John 9:1-7
Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” When He had said these things, He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva; and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. And He said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent). So he went and washed, and came back seeing. John 9:1-7 (NKJV)
John devoted the entire 9th Chapter to unpacking the story of Jesus healing this blind man and how the people reacted. Jesus was the only person in the bible that cured blindness. Being born blind was perceived as a punishment from the extreme sins of ancestors. There were several well known references in the Torah including Exodus 20:5 “punish the children for the sin of the parents to the 3rd and 4th generations”, or Deuteronomy 5:9 “I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, I punish the children, grandchildren, and the great-grandchildren for the sins of their fathers”. It was widely believed in Jesus’ time that blindness was a punishment from God and could only be cured/reversed by God Himself. This sets up our story.
Question. Have you ever known someone that was so stuck in their views that they could not see what was directly in front of them? OR, went to extremes to rationalize to support their view? Could this be said of you?
Let’s look at how people reacted to Jesus curing the man on John 9. First, the disciples. This was the 3rd time the disciples had witnessed Jesus curing a blind man. Yet, their history of the Torah had them ask “Who sinned, this man or his parents to cause his blindness?”. The fear of God’s punishment of sins carrying over into your children was stronger than their ability to understand Jesus’ being the Son of God. Sometimes their eyes were open but did not see.
Second, the People. The man was well known to be a blind beggar, and when the people now saw him with sight, they were amazed and confused. How could this happen? Wasn’t this man being punished according to the Torah. They did not understand, so they sought advice from the religious leaders (Pharisees v13).
Pharisees. It’s important to remember that their knowledge was that no one had ever cured blindness before – no person had the power to overcome God’s punishment (v32). The people were demanding an answer. Lots of pressure to come up with an explanation. Their first answer is that “this man can not be from God, because He did not keep the Sabbath” – healing was a sin on the Sabbath. Have you ever jumped to a conclusion and then needed to justify it at all cost ? Next, they challenged the blind man and his parents about whether he was truly blind or had he been faking it. They could not come up with a logical explanation. They had established Jesus had sinned so not a man of God. Additional note, during the next time Jesus cured a blind man, the Pharisees were prepared and claimed that since only God could remove this generational sin, and Jesus was in their minds a sinner, He must be an agent of Satan (Matthew 12:22-24), for only God’s enemy could go against God’s punishment. They really dug in their heels.
If you put yourself in their shoes, could you understand why the Pharisees came to this conclusion? Could you be persuaded? Do our own experiences and biases sometimes get in the way of seeing the forest for the trees?
John begins his Gospel focused on Jesus being the Light of the World.
Beginning was the Word, Word was God, Word was made flesh, In Him was life,
Life was the Light of Men, Light shines in darkness, Light overcame the darkness
Light can overcome the darkness, but darkness cannot overcome the Light John 1:1-5
If you would like to review all 7 examples of Jesus curing the blind, later on this summer Southwood will post the videos from last winter’s program Gospel Synergy on Amplify Media. The 4th session – Sight to the Blind – compares all 7 times Jesus cured the blind and provides more of “the rest of the story”.
Prayer:
Dear God. Please help me to listen first before I speak. Listening may help me to see another option to a problem or explanation that can broaden and deepen my understanding of your Word. Help me to see alternatives not as challenges, but as opportunities to grow in my faith, and building on my love of You and others. Amen
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