John | Chapter 9 – Scripture Supply

John 9:1-12

“Here’s mud in your eye”

I. Intro.

II. Vs. 1-5 Words for the heart

III. Vs. 6-12 Anointed mud

Intro.

This is the seventh of the sings if you include the ship arriving immediately on Capernaum, (the last of His signs will be the raising of Lazarus). They are as follows:

2:1-12 Water to wine
4:46-54 Nobleman’s son healed
5:1-15 Man with infirmity 38 years
6:1-14 Feeding of 5000
6:15-20 Jesus walks on water
6:21 Boats immediate arrival
9:12 Man born blind

Jesus did these and many more miracles for three specific reasons:

To meet human need: That is to say that the primary reason Jesus worked miracles was in response to human needs, be that physical or in the case of Him walking on water and the boat arriving immediately at its destination in response to emotional and spiritual needs.
To convey spiritual truth: Despite the fact Jesus performed His miracles in response to human need they always carried a spiritual truth both to those whom they touched as well as those who watched or in our case read of them. Simple put His miracles were a concert not a solo as they were almost always followed by a teaching that clarified the miracles spiritual significance.
To reveal His nature: Finally beyond there practical impact and there educational benefits Jesus’ miracles have a relational impact as they convey His nature in action. There is no place in scripture where we are given a better glimpse into what mercy, grace, holiness and truth looked like than in his miracles.

Here we are introduced to a man bind from birth (verse 1) not a man who had seen the beauty of Jesus creation, the faces of his loved ones but a man who had grown up without what we take for granted. But as great as this miracle is physically it pails compared to what it is spiritually as not only are his eyes opened but his heart as well and what he sees is the beauty of his creator and out the price of religion.

Vs. 1-5 Words for the heart

Vs. 1 The commentary by John in verse 1 “Now as Jesus passed by” does not give us any clue as to the timing of this event, it could have happened as He passed by going through the midst of the religious leaders in 8:59 or after some time. If this happened, as some think, right after Jesus walked through the crowd of religious leaders with rocks in their hands then this man was only a “stones throw” away from Jesus and of further interest to me is that Jesus had most likely walked by him many times with no action but this day would be different. The healing of the blind man and the events directly related to this will continue on until 10:21. It is important to get the setting of this miracle:

This man was born blind and as such he was a beggar according to verse 8 based upon the comments of the community in verse 9 he was well known to his fellow citizens as well as the religious community.
The timing of this healing again took place on the Sabbath; I mention this as it seems that this was a favorite time for Jesus to heal as He challenged the religious leader’s notion of the Sabbath.

There are several question asked in this section:

The disciples ask WHY
The neighbors and Pharisees ask HOW
Only the blind man responses with WHO.

Vs. 2 The disciples wanted an answer to WHY this man was born blind; their conclusion was that it had to do with sin. The question they asked was whose sin was responsible for his blindness the man our his parents seeing that he was born blind and if it was the man’s sin then WHEN did it occur? There were two schools of thought in the Talmud on this and neither of them is correct:

Some of the Rabbis taught a person could sin inside the womb and that is how they explained birth defects. They used the story of Jacob and Esau in the womb as proof of their theory.
Some taught that sin could be genetic and passed on from the parents or grandparents. To this they quoted Ex. 20:5 as a proof text “For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me.” But what this verse is saying is that if we turn our backs on our Lord there is a good chance that the next generation will reject Him as well and God won’t have a different set of books for them, sin doesn’t change despite how society may now view it. This is universally true as Adam sin was passed down to us but not specifically or personally true as there is not always a direct cause and effect in every situation.

Now back in John 5:1-15 with the fellow that had an infirmity 38 years there was a direct cause and effect to his lameness but that is not always the case in suffering it is not always directly traceable to personal sin. Jesus’ answer in verse 3 is that neither this man nor his parents are personally responsible for his condition.

His focus was not on the cause friends it is on the cure of which His earthly ministry was coming to a close. Don’t you just love that? I mean here we have the disciples trying to figure out the reason for the blindness and in so doing they are blind to the cure which is the very person they are speaking too. We can sit around discussing the cause of a condition of human suffering, look to pint a finger of blame or we can give them a hand to Jesus who can transform that which is blind to the beauty of His creation. Friends it is not all that uncommon that our spiritual eyes are opened after some thing that disables us physically or emotionally. Far to often we can fall into the “Why” this has happened or blaming God trap instead of asking God to use it to draw you deeper towards Him. It is interesting that so often when it relates to the problem of human suffering we want the answer to the question of why, we want to find fault with something or someone. But doing so will never bring healing, we won’t always be able to reconcile the cause with the effect further more it won’t alter the situation so Jesus tells them the main thing isn’t finding out why but it is to seek the One who will dispense mercy and compassion. The Lord is in the business of manifesting His power against the consequences of sin in a person’s life not declaring the reason for it. There is a great truth here as it relates to Jesus as well notice that it was not the man who called out to Jesus it was the Lord that went to him; “Man’s misery always brings about God’s mercy”.

Vs. 3-5 Their question had to do with responsibility for the man’s disability and Jesus’ answer was that neither the man nor his parents were responsible and most remarkable in verse 4 Jesus says “I must work the works”. “I’m taking responsibility not for the cause but for the cure.” We can be over interested in the responsibility as it relates to the reason for something but Jesus places the interest of responsibility on the cure not the cause.

The Talmud said that certain sins resulted in certain disabilities so all his life he heard what the religious people had said that it was either his parents or himself that was the reason he was born blind. Friends I suggest to you the first miracle this blind man had happen that day was not his eyes opened but what his ears heard in response to who was responsible for his condition, “Neither this man nor his parents”, never had he heard such gracious words. Jesus tells His disciples that He being the “Light of the world” is not merely theoretical or academic it is practical, He is the “Light of the world” and there before them was a man born blind in darkness and He must do what light does dispel darkness. Jesus said He need to “work the works…while it is day”, in other words if we try to sort the why you will lose the opportunity now.

Vs. 6-12 Anointed mud

Vs. 6-7 Notice that Jesus took the initiative He came to the blind man but the blind man still needed to respond in obedience to Jesus’ instructions. There is a prophetic significance to this miracle as well as we are told in Psalm 146:8 that “The Lord opens the eyes of the blind”. Further more in Isaiah 35:5 we are told that when the Messiah comes “the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.” No wonder these two miracles are attributed to Jesus more often than any other recorded miracles. This miracle happened on the Sabbath day according to verse 14 and it was part of the interpretation of keeping the Sabbath that it was against the law to spit on the ground on the Sabbath as it would constitute labor seeing that you made clay. So Jesus violated the tradition of the law. Further more it was written that you could save a life but you could do nothing to cure a life thus Jesus was breaking the Sabbath in that way as well.

Now we move to the healing its self and when compared with the two other times He healed a blind man we notice not the similarities but rather the differences. In Matt. 9:27-31 Jesus healed the two blind men by touching their eyes and in Mark 8:22-26 Jesus spit and put His hands on a blind man now here in this passage He spits on the ground and makes mud and places that on his eyes and then tells him to go wash in the pool of Siloam. The diversity in the method would seem indicate that Jesus wanted the focus to be on the message and not the manner of healing. Truth be told we are far to happy to reduce our relationship to a method of getting what want instead of simply spending time with Jesus and I’m thankful He won’t allow that to happen. I’m fascinated with the common ingredients that Jesus used to heal this man “dirt and spit”. In Jeremiah 8:22

We read, “Is there no balm in Gilead, is there no physician there? Why then is there no recovery for the health of the daughter of my people?” Oh what strange balm this is! Two ingredients’ that we would avoid putting in our eyes is dirt and spit, isn’t it? Both are irritants, so a man born blind Jesus made a combination of things that cause irritation and then told him to go to the pool of Siloam which means “Sent”. It seems a bit odd to use the word “anointed” with clay made with dirt and spit doesn’t it.

Friends don’t miss this spiritual truth as the greatest cure to spiritual blindness is irritants that cause us to have to obey the words of God to find relief from the refreshment of the Sent One. Jesus’ cure made him twice as blind, once from birth and once from mud in his eyes. Have you ever wondered about the origins of phrases like “Here’s mud in your eye?” According to “Morton’s origins of toasts” this one comes form this passage of scripture and is a saying related to what a person is about to consume may it heal you and give you clarity in life, (interesting that the drink is usually that which will do the very opposite). But why did Jesus use this method?

Well some have suggested that based upon the knowledge of the day that doctors believed that human saliva had healing properties though that is true Jesus being God the Son didn’t need to do so and there is no medical evidence that saliva can cure blindness.
Other’s focus on the clay mentioning that this was a creative miracle not at restoring miracle and since Adam was formed out of clay that Jesus needed to start from scratch with this man’s eyes. But Jesus used multiple methods in healing blind folks so clearly the diversity would suggest that He is the cure not the method He employed.

Now go with me a minute from the perspective of the man born blind and ask yourself what you would be thinking if someone you didn’t know and couldn’t see stood before you and said, “I am the light of the world” then spit on the ground and put the mud in your eyes? I’ll tell you what I’d be thinking, “Thanks a lot buddy now I’m not only blind but you’ve put mud in my eyes, you’ve’ made things worse not better.” “Go to the pool of Siloam? Uh may be you didn’t notice but I’m B L I N D!” It would seem for my perspective that this would have been seen as cruelty not mercy but that is what Jesus did. Here’s where I’m going with this there have been times in my life where the Lord’s work seems to make matters worse before they get better, He puts “Mud in our eyes”. “Lord I’ve been praying, crying out to you but things aren’t getting better they are getting worse!” The Pharisees only wanted to point their fingers and say, “Hey, there’s mud in your eyes” and Jesus wanted to put mud in the eyes! But do you know what mud in your eyes would cause you to do without hesitation? Well it would cause you to seek out the pool of the “Sent one” right away. You wouldn’t say, “You know your right I do need to get the mud out of my eyes but I’m young I have plenty of time and all my friends have mud in their eyes and I don’t want to be apart from my loved ones who have mud in their eyes, so I think I’ll wait!” No, you would have stumbled your way and begged folks to take you to that pool so you could wash out the mud. So here’s the bottom line some times the Lord allows mud in your eyes so that it will be irritating you enough to want to wash out your eyes and in so doing your blindness towards the Lord will be removed as well. So why not take that which is irritating you to the water of the word and you will see Him.

Vs. 8-12 I rather think two things motivated this man to go and wash:

The gracious words of Jesus
The irritant in his eyes

Interestingly enough the words of grace didn’t appear to match His touch. Of further interest is that the pool of Siloam was a further distance than the pool of Bethesda where the man who had an infirmity 38 years was healed. Jesus put mud in the eyes of the blind man in order to make him see but he was also putting mud in the eyes of the Pharisees who were blind spiritually. Notice the simplicity of this Jesus came to him and then he obeyed and traveled to the pool and he received sight. And having done so every thing he saw he did so for the first time. So he went to the pool to wash out that which irritating and He came back seeing. Think of this, Jesus was “sent” into the world to be the light of the world and He “sent” this fellow who “blindly” had to obey and go to the pool of the sent one to receive his sight. What a lesson for the disciples with regard to human need as they were wrapped up in the “cause” of this man’s blindness instead of being concerned with the “cure” for his blindness. Hey Christian, may we learn this lesson that the cause is not to be our concern only the cure! These followers needed to, (pardon the pun) get their eyes of themselves and onto the Lord just as much as the blind man did.

Ah but his illumination led to a problem of identification as four times people ask him how he was made to see. In verse 10 it is his neighbors, in verse 15 it is the Pharisees who ask him, in verse 19 the Pharisees ask his parents then in verse 26 they give him one more time to answer the how question. In the Greek it is worded he kept on saying, “I am he” the guy can finally see his neighbors and now none of them recognizes him, aint that life? Have you ever noticed that if you change the letters around in the word “HOW” you will spell “WHO”? I suggest to you that we are often misspelling the wrong question wanting to know the HOW instead of the WHO. And yet this man only answers in the WHO as he says “a man called Jesus.” Remember he had not seen the Lord he had only heard His voice and had no idea where He had gone.

They say, “Where is He?” Now he probably gave them one of those confused looks that said, “How should I know I was blind remember?” Hey friends there is one final observation in this section and that is to be found in verse 12 where the they ask the man, “Where is He” and he responds, “I don not know.” You see he had been given the gift of sight but had not yet seen the Giver now we shall see next week that he will have his eyes opened to this but I’m afraid that that this is a fairly common condition, may the Lord grant us the gift of not losing sight of the Giver. Over and again man kind is referred to in terms of being clay, Jeremiah says that the Lord is the potter we are the clay, play tells us that we are clay pots. Clay is common ordinary week and fragile by nature it’s one great characteristic is that it is pliable and can be shaped into anything and with that become quite useful. It is interesting that this mans sight was a process that involve a prolonged and difficult journey to the pool which was filled with obstacles. This speaks to me of the man’s determination to remove the irritation of mud that was in his eyes.

John 9:13-34

“The Theology of transformation”

I. Intro.

II. Vs. 13-23 Voices with faces

III. Vs. 24-34 Seeing and hearing

Intro.

This man woke up that day like he had every other day went down to the temple to beg as he had so many days of his life. He hears the words of the disciples “Who sinned this man or his parents” and thinks man I’m tired of these questions. Then he hears someone spiting and then the excruciating pain of mud being placed into his eyes and the words go wash your eyes a ¼ of a mile away. Bumbling and stumbling he makes way down to the water and as he wash the mud from his eyes there is someone looking back at him and he realizes it’ his own reflection. His heard his neighbors but never saw them now he is putting voices with faces and there is a discussion if he is the same man who was blind.

Folks all of this was the same day, all of this commotion and confusion happening with in minutes of each other and remember he has just received his sight and now he is processing everything through a sense that he never had before. Then the inquiry by the Pharisees and they are blind to the miracle, they miss the Majesty for the sake of the method. Unable to apprehend the work of God because it was outside the confines of their religion, they had placed God in a box and how dare He work outside that box. I Had a fellow come once to a meeting where they did ministry out of a box and I was just filling in and didn’t know that so I planned a study out of the Word. Well one fellow got quite agitated because I wasn’t using the “BOX” after a few minuets of his distraction I calmly told him the “BOOK” beats the “BOX” apparently he didn’t agree as he walked out. So many times we are unable to function because we are blind to Jesus and have place him in a box.

Vs. 13-23 Voices with faces

Vs. 13-16 Jesus could have healed this man on any day but He chooses the Sabbath as well as the method for a particular reason and that was to challenge the theology of the Pharisees over the teaching of the Word. In Matthew 23:24 Jesus said to these religious leaders, “Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!” In John 5:39

after Jesus healed the man by the pool of Bethesda He said, “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.” There reply was “You can’t have been healed because it wasn’t done according to our traditions”. Having started out with that presupposition they gave this man and his parents several options:

You aren’t the same man who was born blind
You weren’t as bad off as people thought
There is another explanation to your now seeing

It is only when we simple state the facts of this story that the absurdity of the Pharisees becomes clear. Here before them was a man they knew, had seen begging in front of the temple, born blind and miraculously he has been given his sight such a wondrous thing hadn’t been seen in Israel and instead of rejoicing an celebrating the grace of God they take issue with the timing and the method of the healing. In their way of thinking Jesus violated the word of God but in reality what He violated was not the Torah but rather the Talmud (the authoritative body of Jewish tradition comprising the Mishnah and Gemara).

Friends we must be careful not to take our traditions and interpretations over the Word of God as in so doing we may like the Pharisees miss the very One the scriptures speak about. The greatest evidence of the gospel is transformed lives as there is no argument that anyone can raise but that. The other day someone shot me a link that played on Islamic TV and there was this Arab woman who was from LA arguing with an Islamic cleric she was an agnostic not a Christian and her words were powerful as she told the cleric that the fruit of transformed lives of Christians was a more powerful argument for the validity of their religion than the terror and hatred of Islam.

Vs. 17-23 Previously all this man knew was Jesus’ name now a little time has elapsed and even though he hasn’t yet met Jesus he deduces that He must be a prophet, an instrument of God. Jesus becomes the center of controversy with some recognizing the miracle and the Pharisees trying to discredit it because Jesus didn’t do it according to their formula and this man who is seeing for the first time is being dragged into the controversy. “So who do you say Jesus is”, was the question. “Well, he must be a prophet because God is using Him to cause blind eyes to see.” The man wasn’t into the formula, the method; he was into the cure not the way it was accomplished. So to counter this they had to discredit the man or his affliction as there was no other way they could counteract his conclusions.

Notice the growth in this man as in verse 11 he simply identified Jesus as a man now here when pressed by the religious authorities he is a prophet, then in verse 33 He is from God and finally in verse 38 He is Lord. These Pharisees are continually hung up on the method to the exclusion of the result aren’t they? “How did you come see; Oh my don’t tell me He made clay on the Sabbath.” Take a moment and realize this man had never seen his parents until that day and the religious authority are using this to attempt to drive them to deny Jesus. And with great conviction of heart and great risk he refuses to say Jesus is a sinner and if he doesn’t do what they ask of him and deny Jesus then they will kick him out of the synagogue (verse 22) which means he will be dead to his parents whom he has just seen for the first time. So he and his parents will be forced to choose a relationship with each other or one with Jesus. As being out of the synagogue meant that they were not allowed to pray, hear the teaching of the Word, fellowship with the people of God. Socially you would be treated as though you were dead by family, friends and business relations, so this was a very real threat.

He had never seen his parents imagine the tears and hugs, how could they deny that this man was born blind when they watched this man with his parents. I can only wonder how long this scene must have lasted. And then the questions, “Is this your son, was he born blind, how has he been made to see?” These religious folks wanted the parents to be blind because they simply chose not to see. Having heard what this man said about Jesus they again go back to the miracle to see if they could discredit it and bring the parent sin to interrogate them with three questions:

Is this your son? Perhaps this was the old “bate and switch” ploy done by Jesus to fake a healing and Jesus used a stunt double, a man who was merely impersonating the true blind man.
Who you say was born blind? This question deals with sensationalizing the blind man, “Was he truly born blind or was this just temporary blindness?” The point here seems to suggest that perhaps his condition was not as grave as it was made out to be and that his healing was mere coincidence.
How does he now see? The final question was an attempt to discredit the above two answers if both were in the affirmative.

In verse 22 John adds some insight to the questions when we are told that, “His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had agreed already that if anyone confessed that He was Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue.” The parents answer the first two questions, yes it was their son not an imposter and yes he was born blind. To the third they pass the buck back to their son seeing he was of age to answer for him self. These parents were afraid to lose fellowship and all that met and religion was driving a wedge between these parents and their son. The parents say to the Pharisees, “Hey fellows he can speak, he has no problem with his hearing it was his eyes that couldn’t see.” So they told the parents right off that they had better watch what they said or they were going to be tossed. “Well he is our boy and he was born blind, but as to how he was given sight you have to ask him.”

There will always be folks with regard to Jesus that are on a continual quest to find reasons not to believe. Many of the questions they offer up are familiar excuses spoken with out any investigation such as “what about the pigmy’s in Africa”. That is what the Pharisees are doing with the miracle of the man born blind as they start with a presupposition and then try to build things around to support their view and are not above threats to do so. All that this led to was division verse 16 “some of the Pharisees said, “This Man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.” Others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?”

Vs. 24-34 Seeing and hearing

Vs. 24-34 “Let me remind you that you are still under oath to tell the truth”, they say to the man. The phrase “Give God the glory” was like our statement “swear to God” or “Do you swear to tell the truth the whole and nothing but the truth so help you God” as it was a way of putting a man under oath. Then they let him know what they want him to say by saying “We know that this Man is a sinner” reminding him of their preconceived ideas of how they want him to answer.

When I was in Russia we were bringing in a bunch of Bibles and material to teach the inductive method of Bible study and we had all of the material on carts and each of us had been told that if anyone asked us what was in the boxes that we were to say books otherwise they would confiscate them. Well I was the last one to go through security and each of the 10 team members told the young men with AK7’s that the boxes were full of books. So when it was my turn to go through security I had my answer ready to say when the soldier in broken English “What’s in the boxes and don’t say books!” That is what these Pharisees have just done to this blind man.

I love what this man does in verse 25, “Hey I don’t know all about your theology but I do know that this Jesus transformed my life.” There questions in verse 26 are now on “What did He do” and “How did He do it” but he has already answered the most important question, the WHO. Every person is the greatest authority on what the Lord has done for you and that is what this man has testified of. This fellow has grown tired of the cross examination and says “I’m not going to change my mind fellows are you?” which is what is behind the sarcastic reply of verse 27 and it gets these theologians to admit in verse 29 that they don’t know something about Jesus. Friends that is what practical theology is the Lord has met us in a specific way but notice that this man is “growing in grace and knowledge” of Jesus Christ. They made their stand on their doctrine he made his stand upon the revelation of transformation. “Do you also want to become His disciple?” “You fellows may be able to debate all of this stuff but practical debate this, I was once blind now I see.” And then with a tint of sarcasm, “Why do you want me to tell the story again do you also want to follow Him?” “Were followers of Moses we don’t know what this Jesus is all about”, they said. Really? Isaiah spoke three times that when the Messiah would come He would open blind eyes (29:18, 35:5, 42:7). Take a look at 29:18 where we are told, “In that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness.” I believe that this passage of scripture was fulfilled right here with this blind man who only a few minutes earlier received his sight and now is explaining scripture to the theologians. “Your unbelief and ignorance in the face of the evidence is more of a miracle than my cure”, the man told them in verse 30. This fellow couldn’t imagine that they didn’t know of Jesus how many people were there running around in Israel opening eyes of people born blind? These religious leaders wanted a theological debate and what they got was a lesson on practical theology. They were calling Jesus a sinner and yet He opens the eyes of a man born blind and never had that been done before and God doesn’t hear sinner’s only worshippers and those that do God’s will therefore he deduced He must not be a sinner and He must be right with God. How ironic to this man in light of the fact that his whole life all people seemed to care about was who was responsible for his blindness now all people cared about was who was responsible for his sight. For the first time he could see the angry faces staring at him asking him over and over who was responsible for his sight.

They claimed that Jesus was a sinner and yet this man quoted to them that clearly God heard Jesus therefore He must not be a sinner is turning their logic back around on them. “God does not co-labor with a man who practices sin”, the man says. No matter what Jesus would do for hurting, suffering souls He was nothing but a Sabbath breaker to the Pharisees. Never mind the laws that they were breaking by the hatred in their hearts towards them. There are no doubt many here this day that could stand up as this man and speak of transformation by the hands of Jesus. Paul would write to the Corinthians in 1 Cor. 2:2 Saying, “I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” I’m not resting upon someone’s opinion I’ve personally encounter the Lord who transformed my life. “If this Man were not from God, He could do nothing”, thus he put an end to the discussion.

How could they debate the logic? Only by going back to name calling as they had closed their hearts to the truth and then they excommunicated him and cut him off from social and religious life making him an outcast. With this they “put him down” and then “put him out” but being down and out of religion was a great thing as it led him to into Jesus. To a man who was born blind but now he sees they kick him out of ever seeing the temple again, ever seeing his parents and friends again. This won’t be the last of it when Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, brings him out of the tomb after 4 days the Pharisees can’t stand for this it’s bad theology so they plan on killing the man who was dead but is now alive. Ah but at verse 35 and John’s words as it says that “When Jesus heard that they cast him out; He…found him”, friends that is always what we will see Jesus doing gathering the outcasts.

John 9:35-41

“The Eyes’ of the Word”

I. Intro.

II. Vs. 35-38 Losing religion

III. Vs. 39-41 A home without a fence

Intro.

There stood this man cast out of religion abandoned because he dared to speak the truth concerning his healing. This man who had been given his sight was now being driven from seeing, oh the morbid irony of this. Then walks up to him a face that he didn’t recognize but a voice that he had heard say the most wonderful words, “Neither this man nor his parents have sinned”. He knew he was a controversial Rabbi, but also knew that when all others debated the responsibility of the cause of his blindness only this voice took responsibility for the cure, that is what he defended passionately at all costs before the Pharisees. These Pharisees cast this man out but in so doing they were casting him right into the arms of Jesus. Friends we have nothing to fear from being cast out of religion, put out of the fellowship of the world for in so doing they place right into the arms of the man from Galilee!

Vs. 35-38 Losing religion

Vs. 35-36 We conclude the story of the healing of the man born blind with his 2nd encounter with Jesus and then next week Jesus will teach on shepherding. First thing we notice is that Jesus waited until He had heard that the man had been cast out until He found him. I remark on this on two points:

The timing: I find it interesting that Jesus after having put the clay in his eyes left him to find his own way to the pool of Siloam but once his eyes were open found him. I suggest that the Lord allows irritants in our lives to drive us to obedience without hesitation but once there is obedience He immediately finds us and invites us into a relationship. Also of note is that this occurred after he had been let go of religion. I suppose that most people would call themselves “religious” and by that they mean to say that they have some degree of spiritual consciousness albeit not always practiced. But all of religion boiled down to the basics is just man’s thoughts of his own goodness and self importance in an attempt to appease the uncertainty of what lies beyond this life. Now again back to the timing of this as it wasn’t until this man was cast out of religion that Jesus came to him, cast out of his own goodness and self importance. Friends, there was a song by R.E.M. that repeated the phrase “Losing my religion” and in this case it was absolutely imperative that he did so before he was found by Jesus.
The pursuit: The second thought I have has to do with the four word commentary by John that says, “When He found him”. Notice that the “He” is capitalized not the “him” which tells us that it was Jesus who found the man not the other way around. It is clear that the man wanted Jesus as he had already asked sarcastically if the Pharisees “ALSO” wanted to become one of His followers, which is a clear indication of his intent to follow the Person who had set him free from his blindness. One of the fascinating parts of this story is that this man refused to walk away from the confession of Jesus whom he had not seen even if it cost him his family. The cost of his confession was everything he had just acquired by the blessing of the miracle. Clearly he valued the person of Christ more then the work of Christ else he may have thought the cost to great. As true as it is that this man was willing to follow Jesus it still pails when compared to the pursuit of Jesus for this man. When someone has done something for you, without expectation of anything in return there is at very least an attitude of appreciation but this man had done nothing for Jesus and yet Jesus pursued him, sought him out. The fact is I can never out love our Lord, try as I might to be devoted to Him is will always be more devoted to me.

There was a clear teaching in (Isa. 9:6) at that time in the deity of the Messiah which is what Jesus is asking this man in verse 35. Jesus’ inquiry asked the man, “Do you believe in the Son of God?” There are versions that say “Son of Man” but both are Messianic claims and Jesus is asking him if he has put his trust in and upon the Messiah. So the man says, “Who is He, Lord that I may believe in Him?” Again we note the progressive revelation of this man’s understanding of the person and work of Jesus in his case it all took place within a few minutes but only after he had an encounter with the Lord but in the end led to the worship of Him as God. This man knew Jesus’ voice but had never seen His face and though he was about to realize that he was face to face with the living God. You have heard that old saying “seeing is believing” notice that it was what he saw that provoked his trust it was what he heard, ah as Romans 10:17 says, “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” The reason for Jesus’ coming was salvation as stated to Nicodemus in John 3:16-17 but the result of rejecting this was judgment.

Vs. 37-38 There weren’t that many folks whom this man had seen and now what he heard matched what had seen. Never again in this life will this man’s eyes behold anything as beautiful as what they saw when Jesus spoke to him and he responded by trusting Jesus and worshipping Jesus. In John 10:27 Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” Then after Jesus spoke with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus then disappeared they said in verse 32 “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?”

Folks, I anticipate a moment like this when we who have been touched by Jesus will gaze for the first time into those eyes of the voice of the Word whom we know full well. Now notice his simple verbal response followed by action “Lord, I believe! And he worshipped Him!” Now based upon this passage he did so in front of the very ones who had cast him out and away from his parents and friends. There is such beauty in this man’s action especially in light of the sacrifice he was willing to make.

He had gone through the inquisition of the Pharisees and now this voice that he knew asked yet another question but not about how he had come to see, no this was a theological question, “Do you believe in the Son of God?” Oh how he must have studied Jesus face, looking deep into His eyes to detect the purpose of the question. I think that is why he responded the way he does, “Who is He, Lord, that I may believe?” “I’ll believe in anyone You tell me too”, he said to Jesus. The fact that he responded with the words “Who is He” indicates that there was nothing in Jesus tone or facial gestures that may an indication that it was Himself that He was speaking of. Then the phrase, “Sir, that I may believe” tells me that Jesus’ theology and was ready to commit to the person who Jesus identified as the Messiah. Now follow me on this Jesus works spoke before His words, this fellow was ready to follow the words because they proceeded by the works. Simply put Jesus theology was visible (and this with a blind man) before audible and if we Christians would practice this form of outreach we would have far greater success.

Then the words he did not expect to hear “You have both seen Him and it is He who is talking with you!” This man hadn’t seen all that many people but he had seen Jesus before his eyes were opened and he does what anyone would do and that is worship Jesus. He started the day a poor blind beggar and he ended the seeing and worshipping the Savior.

The word “worship” here only occurs three times in John chapter 4 and 12 then here where it used it always speaks of the heart’s surrender to God. Now only God is to be worshipped and here this man shows his belief that Jesus is the Messiah by his worship. His encounter with Jesus has left him wanting more and if there is one greater than Jesus he was willing to follow him. I rather think that Jesus reveals to us what we are to do as a witness for Him and that is behave and act in ways that cause people to want who we represent. In the final analysis it was not that religion cast out a man but that a man who had been transformed by the Son of God had cast out religion. They cast him out and one wonders if he went straight to the temple to get a good look at it as he had never seen it before. How unfortunate it is that it’s often the religious system that keeps people blind.

Vs. 39-41 A home without a fence

Vs. 39-41 Now Jesus’ words turn from the man who was at His feet worshipping to those whose theology was dividing and has some words for them. The word for “judgment” is only found here in John and it comes from two words “sift” and “separate” thus Jesus says that His actions towards this man has sifted them and their response has separated them from fellowship just as they had separated the man from fellowship. In the third chapter Jesus had said to Nicodemus that He had not come into the world to judge the world but here He for judgment He has come but there is no contradiction as the word for “judgment” describes a result not an action. So the result of their rejection of Jesus was judgment it was their action that caused this not His. The reason for this Jesus explained was that they claimed to see but chose not too. Then Jesus charges them with willful rejection with knowing Who He is but choosing to turn away from seeing Him.

Jesus draws the parallel between the physically blind and the spiritually blind as neither of them can see. The difference is that if you are physically blind your inability to see isn’t your fault but if you are spiritually blind and choose to stay that way then it is your fault. The cause of their blindness Jesus describes in verse 41 as, “you say we see” simple put pride and self-righteousness kept them in at state of blindness and sin. They would have been better off if their blindness was caused by ignorance rather than arrogance because ignorance can be cured by information where as it takes a change of heart to correct than arrogance. As the “Light of the World” the only ones that couldn’t see Him where those who refused to look. Think of this the man born blind cam to see and those who could see were blind. Folks it is easier for the Jesus to change blind eyes then it is for Him to work with prideful hearts. They saw the miraculous change in the blind man but denied it.

There are far too many folks like these Pharisees who were willing to kick a man out of the house all because of their own prejudices. The Lord has been dealing with me lately along these lines as I believe it is important that before we tear down a persons house we need to build them a new one and invite them to live in it. That is what Jesus did for this man He built him a house right next to the where he had been living his whole life and when the Pharisees kicked him out Jesus invited to come home to live. It is far too easy for me at times as a pastor to be more concerned with my fences then with the house! The Pharisees couldn’t see the house for the sake of the fences they had set up and they were endanger of judgment. There are three things that blinded the Pharisees and kept them blind:

Tradition: Being so set on the method that it becomes the object of worship instead of what it was intended.
Prejudice: Here the pride is not upon what has been done but rather on the way we think it is to be done.
Pre-conceived ideas: Finally, having already made up ones mind on something with our ever investigating it personally.

The common denominator with all three of these things is pride and a lack of a teachable heart. Jesus describes the failure of mankind when He says, “that those who do not see may see, and those who see may be made blind.” Jesus is not come to be the theological police He has come to be the spiritual paramedic. There is within all human the propensity of over inflating our own significance as we forget that our frame is but dust. Allow me to quote to you a word for Ray Stedman: “When we are reading the Scriptures we ought to recognize how desperately we are in need of being taught of God. He is able to open our eyes if we admit we do not see. But if we think we know, and we are confident that we do not need any help, then we are stumbling on into blindness.” Henry Van Dyke wrote a wonderful poetic prayer that says:

Grant us the knowledge that we need
To solve the questions of the mind.

Light our candles while we read,
Keep our hearts from going blind.

Enlarge our vision to behold
The wonders You have done of old!