John 9:26-41

Have you ever noticed that when someone tells a lie, they often retell it differently. I have a poster in my classroom that reads, “Always tell the truth. Then you won’t have to remember what you said.” As a teacher I catch kids in lies all of the time. And sure enough, with each retelling something in the story changes! Although the Pharisees had already heard the man’s testimony, they pressed him to repeat the story, possibly hoping to find a way to discredit him.

Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”


He answered, “I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?”


Then they hurled insults at him and said, “You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.” (John 9:26-29)

The Pharisees resorted to name-calling here when they could not answer the man. The King James Version says, “They reviled him.” Because the truth was on his side, he did not need to become defensive, so he responded calmly with some logic:

The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does his will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”


To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out. (vs.30-34)

The religious leaders rejected the man and his testimony. He had experienced a physical, life-changing miracle. But because it threatened their authority, the Pharisees kicked him out of the temple. He was about to experience another miracle, one which would have eternal consequences. When the leaders rejected him, Jesus went looking for him! Jesus seeks and saves the lost! Those who know their need are the ones He came to help.

Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he 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.  (vs.35-38)

Jon Courson points out that this man progressed from calling Jesus “the man” in verse 11, to “a prophet” in verse 17, and finally to “Lord” here in verse 38. He did not instantly worship Christ as soon as he had his physical sight. He had to struggle through some persecution before he truly “saw.” It wasn’t until Jesus found him that he understood just who Jesus was. We are familiar with the saying, “Seeing is believing,” but in Christianity the reality is that “Believing is seeing.”

Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”


Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?”


Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains. (vs.39-41)

The Pharisees claimed to “see,” yet they were blind. The blind man knew his need, so he was given vision. Spiritual pride is blinding! It actually keeps us from seeing God. If you want to know Him, you must come to Him in humility asking Him to give you the vision to see the truth. If any of us lacks spiritual wisdom we just need to ask God for it. James tells us in his letter that God loves to generously give wisdom to those who believe! (James 1:5) How’s your eyesight today?

John 9:13-25

In today’s passage it is clear that, even though the Pharisees were “investigating” the healing, they were not really interested in finding the truth.

They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath. 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.”


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 do such miraculous signs?” So they were divided. (John 9:13-16)

Keeping the Sabbath was a big deal to the Pharisees! It was more important that it be strictly kept according to the myriad of laws and rituals than that a blind man be given sight. But they were divided at first here: some thought that a godly man would never break the Sabbath to heal; others were perplexed, for surely a sinner could not perform such a miracle.

Early in Jesus’ ministry Jesus faced criticism for breaking the Sabbath. His answer is instructive for us when we tend to become legalistic in our worship:

“The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27)

The Sabbath is a gift from God to us for our benefit - to give us rest from our labor. Should we be setting aside one day to honor and worship God? Surely we need to fellowship with other believers and come together in worship, and this can only be done if we dedicate a day to do it. We know that the early church met together on the first day of the week, so Christians have traditionally kept this day. However, if we become legalistic and judgmental about keeping the Sabbath or about which day to keep it, or if it becomes a ritualistic chore, we are missing the point and the benefit! By healing this man miraculously on the Sabbath, Jesus surely brought glory and honor to His Father.

While the Pharisees were divided about who Jesus was, the man born blind was not. When asked for his opinion about the man who healed him, he answered them confidently, “He is a prophet.” (vs.17) This gets the Pharisees looking for a way to discredit the man and the miracle, so they call in his parents for an interrogation:

“Is this your son?” they asked. “Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?”


“We know he is our son,” the parents answered, “and we know he was born blind. But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself.” His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews, for already the Jews had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Christ would be put out of the synagogue. That was why his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.” (vs.19-23)

I find it interesting that his parents were hesitant to give glory to God out of fear of man. That’s how much power the religious leaders had over the common folk! They were afraid to acknowledge what was clearly true for fear of being put out of the synagogue. I wonder in how many ways we do this without even realizing we are denying Christ? When we attribute our blessings to “karma” or “luck” or even to our own “hard work?” When we hesitate to mention the name of Christ so no one is offended?
Because they found no satisfaction in interviewing the parents, the Pharisees called the man in once more and made one final demand of him:

“Give glory to God,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.”


He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!” (vs. 24-25)

I love this testimony! This guy was not sure of the theology, but he did know one thing for sure: he had been drastically changed by his encounter with Jesus! I’m sure there are many of us who could say “Amen!” to this testimony, for it is our own! Tomorrow we’ll see the reaction of the Pharisees to his declaration.

 

John 9:4-12

Before getting into our study this morning, I want to give you the latest updates I received on Royce and Tosh yesterday. The first comes from Grandma Pammie:

Royce is responding quite well to his surgery.
Doctors took him off the ventilator late yesterday afternoon.
This is a HUGE prayer PRAISE!!!
God continues to show his grace upon this adorable child of his.  We are all so grateful with the daily mercies of the Lord.
We can't begin to thank each and every prayer warrior for Royce's needs, but will ask that each individual be abundantly blessed with his own needs.

Then we received this news about Tosh: he was taken off the oxygen on Sunday and currently breathing on his own. The developmental nurses are pleased with the progress he is making, but it is a slow process and small steps at a time.   If he continues to improve, they may allow him to go home next week. 


Oh, Father, how we thank you for your mercy and grace poured out on these babies and their families. May they grow up to glorify You in all they do!

Now, back to this man born blind... Even as we saw yesterday, the causes of illness are not always the same, neither are the healings. Jon Courson, in his Application Commentary: New Testament, reminds us that Jesus healed many blind people, and the healings were always done differently. In Mark 10:46-52, Jesus just speaks to a blind man to heal him. In Matthew 20:30-34, Jesus touches the man’s eyes. Then, in Mark 8:22-25, He touches a man’s eyes twice.

Even as these healings were all unique, Jesus works in our lives in different ways. He refuses to be formulaic. Everything He does in our lives is created for us personally and is unique to our needs. Here, in John 9, the method is totally different. After declaring that He is the light of the world (verse 5), Jesus spits into the dirt and makes a mud pack that He puts on the man’s eyes!

Having said this, he 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” (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing. (John 9:6-7)


This healing caused quite a stir in the neighborhood!

His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?” Some claimed that he was.


Others said, “No, he only looks like him.”


But he himself insisted, “I am the man.”


“How then were your eyes opened?” they demanded.


He replied, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.”


“Where is this man?” they asked him.


“I don’t know,” he said. (vs.8-12)

Now, I find it perplexing here that the man seems so casual about the fact that he has no idea where this Jesus fellow is. And he doesn’t appear to be excessively curious about it. There is no indication that he ran around looking for Jesus. Maybe he was just so stunned by sight that he was having a hard time processing it... Can you imagine never having seen ANYTHING before, and then suddenly you can see the blue of the sky, the brilliant colors of flowers, and the many faces of your neighbors?? Wow! We learn later, in verse 35, that Jesus actually went looking for the man! Isn’t that just the way with our LORD? He’s the One who finds us!

Next week we’ll see that restoring his physical sight isn’t the main miracle Jesus performs here. And once again, we’ll find the religious leaders outraged!
Have a restful weekend!
 

John 9:1-3

Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written 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 20:30-31)

The Apostle John was very selective about what he included in his gospel. He acknowledged that he could have included much more, but he selected specific miracles to highlight, because his aim was that we would BELIEVE and have life in Jesus’ name.

So I find it interesting that this particular incident in chapter 9, the healing of the man born blind, so closely parallels the healing of the man who had been an invalid for 38 years in chapter 5. Both of these healing occurred on the Sabbath. Now, Jesus surely healed on every day of the week, but John seems to choose the ones done on the Sabbath, because he wants to contrast the belief of the people against the unbelief of the religious leaders. We'll look at that later, but this particular healing tells us so much more!

When the disciples saw this man, they asked Jesus a question that stemmed from a false notion:
As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”


“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. (John 9:1-3)

The disciples were under the impression that something so awful as being born blind must have been caused by someone’s sin. The flip side of this faulty thinking is that people are blessed because they are righteous. Some teach that people who do good will prosper because God will bless them for their goodness. But the Bible makes it clear that there is no one righteous - we are all sinners in need of a savior (Romans 3:22-24).

When Jesus healed the invalid in chapter 5, He told the man, “Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” (John 5:14) So, in that case, Jesus seems to make a link to illness and sin. However, here in chapter 9 he assures the disciples that no one’s sin caused the blindness. It was specifically allowed in this man’s life to display the glory of God at that particular time!

In Psalm 73, David stumbled over the fact that he saw the wicked prosper while those who served God struggled. But then he went into the sanctuary of God and understood the end result: the wicked die in their sin and are eternally separated from God. Those who love God sometimes face a lifetime of trials. Jesus said that the Father “causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” (Matt 5:45)

When disaster strikes, we want to find the cause. Why did Megan die in childbirth? Why would God allow Tosh and Cadyn to be without a mother? Why was Royce born with a heart defect? Why is Valen suffering with OMS? Why would God allow Bridget to struggle with her vision? What possible good can come from these sufferings? But, regardless of whether we are talking about the invalid who sinned, or the man born blind, or these dear ones we have been praying for, Jesus would say the same thing to them and to us: “this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.”

How is that possible? We don’t know the end results yet. We can’t see what’s going on, but God has seen it all from beginning to end. Our job is to trust and praise Him through it all. And that alone gives Him glory. Sometimes the end result will be a miraculous healing, which is what we are praying for for the little ones on our prayer list. Sometimes God does not remove the problem, as with Paul and his thorn in the flesh.

I’m glad that God is not driven by a formula. I’m glad we don’t always know why things happen. This causes us to lean on Him. It’s normal for us to ask “Why?” God is not afraid of our questions. He just wants us to bring them to Him.