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 works of God might be displayed in him. 4 As long as it is day, we must do the works 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 After saying 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.
13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. 14 Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath. 15 Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. “He put mud on my eyes,” the man replied, “and I washed, and now I see.” 16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others asked, “How can a sinner perform such signs?” So they were divided. 17 Then they turned again to the blind man, “What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened.” The man replied, “He is a prophet.”
34 To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out. 35 Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” 36 “Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.” 37 Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.” 38 Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. 39 Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.” (John 9:1-7, 13-17, 34-39)
I know a lady who can’t see. Her name’s Maria. Maria and her husband began coming to our Spanish services last fall. She just celebrated her 50th birthday, but she lost her sight suddenly two years ago and is completely blind. Being around Maria has made me realize how much I take the gift of sight for granted. Can you imagine being blind? It’s a struggle for Maria just to walk from one room to another. Reading? Impossible. Watching a service online? She can listen, but not see. Just darkness. All the time. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine being blind?
There was a man in Jesus’ day who could. Today Jesus meets a man “blind from birth.” His name isn’t given. Instead, his whole identity was wrapped up in his suffering. He was the “blind guy.” That’s how everyone knew him. Unlike my friend Maria, he had never seen, ever. He was “blind from birth.” He had never seen the blue sky. He had never seen the smile on his mother or father’s face. He had never watched a sunrise or a sunset. He had never seen flowers bloom in the spring. He had never seen a dog or a tiger or a flamingo. Never. Ever! Can you imagine that?
But none of that was actually the worst part. When things go wrong in your life, when it feels like you’re suffering like no one else is, what question comes to your mind? Jesus’ disciples ask it for us. “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind.” The disciples assumed the blindness was caused by a specific sin. I wonder if that same question didn’t weigh on that man’s conscience every single day. “What did I do to deserve this? I must have done something wrong. I must be worse than everybody else.” How often did the devil whisper in his ear, “You’re worthless. God doesn’t love you. Look at how sinful you are. You deserve this.” Because bad things happen to bad people, right? “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents?”
Do you know Jesus’ answer? It must have surprised everyone: “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.” So who sinned? Well, everybody sins. In fact, if God were to treat us as our sins deserve, where would we all be right now? In hell! But he doesn’t. No one specific sin caused that man’s blindness. Instead, God was about to use that man’s blindness to display his glory. What a relief! “What did I do wrong?” Here was Jesus’ answer: “You didn’t do anything wrong. God has a greater plan he’s working behind the scenes. Trust him. God’s going to do something amazing in your life!”
In the middle of a pandemic, this is a key truth from Jesus to believe: When you suffer, it’s not because God is punishing you. Actually, the opposite is true! Sufferings are part of God’s plan to reveal his love and purpose to us. When it seems like God is gone, he’s actually closer to you than you could possibly know. Isn’t that good news? When life is hard, you can ask, “What’s God doing behind the scenes right now that I can’t see? How is God going to use the coronavirus to display his glory?” It’s hard not to see it, isn’t it? It’s hard to be blind. It calls for trust and patience in difficult times. This man had to wait for decades, but God was working in his life.
Just hearing that must have been a relief to that blind beggar. God wasn’t punishing him. He was loved by God. If that’s all Jesus had said to him, he could have left happy. But Jesus did more. He cares. He cared about that blind man. Not just his soul, but his body too. So Jesus “spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. ‘Go’ he told him, ‘wash in the Pool of Siloam.’ So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.” You talk about a hands on doctor! Jesus knew how to add a personal touch. Some spit. A little mud. Just like that, decades of blindness washed away. He could see. Can you picture the joy on his face? Wow!
Sight comes from Jesus. To be able to see is one of God’s greatest miracles, isn’t it? Every time you open your eyes and see is a blessing from God. That blue sky. That sunset. That smile on a loved one’s face. That dog’s wagging tail. That calm lake or wavy ocean. Can we appreciate the blessing of sight? This man did. We are so blessed to be able to see. Sight comes from Jesus!
But you can see perfectly well and still be terribly blind. Sound confusing? Giving this man sight is really just the start of the story. There were actually a whole lot more blind people. Not physically blind like this man was. Worse. Spiritually blind. “They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind.” Remember those guys? The Pharisees? They were the self-righteous religious leaders of the Jews. Do you know what word Jesus uses for the Pharisees at least seven times in the Bible? “Blind.” He once said, “You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel” (Matthew 23:24). They could see perfectly well, and yet they couldn’t see at all. Got it?
As wise and intelligent and spiritual as those Pharisees thought they were, they were blind to the truth about Jesus. They called in the blind man. They heard his amazing story of Jesus’ power and grace. They even asked him, “What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened.” But when the blind man dared to say that Jesus was a prophet from God, they sneered, “‘You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!’ And they threw him out.” Standing right-before-their-eyes was a blind-from-birth man who was suddenly seeing by the power of Jesus. All the proof in the world of Jesus our Savior was right in front of their faces, but they threw him out. It’s ironic that the only one who was seeing things clearly was the man blind from birth!
It’s easy to go through life thinking you’re seeing just fine when you’re really blind. Physical blindness is easy to diagnose. Spiritual blindness is super hard. Often, we’re blind to our own blindness. So let me ask you today, “What are your blind spots?” What are the sins you’re so used to that you’re blind to how destructive they are? What are the sinful habits you’ve developed that feel so familiar you’re blind to how they pull you away from God? This is why being separated from each other is so hard. We need brothers and sisters in Christ to point out our blind spots. We can’t see them on our own. By nature, we’re blind to the sins in our lives.
But there’s an even bigger blind spot. By nature, we’re also blind to how much we need a Savior. That was the greatness blindness of the Pharisees. They were so good they didn’t need Jesus. There is no worse blindness than that! Remember how thankful we are that God doesn’t treat us as our sins deserve? He doesn’t. So do you know what keeps people out of heaven? It’s not sins. Jesus has taken those away. It’s trusting in our goodness instead of in God’s grace. “It is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick” (Matthew 9:12). Know whom Jesus said that to? The Pharisees! Hell is filled with people who could see perfectly well, but were completely blind.
So even after giving that blind man sight, Jesus wasn’t done. That man needed another miracle. After he got thrown out by the Pharisees, Jesus found him again and said, “‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’ ‘Who is he, sir?’ the man asked. ‘Tell me so that I may believe in him.’ Jesus said, ‘You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.’ Then the man said, ‘Lord, I believe,’ and he worshiped him.” Physical sight wasn’t all that man needed. He needed spiritual sight. He needed faith in Jesus his Savior. And Jesus gave him that sight too. In fact, the second miracle was even greater than the first. True sight doesn’t come through your eyes. It comes through your heart. “I am the light of the world,” Jesus says. True sight comes from Jesus!
You can be blind, and still see perfectly. Remember the Maria I told you about? She is physically blind. Without a miracle from God, there isn’t any hope for her to see again. But Maria actually sees more clearly than almost anyone I know. In fact, I’ve sat in her living room and heard her mouth describe her Savior Jesus, even as her eyes have stared blankly at the wall. I’ve thought, “This lady sees so much clearer than I do.” Her trust in Jesus’ salvation. Her contentment with God’s working in her life. Her hope for eternal life in heaven. Maria’s eyes may not work, but she can see perfectly. And that faith is a miracle from God. True sight comes from Jesus!
This is what Jesus says he came to do. “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.” We live in an upside-down world. You can see and be blind. You can be blind and really see. It doesn’t just work that way with your eyes. You can be healthy out here and be terribly sick in here. You can be terribly sick out here and be perfectly healthy in here. You can be rich and still be poor. You can be dirt poor and be rich. What you see in our world doesn’t tell the whole story. God is working right now behind the scenes in ways we can’t understand. Sometimes God takes away our sight or our health or our wealth so we can really see what we have in Jesus. Because true sight comes from Jesus.
People are looking for that. Desperately. Right now people are crying out for sight and light and comfort more than I have ever seen in my lifetime. That’s good, because by God’s grace, you can see! In the verses we skipped over, person after person asked the blind man how he could see. He got to tell what Jesus did for him over and over again. The same thing is happening for you and me. People are asking Christians over and over again: “How are you not freaking out? How are you not scared? How are you still able to smile? How can you still live your life and do your job and care for others?” I hope you never get tired of telling the story: Because of Jesus. Because Jesus Christ is the light of the world. No matter what I see or don’t see with my eyes, God loves me. God saved me. God is working through me. We have true sight from Jesus!
So here’s Jesus’ encouragement: “As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.” We Christians have an amazing opportunity right now to point people to our Savior. People are looking for someone or something to hold on to. They need comfort. They need Jesus. Those opportunities aren’t going to last forever. Things will all go back to normal. People will forget about God. We’ll get all wrapped up again in work and school and sports and trips…. So right now let’s work while it is day! We as a church are asking ourselves how we can get the Word out to as many people as possible. I hope you’re asking the same question. In our upside-down world, true sight comes from Jesus.
Comments