John 9

Much trouble has come into the world because of sin. Nonetheless, sin is not the first and highest cause of anything, even trouble. There is something bigger in the eternal purposes of God going on, something above sin, and above trouble, something that is so important that it in some sense necessitated sin entering into the world through Adam, and necessitated trouble coming into the world with sin. This great intention of the Almighty is that the works of God be displayed before the eyes of men, and even somehow within men. In order for a blind man to be healed by the son of God, displaying some resurrection kingdom truths, it was necessary for there to be a blind man. In order for any kind of trouble to come into the world, including blindness, it was in some sense necessary for there to be a fall, and consequences of that fall. A son’s blindness is not all about his sin, or his parent’s sin, or even Adam’s sin. It is first about the work of God being displayed, the work of a God who intends to provide the perfect conclusion to a book of life with many chapters about brokenness and misery. On that day so long ago when Jesus healed a man who was blind from birth, He displayed the work of God in that man, giving further proof for all who could see, that the Messiah was the Light of the world.

The healing of the man born blind was not the end of his story. It seemed to be the beginning of controversy, and also the beginning of a progressively clearer yielding of this one man’s life to a Messiah who gives sight to the blind. When he was asked about the healing, he first said that it was the work of “the man called Jesus.” Then when he was questioned by the Pharisees concerning the agent of this Sabbath healing, he said, “He is a prophet.” When he saw Jesus again at the end of the chapter, he acknowledged Him as the Messianic Son of Man, he called Him Lord, and told Him that he believed.

The progression of the Pharisees was different. First they acknowledged the difficulty that a man who did not keep their understanding of Sabbath traditions was able to do such amazing signs. Some of them seemed to entertain the possibility that Jesus might be from God, while others reacted vehemently against and show of weakness toward such a position. Then they questioned the man’s parents, apparently hoping that this would prove to be a false miracle, and that the man had not actually been blind before. By this point they had already agreed that any who confessed that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. Finally they questioned him, and in something of a rage, they cast the healed man out and pronounced their own judgment upon him, that he was born in sin.

The two questions that seem to be most troubling for them were the question of where Jesus came from and the question of whether or not He was a sinner. Both of these things are very serious to consider. Jesus was sent by God from heaven to earth in order to achieve the will of God for us. If He was to fulfill His destiny, He could not sin, since to bear the weight of our sin effectively He could not have any of His own sin. Was the making of mud and applying it to the eyes of the man a violation of the Lord’s commandment to do no work on the Sabbath day, or was it the perfect fulfillment of this day of testimony, pointing to the coming eternal Sabbath rest in heaven, when the blind shall certainly see? The Pharisees took the first position and Jesus the second. On the second question, was Jesus a Galilean of questionable heritage, perhaps even the illegitimate child of very poor parents, or was He the Son of God made flesh? The two questions were connected. If Jesus was truly the Messiah, then His understanding of what it means to keep the Law of God was correct, and the traditions of the fathers concerning Sabbath-keeping and many other matters were wrong.

Those Pharisees who were firmly against Jesus were hoping to pressure the healed man to support them in their contention that Jesus was a Law-breaker. This proved to be difficult. This man had been blind, and now he was able to see, and the reason for the change was obvious. It seems amazingly arrogant that the Pharisees imagined that this man would be a good witness against Jesus. They seemed to be unusually blind to such a gracious and miraculous sign of the resurrection Kingdom, as if their own wrong interpretations of the Law of God should be considered more glorious than sight being granted to the blind. They were convinced that they had the most wonderful spiritual vision as the self-authorized disciples of Moses, but they were strikingly blind to the truths and proofs of the kingdom of God.

Their attempt to trouble Jesus was a sign of another spiritual truth: that the leaders of God’s own people have a surprisingly hatred of His Son. With each episode in John’s gospel we are getting closer to the cross. To see the cross in all its healing power does require some spiritual vision. It is necessary for us to see our own sin, and to see the perfect holiness of the Lamb of God. It is required that we take Jesus at His Word, that He has come from the Father and is going to the Father, and that He will be victorious in His Messianic work. Those who are able to see their own need, and to see the glory of God in the atoning work of Christ, however blind they may seem to the world, are actually seeing things rightly. But those who imagine that they have peace with God through their own Sabbath-keeping, however scrupulous they may be in all of their religious tradition-keeping, are actually blind to the truth of God, and to the wonder of His power. For those who reject the Lord’s Messiah, it is a sad fact that their guilt remains, but for those who are granted eyes to see the Christ as their only hope, it is a happy truth that their sins are forgiven, for they have believe in the One who is the Light of the world.