Twice Healed

and turn to arguably one of my
favorite chapters in all of Scripture, John chapter 9. I suppose this
is true of any chapter that I first preach, that I have looked forward
to preaching it my entire life, but probably none more so than
John chapter 9. I used to think of this chapter
as my chapter. because it told my story. And
then I began to realize how many people have a similar story where
they come to Christ initially for some sub-purpose, some thing,
some thing that they’ve fallen into, some hurt, some physical
difficulty, some challenge. They fall into something and
they look to God for some relief for that thing, and they find
so much more. And they realize during the course
of drawing near to Christ that Christ was actually drawing near
to them. He found them. And then they
realize that not only does Christ minister to those needs, those
difficulties, those hurts, the challenges, even the sin issues,
But Christ comes back. He finds us again. He seeks us
out for the purpose of giving us not just physical vision,
but spiritual vision. What we have in this chapter,
what one referred to as one of the most graphic and best loved
symbols of the Christian faith. one of the most graphic and best
love symbols of the Christian faith, you have Christ coming
to a sinner, a blind sinner, and seeking him out not only
for his physical blindness, but as I said, for his spiritual
blindness. And he gives light. He gives
light to the eyes of this poor man who was born blind. He imparts
truth to this same individual while all around him seemingly
are rejecting the truth and rejecting the light. Jesus comes to one
who so desperately needs it and so graciously and eagerly receives
it. If you’re trying to put this
in context, there is absolutely no consensus among the commentators
as to exactly when these events occurred in John chapter 9, how
close in proximity they are to John chapter 8. The fact that
these occasions take place on the Sabbath as John 8 concluded
really doesn’t prove anything. It’s really not even an important
question. This image is so powerful that
God provides we would take it in its entirety at least this
first opportunity. John chapter 9 beginning in verse
1. 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 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’s 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. And 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 the Sabbath. on that 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? And there was a division
among them. So they said to the man born
blind, what do you say about him since he opened your eyes?
And he said, he is a prophet. The Jews then did not believe
it of him that he had been blind and had received sight until
they called the parents of the very one who had received his
sight. questioned him 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 and
His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews.
For the Jews had already agreed that if anyone confessed him
to be 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, now I 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’s 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 of 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 worshipped 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. It’s an amazing account. Jesus dealing with a man who
was born blind. If you dip all the way back into
verse one, you see that first little section where Jesus just
deals with this blind man. First by way of his disciples’
question and then physically touching the blind man as we’ll
see in a moment. The response that that generates
in verses 8 through 12. The confusion of the townspeople
who don’t quite know what to do with it. So confused are they
that they take the man to the religious experts who they begin
a thorough examination. That leads to a confrontation
even of the man’s parents. And in one of the most crass
moments recorded in all of Scripture, his own parents essentially throw him under the bus. They
pretend like they don’t even know him. They admit that he’s
their son, but they want nothing to do with this healing. Frightening. That leads again to a second
inquisition of the man, more brutal, more direct than the
first. And you almost, you can almost
hear the young man being even just a little bit ornery with
some of his answers, certainly tongue in cheek. Do you want
to become his disciples? Here’s an amazing thing. And when it says they put him
out, it means they put him out, they excommunicated him. This
is a very, he wouldn’t have been able to buy or sell. He wouldn’t
have really even been able to function in the city, certainly
not in the temple. And Jesus hears of it. And he
goes to cure his real illness. His real illness, his real trouble
wasn’t physical blindness, his real illness with spiritual blindness. And Jesus goes a second time
to the man. Back to verse 1, if you would.
As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. This is at
least noteworthy. That John records that Jesus
saw this poor man. We can only imagine how many
things Jesus saw on a daily basis that aren’t recorded in Scripture.
It would be impossible to record them all. But something caught
Jesus’ eye, so much so that the disciples knew it. They observed
Jesus looking at the man, and so they react with a question,
just to break the tension. Jesus not only saw the man, but
he sought the man. Jesus healed a number of others
of their blindness. One episode recorded in Matthew
chapter 9. He entered a house, the blind
man came up to him and Jesus said to him, do you believe that
I’m able to do this? They sought Christ in that moment. They knew that he had a reputation
for healing. They sought him out and he healed
them. In Matthew chapter 20, there’s
another episode. They were leaving Jericho. A
large crowd followed. Two blind men sitting by the
road, hearing that Jesus was passing by, cried out. And Jesus
responded to them. And He said, What do you want
Me to do for you? And they said, Lord, we want our eyes to be
opened. Moved with compassion, Jesus
touched their eyes and immediately they regained their sight. Mark
records a third in Mark chapter 8. a healing in Bethsaida. They brought a blind man to Jesus
and implored Him to touch them. They pleaded with Jesus to do
this healing. Took the blind man by the hand,
brought him out. After spitting on his eyes and
laying his hands on him, he said, Do you see anything? He looked up and he said, I see
men like trees. Then he laid his hands on him
again and he looked intently and was restored and began to
see everything clearly. The only thing that is remarkably
different about the healing in this particular passage is this
particular passage goes out of its way in John chapter 9 to
tell us that this man was blind from birth. There are many causes
of blindness. Many causes that occur after
you were born, chemical burns, physical deformities, a blow
to the head. Many things can cause blindness
and we’re led to assume that it’s at least possible that these
other healings were healings of people who had had their eyesight
at one point and desperately longed for it. The interesting
point is this man Perhaps knew Jesus was nearby. He doesn’t
ever ask Jesus for anything. He doesn’t even know what eyesight
is. How do they know that he was
blind from birth? The disciples possibly knew it
just from being in and around Jerusalem. He was a regular after
all. Perhaps he would even cry out
to those who were passing by as he begged. Either way, Jesus knew. Jesus
knew his condition. Jesus knew that he was blind
from birth. And I think the first thing that we need to really
get a grasp on is what this man’s situation was.
Not a one of us in this room is blind. Not blind from birth. And that’s key because this man
didn’t even know what eyesight was. He had never seen the sky. He had never seen a sunset or
a sunrise for that matter. He had never seen a smile or
a frown on the face of someone nearby. He had never had the
privilege of watching a child grow up into adulthood and seeing
their features change. Perhaps he had heard leaves rustling
in the trees, but he had never seen trees. He’d never seen leaves. He’d never seen plant life. He
had never seen even his own loved ones. He had never been able
to read something that many of us treasure. I thought of this as I thought
about things that I just kind of passively enjoy. He had never
seen a dog playing fetch. Isn’t that fun to watch? He’d
never seen it. In fact, truth be told, he didn’t
even know what dark was because his eyesight, such as it was,
was only dark. He didn’t know the distinction
between light and dark. And so this well-known figure,
a regular at the temple gates, was begging. We know that that was a common
feature. There’s an episode also recorded
in the Book of Acts A beggar is sitting at the city gates,
not unlike our intersections even in our own day and age. And they knew that they had at
least some prerogative to ask for alms to be given, to beg.
They were justified in doing so to a degree. Leviticus 19 said, you shall
not curse a deaf man or place a stumbling block before the
blind, but you shall revere the Lord your God. I am the Lord.
In other words, they had a special place in God’s kingdom. Deuteronomy
27, 18, cursed is he who misleads a blind person on the road. So this healing, this particular
healing of all the healings that Jesus did, of any of the healings
that He cured blindness, this one is special. This one is special
because from birth, it was congenital. And even in all of the Old Testament,
there isn’t one case recorded where someone was healed of their
blindness from birth. And had the Pharisees really
known their scriptures, they would have known that this miracle
pointed to Christ as the Messiah. Isaiah 35, the wilderness and
the desert will be glad and the arable will rejoice and blossom
like the crocus. It will blossom profusely and
rejoice with rejoicing, and the shout of joy, the glory of Lebanon
will be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They will
see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God. Encourage
the exhausted, strengthen the feeble, say to those with an
anxious heart, take courage, fear not, behold, your God will
come with vengeance. The recompense of God will come,
but He will save you. the eyes of the blind will be
opened and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. The lame will
leap like the deer and the tongue of the mute will shout for joy.
They should have been watching for this figure. Isaiah 29, 18,
on that day the deaf will hear the words of a book and out of
their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see. Messianic
passages. Isaiah 32.3, Isaiah 42.7, but
even Jesus Himself proclaimed this. Recorded in Matthew chapter 11,
when John, while imprisoned, heard the works of Christ, even
John the Baptist was still having questions, doubts, perhaps, He
sent word by his disciples and said to him, Are you the expected
one or should we look for someone else? Jesus answered and said
to them, Go and report to John what you hear and see. The blind
receive sight, and the lame walk, and the lepers are cleansed,
and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have
the gospel preached to them. His answer to John was absolutely
in the affirmative. I am the Messiah. And so Jesus looks at this poor
man sitting by the gate, begging day after day, never having seen
a single glimmer of light, and his disciples. Isn’t this one of those statements
in Scripture that just makes you squirm? It should make us sick. And it should make us sick because
it’s a question that we could even hear ourselves asking. And
I would suggest to you that we ask this question frequently. The disciples asked him, Rabbi,
who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?
And maybe they were just trying to, you know, make conversation.
All right, let’s move along. We got to get to the temple.
Maybe they were just really trying to play some kind of theological
game. Well, here’s a conundrum. You see, what it implies is that
someone had to have sinned. It’s a syllogism, and it goes
like this. All sickness and maladies are due to sin. This man is blind. Therefore, he or someone near
him must have sinned in order to cause this blindness, and it’s true to a
degree. Adam’s fall, we know that. Adam’s
fall is what has brought sickness, physical death, hardship. It’s
brought a curse onto all mankind. That’s where death, that’s where
sickness, that’s where it all comes from. You’ve heard me say
this before. Whenever I hear that so-and-so
died of a natural death, no, they didn’t. Because death isn’t
natural. Death wasn’t part of the plan. Adam’s fall brought sickness.
Adam’s fall brought blindness. Adam’s fall brought early death. Sins of the parents, we know
that to be true. Sins of the parents can affect
children, their lifestyle, debt, alcoholism, imprisonment. And
so in a sense, that’s very true. One’s personal sins can affect
their lives. It can bring trouble and difficulty, even
sickness, choices in their life, lifestyle. That’s all very true. But the Jews of Jesus’ day, and
we know that it included, it bled over even to Jesus’ own
disciples. The Jews of Jesus’ day were pressing
on to an exact formula. that they could lay hold of in
order to determine the precise cause of every malady. You see,
what they would do is if they saw someone, they wouldn’t know
exactly what, but they would know that they had done something
or someone had done something, but congenital blindness. Now,
there’s a conundrum. Where did his sin come from? It’s very much like our modern
day charismatics, isn’t it? who attribute any hardship, physical
or financial, to a lack of faith, or depending on which channel
you’re on, a lack of giving, right? This is essentially the mindset
of those people on Malta. Remember when Paul got bit by
the snake? When the natives saw the creature hanging from his
hand, they knew it was a deadly one. This was a snake that would
kill you. They began saying to one another,
undoubtedly this man is a murderer. Yep. That’s the consequence. And even though he might have
escaped the gallows, the snake got him. You know the rest of
the story that Paul lived. Their syllogism was incorrect. Their reasoning was faulty. So the disciples here begin to
question the relationship between sin and misfortune. They were
just sure that such calamity, such a malady as blindness, such
difficulty that comes into the earth was caused by sin, but
the trouble was they didn’t know whose. We just dealt with this,
didn’t we, in our Sunday school class. Remember Psalm 73? That was the conundrum. The rule
of thumb is that God tends to bless obedience, and He tends
to judge unrighteousness. The difficulty comes when it
doesn’t seem to follow the rule. The difficulty comes when it’s
different than that. I want to take you to a brief illustration.
Turn over to Luke chapter 13. You have this same mindset. Luke chapter 13, just the first
few verses. And I love this scene. I just
love this scene. Luke chapter 13, verse 1. Now
on the same occasion, there were some present who reported to
him about the Galileans. I don’t know what you get from
that, but you know what I hear? Tattletale. Jesus, guess what? We just heard that some Galileans,
I mean, this is just so drippy. There were some present who reported
to him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their
sacrifices. And so the natural conclusion
in their mind was they must have done something because now they’re
dead. And Jesus said to him, do you suppose that those Galileans
were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they
suffered this fate? We heard the same argument on
9-11, didn’t we? Jesus says, I tell you no, but
unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. And then Jesus
uses another illustration, and he likely heard This one as well. This was probably notorious throughout
the city. Look at verse 4. Do you suppose,
do you really think that those 18 on whom the tower in Siloam
fell and killed were worse culprits than all the men who live in
Jerusalem? Is that really what you’re saying? And here’s where
you check yourself. The next time you hear of a bus
accident, do you bow your head in prayer? Or do you wait to
hear whether it was a heathen bus full of kids? Or do you wait
to hear whether it was a Mormon bus full of kids? Or do you wait
to hear, oh, it was a Baptist church bus? Oh, we must pray. You see, that’s the mindset. And that’s why this passage,
that’s why this question is so uncomfortable to us because we
do this all the time. J.C. Ryle. said there are few
notions that men seem to cling to so naturally as the notion
that bodily suffering and all affliction are the direct consequence
of sin. And that a diseased or afflicted
person must necessarily be a very wicked man. This was precisely
the short-sighted view that Job’s three friends took up when they
came to to visit him and against which Job contended. And so we
hear it in the health and wealth movement. We hear this thought
all the time, this direct cause. It was indeed a deeply ingrained
thought pattern in the Jewish mind. And even though the book
of Job had been expressly aimed at That kind of thought, that
unbiblical, ungodly error, it had taken root in the Jewish
community at least. It was no different than the
heathen thoughts. So let’s back away for a moment. Let’s look.
The first one they wonder about, maybe it’s this guy’s fault.
Did this man sin? that he would be born blind?
I mean, just pause and think of what they are suggesting.
That if this is congenital sin, he came out of the womb blind.
He was blind in the womb. And throughout the course of
history, there have been four suggestions as to how this possibly
might have happened. It’s just amazing. If his blindness was punishment,
as they suggest and believe, then it had to be, and his punishment
is congenital, then it had to be what we would understand as
prenatal sin. And so suggestions have been
bandied about over the centuries. Here’s one. The man was punished
for sins that God knew he would commit. This is the Calvinist
among the bunch, right? He looks down in the annals of
history. He sees that this man is going to be a great sinner.
Maybe he’s going to look at things on the internet that he should
not have looked at, and so God blinds him. It just is a ridiculous
thought. No scriptural basis at all for
that kind of thinking. Another idea that has been floated
is the The doctrine of transmigration of souls. This is that Shirley
gal that thinks that we have three, four, six, you know, unlimited
number of lives, right? The transmigration of soul, where
your soul goes from one body to the next, to the next, to
the next. And because of the way this guy lived in his past,
this is just Hinduism. Throw that one out. Another one was, that somewhere in the womb, the
baby had a thought, as his thoughts are developing, or maybe through
a temper tantrum, right? In the womb. We know that they
kick, right, ladies? And, you know, it’s no doubt.
I had a buddy who had a child, and he so accurately said it,
what a beautiful bundle of sin, right? We know, we’re all born,
that’s where sin, when we are conceived in the womb, that’s
where sin begins. That’s the effect of sin. We
know that they’re sinners. And to think that He might have
sinned in the womb? It’s certainly possible, theoretically. But Jesus’ point is that to take
it to that extreme is nobody’s business but God’s. What about
his parents? All right, let’s quickly move
on from that one, the disciples say. What about his parents?
Maybe his parents sinned so grievously in their previous lives, before
the child was born, before the child was conceived, that this
is punishment to them as well. Exodus chapter 20 is really where
this Jewish thinking, very popular Jewish thinking came. Exodus
20 verse 5, you shall not worship them or serve them for I the
Lord your God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the
fathers on the children on the third and fourth generations
of those who hate me. And that thing is repeated throughout
the Old Testament, isn’t it? That truth, that solemn warning
Exodus 34, 7, Numbers 14, Deuteronomy 5, Psalm 79. Over and over again,
it’s urged. And we know that to be true.
We know that parental sin can have physical effects, not to
mention spiritual, on the children. We hear all the time, lamentably,
of crack babies, right? Where the mother or the father
is using Fetal alcohol syndrome, we know that those things are
true. And in that sense, the question is as old as human maladies. But as one said, the fallacy,
the fallacy of supposing that special afflictions are the result
of some special sins. And that we can develop a formula
in determining that and saying definitively that this is what
caused this malady. It commends itself to a low and
common spirit by its simplicity. You know what he says? That’s
really puny thinking. And here’s why. He says it has
the advantage of rendering it needless to weep with them that
weep. This is your fault. What am I
doing crying for you? saves a man from the obligation
of thanking God for mercy. Remember our dear brother, the
venerable John Brown? Remember they were walking a
prisoner through that Puritan town square. They were walking
a prisoner and everybody’s catcalling him, throwing rotten tomatoes
and everything else at him. And somebody just notices that
the town pastor, John Brown, wasn’t joining in. Not in the
catcalls, not in throwing the tomatoes. And when they asked
him, Pastor, what is your problem? He said, There but by the grace
of God go I. You know, if you can pin someone’s
malady on their sin or someone else’s sin, you don’t have to make that statement.
You don’t have to thank God for mercy. He goes on to conclude, it gives
the natural man the comfortable feeling that he’s so much better
off than the sufferer because he’s so much more fortunate.
In other words, it breeds smugness. It breeds arrogance. It breeds
pride. We don’t know. We don’t know
the cause of a great many of the consequences that come. We
don’t know even that they are consequences in the great measure
of times. Look if you would at verse three. And I love the simplicity of
John’s writing. Jesus answered. Jesus says, hold
on just a minute. You men of all people need to
be educated. You men of all people need to
stop this in its tracks. Jesus answered, it was neither
this man’s sin nor his parents. Now what? You almost get this image that
they all just start, you know, buzzing around, you know, not
knowing what quite to do with themselves. Oh, a theological
conundrum. We don’t know what to do. was neither this man’s sin nor
his parents, but it was so that the works of God might be displayed
in him.” Jesus doesn’t deny here that suffering and sin has its
effects in this world. He wasn’t saying that these people
didn’t sin. He wasn’t saying that the The
blind man before him had never sinned. He wasn’t saying that
his parents were sinless. Only that the cause couldn’t
be traced back to any particular sin. No, instead, this man’s
blindness was foreordained by God himself. That’s essentially
what he says. Isn’t that powerful? God planned
this. God planned This is just, it
almost begins to blow your mind, doesn’t it? God planned that
these two parents would meet. And we don’t know how many other
children they had, but we know that they had this one. And God
planned that they would, that this young child would be a boy. And God planned that this young
boy would, in the womb, be blind. And that he would live however
many years he lived. We’re not told. However many
years he lived, it was all part of God’s plan for this moment. It’s incredible. And he warns his disciples here,
this is all part of God’s plan. And that to assume, like Job’s
friends, to behave like that, to draw this connection and make
this tie in to his sin or to his parents’ sin was, it’s not
only bad theology, it’s just not fair. It’s not right. And
what Jesus essentially says here is that everything, Everything,
not just this particular situation, everything is to God’s glory,
right? Everything. As one said, all things, even
afflictions and calamities, have as their ultimate purpose the
glorification of God in Christ by means of the manifestation
of His greatness. Either by, as we’ve seen even
in recent days, by causing unbelievers to look up and seek Him. That’s
part of the cause. Or by burning off the dross of
believers. By allowing difficulty to come
into our life, purposed difficulty, God-ordained difficulty, trials,
suffering, that God would burn off the dross. Jesus says it’s neither. There’s
a God-ordained purpose here. I love the way one said it. There’s
a large sphere of divine action within which moral distinctions
among men are overlooked, that good may come to bad men and
evil to good men. We love a formula. We’d love
a formula if we could find one. That’s the conundrum, as I said,
of Psalm 73, the rain falls on the just and the unjust. Difficulty comes even to believers. Jesus answered them, it was neither
this man sinned nor his parents, but it was so that the works
of God might be displayed in him. This difficulty, this misfortune,
this blindness, was an opportunity for Jesus Christ to work. And not just to cure blindness,
as we’ll see. God permitted this blindness.
God ordered it. God drew it up from the very
start that this man was to be born blind and to live a good
portion of his life blind. One Puritan said it this way,
An instructive principle lies in these words. God has thought
it fit to allow evil to exist in order that he may have a platform
for showing his mercy, graces, and compassion. How would we
even know what God is like without some of those same kinds of difficulties
in our own life? If man had never fallen, there
would never have been an opportunity for showing divine mercy. But
by permitting evil, mysterious as it seems, God’s works of grace,
mercy, and wisdom in saving sinners have been wonderfully manifested
to his creatures. Without the fall, we should never
have known about the cross and the gospel. Isn’t that a poignant
thought? Look if you would at verse 4.
Jesus just says, we must work the works of Him who sent Me
as long as it is day. Night is coming when no one can
work. And you can just tell that the tension is building. They
know that now Jesus is going to do something. He’s likely
going to heal this man. He has instructed them. Now He
can get down to the real work. And He says the day, the time
for working, the day is short. Jesus had already told them that
His time on the earth was short, brief, fleeting. Night is coming,
and night is when no work can be done, essentially is what
He’s telling them. Day and night, taken in just
their most basic terms. You don’t go out and harvest
your garden at night, right? Jesus, even in saying this, He
says, we. And I believe by that we, He
meant not only the disciples, but us. Night’s coming for us
too, right? In other words, he says, we need
to get busy. As long as we have life, as long
as it’s day, as long as there’s opportunity, we need to be laboring
for the kingdom. That’s what Jesus says. He doesn’t
get into a theological debate. He just says, let’s get busy.
Let’s set this Debate aside, and let’s attend to this man’s
need. While I’m in the world, I am
the light of the world. In other words, I have an opportunity
here to bring light where there is none, ever. The light, that’s
what Jesus came to bring, wasn’t it? Jesus came not only as light,
but to bring light, true light, illuminating light. Light into
darkened hearts and souls One pastor called it a general,
broad assertion of our Lord’s purpose in coming into the earth.
Jesus says, I came to be light. Now watch. Look at verse 6. When he had said this, he spat
on the ground and made clay of the spittle and applied clay
to his… Aren’t you glad there are doctors
now? I mean, to our ears, this is a strange scene. Much more
common. In that day when he had said
this, he spat on the ground, made clay of the spittle, applied
clay to his eyes, said to them, go wash in the pool of Siloam,
which is translated scent. So he went away and washed and
came back seeing. There have been articles written
on the curative powers of saliva, pass, right? I’ll take, you know, penicillin
or whatever it is. In many countries, it’s accepted,
even extolled as a remedy. I think that’s the very purpose
of this story. There’s no curative powers in the spittle. In making
clay, rubbing it on his eyes, Jesus used that as kind of an
image to the man. It was mud. And he rubbed it
on his eyes, eyes that had never been able to open and see anything
anyway. We know that Jewish tradition
forbade this activity, and it will come. It will come to a
head here in a moment. Jesus had used this routine,
this clay, on several different occasions in healing different
maladies. But here, it served a very practical
purpose. You see, once Jesus rubbed clay
in his eyes, there’s only one thing the guy can do, right?
You need to go wash your eyes. And that’s what he tells him. All this man had was the sense
of touch, the sense of hearing. That was his contact with the
outside world. What else could he do but obey
Jesus’ rather challenging command? It wasn’t really nearby. It was
a significant walk. It was noted by one commentator
that Jesus never healed without testing the individual’s faith. I didn’t have the time, nor did
I take the time to go through and look at every healing of
Jesus to see. But it is, I would say, at least a frequent occurrence
that when Jesus heals someone, just like He healed the man at
the pool, get up, pick up your pallet, and walk. That was a
test of faith. He had to do that which He’d
never done before, and that was take His legs and stand up and
walk. And here in like manner, he tells
this poor blind man, I want you to go take a walk. I want you
to go down the street, around the corner, down to the pool
of Siloam, and I want you to wash. Okay, that’s how most of us,
right? Or in the modern teenage vernacular,
whatever, right? But he does it. He went, and
he went to this pool, And he washed. And it says he came back seeing. What an incredible understatement
that is. He went away and washed and came
back seeing. We almost read over it, don’t
we? In the course of this narrative, we know that it’s all about healing
the man born blind. We know John chapter nine. And
we almost read right past it, but I want you to pause One commentator said, has any
poet attempted to describe this man’s emotions on first seeing
the world in which he had lived so long? I thought, you know,
that’s a good question. And I thought immediately of
Amazing Grace. I was blind, but now I see. That’s poetry in a
very short version of John chapter nine. I did find one poem, The
Fountain of Siloam. Beneath Moriah’s rocky side,
a gentle fountain springs. Silent and soft, its waters glide
like peace the spirit brings. The thirsty Arab stoops to drink
the cool, quiet wave, and the thirsty spirit stoops to think
of him he came to save. Siloam is the fountain’s name.
It means one sent from God, and thus the Holy Savior’s fame is
gently spread abroad. Oh, grant that I, like this sweet
well, may Jesus’ image bear and spend my life, my all to tell
how full His mercies are. Well, somebody at least tried.
I like the Scripture’s version much better. Because that’s the power of it.
It’s the understatement. He went away and washed and came back seeing. Just amazing. You think of it as he was washing
with water that he had seen and water that he had felt with the
touch his entire life. And as he’s washing his eyes,
he begins to see that clear liquid for the first time in the pool
of Siloam. Perhaps he looked up and he saw
for the very first time the blueness of the sky and the clouds ambling
along in it. Perhaps that afternoon he saw
his first ever sunset. He saw birds and creatures. He looked down and saw his hands
and his feet for the very first time. He saw light and eventually
that afternoon he would see darkness as evening set. He’d never before
seen the moon and the stars. He saw for the very first time
his own family and friends. As he walked up
the street, he saw that temple gate where he had sat and begged
for so long, for his entire life. Then he saw the temple. He saw
the merchants. He saw food for the first time
and flowers. and plants, and he saw needs. He saw people with needs. But soon, soon his eyes are going to behold
something that he’s never seen. He’s heard his voice, but he’s
never seen Christ. He’s never beheld Christ. with
physical eyes and certainly not with the eyes of faith, but he’s
about to. He’s about to. Let’s rejoice in the sight that
we have. Our merciful God, we humble ourselves
in your glorious presence. Lord, not a one of us, has been born without sight. Not a one of us has fully lost
our sight in this life. And so in that sense, we can’t
even relate to this man. But Father God, we rejoice. We
rejoice in the eyes that you’ve given us. We rejoice in the ability
to look around and see people that we love, to see opportunities
in which to serve you, to enjoy your creation. But more than anything, Father,
we thank You for what this story has yet to introduce this young
man to, and that is the eyes of faith. We thank You that You’ve
opened our blind eyes. You opened our eyes first and
foremost to our need of Christ, to our utter sinfulness. And You opened our eyes to show
to us our Savior who was standing there having already paid for
our sin. O merciful God, we humbly thank
You for the salvation that we possess because of what Jesus
Christ accomplished and offered to us. Lord God, if there are
any who do not know Christ, who have not seen Christ with their
own spiritual eyes. Lord, do a work in their heart.
Draw them like You’ve drawn us for Your glory. It’s in Jesus’
name that we pray. Amen.