John 9:1-34 “I was blind, but now I see”
Context
· John 9 is so full of great stuff that we run danger of focusing on the things that are not primary.
· There are places that if we are not careful, we can get bogged down and miss the main things of the passage.
· Attempting to preach, to persuade hearers through the Spirit in John 9 is much like eating an elephant.
· We need to do it in small bites.
· However, if you attempt to take John 9 in small bites and focus on all the fantastic details, you may miss the main focus of the passage.
o I was blind, but now I see.
· So today I want to look at this scene from the point of view of the Pharisees and that of the blind man.
· The main thing here is this man, cured of blindness, now testifying about Jesus.
· As I was putting all of this together I went through a few iterations, and felt like Polonius from Hamlet.
· Polonius: My liege, and madam, to expostulate what majesty should be, what duty is, What day is day, night night, and time is time, Were nothing but to waste night, day, and time; Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit, And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
I will be brief. Your noble son is mad. . . .
I will be brief. Your noble son is mad. . . .
Cultural Context
· Anytime we read scripture, in the back of our mind must be the thought;
o “What did this mean to the original audience?”
· In other words, what does it mean in Jerusalem before what it means in Concord.
· There are many things in the Bible that if we do not filter them through their original audience we can go off the rails.
· The Pharisees were fastidious legalists who wanted to read something spiritual into every tiny word of Scripture.
· They were children of the Ascetic Movement, the Hasidim, meaning the pious, the saintly.
· They were the Jews who, first of all, were committed to the Law of God
· And as a secondary reality, they hated Greek culture.
· The Pharisees were separatists, they hated the pagans, they hated the Romans, and they hated the heathen.
· They separated themselves from Publicans and sinners.
· They separated themselves from the general Jewish population.
· They separated themselves from any kind of defilement that they thought would make them ceremonially unclean.
· They were the literalists and the legalists and the separatists.
So if we drop down into the first century as a Pharisee and see what is happening, this may be our take; (all my words)
· The day started plainly as it often does.
· Today is the Sabbath, I will do no work.
· Therefore my servants brought me my tunic and outer garment early in the morning.
· After my morning prayers and after my servants prepared my food, I made my way to the temple to observe the Sabbath.
· It was at the temple that my Sabbath was to be ruined by that Galilean and his rabble.
· The heretic son of the carpenter was there again today with his fishermen and their tax collector.
· If only the Romans would allow us to do away with him, this would all be done with and we could again please God in the temple.
· We cannot tolerate disobedience to the Law and blasphemy from this man, lest his teaching increase.
· We have already decreed that if anyone says that this Jesus is the Messiah that man will be thrown out of the synagogue, and by inference, the community.
· But that did not stop this fool beggar from making a mockery of the Sabbath.
· We know that anyone who breaks the Sabbath is not from God, this man and that Jesus did not keep the Sabbath.
· He broke the Sabbath law three times today, and we were there to interrogate the one he reportedly healed.
· Not only did he make mud, which is breaking the law by working on the Sabbath;
o But he told this man to wash, another infraction.
o Lastly, healing is forbidden on the Sabbath according to our tradition.
· After discussing with his parents, a useless exercise;
· and the man, a frustrating exercise;
· We determined to cast the man out. For he was confessing Jesus as the Messiah.
· Whether or not he was healed, I do not know. Perhaps he was never blind to begin with.
· It is more likely he used that excuse to keep from working because he is simply lazy.
· Yet this I know; God has handed to us the laws and traditions, and no beggar will teach us the ways of God!
· The sooner we can do away with this Jesus character the better.
· There is a little bit of the Pharisee in all of us isn’t there?
· I know there is in me.
o I like things the way I like them.
o If you disagree with me, then you are likely wrong.
o God has called me to teach His Word, who are you to correct me?
o When in fact, I am just an old clay pot. Useful to God when I do what He has asked me to do.
Now if we could interview this beggar, we would likely get a different take;
· When I woke, the only hope I had was that no one spits on me today.
· Today started like every other day.
· I needed to make my way to the temple area before the pilgrims funnel in.
· It is usually the outsiders that will give me money as they pass by.
· I can do nothing.
· I am thankful to God that my parents allow me to shelter with them, but my food comes only from the grace of others.
· I cannot work, because I cannot see.
· The only thing I can do is sit in the street and beg.
· It takes me some time to get there, although I am familiar with the streets, the vendors and crowd sometime make it difficult.
· It is only through hearing the Priests praying that I know I am close.
· They do not want me very close to the temple.
· I had heard of this man Jesus.
· I’ve heard him in the temple before, boy does he get the priest and Pharisees upset.
· I think he may be a prophet.
· Someone told me that he had fed thousands with only a small amount of food.
· But today, I knew he was coming by as the crowd was gathering.
· Then I heard his men talking about me. They determine that my sin or my parents had given me this life.
· It was then that the most peculiar thing happened.
· I heard the crowd come closer, then I felt mud on my face.
· This was unusual to say the least, because no one has touched me in many years.
· Most don’t even know that I exist.
· But he caked mud onto my eyes like a salve. I really didn’t know what to do.
· Then he told me to go to Siloam and wash it off. I did.
· I still cannot describe what I experience when I pulled my head from the pool.
· I could see.
· This world looks nothing like I thought it did.
o Colors.
o People.
o The beauty of the Temple.
o Food! It looks amazing!
o The beauty of creation!
o I saw my mother for the first time today.
· SO many people were asking me what happened, but I couldn’t explain it.
· But I couldn’t find Jesus again, he had left.
· It was then that the Pharisees pulled me into the temple.
· I told them what happened, but they wouldn’t listen to me.
· I think they want to become one of Jesus disciples as well!
· They asked my parents, but they didn’t know what was going on.
· All I know is this, I was blind, but know I see!
· Why won’t they believe me? They passed me for years in the street, and now look at me!
· They told me that I was a sinner and cast me out of the temple, and the community.
· That’s ok. I was never part of the community.
· But now I can see.
This man suffered blindness. Many of you suffer spiritual blindness.
· Spiritual blindness is a universal malady,
· It is a universal human condition.
· Every human being born into this world since the Fall of Adam has been born spiritually blind.
· And it is not a superficial blindness, it is a profound blindness, it is a total blindness, it is a complete blindness.
· It is essentially living in the darkness with no light at all.
· That is the biblical diagnosis of the universal human condition.
· This is the universal human condition.
· When the light is at its brightest, when the light is standing in front of you, looking you in the eye, when you can reach out and touch the light,
· when you can hear the voice of the light, when you can see the power of the light displayed in miracle after miracle,
· day after day after day, there is still no capacity in the darkness of the human heart to grasp the light to comprehend the light
· Voltaire, the French atheist, said this, “Even if a miracle should be wrought in the open marketplace before a thousand sober witnesses, I would rather mistrust my senses than admit a miracle.”
· That’s tragic, isn’t it?
· The whole world is full of people like this who live in the darkness.
· Oh, they may think they are spiritual and they have transcended and they are mystically aware of the spiritual realm.
· The truth is, they are in total darkness and they are consigned to even deeper darkness and they are condemned to permanent eternal darkness.
· 1 Corinthians 2:14 says, “The natural man understands not the things of God; to him they are foolishness because they are spiritually discerned and he is spiritually dead.”
· The only cure for spiritual blindness is Jesus Christ.
· Remember the centurion at the cross? He illustrates this point to us;
o He had overseen the beating,
o The public humiliation,
o The crucifixion.
o But as Jesus died, and the event surrounding His death occurred.
o The centurion suddenly realized “Truly, this was the Son of God.”
· The centurion was spiritually blind. But his encounter with Jesus resulted in him receiving spiritual sight!
· Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts is another example.
· The Ethiopian did not understand what he was reading because he was spiritually blind.
· Philip explains the scriptures to him, he is immediately baptized!
· Philip didn’t do any gymnastics or tricks, he just explained the Bible to him.
