man born blind

PHARISEES VS. BLIND MAN (Round 3) – John 9:24-34

fear, fear of consequences, Messianic miracles, Proverbs 1:7, spiritual blindness, Uncategorized

INTRODUCTION:

Quantum Physicist Arthur Zajonc wrote a book entitled, “Catching the Light”.  He describes various studies that investigated recovery from congenital blindness.  Thanks to cornea transplants, people who had been blind from birth would suddenly have functional use of their eyes.  However, in most cases, the patient could see light but could make out no colors or shapes after the surgery.  Light and eyes were not enough to give the person sight.  One surgeon concluded, “To give sight to a congenitally blind person is more the work of an educator than a surgeon.”

From both the animal and human studies, they found that there are critical developmental “windows” in the first years of life.  Sensory and motor skills are formed, and if this early opportunity is lost, trying to play catch up is very frustrating and usually unsuccessful.  Professor Sajonc adds, “The sober truth remains that vision requires far more than a functioning physical organ.  Without an inner light, without a formative visual imagination, we are blind.”

The blind man that we have been studying in John’s gospel, chapter 9, is no doctor and he is no physicist, but he will be making a statement that goes along with these statements and adds to them.  Let’s find out what he has to say.

I.  FURTHER INTERROGATION (verse 24)

The verbal battle between the Pharisees and the blind man that Jesus healed isn’t over yet.  It’s now round three, the final and deciding round of this verbal boxing match.  The blind man outscored his opponents in round one, his parents out-maneuvered them in round two, and now, after a change of strategy, the Pharisees have come back for more.

Verse 24 begins with a command:  “Give God the glory”.  What’s the purpose of that statement?  Shouldn’t that be understood?  Isn’t that part of the rules?  I think they are trying to be the referees in this match.  That expression was used in the Old Testament scriptures as an oath.  Joshua used those words when speaking to Achan after he was chosen by lot as the one guilty of the defeat at Ai (Joshua 7:19).  Joshua was saying, “Give the glory to God by telling us the truth about your guilty actions.”  The Pharisees are saying, “Give glory to God, not Jesus.”  They are no longer denying the miracle, but are urging him to deny that Jesus was the miracle worker.  When they say, “We know that this man is a sinner” they are implying, “sinners can’t perform miracles.”  They are hoping this man might share more information that might prove that Jesus is an impostor.

II.  BACK TO THE FACTS (verse 25)

I admire the tenacity of this healed man.  He sticks to the facts and dodges their theories when he says “Whether He is a sinner or not, I do not know; but one thing I know, that though I was blind now I see.”  In one sense, this man was still in the dark. He didn’t know very much about Jesus, but he knew that Jesus had changed his life in a miraculous way.  There was no doubt about that!  His testimony is undeniable!  Based upon the illustration in my introduction, this man was not only given light, but also sight.  The Lord Jesus performed a miracle, not only on this man’s eyes but also in his brain.  The sensory and motor skills, and the visual imagination which took years to develop, were programmed into this man’s brain by Jesus before he opened his eyes.  A man who had been blind from birth now had perfect vision!  Those critics standing around him were no match for that testimony!  Their world was enveloped in a spiritual blindness of their own making.

His response to them must have also surprised them.  Normally when the leaders of the Jews made a statement, it wasn’t questioned.  Most people kept quiet and accepted what they had to say.  This was an exception to the rule.  I can imagine that a thought entered the minds of these Pharisees:  “Who are you to question us?”  They are so dumbfounded by his response that they don’t know what to say.  They know they have to say something.  They can’t let him have the last word, and there are people around them watching and waiting to see how they are going to respond.

III.  A SECOND INTERACTION (verses 26-29)

In desperation, the Pharisees go back to the “tried and failed”, asking the man once again, “What did He do to you?  How did he open your eyes?”  If you or I had been that blind man and heard the rerun, we would probably have been short on patience if we had any patience left at all.  This healed man is no exception and he gives these Pharisees a piece of his mind.  They may outnumber him but he’s not at a loss for words.  In verse 27, he relieves some of his tension by scolding them and following that up with a sarcastic remark.  He sounds like a school teacher responding to a dumb question asked by one of his pupils.  Here are his words:  “I told you already and you didn’t listen; why do you want to hear it again?”  He’s treating these Pharisees like delinquent children who aren’t paying attention.  As scathing as that remark is, it gets even worse.  Now he adds a bit of sarcastic humor when he says, “You don’t want to become His disciples too, do you?”  By using the little word “too”, he’s proclaiming himself to be a follower of Jesus Christ, even though he had yet to see Him.  I envision a smile on his face as he said those words.  He knew those words were going to come back and hit him in the face but he said them anyway.  I also think that some of the people who are standing around the “ringside” and watching this confrontation take place are silently rooting for him.  He’s saying things to these Pharisees that they would like to say, but would never consider saying because of their fear of the consequences.

The Pharisees give him the response that he was expecting to receive.  Verse 28 says, “And they reviled Him, and said, ‘You are His disciple, but we are disciples of Moses.’ ”  These Pharisees don’t realize it, but they have just paid this man a compliment.  He has already identified himself as a follower of Jesus and they have confirmed it!  Now they are really angry, and their pride takes over when they say “we are disciples of Moses.”  They lingered on the words “We” and “Moses” for the sake of emphasis because this is their prideful boasting.  At the same time, they put Jesus down by referring to Him as “that man” – that “nobody”.  That’s “hitting below the belt!”  Their actions are described by the wisest person in the Old Testament.  King Solomon said, in Proverbs 1:7, “Fools despise wisdom and instruction.”  An unknown person said these words:  “A wise man learns by the experience of others.  An ordinary man learns by his own experience.  A fool learns by nobody’s experience.”  The once-blind man learned by his own experience.  He was an ordinary man.  Where do the Pharisees fit into that illustration?  They certainly didn’t learn from the experience of others, in this case, the healed man.  They also didn’t learn from their own experiences in their conversations with the healed man and his parents.  That puts the Pharisees in the remaining category – “the fool who learns by nobody’s experience” because they have “despised wisdom and instruction”.

IV.  THE FINAL AND DECISIVE BLOW (verses 30-33)

It’s the end of the final round and God continues to give this healed man wisdom as he makes sarcastic remarks about their conclusions and expresses amazement at their lack of faith.  In verse 30, he begins his response by saying these words:  “Well, here is an amazing thing”.  He’s not referring to the miracle performed on his eyes but to their lack of faith.  He’s implying that their lack of faith is even more amazing than the miracle itself.  “You don’t know where He came from, and yet He opened my eyes.”  How can they refuse to believe in spite of all the evidence?  He knows why they are refusing to believe, but he decides to give them a basic course in logic to show them just how foolish they are.  In verse 31, the healed man presents the Pharisees with a concise summary of their own argument when he says, “We know that God does not hear sinners, but if anyone is God-fearing, and does His will, He hears him.”  I imagine that many of these Pharisees were nodding their heads in agreement thinking, “This man has finally come to his senses and is agreeing with us!”  However, he has set them up for the final and deciding blow.  This time it’s in the form of a history lesson – the history of medical treatments for the blind.  He says, in verse 32, “Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind.”  It makes me shudder to think of all the experimental treatments and surgeries that were done throughout the centuries in an attempt to restore sight.  I don’t even want to think about the drastic consequences to those patients.  The success rate was zero in every case.  We also find no cases in the Old Testament scriptures where a blind person was healed.  That’s because the miracle of restoring sight to the blind was a miracle that was reserved for the coming Messiah.  Only He could perform such a miracle.  The Pharisees knew that information.  They were familiar with the prophecy in Isaiah 35 which says, “Behold, your God will come with vengeance; the recompense of God will come, but He will save you.  Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.”  In Matthew 11, John the Baptist sent some of his disciples to ask Jesus this question:  “Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?  Jesus immediately replies to them saying, “Go and report to John what you hear and see; the blind receive sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.  And blessed is he who keeps from stumbling over Me.”  That was sufficient information to convince John the Baptist that Jesus was the Messiah because He fulfilled the prophecies that were written about Him in the Scriptures.  These were prophecies that no one else had fulfilled nor could fulfill.

In verse 33, the healed man brings this controversy to its only logical conclusion when he says, “If this man were not from God, He could do nothing”. That was the decisive blow!  How do you respond to an argument that is so sound and logical?  How do you react to a statement that is so firmly rooted in the history and prophecies of the Old Testament scriptures?  The bout is over!  The winner hasn’t been announced, but everyone there knows who the winner is, especially the Pharisees who are still reeling from this TKO [Technical Knock-Out].

V.  THE PHARISEES’ RESPONSE (verse 34)

In their agony and shame, these Pharisees want this healed man out of their sight immediately and permanently.  Verse 34 says, “They answered and said to him, ‘You were born entirely in sins, and are you teaching us?’  And they put him out.”  He taught them alright!  He taught them a lesson they will never forget, even though they refused to believe it.  His battered opponents decided to make themselves the referees of this match.  However, they couldn’t declare themselves the winners because their viewing audience knew they were the losers.  They couldn’t ask for a rematch because everyone there knew he beat them “fair and square”.  They didn’t want to take the “walk of shame” again, as they and the scribes did in John 8:1-11, quietly leaving the synagogue with their heads bowed after losing the match with Jesus.  Their only other choice, in their minds, was to remove the evidence as quickly as possible  They couldn’t refute his arguments so they degraded him with their words and whisked him out of the synagogue.  Their last words to him may have been:  “Get out of here and don’t ever come back!”

CONCLUSION:

It’s easy to miss or overlook the greatest miracle in this passage of Scripture.  The most amazing miracle was not the unbelief of the Pharisees in spite of the obvious gift of sight to this congenitally blind man, nor was it the physical healing of this man’s eyes, nor the reprogramming of his brain so that he could see clearly.  The greatest miracle was the gift of spiritual sight or insight that caused this man to believe that Jesus was the Messiah and to commit his life to follow Jesus.  The rest of the passage of Scripture bears witness to the fact that this miracle of the new birth was real in his life.  He was ready and willing to testify on behalf of Christ in spite of the opposition and the potential consequences of his words.  It was obvious that he was a changed man and God gave him wisdom and empowered his testimony.

Do you have a personal testimony of a point in time when you responded to the truths in God’s Word, repented of your sins, asked Jesus Christ to come into your life and reign as King in your life, and began to follow Him?  Did you experience a new joy and peace in your life as a new child of God and a desire to share the source of that joy and peace with others?  Is God changing your life as you walk in obedience to His Word?  If your answer is “yes”, then you have experienced a miracle that never ends.  You will enjoy its effects during the rest of your life on this earth and throughout eternity.  I hope you are following the example of this man who received his sight and is delighted and unashamed to share his testimony of what Jesus Christ did in his life.

If this has not yet been your personal experience, please reconsider the claims of Christ written here in John’s gospel, and the miracles that substantiate those claims.  Ask God to open the spiritual eyes of your soul and give you a willing mind to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and Lord and follow Him with all your heart.  He will give you a new life and will direct your steps as you yield to His control and His abiding presence in your life (John 10:27-30; 2 Corinthians 5:17)

CONSTRUCTION SITE:  COMPLETED

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WHO SINNED? — John 9:1-5

john 9:1-5, Uncategorized

INTRODUCTION:

Have you ever come in contact with a blind person?  Can you remember the thoughts that came to your mind?  Have you ever been introduced to a blind person?  What did you say, or were you at a loss for words?   A famous blind lady named Helen Keller said, “The chief handicap of the blind is not blindness, but the attitude of seeing people towards them.”  When I was a hospital chaplain, I learned that one of the psychologists who counseled patients in the psychiatric ward was blind.  When I first saw him, I felt uneasy.  A thought that came to my mind almost immediately was:  “Since he can’t see me, I can ignore him and get away with it.”  I felt ashamed of myself for entertaining that thought and I introduced myself to him.  As a result, I learned two things about him:  how kind and gracious he was and how fast he walked.  I could hardly keep up with him!

I.  THE SETTING (verse 1)

In this passage of Scripture, Jesus and His disciples are about to have an encounter with a blind man.  The Feast of Tabernacles was now over.  The last event was the trip to the pool of Siloam by the priests to fill the golden pitcher with water and return to pour it on the steps of the temple.  This water would flow down to the world outside the temple, signifying that the Jewish faith would satisfy the deepest needs of the world.  It was the Sabbath day.  Jesus and His disciples were leaving the temple.  The Jewish leaders had just tried to kill Him in the temple but He walked through their midst unharmed. 

Verse 1 says, “As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth.”  That’s a significant statement.  Jesus and His disciples may have been passing through the gate of the temple at that moment.  That’s where many beggars lined up to beg for money.  This blind man may have been assigned a place to beg that was not in the flow of traffic.  Maybe he was in the shadows where the uncaring majority didn’t have to see him.   But the Lord Jesus looked upon this blind beggar and He saw the need.  Jesus had compassion for people.  We see that over and over again in the Gospels.  Even though He had just left the temple to get away from those who wanted to stone Him to death, Jesus still took the time to stop and look at someone in need.  Most people would look away, ignore this blind man, or pretend that he didn’t exist.  Most people don’t like to look at someone who is in misery and without hope.  It’s painful to look at the other side of life, isn’t it?  It’s uncomfortable to think about what could have happened to us or what might happen to us in the future.

II.  THE QUESTION ASKED (verse 2)

Now that they have come to a stop in front of this blind man, Jesus’ disciples take this opportunity to ask Him a deep, theological question.  They offer Him two alternatives to choose from and only one of them can be correct, in their opinion.  Here is their question:  “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”  In their minds, his blindness was a punishment for sin, but whose sin?

If you’re familiar with the game of baseball, you will understand this anonymous quote:  “Most of us are umpires at heart.  We like to call balls and strikes on somebody else.”  They didn’t have the game of baseball back in that day, but they certainly had the umpires!

The question asked by the disciples tells us that they were familiar with this man because they knew that he had been born blind.  How did they come up with that question:  “Who sinned “?  Do they have scriptures to back it up?  Actually, this was the teaching of many of the Rabbis during that period of time and the disciples probably heard it explained during the times of instruction in the synagogue.  Some of those rabbis taught that a child could sin while in the womb, and would have to pay for those sins for the rest of his life.  One of the verses the rabbis would use as proof was Genesis 25:22-23, where Jacob and Esau “jostled each other in Rebecca’s womb”.  They interpreted it as fighting and proclaimed that fighting is a sin, even if it occurs in the mother’s womb.  I doubt that any mother in the first century or the twenty-first century would call her unborn child a “sinner” when the child kicked inside her womb.  Many of you mothers may remember times when the child in your womb seemed to be trying to assert control over your body or was getting even for something you did or didn’t do.  After all, the fourth commandment does say, “Honor your father and your mother”! 

Other rabbis taught that such misfortunes were the result of the sin of the parents.  A scripture that was used to defend their argument is Exodus 20:5.  It says, “. . . for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me.”  The rabbis were misusing that verse by taking it out of its context of idol worship.  God is speaking of the nation of Israel as His wife, and she is pursuing other gods.  He will continue to pursue and punish His wife from generation to generation until she (the nation of Israel) comes back to Him.  Verse 6 tells us what will happen when she does return to Him.  It says, “but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.”  These rabbis have butchered that passage of scripture and caused untold agony, guilt, and sorrow to this blind man and his parents.  Jesus sees those years of guilt and shame as He looks at the face of this man, and He is ready to give an answer to the question raised by His disciples.

III.  THE ANSWER GIVEN (verse 3)

Jesus begins by saying, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents”.  This answer doesn’t fit within the bounds of their question, so Jesus goes on to give an explanation saying, “but it was in order that the works of God might be displayed in Him.”  Jesus is looking ahead to what He is about to do.  God doesn’t make mistakes.  He always knows what He is doing and His ultimate purposes are always good.

Francis I. Anderson, in His commentary on Job, makes an observation based on this verse of Scripture.  He says, “Men seek an explanation of suffering in cause and effect.  They look backward for a connection between prior sin and present suffering.  The Bible looks forward in hope and seeks explanations, not so much in origins as in goals.  The purpose of suffering is seen, not in its cause, but in its results.”

III.  THE URGENT COMMAND (verse 4)

Jesus continues His answer, applying His words, not only to Himself but also to His disciples and to us as well when He says, “We must work the works of Him who sent Me, as long as it is day.”  He didn’t say “we should” but “we must”.  There is a sense of urgency in His statement.  He and they are called to do the works that the Father has called Him to do

IV.  A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE (verses 1-4)

Before we go any further, let’s consider this situation and this conversation from the perspective of the ears of this blind man.  Having been born blind, this man would have a very keen sense of hearing.  He has no visual images in his mind to distract him from what is going on around him at this moment.  He would also have a very good memory of activities and conversations that go on around him in the temple area.  Let’s review what He is hearing and consider what he is thinking.  He hears a group of people stop directly in front of him, and he’s wondering, “Are they going to give me some money or are they going to ridicule me?”  The first word he hears is “Rabbi”.  Immediately he realizes that a rabbi and his talmudim (or disciples) have stopped to look at him.  His thoughts:  “you can look but please don’t say anything.”  Because of his blindness, he can’t see them, but he also can’t keep from hearing them.  Then he hears the horrible words that he has heard so many times before:  “Who sinned, this man or his parents that he should be born blind?”  The tears begin to well up as he waits for the derogatory remarks to come from this rabbi and be echoed by his disciples.  To his surprise, He hears an answer that he has never heard before.  This Rabbi says, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was in order that the works of God might be displayed in him.”  He thinks, “This man speaks with the authority of God.”  “Could this be Jesus, the one I’ve heard so much about – the one who performs miracles and claims to be the Messiah?”  “Is He going to display His works in me by healing me?”  Jesus’ words that follow confirm this hope.

In verse 4, Jesus says, “We must work the works of Him who sent Me, as long as it is day; night is coming when no man can work.”  Jesus’ death wasn’t very many days away, and none of us know which day will be our last.  There is work to be done for the kingdom of God and we should be pursuing it as if today was the last opportunity to get it done.  Who knows, it may be our last opportunity to meet a need or to share our faith in Jesus Christ with someone we know.  Thomas Obadiah Chisholm was a songwriter who wrote hymns during the late 1800s through the mid-1900s.  One of the hymns he wrote is entitled “Great Is Thy Faithfulness”.  I’m sure we’ve all sung that hymn many times.  I found a poem written by him about this verse of Scripture, John 9:4.  I don’t know whether or not this poem was put to music, but the words are certainly motivational and inspirational.  Here are the words to that poem.  It’s entitled “I Must”.

To every life, it seems to me,
There should be found a single key;
One central purpose there should be,
One all-controlling aim.
Of Jesus this was surely true;
One passionate delight He knew
And that, His Father’s will to do
And glorify His name.

“I must!  I must!” we hear Him say;
For Him there was no other way
But swiftly, wholly to obey
And do the work assigned.
“I must!”  He counted not the cost,
The raging rivers to be crossed;
He must go seek and save the lost,
His “other sheep” must find.

“I must!”  And on and on He went,
Upon His mighty mission bent;
That whereunto He had been sent.
They crucified Him, as He said,
A cruel crown upon His head,
Accursed, forsaken–in our stead.
At last His work was done.

“I must!”  Oh, may that fervent word
Upon our lips as well be heard.
By nothing may we be deterred
From following “in His train!”
Our meat and drink, to do His will,
Though steep the climb, to follow still
Till death o’ertake us, or until
His coming back again.

Have you ever missed out on an opportunity to be used by God because you waited too long?  It’s discouraging, isn’t it?  We should be saying to ourselves, “God has work for me to do today so I won’t put off doing God’s will any longer.

V.  THE REMINDER IS GIVEN (verse 5)

After stating His compulsion, Jesus reminds His disciples and Himself of what the Father has called Him to be in the eyes of the world.  He has said the following words before and He says them again in verse 5:  “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”  Jesus’ words are a fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy.  The prophet Isaiah described the coming of the Messiah with these words:  “The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; Those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them”  (Isaiah 9:2).  He also prophesied in Isaiah 49:6 saying, “I will also make You a light to the nations so that My salvation will reach to the ends of the earth”.  The Lord Jesus is determined to complete those works and fulfill the calling that the Father has given to Him.  Those prophecies refer to the spiritual blindness of unbelief.  As this blind man listens to those words of Jesus, he may have come to the conclusion that he is not only physically blind but he is spiritually blind as well.  Notice that he hasn’t said a word to Jesus.  He is “all ears” right now, focusing his attention on every word that Jesus says.  Has he come to the conclusion that Jesus is the Messiah?  Does he believe that Jesus can and will heal Him of his physical blindness and remove his spiritual blindness?  I think so.  The veil over his heart is already being lifted, and the stage has been set for what’s to come.  As we begin to study the miracle itself, we are going to see some of the evidence for that persuasion.

CONCLUSION:

There are several lessons that can be learned from this discussion between Jesus and His disciples.  First, we need to be careful not to jump to conclusions about people based upon limited or questionable information.  In this case, it is the relationship between sin and suffering.  Even though suffering is often the consequence of sin, it is not always the consequence of sin.  There was no direct connection between sin and suffering in the case of this blind man.  Therefore, let’s resist the temptation to make negative judgments when we don’t have all the facts.

Secondly, God wants to glorify Himself through the lives of those who have disabilities whether He heals them or not.  God will use anyone who belongs to Him and is devoted to Him.  Our heavenly Father often gives HIs children with disabilities an even greater ministry than they could have had without that disability.  People are watching Christians, especially those Christians who have the most to overcome.  When they see that God has given them the power to overcome and the joy of knowing and serving Him, many will become convinced that Jesus Christ is the One who can meet their deepest needs.  When God gave the apostle Paul a “thorn in the flesh” – a “messenger of Satan to buffet him”, he asked God three times to remove it.  In 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, God said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.”  Paul responded by saying, “Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me. . . . for when I am weak, then I am strong.”  

Thirdly, let’s follow Jesus’ example. Let’s treat those who are disabled with dignity, respect, and kindness.  Let’s be busy doing the work of the Lord each day while we still have the opportunity, and let’s be a shining light to the world around us.

If you are personally living in spiritual darkness, with no real peace of mind or joyful heart, and no real hope after death, only Jesus and His Word can bring your life into proper focus and add the brightness of true peace and joy into your life.  Please, don’t close your eyes to the truth any longer.  Open them wide and see what life is like as a new person in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).

CONSTRUCTION SITE:  COMPLETED