Good Monday to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Over the past few weeks we’ve literally been ‘walking with Jesus’ and His disciples trying to follow them chronologically through the Gospel accounts. We now have about 30 days remaining till Easter Sunday, and we’ll spend much of these next days following the disciple John’s unique description of the last weeks of Jesus’ earthly life.
Today, let’s watch as Jesus and His disciples encounter a blind man. That story is found in John 9.
The question the disciples asked Jesus when they saw the blind man is very interesting isn’t it? Why would they ask: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind?” (John 9:1)
I’m sure you’ve noticed that in the Gospel accounts when the disciples speak to Jesus, they almost always address Him as Lord or Teacher or Rabbi, and that’s because Jesus was becoming most known for two things: His miracles and His teachings. Jesus claimed that BOTH were given to Him by Almighty God, who Jesus claimed was His heavenly Father, who had sent Him to earth.
This question the disciples asked reflected a widely held theory that a medical illness probably had a spiritual cause. Pause, did you hear what I just said? Does that seem outrageously naive or even ignorant? I grew up in a place where that very same belief was widely held.
Many parts of our world, even today, are much more aware of and concerned for the unseen SPIRIT world which people believe is directly involved with and causing much of what we experience in our PRACTICAL world. Thus illness, or in this case blindness, was presumed to be the work of angry spirits or maybe even angry God punishing this family.
Jesus’ response to His disciples, therefore, was stunning: “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in this man.” (John 9:3) Now pause and consider that statement as applied to your life and mine.
What level of spiritual maturity would be required for you and me to embrace the incomprehensible sovereignty of God to the point that we would consider EVERYTHING that occurs in our lives as being permitted by God, so God could display His power in our lives? Oh my, we need to pause and ponder that thought and let it sink deeply into our souls. Is that what Jesus was saying to His disciples about this blind man?
Now here’s a powerful Scripture that supports the outrageous statement I just made. Are you ready? “In Him [Jesus Christ] we were chosen, having been predestined according to the PLAN of Him who works out everything in conformity with the PURPOSE of His will, in order that we, who put our hope in Christ, might BE for the praise of His glory.”(Eph. 1:11,12) Now that is so mind-blowing, you may need to read it four or five times before it reaches down deep enough into your soul that you get it.
Do you see Jesus was saying about the blind man exactly what Paul was writing to the Ephesian Christians? While God was developing this man in his mother’s womb, God permitted blindness so this man would one day meet Jesus and that miraculous encounter would not only change this man’s life but would be recorded in the Bible so billions of people would read this event and consider the sovereignty of God in their lives!
As you read the story in John 9 you’ll see Jesus made some mud, put it on the man’s eyelids and told him to go wash his face in the pool of Siloam, one of many public pools in Jerusalem. Suddenly the man had a major decision to make. It’s the same decision you and I face every day, maybe many times a day.
As far as I know this blind man and Jesus had never met before. But now standing there with mud on his face, this blind man needed to decide if he should believe that Jesus had the power to help him and do what Jesus told him to do, or blow it off, wipe the mud off his face and simply walk away, rejecting Jesus, maybe even rebuking Jesus for having interrupted his day by putting mud on his face.
Pause… look around your world. Do you see how people every day are facing this very same decision?
John’s record tells us the man did three very courageous things: He believed Jesus / took Jesus at His word by making his way to the pool of Siloam / and once there, the man splashed water on his face, removing the mud! As he opened his eyes, for the first time in his entire life, the blind man could SEE!!!
Can you imagine what happened next at that pool? I imagine he screamed, splashed more water in his face and at the top of his voice shouted “I CAN SEE! For the first time in my life, I CAN SEE!” He then probably started hugging people as he leaped and ran around the courtyard, around Siloam! And then he headed home, as fast as he could, anxious to SEE his family and neighbors for the first time in his life!!
Oh, how terrible it would have been for this blind man, his family and everyone his life ever touched, if he had waved Jesus off, wiped the mud off his face, and simply walked away from Jesus still blind, refusing to believe and take that step of faith!! How often have you and I done that my friends, and we missed out on great things God might have done if we had believed and obeyed?
As you read the rest of this remarkable John 9 story, you’ll see this blind man was confronted and questioned multiple times by multiple people who were trying to figure out how he, a man born blind, could now suddenly see, clearly?
His answer was simple and I wonder if you and I have the same answer when trying to explain the dramatic difference Jesus has made in our lives? The man said: “One thing I know. I was blind and now I see!” (John 9:25)
The religious leaders, of course, were very agitated about this and pressed both this formerly blind man and his parents, refusing to believe Jesus could do such a miracle. Finally, John tells us Jesus, and this man met up in the flurry of so many people rushing around, and that was a special encounter for finally the blind man saw Jesus, the man who had given him sight! (John 9:35-38)
This remarkable scene closes with another confrontational encounter between Jesus and the hard-hearted Jerusalem religious leaders, the Pharisees. Jesus said to them: “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.” (John 9:41) Jesus was accusing these arrogant religious teachers as being spiritually blind for they refused to recognize Jesus as the God sent Messiah; and they refused to acknowledge that Jesus’ miracles were possible by the power of God or that His teachings were God’s truth.
Furthermore, rather than turning the people TO Jesus, they were driving the people AWAY from Jesus and branding Jesus as a fake, an imposter. Thus they were guilty of opposing God and blaspheming Jesus. Oh my, that’s a challenge to each of us, isn’t it? Are we guilty of the same?
As always, more powerful study notes are at the link below. We call them “Lessons Learned” and I hope you go through them each day. Then a worship song at the end, and I’ll be here, waiting for you tomorrow, my friends.
Today’s Scripture: John 9.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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