gave the Israelite people a heads up that the messiah was going to come.

In fact, the first mention of the one who was going to restore things back to the way they should be is found in Gen 3:15, right after the fall of humanity.

Right after Adam and Eve’s disobedience and rebellion.

One of the ways God spoke about the Messiah was through his prophets.

He distinctly told people what was going to change when his savior arrived.

A couple of those verses are found in

Isa 29:18-19 “18 On that day the deaf will hear the words of a document, and out of a deep darkness the eyes of the blind will see.

19 The humble will have joy after joy in the Lord, and the poor people will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.”

Is 35:5-6 “5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped.

6 Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing for joy, for water will gush in the wilderness, and streams in the desert;”

And in John 9, we read about Jesus opening the eyes of the blind.

A man born blind receives sight from Jesus.

And as I was studying this passage this week it was pointed out to me that Jesus heals many blind people.

In Fact, as a category of healings there are more blind healings than any other type of healings recorded.

and this is distinctly b/c the healing of the blind are reserved for the messiah.

When John the Baptist is in prison and he is questioning if Jesus is the messiah he sends some people to inquire of Jesus who he is and Jesus’ reply in

Luke 7:22 “22 He replied to them, “Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those with leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor are told the good news,”

Directly alluding to the promises in Isaiah I just read.

And we must not forget that the physical healing of sight is merely a picture of the greater need for us.

We need to have our spiritual eyes opened.

We need to be brought from darkness into the Light.

We need to have our eyes opened.

And that is was Jesus shows us in our text today.

That the healing of the blind man shows the need for better sight.

We need to see Jesus for who he is and what he has done.

And one day if we truly believe we will see him as he truly is.

When we are fully restored.

Fully transformed.

Let’s pray.

Radical Transformation

Chapter 9 is a continuation of what is called the Festival of Tabernacles cycle.

The cycle began back in chapter 7 and comes to a close here in chapter nine.

And that is significant because there is still much celebration.

there is still much anticipation.

Jesus has already declared that he is greater than the water used in the daily ceremonies for the Festival of Tabernacles.

He has also declared that he is the light of the world being greater than the candelabras lit each night of the ceremony.

In fact, that is on full display as he brings out of darkness this man born blind.

But before we get to the miracle, Jesus’ disciples ask Jesus a question in regards to this blind man.

They see him sitting and begging for money or alms and they ask

John 9:2 “2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?””

This is a common thought in the Jewish understanding of life.

If you sin then there are consequences.

If you’ve read the book of Job, you know that’s exactly what his friends start to say to him as they are trying to figure out why all these bad things have happened to him.

In fact, this type of thinking has crept its way into our culture as well.

But from our point of view it stems from the Hindu teaching of Karma.

You get whats coming to you.

What goes around comes around.

This is a truly human question that we are trying to answer.

It’s the question of what’s called theodicy, or the problem of evil.

Why do bad things happen?

Why does evil exist?

Confused Neighbors

Interrogation #1

Interrogation #2

Interrogation #3

True Belief

Rejection