Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He had found him, He said unto him, “Do you believe in the Son of God?” He answered and said, “Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?” And Jesus said to him, “You have both seen Him, and it is He that is talking with you.” Then he said, “Lord, I believe!” and he worshipped Him. And Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see, may be made blind.” Then some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these words, and said to Him, “Are we blind also?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see.’ Therefore your sin remains.” John 9: 35-41, NKJV.
Dear God, as we study Your Word, please open our eyes that we may see You, for who You are. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
In Spanish we have a phrase, that translated, means: “No one is more blind, than the one who does not want to see.” I believe you will agree with me, that the world is full of these blind folk. Our story today, deals with some of them. All of us are in danger, of suffering from this kind of blindness. From the very beginning of the story, we know that something is wrong. The glory of God is being made manifest in this wonderful miracle, of a man who was born blind, receiving his sight; and instead of this act causing great joy, the church is divided. No, it is even worse than that – the man is dis-fellowshipped. They cast him out of the church!
There are a lot of factors at work here. Jesus’ disciples have launched a theological debate about the cause of the man’s blindness (2). The man who was healed is obviously not of any special social standing; he was a beggar (8). It is the Sabbath day, and a healing has taken place (14). This is an extraordinary healing; this is not someone who was born with eyesight and then lost it; this man was born blind (1, 18-20), and was made to see. The healing has caused division in the church (16). This is a never-before-seen, event (32)!
What no one knows, except the disciples; and that was because Jesus told them; is that this blindness was permitted, for the glory of God! It is awfully sad, how sometimes we get caught up in insignificant, and trifling, matters, because we are spiritually blind! What is even more tragic, is that we are blind because we would rather not see the truth. But it gets even worse: in our blind condition, we try to lead others, that are also blind! Now that could cause a tragedy, and oftentimes, it does.
However, one of the greatest episodes in this story, as I see it, is the sermon the once-blind man preaches to the Pharisees! Is it not strange, that you, being the spiritual leaders, do not know where this man, who has performed this miracle came from? You should know that no sinner could do what this man has done! Never before, in the history of the world, has anything like this been done! “If this man were not from God, he could do nothing” (30-33)! Wow, you talk about bearing witness! You talk about preaching with power and conviction!
The spiritually blind, tried, and failed, to lead the physically blind. In the end, it was the once-blind man, now made whole by the Son of God, and Holy-Ghost-filled, who led them into all truth, but was cast out of the temple because they could not handle the truth. Be aware, that in these last days, history will repeat itself!