I Was Blind, but Now I See!
Our scripture passage today tells the story of Jesus healing a man who had been born blind. It’s an amazing miracle that Jesus performs, and a wonderful testimony of Jesus’ power. In this story, there are at least two other kinds of blindness. There is the almost comical, yet tragic, blindness of the community towards this blind man. If you listen carefully, you will see that the people who lived with this blind man had so thoroughly categorized this person as “the blind man” that they apparently had no idea what he looked like. They saw him with their eyes, but not with their hearts. They were blind! Second, there is the tragic blindness of the religious leaders, who even though a miracle was performed by the Son of God right there in their neighborhood, could not see it. Their hearts were cold, and they, too, were blind. There are some lessons for us in this story. First, we are reminded once again that Jesus is the Son of God who stands willing to heal us. Second, we learn some things about how Jesus views handicapped people and how we need to see them. Third is the startling realization that Jesus can do nothing to heal our spiritual blindness unless we allow him to do so. Listen as I read this powerful story from John 9. 1As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"
3"Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. 4As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5While I am in the world, I am the light of the world."
6Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man's eyes. 7"Go," he told him, "wash in the Pool of Siloam" (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
8His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, "Isn't this the same man who used to sit and beg?" 9Some claimed that he was.
Others said, "No, he only looks like him."
But he himself insisted, "I am the man."
10"How then were your eyes opened?" they demanded.
11He replied, "The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see."
12"Where is this man?" they asked him.
"I don't know," he said.
13They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. 14Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man's eyes was a Sabbath. 15Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. "He put mud on my eyes," the man replied, "and I washed, and now I see."
16Some of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath."
But others asked, "How can a sinner do such miraculous signs?" So they were divided.
17Finally they turned again to the blind man, "What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened."
The man replied, "He is a prophet."
18The Jews still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man's parents. 19"Is this your son?" they asked. "Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?"
20"We know he is our son," the parents answered, "and we know he was born blind. 21But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don't know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself." 22His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews, for already the Jews had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Christ would be put out of the synagogue. 23That was why his parents said, "He is of age; ask him."
24A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. "Give glory to God," they said. "We know this man is a sinner."
25He replied, "Whether he is a sinner or not, I don't know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!"
26Then they asked him, "What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?"
27He answered, "I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?"
28Then they hurled insults at him and said, "You are this fellow's disciple! We are disciples of Moses! 29We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don't even know where he comes from."
30The man answered, "Now that is remarkable! You don't know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. 31We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does his will. 32Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. 33If this man were not from God, he could do nothing."
34To this they replied, "You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!" And they threw him out.
35Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?"
36"Who is he, sir?" the man asked. "Tell me so that I may believe in him."
37Jesus said, "You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you."
38Then the man said, "Lord, I believe," and he worshiped him.
39Jesus said, "For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind."
40Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, "What? Are we blind too?"
41Jesus said, "If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.”
It’s a good story, isn’t it? Apparently in the beginning, Jesus is struck by the sight of the blind man. His disciples take this opportunity to ask Jesus, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" It’s a reasonable question. The buzz word today for this is karma. What goes around comes around. If you do bad things, sooner or later bad things will happen to you or to your family. Bad karma or good karma. Remember Julie Andrews singing in The Sound of Music, “Nothing comes from nothing; nothing ever could, so somewhere in my youth or childhood, I must have done something good.”
Jesus says no. "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” Then Jesus proceeds to heal this blind man.
Then Jesus faces the more difficult cases of blindness—blindness that doesn’t want to be healed. First, there is the almost comical, yet tragic, blindness of the community towards this blind man. This man is now a young adult, and he has been blind for his entire life. Virtually everyone in the community has seen him sitting there begging day in and day out for years. Yet these people who lived in the same community with him had so thoroughly categorized this child of God as “the blind man” that when he received his sight, they didn’t recognize him.
Second, there is the tragic blindness of the religious leaders, who even though a miracle was performed by the Son of God right there in their neighborhood, could not see it. Jesus, the Son of God has come to their neighborhood and healed someone, and all they can do is deny it and condemn him and anyone who dares to believe in him. This is spiritual blindness, and as long as they refuse to be healed, even Jesus cannot heal their blindness.
What does this mean for us? First, we are reminded once again that Jesus is the Son of God who stands willing to heal us. Even today, we go to God in prayer when we are sick. Even today, we believe that Jesus has the power to heal our bodies. Within that truth, we recognize that our bodies are finite, and God alone knows how many days we will live on earth. So we pray for healing, knowing that God will sometimes intervene in the natural order of things and bring physical healing, and other times he will allow us to suffer, and eventually we will all die.
Even when Jesus walked the earth, there were certainly other blind people who were not healed. We don’t know why God chooses to heal some and not others, but the beginning of this story had a little clue. When Jesus’ disciples asked him if this man’s blindness was caused by his sin or by his parents’ sin, Jesus said “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” So we can take this to mean that if God wants to show his power by healing us, he will do it. It is God’s wisdom that determines his action in the world.
Second, we see in this passage some things about how Jesus views handicapped people and how we also need to see them. Jesus looked at this blind man, had compassion on him, and decided to heal him. We may not be able to heal people, but we can certainly look on them with compassion.
Compassion starts with seeing each person as human—that is, made in the image of God. It is true that life is often terribly cruel to people and after the various types of battering they experience, they are sometimes not very pleasant. In his novel, War and Peace, Tolstoy writes this line: “To understand all is to forgive all.” When we see someone who is handicapped in any way, it is good for us to remember that this, too, is one of God’s children.
We would not want to be like those neighbors of the blind man who had never even looked at him long enough to see anything beyond his handicap—his blindness. To them, he was just “the blind man.”
How often we do the same thing—we label people by their handicaps, and then we dismiss them. Think long and hard before you put a label on someone. Imagine, for just a moment, that life were to deal you the cruelty of your having both legs amputated, and somehow you were estranged from all family and friends and left to beg on a street corner. You would no longer be Sam or Henry—you would simply be “the beggar on the corner who has no legs.” Do you see how this robs you of your humanity? Your identity is not who you are, but what your handicap is. How tragic. Regardless of the fact that this is our natural inclination, we need to try very hard not to treat other people this way.
The third thing this passage says to us is that Jesus can do nothing to heal our spiritual blindness unless we allow him to do so. If we, like the religious leaders of Jesus’ day, refuse to acknowledge him as Lord and Savior, Jesus cannot heal our blindness.
Let me read those last few verses again, beginning with the response of the man who had been blind.
38Then the man said, "Lord, I believe," and he worshiped him.
39Jesus said, "For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind."
40Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, "What? Are we blind too?"
41Jesus said, "If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.”
Jesus was the master of silencing his enemies by saying something that left them scratching their heads, mouths probably hanging open.
Jesus wants them to understand that even though physical blindness is tragic, the worst sort of blindness is blindness to the truth. When we turn our backs on Jesus and refuse to believe, we bring tragedy upon ourselves, and we consign ourselves to being blind to Jesus, the light of the world.
Prayer:
Open the eyes of our hearts, Lord, we want to see you. You are the Light of the World. And seeing you, may we also be able to see others with the love and compassion of the eyes of Jesus. Amen
In this story, there are at least two other kinds of blindness. There is the almost comical, yet tragic, blindness of the community towards this blind man. If you listen carefully, you will see that the people who lived with this blind man had so thoroughly categorized this person as “the blind man” that they apparently had no idea what he looked like. They saw him with their eyes, but not with their hearts. They were blind! Second, there is the tragic blindness of the religious leaders, who even though a miracle was performed by the Son of God right there in their neighborhood, could not see it. Their hearts were cold, and they, too, were blind. There are some lessons for us in this story. First, we are reminded once again that Jesus is the Son of God who stands willing to heal us. Second, we learn some things about how Jesus views handicapped people and how we need to see them. Third is the startling realization that Jesus can do nothing to heal our spiritual blindness unless we allow him to do so. Listen as I read this powerful story from John 9. 1As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"
3"Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. 4As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5While I am in the world, I am the light of the world."
6Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man's eyes. 7"Go," he told him, "wash in the Pool of Siloam" (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
8His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, "Isn't this the same man who used to sit and beg?" 9Some claimed that he was.
Others said, "No, he only looks like him."
But he himself insisted, "I am the man."
10"How then were your eyes opened?" they demanded.
11He replied, "The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see."
12"Where is this man?" they asked him.
"I don't know," he said.
13They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. 14Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man's eyes was a Sabbath. 15Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. "He put mud on my eyes," the man replied, "and I washed, and now I see."
16Some of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath."
But others asked, "How can a sinner do such miraculous signs?" So they were divided.
17Finally they turned again to the blind man, "What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened."
The man replied, "He is a prophet."
18The Jews still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man's parents. 19"Is this your son?" they asked. "Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?"
20"We know he is our son," the parents answered, "and we know he was born blind. 21But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don't know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself." 22His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews, for already the Jews had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Christ would be put out of the synagogue. 23That was why his parents said, "He is of age; ask him."
24A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. "Give glory to God," they said. "We know this man is a sinner."
25He replied, "Whether he is a sinner or not, I don't know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!"
26Then they asked him, "What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?"
27He answered, "I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?"
28Then they hurled insults at him and said, "You are this fellow's disciple! We are disciples of Moses! 29We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don't even know where he comes from."
30The man answered, "Now that is remarkable! You don't know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. 31We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does his will. 32Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. 33If this man were not from God, he could do nothing."
34To this they replied, "You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!" And they threw him out.
35Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?"
36"Who is he, sir?" the man asked. "Tell me so that I may believe in him."
37Jesus said, "You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you."
38Then the man said, "Lord, I believe," and he worshiped him.
39Jesus said, "For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind."
40Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, "What? Are we blind too?"
41Jesus said, "If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.”
It’s a good story, isn’t it? Apparently in the beginning, Jesus is struck by the sight of the blind man. His disciples take this opportunity to ask Jesus, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" It’s a reasonable question. The buzz word today for this is karma. What goes around comes around. If you do bad things, sooner or later bad things will happen to you or to your family. Bad karma or good karma. Remember Julie Andrews singing in The Sound of Music, “Nothing comes from nothing; nothing ever could, so somewhere in my youth or childhood, I must have done something good.”
Jesus says no. "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” Then Jesus proceeds to heal this blind man.
Then Jesus faces the more difficult cases of blindness—blindness that doesn’t want to be healed. First, there is the almost comical, yet tragic, blindness of the community towards this blind man. This man is now a young adult, and he has been blind for his entire life. Virtually everyone in the community has seen him sitting there begging day in and day out for years. Yet these people who lived in the same community with him had so thoroughly categorized this child of God as “the blind man” that when he received his sight, they didn’t recognize him.
Second, there is the tragic blindness of the religious leaders, who even though a miracle was performed by the Son of God right there in their neighborhood, could not see it. Jesus, the Son of God has come to their neighborhood and healed someone, and all they can do is deny it and condemn him and anyone who dares to believe in him. This is spiritual blindness, and as long as they refuse to be healed, even Jesus cannot heal their blindness.
What does this mean for us? First, we are reminded once again that Jesus is the Son of God who stands willing to heal us. Even today, we go to God in prayer when we are sick. Even today, we believe that Jesus has the power to heal our bodies. Within that truth, we recognize that our bodies are finite, and God alone knows how many days we will live on earth. So we pray for healing, knowing that God will sometimes intervene in the natural order of things and bring physical healing, and other times he will allow us to suffer, and eventually we will all die.
Even when Jesus walked the earth, there were certainly other blind people who were not healed. We don’t know why God chooses to heal some and not others, but the beginning of this story had a little clue. When Jesus’ disciples asked him if this man’s blindness was caused by his sin or by his parents’ sin, Jesus said “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” So we can take this to mean that if God wants to show his power by healing us, he will do it. It is God’s wisdom that determines his action in the world.
Second, we see in this passage some things about how Jesus views handicapped people and how we also need to see them. Jesus looked at this blind man, had compassion on him, and decided to heal him. We may not be able to heal people, but we can certainly look on them with compassion.
Compassion starts with seeing each person as human—that is, made in the image of God. It is true that life is often terribly cruel to people and after the various types of battering they experience, they are sometimes not very pleasant. In his novel, War and Peace, Tolstoy writes this line: “To understand all is to forgive all.” When we see someone who is handicapped in any way, it is good for us to remember that this, too, is one of God’s children.
We would not want to be like those neighbors of the blind man who had never even looked at him long enough to see anything beyond his handicap—his blindness. To them, he was just “the blind man.”
How often we do the same thing—we label people by their handicaps, and then we dismiss them. Think long and hard before you put a label on someone. Imagine, for just a moment, that life were to deal you the cruelty of your having both legs amputated, and somehow you were estranged from all family and friends and left to beg on a street corner. You would no longer be Sam or Henry—you would simply be “the beggar on the corner who has no legs.” Do you see how this robs you of your humanity? Your identity is not who you are, but what your handicap is. How tragic. Regardless of the fact that this is our natural inclination, we need to try very hard not to treat other people this way.
The third thing this passage says to us is that Jesus can do nothing to heal our spiritual blindness unless we allow him to do so. If we, like the religious leaders of Jesus’ day, refuse to acknowledge him as Lord and Savior, Jesus cannot heal our blindness.
Let me read those last few verses again, beginning with the response of the man who had been blind.
38Then the man said, "Lord, I believe," and he worshiped him.
39Jesus said, "For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind."
40Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, "What? Are we blind too?"
41Jesus said, "If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.”
Jesus was the master of silencing his enemies by saying something that left them scratching their heads, mouths probably hanging open.
Jesus wants them to understand that even though physical blindness is tragic, the worst sort of blindness is blindness to the truth. When we turn our backs on Jesus and refuse to believe, we bring tragedy upon ourselves, and we consign ourselves to being blind to Jesus, the light of the world.
Prayer:
Open the eyes of our hearts, Lord, we want to see you. You are the Light of the World. And seeing you, may we also be able to see others with the love and compassion of the eyes of Jesus. Amen
There are some lessons for us in this story. First, we are reminded once again that Jesus is the Son of God who stands willing to heal us. Second, we learn some things about how Jesus views handicapped people and how we need to see them. Third is the startling realization that Jesus can do nothing to heal our spiritual blindness unless we allow him to do so. Listen as I read this powerful story from John 9. 1As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"
3"Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. 4As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5While I am in the world, I am the light of the world."
6Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man's eyes. 7"Go," he told him, "wash in the Pool of Siloam" (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
8His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, "Isn't this the same man who used to sit and beg?" 9Some claimed that he was.
Others said, "No, he only looks like him."
But he himself insisted, "I am the man."
10"How then were your eyes opened?" they demanded.
11He replied, "The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see."
12"Where is this man?" they asked him.
"I don't know," he said.
13They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. 14Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man's eyes was a Sabbath. 15Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. "He put mud on my eyes," the man replied, "and I washed, and now I see."
16Some of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath."
But others asked, "How can a sinner do such miraculous signs?" So they were divided.
17Finally they turned again to the blind man, "What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened."
The man replied, "He is a prophet."
18The Jews still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man's parents. 19"Is this your son?" they asked. "Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?"
20"We know he is our son," the parents answered, "and we know he was born blind. 21But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don't know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself." 22His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews, for already the Jews had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Christ would be put out of the synagogue. 23That was why his parents said, "He is of age; ask him."
24A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. "Give glory to God," they said. "We know this man is a sinner."
25He replied, "Whether he is a sinner or not, I don't know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!"
26Then they asked him, "What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?"
27He answered, "I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?"
28Then they hurled insults at him and said, "You are this fellow's disciple! We are disciples of Moses! 29We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don't even know where he comes from."
30The man answered, "Now that is remarkable! You don't know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. 31We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does his will. 32Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. 33If this man were not from God, he could do nothing."
34To this they replied, "You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!" And they threw him out.
35Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?"
36"Who is he, sir?" the man asked. "Tell me so that I may believe in him."
37Jesus said, "You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you."
38Then the man said, "Lord, I believe," and he worshiped him.
39Jesus said, "For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind."
40Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, "What? Are we blind too?"
41Jesus said, "If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.”
It’s a good story, isn’t it? Apparently in the beginning, Jesus is struck by the sight of the blind man. His disciples take this opportunity to ask Jesus, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" It’s a reasonable question. The buzz word today for this is karma. What goes around comes around. If you do bad things, sooner or later bad things will happen to you or to your family. Bad karma or good karma. Remember Julie Andrews singing in The Sound of Music, “Nothing comes from nothing; nothing ever could, so somewhere in my youth or childhood, I must have done something good.”
Jesus says no. "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” Then Jesus proceeds to heal this blind man.
Then Jesus faces the more difficult cases of blindness—blindness that doesn’t want to be healed. First, there is the almost comical, yet tragic, blindness of the community towards this blind man. This man is now a young adult, and he has been blind for his entire life. Virtually everyone in the community has seen him sitting there begging day in and day out for years. Yet these people who lived in the same community with him had so thoroughly categorized this child of God as “the blind man” that when he received his sight, they didn’t recognize him.
Second, there is the tragic blindness of the religious leaders, who even though a miracle was performed by the Son of God right there in their neighborhood, could not see it. Jesus, the Son of God has come to their neighborhood and healed someone, and all they can do is deny it and condemn him and anyone who dares to believe in him. This is spiritual blindness, and as long as they refuse to be healed, even Jesus cannot heal their blindness.
What does this mean for us? First, we are reminded once again that Jesus is the Son of God who stands willing to heal us. Even today, we go to God in prayer when we are sick. Even today, we believe that Jesus has the power to heal our bodies. Within that truth, we recognize that our bodies are finite, and God alone knows how many days we will live on earth. So we pray for healing, knowing that God will sometimes intervene in the natural order of things and bring physical healing, and other times he will allow us to suffer, and eventually we will all die.
Even when Jesus walked the earth, there were certainly other blind people who were not healed. We don’t know why God chooses to heal some and not others, but the beginning of this story had a little clue. When Jesus’ disciples asked him if this man’s blindness was caused by his sin or by his parents’ sin, Jesus said “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” So we can take this to mean that if God wants to show his power by healing us, he will do it. It is God’s wisdom that determines his action in the world.
Second, we see in this passage some things about how Jesus views handicapped people and how we also need to see them. Jesus looked at this blind man, had compassion on him, and decided to heal him. We may not be able to heal people, but we can certainly look on them with compassion.
Compassion starts with seeing each person as human—that is, made in the image of God. It is true that life is often terribly cruel to people and after the various types of battering they experience, they are sometimes not very pleasant. In his novel, War and Peace, Tolstoy writes this line: “To understand all is to forgive all.” When we see someone who is handicapped in any way, it is good for us to remember that this, too, is one of God’s children.
We would not want to be like those neighbors of the blind man who had never even looked at him long enough to see anything beyond his handicap—his blindness. To them, he was just “the blind man.”
How often we do the same thing—we label people by their handicaps, and then we dismiss them. Think long and hard before you put a label on someone. Imagine, for just a moment, that life were to deal you the cruelty of your having both legs amputated, and somehow you were estranged from all family and friends and left to beg on a street corner. You would no longer be Sam or Henry—you would simply be “the beggar on the corner who has no legs.” Do you see how this robs you of your humanity? Your identity is not who you are, but what your handicap is. How tragic. Regardless of the fact that this is our natural inclination, we need to try very hard not to treat other people this way.
The third thing this passage says to us is that Jesus can do nothing to heal our spiritual blindness unless we allow him to do so. If we, like the religious leaders of Jesus’ day, refuse to acknowledge him as Lord and Savior, Jesus cannot heal our blindness.
Let me read those last few verses again, beginning with the response of the man who had been blind.
38Then the man said, "Lord, I believe," and he worshiped him.
39Jesus said, "For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind."
40Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, "What? Are we blind too?"
41Jesus said, "If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.”
Jesus was the master of silencing his enemies by saying something that left them scratching their heads, mouths probably hanging open.
Jesus wants them to understand that even though physical blindness is tragic, the worst sort of blindness is blindness to the truth. When we turn our backs on Jesus and refuse to believe, we bring tragedy upon ourselves, and we consign ourselves to being blind to Jesus, the light of the world.
Prayer:
Open the eyes of our hearts, Lord, we want to see you. You are the Light of the World. And seeing you, may we also be able to see others with the love and compassion of the eyes of Jesus. Amen
1As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"
3"Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. 4As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5While I am in the world, I am the light of the world."
6Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man's eyes. 7"Go," he told him, "wash in the Pool of Siloam" (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
8His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, "Isn't this the same man who used to sit and beg?" 9Some claimed that he was.
Others said, "No, he only looks like him."
But he himself insisted, "I am the man."
10"How then were your eyes opened?" they demanded.
11He replied, "The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see."
12"Where is this man?" they asked him.
"I don't know," he said.
13They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. 14Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man's eyes was a Sabbath. 15Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. "He put mud on my eyes," the man replied, "and I washed, and now I see."
16Some of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath."
But others asked, "How can a sinner do such miraculous signs?" So they were divided.
17Finally they turned again to the blind man, "What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened."
The man replied, "He is a prophet."
18The Jews still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man's parents. 19"Is this your son?" they asked. "Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?"
20"We know he is our son," the parents answered, "and we know he was born blind. 21But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don't know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself." 22His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews, for already the Jews had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Christ would be put out of the synagogue. 23That was why his parents said, "He is of age; ask him."
24A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. "Give glory to God," they said. "We know this man is a sinner."
25He replied, "Whether he is a sinner or not, I don't know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!"
26Then they asked him, "What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?"
27He answered, "I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?"
28Then they hurled insults at him and said, "You are this fellow's disciple! We are disciples of Moses! 29We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don't even know where he comes from."
30The man answered, "Now that is remarkable! You don't know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. 31We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does his will. 32Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. 33If this man were not from God, he could do nothing."
34To this they replied, "You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!" And they threw him out.
35Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?"
36"Who is he, sir?" the man asked. "Tell me so that I may believe in him."
37Jesus said, "You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you."
38Then the man said, "Lord, I believe," and he worshiped him.
39Jesus said, "For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind."
40Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, "What? Are we blind too?"
41Jesus said, "If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.”
It’s a good story, isn’t it? Apparently in the beginning, Jesus is struck by the sight of the blind man. His disciples take this opportunity to ask Jesus, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" It’s a reasonable question. The buzz word today for this is karma. What goes around comes around. If you do bad things, sooner or later bad things will happen to you or to your family. Bad karma or good karma. Remember Julie Andrews singing in The Sound of Music, “Nothing comes from nothing; nothing ever could, so somewhere in my youth or childhood, I must have done something good.”
Jesus says no. "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” Then Jesus proceeds to heal this blind man.
Then Jesus faces the more difficult cases of blindness—blindness that doesn’t want to be healed. First, there is the almost comical, yet tragic, blindness of the community towards this blind man. This man is now a young adult, and he has been blind for his entire life. Virtually everyone in the community has seen him sitting there begging day in and day out for years. Yet these people who lived in the same community with him had so thoroughly categorized this child of God as “the blind man” that when he received his sight, they didn’t recognize him.
Second, there is the tragic blindness of the religious leaders, who even though a miracle was performed by the Son of God right there in their neighborhood, could not see it. Jesus, the Son of God has come to their neighborhood and healed someone, and all they can do is deny it and condemn him and anyone who dares to believe in him. This is spiritual blindness, and as long as they refuse to be healed, even Jesus cannot heal their blindness.
What does this mean for us? First, we are reminded once again that Jesus is the Son of God who stands willing to heal us. Even today, we go to God in prayer when we are sick. Even today, we believe that Jesus has the power to heal our bodies. Within that truth, we recognize that our bodies are finite, and God alone knows how many days we will live on earth. So we pray for healing, knowing that God will sometimes intervene in the natural order of things and bring physical healing, and other times he will allow us to suffer, and eventually we will all die.
Even when Jesus walked the earth, there were certainly other blind people who were not healed. We don’t know why God chooses to heal some and not others, but the beginning of this story had a little clue. When Jesus’ disciples asked him if this man’s blindness was caused by his sin or by his parents’ sin, Jesus said “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” So we can take this to mean that if God wants to show his power by healing us, he will do it. It is God’s wisdom that determines his action in the world.
Second, we see in this passage some things about how Jesus views handicapped people and how we also need to see them. Jesus looked at this blind man, had compassion on him, and decided to heal him. We may not be able to heal people, but we can certainly look on them with compassion.
Compassion starts with seeing each person as human—that is, made in the image of God. It is true that life is often terribly cruel to people and after the various types of battering they experience, they are sometimes not very pleasant. In his novel, War and Peace, Tolstoy writes this line: “To understand all is to forgive all.” When we see someone who is handicapped in any way, it is good for us to remember that this, too, is one of God’s children.
We would not want to be like those neighbors of the blind man who had never even looked at him long enough to see anything beyond his handicap—his blindness. To them, he was just “the blind man.”
How often we do the same thing—we label people by their handicaps, and then we dismiss them. Think long and hard before you put a label on someone. Imagine, for just a moment, that life were to deal you the cruelty of your having both legs amputated, and somehow you were estranged from all family and friends and left to beg on a street corner. You would no longer be Sam or Henry—you would simply be “the beggar on the corner who has no legs.” Do you see how this robs you of your humanity? Your identity is not who you are, but what your handicap is. How tragic. Regardless of the fact that this is our natural inclination, we need to try very hard not to treat other people this way.
The third thing this passage says to us is that Jesus can do nothing to heal our spiritual blindness unless we allow him to do so. If we, like the religious leaders of Jesus’ day, refuse to acknowledge him as Lord and Savior, Jesus cannot heal our blindness.
Let me read those last few verses again, beginning with the response of the man who had been blind.
38Then the man said, "Lord, I believe," and he worshiped him.
39Jesus said, "For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind."
40Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, "What? Are we blind too?"
41Jesus said, "If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.”
Jesus was the master of silencing his enemies by saying something that left them scratching their heads, mouths probably hanging open.
Jesus wants them to understand that even though physical blindness is tragic, the worst sort of blindness is blindness to the truth. When we turn our backs on Jesus and refuse to believe, we bring tragedy upon ourselves, and we consign ourselves to being blind to Jesus, the light of the world.
Prayer:
Open the eyes of our hearts, Lord, we want to see you. You are the Light of the World. And seeing you, may we also be able to see others with the love and compassion of the eyes of Jesus. Amen
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