One of my favourite pieces of wisdom is the proverb that says: “There are none as blind as those who refuse to see”. Of course I never suffer from this problem… In our passage today we continue the story of the blind man who was healed by Jesus. Now the religious leaders in the story are so caught up in their “rightness” that they refuse to see what is right in front of them. Jesus could not have been more obvious in the choice of who he healed. The man’s blindness acted like an object lesson for their own blindness. But they could not see it. Let’s have a look.
Scripture: John 9:24-41 (ESV)
So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.” He answered, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”
He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?”
And they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.”
The man answered, “Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”
They answered him, “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” And they cast him out. Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.”
Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.”
This is the climax of the story we have been working through for few days now. Jesus had healed the man, the people who saw the blind man seeing were so shocked that they went to their religious leaders to ask for help in understanding what had happened. The religious leaders are so obsessed with the Sabbath law that they condemn Jesus for healing on the Sabbath. Then we had that interesting interlude where the man’s parents are dragged in front of the religious leaders who want to pinpoint the healer so they can punish him. We saw how various people have various responses to Jesus’ healing. Today we see the response of the man himself.
He had been healed, he knew the truth, and nothing could persuade him otherwise. He had been blind, he could now see. There is a bit of sarcasm in this story too. The religious leaders, not satisfied with the man’s parent’s answer, turn on the man again. “Tell us how this happened, where can we find the man who healed you?”.
The man answers with more spiritual insight than these religious leaders have shown to date. “I have told you, and you would not listen”. There are none so deaf as those who refuse to hear.
The man is finally released from questioning and Jesus goes and finds him. The man’s physical eyes had been healed, but we see here that his spiritual eyes had also been opened. When Jesus tells him that he (Jesus) is the Son of Man, the man bows down and worships Jesus.
Now why is this important for us? Because ultimately we need to choose between these two responses. Either we can look at all the evidence for Jesus, and close off our minds, eyes and ears, and refuse to believe. That is one of the options, but Jesus tells us that this will lead to judgement. Or we can open our eyes, open our ears, open our minds, and see Jesus and believe. If we do, do that, then like this man, we will bow down to Jesus and worship him.
What does your worship say about which option you are choosing today?
Prayer
Lord, open my eyes to see where I am spiritually blind. Open my ears to hear when you speak to me. Help me to worship you in response. Amen
Spiritual Challenge
Today, ask God to reveal a blind spot in your life. Maybe it’s a stubborn attitude or an area where you’re resisting change. Take one step to growing in this area.