Twice Healed – Pt. 3

And if God’s people would once
again take their Bibles and turn to the Gospel of John. We have
been in this passage several weeks and we come to the culmination
of the passage even this Lord’s Day. We have met, we have watched,
we have empathized with this poor man blind from birth, reduced
to begging, and then one day a stranger happens by, a person
he’d never met. He comes, he makes of all things
mud cakes, rubs them on the poor man’s eyes, and tells him to
go and wash. And miraculously, he comes back
seeing. But as joyful as this man must
have been, He found no one to rejoice with him. Some people
wanted to ask questions. Others wanted to investigate.
Some even doubted his identity and his story. Others thought
that his story was so remarkable that he must tell it to the religious
authorities. And so they dragged him before
them. Even his own parents did all but disown him. And after
a short and careless investigation, he’s doubted, he’s second-guessed,
he’s castigated by the religious authorities, and finally, he’s
kicked out. Imagine wandering your entire
life, most people never even giving you the time of day, then
no sooner does your life take this dramatic turn for the better
Your eyesight is restored, but your world is turned upside down.
People who had likely never even spoken with this poor man, not
only now begin to bully him, but after doing so, they ostracize
him. And for what? For telling the
truth, or the truth so far as he knew it, For giving a factual
account of how he regained his eyesight. And for giving the
best guess about the identity of the one who had helped him.
And that was it. We can easily imagine that this
poor man might have begun to wonder if the eyesight thing
was really worth it. His life was certainly more stable
when he was blind. more peaceful, he wasn’t like
perhaps the most popular guy in town, but he wasn’t anyone’s
enemy. Ever since the moment his eyesight
was restored, he’s had nothing but trouble. Grief, harassment,
doubters, critics, nothing but heartache. And a sad story goes
from sad to worse. How very sad. If you would, look back again
at verse 1 of chapter 9. As he passed by, he saw a man
blind from birth, and his disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned,
this man or his parents, that he would be born blind? Jesus
answered, it was neither this man sinned nor his parents, but
it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him. We
must work the works of him who sent me as long as it is day. Night is coming when no one can
work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made clay of
the spittle and applied the clay to his eyes and said to him,
go wash in the pool of Siloam, which is translated scent. So
he went away and washed and came back seeing. Therefore, the neighbors
and those who had previously saw him as a beggar were saying,
Is this not the one who used to sit and beg? Others were saying,
this is he. Still others were saying, no,
but he is like him. He kept saying, I am the one.
So they were saying to him, how then were your eyes opened? He
answered, the man who is called Jesus made clay and anointed
my eyes and said to me, go to Siloam and wash. So I went away
and washed. and I received sight. They said
to him, where is he? He said, I do not know. They
brought to the Pharisees the man who was formerly blind. Now
it was a Sabbath on the day when Jesus made the clay and opened
his eyes. Then the Pharisees also were
asking him again how he received his sight. And he said to them,
he applied clay to my eyes and I washed and I see. Therefore,
some of the Pharisees were saying, This man is not from God because
he does not keep the Sabbath. But others were saying, how can
a man who is a sinner perform such signs? There was a division
among them. So they said to the blind man
again, what do you say about him since he opened your eyes? He said, he is a prophet. The
Jews then did not believe it of him that he had been blind.
and that he had received sight, until they called the parents
of the very one who had received sight, and questioned them, saying,
Is this your son, who you say was born blind? Then how does
he now see? His parents answered them and
said, We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind,
but how he now sees we do not know, or who opened his eyes
we do not know. Ask him. He is of age. He will
speak for himself. His parents said this because
they were afraid of the Jews. For the Jews had already agreed
that if anyone confessed him to be the Christ, he was to be
put out of the synagogue. For this reason, his parents
said, he is of age, ask him. So a second time, they called
the man who had been blind and said to him, give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.
He then answered, whether he is a sinner, I do not know. One
thing I do know, that though I was blind, I now see. So they
said to him, what did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?
He answered them, I told you already and you did not listen.
Why do you want to hear it again? You do not want to become his
disciples too, do you? They reviled him and said, you
are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that
God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know
where he is from. The man answered and said to
them, well, here is an amazing thing, that you do not know where
he is from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does
not hear sinners, but if anyone is God-fearing and does his will,
he hears him. Since the beginning of time,
it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person
born blind. If this man were not from God,
he could do nothing. They answered him, you were born
entirely in sins, and are you teaching us? So they put him
out. Jesus heard that they had put
him out, and finding him, he said, do you believe in the Son
of Man? He answered, who is he, Lord,
that I may believe in him? Jesus said to him, you have both
seen him, and he is the one who is talking with you. And he said,
Lord, I believe, and he worshiped him. And Jesus said, for judgment
I came into this world so that those who do not see may see,
and that those who see may become blind. Those of the Pharisees
who were with him heard these things and said to him, we are
not blind too, are we? Jesus said to them, if you were
blind, you would have no sin. But since you say, we see, your
sin remains. This poor man blind from birth,
and it seems like things have only gotten worse for him, but
things are about to get dramatically better. As we see the narrative
unfold, we watch him not only receive his sight, but his physical
vision, but we also ultimately see him have his spiritual insight
restored. We see that Jesus not only heals
his physical need, but also his greater, much greater spiritual
need. It’s a truly remarkable, precious
story, precious to us all. Last Lord’s Day, we looked at
not only the healing of the man, the actual healing of this man,
but then we looked at the backdrop, and it was a rather ugly backdrop.
It began with a reception. It proceeded to an examination
of the man, quickly degenerate into a confrontation of his own
parents, and then finally, an inquisition of him that concluded
with his removal from not just the temple, but Judaism itself,
excommunicated. We saw that there were a number
of pitfalls, four in all. A pitfall that stands in the
way of somebody coming to saving faith. We saw that those unfolded
in the course of each of those scenes, that ultimately an individual
will never come to saving knowledge of the truth unless they personally
evaluate the information. not unlike the neighbors who
wanted to hand it off to someone else to decide. An individual
will never come to saving knowledge of the truth unless they conduct
an unbiased investigation, not unlike the Pharisees who already
had a preconceived idea, a conviction about this man and about Jesus. An individual will never come
to saving faith, saving knowledge of the truth unless they disregard
the cowardly witness. his parents, and we talked about
this a little bit last week, there are scores and scores of
cowardly witnesses and how many people I’ve spoken to that because
of the lifestyle or because of the lack of witness of a particular
Christian, they were ready to dismiss the gospel out of hand.
Unless we are willing to disregard those cowardly witnesses, we
will not come to a saving faith. We will cling to that as some
kind of an excuse why not to believe. Finally, we saw that
an individual will never come to saving knowledge of the truth
unless they first acknowledge themselves to be sinners. And
that is key for the passage before us today. As Jesus closes out
this incredible section, he focuses on that what we could call spiritual
blindness. If you are willing to jot down
a few scriptures, I just want to remind you about the entire
concept of spiritual blindness. That’s what Jesus is dealing
with. That’s what he’s going to focus on here. Not just with
the man born blind. First, he’s going to heal his
spiritual blindness, and then he’s going to deal with the spiritual
blindness of others. This man has his spiritual blindness
cured. But sadly, many, many in this
narrative, we walk away seeing their spiritual blindness uncured. In the book of Isaiah, in chapter
six, you remember that scene where Isaiah is standing in the
throne room of God In Isaiah 6 it says, I heard the voice
of the Lord saying, whom shall I send? Who will go for us? Then I, Isaiah said, here am
I, send me. This was his command. These were his marching orders.
Go and tell this people, keep on listening but do not perceive,
keep on looking but do not understand, render the hearts of this people
insensitive, their ears dull and their eyes dim, otherwise
they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand
with their hearts, and return and be healed. It’s a remarkable
order that Isaiah receives and that passage is recorded in the
New Testament as much or more than any other Old Testament
quotation. It’s quoted in the same context
in all three of the synoptic gospels in the parable of the
soils. That there is a spiritual blindness
that takes place that goes from bad to worse. that if we don’t
see and intelligently react and respond to the information provided,
our blindness only gets worse. John quotes the passage in John
chapter 12, as we’ll come to soon. It’s an overall commentary
on the response that Jesus was seeing, and he basically articulates
what he notes here, that his nation was bound up in a spiritual
blindness. This concept of spiritual blindness
is replete not only throughout Isaiah, but throughout the Old
Testament and throughout the New Testament as well. Isaiah
42, verse 18, Hear you deaf, and look, you blind, that you
may see. This is what Jesus is confronting,
spiritual blindness. Spiritual blindness first, on
the part of the man born blind and spiritual blindness of the
religious leaders that had just removed him from their midst.
Isaiah 44 verse 18 says essentially the same thing. They do not know
nor do they understand for he has smeared over their eyes so
that they cannot see and their hearts so that they cannot comprehend. Spiritual blindness. In the New
Testament we see it as well. Ephesians chapter 4 says that
they are darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God
because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness
of their heart. You have another image that is
used frequently in scripture, not literal blindness per se,
but darkness, this symbol of religious or spiritual ignorance
and depravity. One pastor, Puritan pastor said
it this way, a true character of all the people of God before
conversion who are in a state of darkness, blindness, under
the power of sin, shut up in unbelief, are in gross ignorance
of themselves and their condition. They don’t even know that they’re
blind. That will be a key point that
Jesus will make again gross ignorance of themselves and their condition,
of sin and the danger they are exposed to by it, of divine and
spiritual things, of the grace of God, of the way of peace,
life, salvation by Christ, of the work of the blessed spirit,
of the truths of the gospel, They are in the dark and they
see no objects in a spiritual sense not to read the word so
as to understand it or to work that which is good and they walk
in darkness not knowing where they are. That’s what Jesus Christ
came to remedy and we have that hope given to us in the scriptures. Think back to Isaiah 9 too. The
people who walk in darkness will see a great light. Those who
live in a dark land, the light will shine on them. And the passage
goes on to unfold to us the coming of the Messiah. That passage
is quoted at Christ’s birth in Luke chapter 2, Luke 179, that
His purpose was to shine upon those who sit in darkness and
the shadow of death. It’s quoted by Matthew in fulfillment
of prophecy. Matthew chapter 4 says, when
Jesus heard that John had been taken into custody, he withdrew
into Galilee. Leaving Nazareth, he came and
settled in Capernaum, which is by the sea in the region of Zebulun
and Naphtali. Matthew says that very truth
was a fulfillment of scripture, this scripture. Verse 14, this
was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet. The
land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali by the way of the
sea beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people who
were sitting in darkness saw a great light. Those who were
sitting in the land and in a shadow of death, upon them a light dawned.
What glorious news. that to the blind, to those who
were in darkness, spiritual darkness, to those who were spiritually
blind, God was going to send a light, the Messiah. No wonder
Isaiah chapter 60, near the end of that great, great book, Arise,
shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has
risen upon you. For behold, darkness will cover
the earth, and deep darkness the peoples. but the Lord will
rise upon you and His glory will appear before you. You know that
verse is quoted, that’s what was quoted in Matthew chapter
4. In 1 Peter it declares that we
are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s
own possession so that you might proclaim the excellencies of
Him who called you. out of darkness and into His
marvelous light. Jesus Christ came as the light. Jesus Christ came to dispel the
darkness. And in this very passage, Jesus
Christ is articulating the concern, the malady, the disease of spiritual
blindness. Go back, if you would, to verse
35. Verse 35, the man has been put out, excommunicated from
the Jewish religion, not just from the temple, but put out
from their midst. He had no privilege to buy. He had no opportunity to interact
with his friends, even his own family. He was ostracized. Verse 35 records that Jesus heard
that they had put him out. And finding him, he said, do
you believe in the Son of Man? It’s important for the conclusion
of this account to refer back to a statement made at the very
start of this occasion. If you would, just look back
to verse two. His disciples asked him, Rabbi,
who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?
Jesus answered, it was neither this man sinned nor his parents. But it was so that the works
of God might be displayed in him. Works of God, plural. We must work the works of him
who sent me as long as it is day. Night is coming when no
man can work. Essentially what Jesus says in
this passage is his work isn’t complete yet. Those words are
taken there in a plainly literal sense. Then the work should be
considered as complete. After all, the man had been healed
of his blindness. A mighty miracle. An exhibition of sovereign power
had been performed. But an even greater exercise
of God’s sovereign power is about to be performed. In fact, I would even suggest
that it might be easier to heal physical blindness than spiritual
blindness. Modern medicine has done some
of that. Great measures are often taken
to either restore or kindle vision in a person either born blind
or a person who has lost their eyesight. But nothing can be
done from a human standpoint for one who is caught up in spiritual
blindness, nothing. We can preach the gospel, but
it’s for God in his sovereign goodness to unlock that vision. Jesus had an even greater work
that was still yet to be manifested. He had healed the man of his
physical blindness, but now would go on to heal his spiritual blindness. Look at the passage. Now this
phrase, finding him, obviously implies that Jesus sought the
man, but it’s not as if Jesus had to wander the streets up
and down looking for the lad and then finally locating him. Jesus as God would have known
exactly where to find him. But it does imply that Jesus
initiated the search. Jesus sought him out. Jesus went
looking and found the man. Jesus went to the man, not the
other way around. But note, note also the reason
for his search. He had heard that they, the religious
authorities, had put him out, they had excommunicated him.
Jesus knew that the poor man who did not go looking for trouble,
who was sitting quietly by the city gate begging for handouts
when Jesus arrived for a divine appointment, healed the man and
he set in motion all these things that culminated in the man now
likely just utterly dejected, right? Walking about in his own
town as a pariah, an unwanted troublemaker who is no longer
to be associated with, even by his closest friends and family.
Jesus knew that this poor man’s head must be reeling, wondering
what just happened. So he finds the man. Don’t we know Christ? as that
kind of a compassionate God who found us? Don’t we know that
he sees us? He sees us in our condition.
He sees us in our lost estate. He sees us in our trouble, self-imposed
most often. And Jesus Christ seeing us has
compassion and comes to us. What a Savior. And having found the man, Jesus
asked, do you believe in the Son of Man? We should probably take time
to point out that that little pronoun you is very emphatic
here. It’s as if Jesus said to the
man, do you believe in the Son of Man? Regardless of what others
believe, regardless of what they indicted you for, It’s a fascinating
turn. The religious authorities had
just finished browbeating this man with an emphasis of pronouns
all their own. Look back at verse 34. Just before
they kick the man out, they essentially say, you were born entirely in
sins. And are you teaching us? And so Jesus turns to the man
and says, what do you believe? What’s on your heart? Do you
believe in the Son of Man? That phrase, and we’ve seen it
before, the Son of Man, it was Jesus’ favorite way of referring
to himself. We might even call it his self-designation. It’s his self-proclamation. It’s not only the way that Jesus
sees himself, it’s the way that he wants to be seen by mankind. All four of the Gospels record
Jesus using that. Jesus essentially says, when
he calls himself the Son of Man, that he is one fully acquainted
with our griefs. He is one that is completely
associated with the human condition. As one person said it, the idea
of a weak and suffering Messiah would have been unwelcome to
the Jews and therefore a name which emphasized weakness was
not likely to be a favorite. The very reason which induced
them to avoid the title, induced our Lord to take it. It expressed
his Messiahship definitively enough for his purpose. In other words, the very reason
that Jesus selected this title, Son of Man, was because it spoke
of His humanity and His deity at the same time. It spoke of
Him as the link between heaven and earth, the representative
before God of man, and before men of God. He was the representative. And it captures this idea, not
only of his utter humiliation in taking on human flesh, but
it also, he is thereby the representative of humanity. And so, in other
words, as he looks down to this man born blind, and he asks him
if he knows the Son of Man, he’s telling the man that he empathizes,
he really passionately can relate to his human condition. So for Jesus to refer to himself,
to self-designate himself as the son of man is to identify
with a whole human race in the most significant way. His kingdom
was not to be one of might, but rather one that would emphasize
and empathize with the human condition, and so the man. This
man is brought face-to-face not only with this kind stranger,
Jesus, who really at this point, he knows no more than that he
may be some kind of prophet sent from God. He comes face-to-face
not only with him, but face-to-face with the problem of his own sin.
Face-to-face with the opportunity of forgiveness. Face-to-face
with salvation. face to face with the challenge
given by Jesus to place his faith in Christ the Savior, to believe
in Christ alone for salvation and forgiveness and eternal life.
What Jesus asked him was not just some intellectual assent
to Christ, but faith, real, true faith. In other words, he asked
him, do you rely, are you prepared to rely fully and completely
With everything in you, on the Son of Man, do you trust Him
only? Many would say that faith in
Christ, belief in Christ is the very theme of this gospel. Think
through it with me. John 1.12, as many as received
Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even
to those who believe in His name. John 3.16, for God so loved the
world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in
Him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 6.40, for
this is the will of My Father that everyone who beholds the
Son and believes in Him will have eternal life. John 20.31,
essentially the capstone of the entire book These have been written
so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son
of God, and that believing you may have life in his name. So
this is the moment for this man, a crisis really of opportunity. He is offered the opportunity,
the responsibility to place his faith in the Son of Man. But he doesn’t know who he is.
or where to find Him. Look at verse 36, He answered,
Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him? The man’s plaintive questions
seems drained of hope. It’s as if the man has been looking
actively ever since he had his eyesight restored. He probably
looked about looking for that kind voice that had told him
to go and to wash. But now his hope wells up. Perhaps
this kind stranger knows where he can find the Son of Man. Perhaps he had lost hope of finding
Him altogether, but now his heart soars. Who is He, Lord, that
I may believe?” Like most commentators, I think it’s important to clarify
the translation of a very common word here. Translated in the
NAS, the word here is translated, Lord. And it’s not entirely inaccurate. That is a perfectly acceptable
translation for the word. But the word also was often used
as a simple sign of respect. Like our word, Sir. It is, I
think, important to soften that meaning here. Here’s why. Instead of referring to him as
Lord, I think it’s better to take it here in verse 36 as Sir. especially for our ears. First
of all, here’s why. If he did call him Lord here,
how is it possible that he could even question or suggest that
he would switch allegiance to the real Lord when he was revealed?
Further, We will soon see that the man has little idea about
Jesus’ true identity, His nature, even as He seems to indicate
here. Where is He? He has no idea that
Jesus is God in the flesh, the Messiah, only that He is likely
some kind of prophet who had done Him a good turn by giving
Him eyesight, and so He respectfully calls Him, Sir. And He does so
in the context of asking this question, who is the Son of Man,
sir? I want to believe in Him and
I trust you, a friend, because of your great kindness to me.
Who is He? He obviously recognized the Lord’s
voice, this pleasant face that He had never seen, but His voice,
a compassionate voice, a commanding voice, an authoritative voice,
a loving voice, That voice he knew with those senses that had
been made far more acute by a life of blindness, the voice he remembered. And now he could put a visible
face with that voice. And his faith is growing. Look back at verse 17. I want
to take you through this progression of faith. In verse 17, he indicates
that he knows him no more, but his best guess before the religious
authorities is that he’s a prophet. He’s a prophet. That’s the extent
of his summary of what Christ had accomplished on his behalf.
Look at verse 31. We know that God does not hear
sinners, so he thinks he’s more than just a sinner. He’s a righteous
man, but if anyone is God-fearing, And so his elevation of this
man, his belief in this man increases, but it’s not to the level of
God in the flesh, it’s not to the level of the Messiah. He
doesn’t see him as God, God-fearing. And he does his will, he’s obedient.
Look at verse 33. If this man were not from God,
now he is on a mission. Now I see him as sent by God
himself. and able to do amazing things
because of it. In spite of the strange events
of the past days and the obvious discouragement brought about
by the response of his friends, his neighbors, his church, he
still is hopeful to meet the One behind this great blessing
of eyesight. Look, if you would, at verse
37. Jesus said to him, You have both seen Him, and He is the
One talking to you. Now, it’s no accident that Jesus
uses this word, seen. By doing so, he underscores,
he highlights the fact that the man has been miraculously healed
of a lifelong blindness, whereas for his entire lifetime he did
not see, now he does see. You see with the eyes that God
has opened, Jesus tells him. And the very one standing in
front of him before his very now fully functioning eyes stands
the one responsible for it. What an amazing moment. If you’re
a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, if you have placed your
faith in him alone for salvation, I want you to pause for a moment
and reflect on this. Because one day this will be
a reality for all of us. Do you get that? One day, we too, for the very first time, we’ll
see the face of the one whose character we know. The kindnesses that he’s bestowed
upon us, we know. throughout our entire Christian
life, but suddenly we will see the Lord Jesus Christ face to
face. The apostles in their letters
to various churches often speak of an inheritance. Do you know
what the inheritance is? I’ve taken occasion to preach
through it a number of times. Our inheritance is Jesus Christ.
What a glorious day that will be when believers see Him for
the first time face-to-face. He’s the Savior of the world.
It’s not just a prophet. It’s not just a miracle worker.
It’s the Savior Himself face-to-face. That was the man’s moment. Standing
before his Savior, realizing who it was for the very first
time. What an incredible moment. But beyond that, infinitely beyond
that, two magnificent truths suddenly begin to meld together.
This gracious friend, who without being asked or persuaded to do
so, gave him sight, is the same Son of Man, the Messiah, in whom
he longed to place his faith. What could he do? What else was
there to do? Look at verse 38. He said, Lord,
I believe, and he worshipped Him, almost instantaneously.
As much as we might expect and even excuse the man to respond
by sitting for a time in stunned silence, that isn’t what happened. His faith immediately swells
and it bursts the bonds of his own heart and it lodges in the
only proper place for this heart-sick faithless sinner. It lodges in
the Messiah himself, the Lord Jesus Christ who stands lovingly
before him. What a Savior. J.C. Ryle said the man’s mind
had been prepared by the Holy Spirit. The more he thought over
this miraculous healing and the person who wrought it the more
he was ready to believe in Him. And now, having been readied
by the Holy Spirit Himself, there is no more pondering the data,
there is no more considering what had transpired. His is but
to believe and to worship. So he proclaims his faith, and
this time it should be translated, Lord, because Jesus has just
revealed Himself to the man, There’s no doubt this time that
it’s the Lord Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ. What else could
the man do? But it’s not just the faith of
intellectual belief, mind you. It’s the white-hot faith that
responds in heart, passion, worship. And the Word indicates that he
likely fell down before the Lord, perhaps at His feet, and began
a lengthy expression of worship for this Almighty Savior. This
is the very distinct meaning of this word, worship, and always
used of the worship of God himself. It’s never used of the act of
mere respect or honor. This word proves that he knew
what Jesus’ reference to the Son of Man meant. It was the
designation of the Savior. It was the designation of the
Messiah, God in the flesh. He didn’t know everything there
would be to know about this new friend, but he knew enough. He
knew that he had done him a great kindness, not once, but twice. That he now identified himself
as his Savior. That was enough for this man.
Enough to make him fall on his knees in humble gratitude. And
it’s worth more than a passing acknowledgement that Jesus doesn’t
utter one word of correction for the man’s behavior. He accepts
his worship because it was his due. As God in the flesh, he
was due this worship. It was right and proper. This is something that the apostles
flatly rejected, remember? In Acts chapter 10, when Peter
Cornelius met him, fell at his feet and worshipped him, but
Peter raised him up saying, Stand up! I too am just a man. What are you doing? Don’t make
me into an idol. In Acts chapter 14, the same
thing effectively happened to Barnabas and Paul. They tore
their robes, rushed out into the crowd, saying, men, why are
you doing these things? Why are you giving us accolades
and worship? We are also men of the same nature
of you as you and preach the gospel that you should turn from
these vain things to a living God. It’s not what Jesus did. Jesus accepted the man’s humble
sign of worship and respect. One commentator made a sad observation
here. that out of all the pages of
Scripture, how few are those whom our Lord miraculously healed
would return and worship Him as this man did. It’s the only
place in this entire gospel where anyone has said to worship Christ. And so the man, having already
received this miraculous gift of eyesight, This privilege,
this gift for benevolent stranger now has his spiritual eyesight
restored. He can see his sin for what it
is. He sees his Savior for who he is. He knows that he must
respond in faith. He’s already been bidden. And
he does so. The sad reality is that there
were A vast majority of others that did not. And Jesus seizes
the moment to point that out. Look at verse 39. For judgment
I came into this world so that those who do not see may see. And those who see may become
blind immediately. I would even say likely with
the man even still at his feet. The Lord proclaims this enigmatic
saying. And he uttered this, as the context
will show in a moment, not just for the man in front of him,
but for those who were gathered about it was for their sake too. It points this judgment, this
idea of judgment, not to the fact that that’s Jesus’ role. The scriptures point out clearly
that Jesus’ primary function was not to come as a judge, but
to save. And he had just done that. But
the judgment was the inevitable result of the fact that he came. The very fact that this man received
him meant that others were already in the process of judgment. One faithful commentator said
it this way, it was quite true, that our Lord had not come into
the world to be a judge, but a savior. Yet he had come to
produce a judgment, a division, to be the cause of light breaking
in on some minds, which before His coming could not see, and
of blindness covering other minds, which before His coming flattered
themselves that they were full of light. So you go back to those phrases
embedded there in verse 39, those who do not see may see. Those
who are aware of their own blindness, those who are aware of their
sin, those who are fully aware of their spiritual blindness
and their need of Almighty God. Jesus would say on another occasion
that one of his rebuke of the religious elite was that they
acted like they didn’t need a physician. They didn’t see themselves as
blind or sick or in need in any way. So not only that group, those
who do not see may see, those who are blinded in a real sense,
spiritual blindness, may receive spiritual eyesight, but he also
speaks of those who see, in a sense, may become blind. They pretend
that they see, they think that they see, They believe in their
heart that they are righteous. They believe in their heart that
they really don’t need much in the way of God’s help. They claim
to have spiritual eyesight and insight, but in reality they
walk about groping as blind men. And this pierced the hearers
that were standing around him. Look at verse 40. Those of the
Pharisees who were with him heard these things and said to him,
We are not blind too, are we? And it’s very obvious by their
question that they know Jesus is speaking metaphorically here.
He’s talking about spiritual blindness and he’s indicting
them enough to where they are a little uncomfortable by it,
but they’re incredulous that Jesus could be leveling this
suggestion at them. that they, of all people, the
experts of the law, exceedingly religious, far beyond anyone
else in righteousness, at least in their own eyes, that they
could possibly be accused of this horrific malady of spiritual
blindness? Not us! This wasn’t a humble appeal to
Christ. Are you speaking to us? It’s
sarcasm. It’s hateful. They’re sneering. at Christ as He says it. It’s
as if they say, you can’t possibly be suggesting that we are spiritually
blind. And Jesus so mercifully answers
them. Look at verse 41. Jesus said to them, if you were
blind, you would have no sin. But since you say, we see, your
sin remains. If they were spiritually, just
as the blind man was physically, he wasn’t deluded about his condition. He didn’t pretend to walk the
streets acting as if he could see. He was given over to it. He was accepting of it. He acknowledged
it. He didn’t fool himself about
his condition and would that they would have. Not tried to
fool themselves about their own condition. If so, things might have been
different, but these, like millions of others, do not see their condition,
they do not believe that they are sinful, they do not see themselves
as lost, they do not see themselves as needing a savior. They do
not think that there’s anything wrong with their spiritual eyesight. And if they would only at once
acknowledge their true condition, that they are utterly spiritually
destitute, blind, then at once there would be a remedy. Their
sin would be dealt with in full. One pastor characterized it in
these terms. If they would have acknowledged their spiritual
darkness, They would have come to Christ for forgiveness of
their sin, but by claiming to possess spiritual sight, they
were blind to their true condition. If they would confess that they
were spiritually blind, thus admitting their need of Christ,
they would have no sin because their sin would be forgiven.
One Puritan likewise said, he who is blind, or he is blind
who, aware of his own blindness, seeks a remedy to cure his disease. You see, these thought they were
well. They didn’t need a physician.
If you would acknowledge your disease, it would not be altogether
incurable. But now, because you think that
you are in perfect health, you continue in a desperate state. And Jesus says to him, if you
are blind, you would have no sin. What an offer of salvation. If you would only acknowledge
your desperate need of a savior, if you’d only acknowledge your
sin, if you would only acknowledge that you can’t even see your
way to grasp an understanding of the gospel, God will give
more light. And he would forgive that sin.
You would have no sin. But it was just the opposite.
And Jesus says, but since you say we see, your sin remains. This was their problem. They
really believed that they had it figured out. They really believed
that they could see. They really were prepared to
wander through life pretending that they knew all the answers,
spiritually speaking. They really believed that they
had no problem. The bottom line here is that they had no sin
problem. What a merciful Savior we have,
who comes to sinners like you, like me, and confronts us in our blindness,
and He appeals to us to come to Him, to Him alone for salvation,
not try to figure things out on our own, Not try to manage
our own way through life, stumbling as it were. Let’s examine our
hearts before our Savior. Our gracious God, we just rejoice
in the privilege of enjoying this passage. A passage that
so many of us really empathized with. We saw ourselves in it
from the first days that we read it. Some of us came to you to
be relieved of some thing, some addiction. We came to you with
some heartbreak. We came to you with some need
and we thought that that was paramount. Then you came. You came and you showed us that
our physical situation, our earthly condition, whatever it was, was nowhere near as bad. as our
spiritual plight. And you were merciful, Lord,
to show to us our desperate need. We couldn’t argue. We knew that
we were sinners. We knew that we were literally
at enmity with God Himself. And yet you bore with us. You
mercifully showed to us our condition, wretched as it was. And then,
Lord, You began to open our eyes to the Savior. You began to show
us how merciful He is, how perfect He is, how loving, and how He
had paid for our sin on the cross. What a Savior. What a great blessing it was
to have not only our physical situations, attended to by Almighty
God, but to have Almighty God fix the most desperate condition
man has ever known, that of spiritual blindness. Lord God, we plead,
if there are any in here, that perhaps even this morning they
just are muddied over They don’t even understand the gospel in
its fullness. We pray, Lord, just as it’s true
in our own lives, only you could make things clear. We pray that
in their lives, we pray. Make it clear. Open their eyes. Show to them their desperate
spiritual condition. That you are the only remedy.
You are the only Savior. You are the only answer to man’s
greatest problem, sin. We thank you and we praise you
in Jesus’ name, amen.