Black darkness is all he ever knew. From birth he had no capacity
to see. Light had never penetrated through to the man’s
perception. Blind.
Worse than that, he existed. That’s all. He simply existed.
There was no joy in begging. And begging led only to existing.
He had no understanding of why he suffered such a debilitating
condition or why he existed. He just did.
What had he done to deserve this kind of life? To him it didn’t
matter anymore. Things would be as things always were. If he
ever in his life thought about it, he came up with no answer.
How could he? He was blind.
As blind as he was though, his condition was far worse than
it seemed. For, as hard as he thought, he couldn’t see
anything beyond his simple existence. He existed. What else mattered?
When Jesus was near, he didn’t think to ask for his sight.
He never considered that he could. After all, everyone knew that
it was impossible for someone born blind to ever have sight.
His understanding was as blind as his eyes.
And he was born that way.
They were blind from their birth
He was religious, or at least his family was, but still, he
was blind and so were his parents. So were the religious leaders
for that matter. It turns out that they couldn’t see any
more than he could. The difference was that the blind man knew
he couldn’t see.
“But why,” asked the disciples, “who did sin,
that this man was born blind?” No man sinned that the man
was born blind, of course. What a strange question to ask anyway.
Everyone is born blind; hadn’t they seen that yet?
No one can understand the things of God. No one left to themselves
will ever even think to try. Sure, religion tries to convince
men that men can see if they just try hard enough, but the evidence
is before their eyes. They just can’t see it.
A blind man can’t see no matter how hard he tries. And
everyone is blind, and that from their birth. No one can see
or understand God – without God’s intervention, that
is.
Though the man was blind, he did have other senses. He could
hear. People condescendingly spoke to him all the time as he
begged and existed. He understood that he was nothing but a dependent
beggar. That, he could see. But he had no choice. Everyone blind
had no choice but to beg.
He also heard the religious leaders speak about some man named
Jesus. He understood them perfectly. They spoke of Him all the
time. To confess He was Christ meant being ejected from the synagogue.
For a blind man who simply exists and that’s all, this
was a frightening prospect. To be banned from the synagogue meant
being banned from the community. He was a beggar. He was completely
dependent on the community. How could he continue existing without
that support? Not to worry though; what point would there be
to confess anyone as Christ? He would still be blind.
After all, he was born that way.
And after he finished existing, he would die that way. There
really was no hope for those blind from their birth.
He heard the light
But, one day while begging, he heard a man named Jesus claim
to be “the light of the world.” He then felt this man
smear mud on his eyes, and say, “Go to the pool of Siloam
and wash.” Nonsense? Hard to say. This Jesus did have quite
a reputation for doing amazing things.
The blind man certainly heard about those things. But still,
he had never heard of anyone being healed who had been born blind.
What would be the reasonable thing for a blind man to do?
Something in him made him respond to Jesus’ command.
He knew he was blind. What could it hurt to investigate?
As he felt his way through the noisy streets, hastily making
his way to the pool, perhaps he began to realize that maybe it
was possible for him to see. Imagine that, a man born blind with
sight. He reached the pool in which Jesus told him to wash.
He felt the water on his face and heard the splash. Precious
light! Precious sight!
He came away seeing!
But still, he was blind.
He had been that way from his birth as all men are. Sure,
now he could see, but still, he didn’t understand. He still
didn’t see.
If there is a light in the world that can penetrate what never
before could be penetrated, that a man born blind comes away
seeing, can that light be the man Jesus?
It has never been heard that a man born spiritually blind
could come away understanding God, has it? And that simply based
on the spoken word of a man!
And can it be?
They heard the light
“How were your eyes opened,” asked the people of
the blind man, dumbfounded.
In ecstatic excitement the man answered, “I know not.
A man named Jesus put mud on my eyes, I washed where He told
me, and I received sight.” Who must this man be? Who is
this Jesus? What has happened today? I’m not blind. I see
perfectly, yet I’m still confused. This man named Jesus
opened my eyes with dust from the ground and His own saliva.
Can He be the Christ? Would the Christ care for me?
“How have you received your sight,” asked then the
religious leaders.
“He put clay upon my eyes, and I washed and do see.”
He can’t simply be a man. He must be more. No man
could do this. Why me? Why was I born blind, and more to the
point, why did this man named Jesus give me sight? Why can these
religious leaders not see what has happened and who this man
must be?
“What do you say of Him who has opened your eyes,”
probed these leaders of the blind.
“He is a prophet.”
“Give God the praise. We know this man is a sinner.”
How is this possible? Are these men blind? They say He is
a sinner because “He broke the Sabbath” and gave me
sight. Then they say, “give God the praise”? Can sin
bring glory to God? Not possible! How can they not see something
so clear as this? They call Him a sinner for doing God’s
work on God’s day? “Whether He be a sinner, I know
not: one thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see.”
“How did He give you sight?”
“I told you already and you didn’t listen. Why do
you want to hear my answer again? My answer hasn’t changed.
Perhaps you desire to become His disciple?”
Yes! That’s it! I must follow this man named Jesus. I
must become His disciple. He is a prophet, but He is more still.
He does the work of God. He gave me sight. I see and now I am
seeing. I didn’t ask Him to open my eyes, I never
knew I could. I never knew there was anything to see. But He
came to me and opened my eyes. I must follow Him; it is the only
reasonable thing for a blind man to do.
“You can follow Him. We follow Moses. We know that God
spoke to Moses. As for this man, there is no way to tell.”
Blind! They are blind indeed because their eyes are closed.
They refuse to look at the plain facts. “Why, here is a
marvelous thing, that you can’t see where this man Jesus
is from, and yet He has opened my eyes.
“Now, we know that God does not hear sinners: but if
any be a worshipper of God, and does His will, that one will
God hear. Since the world began, it was never heard that any
man opened the eyes of one that was born blind. If this man,
Jesus, were not of God, He could do nothing.”
I see the truth now. I can see clearly what they cannot. My
eyes were opened, and that opened my eyes to the truth!
These religious guides, with nothing left to say responded
in contempt, “You who were born in sins are now teaching
us?”
And they cast him out.
He saw the Light
Glorious light!
Cast out of the religious system or not. Rejected by family
or not. There is nothing more to fear! All “sorrow has been
cast out!” The blind are given sight! Jesus is the Christ!
He is the Savior! He is the Lord!
To that point in time, the blind man had yet to see Jesus.
Sure, he had heard Him. He had felt His hands on his eyes, but
he hadn’t yet seen Him.
But he had seen Him.
He responded to a small amount of spiritual light given to
him: his physical eyes were opened. That showed God’s work
in him. The light of the world had indeed opened his eyes. He
could see the truth!
As the formerly blind man understood more and more, he was
given more and more. Though he had never seen Jesus, he was gaining
an absolutely crystal clear image of Him and who He actually
was. He had indeed seen Jesus.
“Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He
had found him, He said unto him, ‘Dost thou believe on the
Son of God?’
He answered and said, ‘Who is He, Lord, that I might
believe on Him?’
And Jesus said unto him, ‘Thou hast both seen Him, and
it is He that talketh with thee.’
And he said, ‘Lord, I believe.’
And he worshipped Him.”
(John 9:35-38)
They rejected the Light
Jesus, the Son of God, had come near to what religion had
cast out. The man now stood in the presence of his Lord, worshipping
Him unashamedly, while the leaders of religion stood by still
looking, but still blind.
Jesus found him at precisely the crucial moment. Religion
had indeed rejected him, but God didn’t.
Jesus his Lord, said to all who would listen, “For judgment
I am come into this world, that they which see not might see;
and that they which see might be made blind.”
These blind leaders of the religious, still fighting what
in their hearts they knew to be true replied in contrived sarcasm,
“Are we blind also?”
“If ye were blind,” replied Jesus, “ye should
have no sin: but now ye say, ‘We see’;
Therefore your sin remaineth.”
And they rejected Him.
Eternal Light
The religious leaders had their eyes opened along with the
blind man. They had no choice but to see the evidence that Jesus
was the Christ. In their heart of hearts they knew the truth,
only they rejected it. They rejected the light of the world.
They chose to remain blind. They “loved darkness rather
than light, because their deeds were evil.”
They heard what the blind man heard. But, they wouldn’t
listen. Though claiming to see, they rejected what they did see.
They were happy enough simply existing, and that’s all.
They thought they saw, but really, they were blind, and that
from their birth. Left without excuse, there is for them but
a “fearful looking for of judgment” in a place called
“outer darkness.”
This formerly blind man now is and forever will be with the
Son of God, that man named Jesus who made clay and opened his
eyes. When he understood but a little, he responded and sought
more. With each sentence, his eyes were opened further until
the Son of God Himself appeared to him. He believed what
he saw. He was saved!
It is the blind man who now sees that will spend eternity
in heaven, not simply existing, but living more abundantly with
the Lord Jesus; for, “they shall see His face…and there
shall be no night there…for the Lord God giveth them light….”
It is he and not the religious leaders who received the truth.
Though blind, he had felt his way through the discord of religion.
He came to the source of living water, was washed of the dirt,
and came away seeing. Jesus is the Christ. He is
the Son of God.
And He alone is Lord!
The Five Great Questions
of John 9
Where is He? (verse 9:12)
He is at the right hand of
God the Father in heaven. By resurrection and ascension, the
crucified Lord Jesus is accepted by the Majesty on High.
What do you say of Him? (verse 9:17)
He is the Christ, the Son of the living God. He is my only
Lord, Savior, Priest, Counsellor, Chief Pastor and coming King.
What did He do for you? (verse 9:26)
He gave me sight. He showed me that I am a sinner worthy of nothing
but to rot in the pit of hell away from God for all eternity
in “the blackness of darkness.” Then He saved me from
it by the washing of His blood so that instead I can be with
Him for all eternity. I will never see what I deserve.
Do you believe on the Son
of God? (verse 9:35)
It would be foolish not to. He gave His life for me. He was buried
for me. And He rose up again for me. He is the light of the world
and He alone has the words of eternal life. I believe with all
my heart!
Who is He? (verse 9:36)
He is the God-man: born of a virgin. The prophecies of Holy Scripture
validate His claim to be the Christ of God. He was a perfect,
sinless man. He obeyed the Father in every way even to dying
shamefully on a cross. He is Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah of
the Jews, the only Savior of the world and the
Lord of glory.