Verse 1, “As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth.”: So Jesus is walking by with his disciples and he sees a blind man. I want you to notice this play on words here. Jesus sees a man who cannot see Him. Jesus takes notice of one who would’ve never known Jesus was there if Jesus would’ve just walked on by. Number 1, look at how compassionate and kind this shows our Lord to be. This is one of those little things that endears my heart to His. Jesus takes notice of one who would’ve never known if Jesus just walked on by. Number 2, in order to see Jesus, He has to first see us. Jesus literally sought this man out. This man was not looking for Jesus, not seeking Him out, indeed he had no sight to see Him with. He had no vision, no ability, he wasn’t even vainly trying. But Jesus sought Him. He saw him. And it is fitting that this is where we start because this is where everything for us as Christians starts – with Jesus seeing us, looking upon us with His eye of compassion and mercy in our helpless state, unable to even see ourselves for who we are, knowing nothing but blindness, not knowing what we are missing. I see myself here in the blind beggar: helpless, hopeless, clueless, until Jesus saw me, looked upon me, set His eyes upon me. I hope you see yourself here too. Certainly Jesus did not look upon this man because he was some magnificent sight to behold. He was a blind man with nothing lovely about his appearance. But the loveliness of a man or woman is not why Jesus sets His eyes of saving grace upon a man or a woman. For if that were the case, none would ever have Jesus look upon them with love, for we are but dust to the infinite beauty of Christ. But Jesus looks upon such unlovely people so that the works of God might be displayed in His saving and transforming of such ones. Jesus looks upon us with love not because we are lovely, but because He is lovely. And it is lovely that the loveliest of them all, would look upon such unlovely ones as us.
Verse 2, And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”: Meanwhile the disciples look upon this man and immediately assume he is in such a blind state as a judgment for sin, either him or his parents. Jesus tells them that it is not for his sin or the sin of his parents that he is born blind, but notice that Jesus doesn’t rebuke them for asking the question. The way the disciples ask the question shows this was common belief at that day, that being born with disabilities was a sign of some sin in you or your parents. Jesus doesn’t say that that is never the case; but He does say that it isn’t always the case. It seems that in our modern day we have overreacted to say that our afflictions are never God’s judgments for sin. You may recall that our catechism states that God judges sinners both in this life and in the life to come. There are real earthly judgments for sin. However, Jesus says that you cannot assume an individual’s disabilities are judgment for sin. Certainly all imperfections are a result of the fall, generally speaking, but that is not at all to say that all effects of the fall are judgments for something specific an individual did.
Verse 3, Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.: So Jesus says that “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.” Now what a radically different purpose Jesus ascribes to this situation than what man ascribed to it. Going from judgment of sin to being made for the purpose that works of God would be displayed in you is quite the upgrade. Man is naturally cynical, suspicious, and pessimistic, but Jesus, knowing the power and purposes of God is rather optimistic. He looks upon weakness as an opportunity for divine power to be displayed. He sees a helpless man as a hopeful situation. I believe that if Christians remembered the power of God, and knew just a tad of what God was doing and working in the world, we could look on the darkest of times with the most hopeful and faith-filled eyes, that God is doing something, and that God is uses the worst for the purpose of displaying His great redemptive works.
Pessimistic Christians are inconsistent Christians. Don’t you remember how you were dead and then God made you alive? How could we ever think God wouldn’t do it for another or in another situation? What is it in your life? Maybe you also have some physical disability or a thorn in your flesh. If you knew that God’s purpose in it was so that His works would be displayed in you, how would that change your outlook? If you are a Christian we know for a fact this is a universal truth as Romans 8 tells us that “all things work together for good for those who loved and are called according to His purpose.”
Jesus’ teaching here also brings a fatal blow to the perverse health and wealth prosperity gospel. The health and wealth gospel says that if you are sick or disabled then it’s because you have some sin in your life or you don’t have enough faith. Jesus plainly rejects such lies. If you are disabled it is because God purposes to show the power of His works in you. What an honorable privilege that now becomes for you. That you would be chosen to be afflicted that God could display His works in you. Now of course, for this man God’s purposes was to heal him and display His power in that way. But we most know that that is not always how God displays His power in weakness. There are a million other ways and it may just be the living of a faithful Christian life with life-long affliction. This is God’s way of curse-reversing – He takes what is a curse and makes it a blessing.
On the other hand we know that spiritually, all humans are born blind from birth, and it is due to sin. The sin of us and our parents. For in Adam we sinned. And this is of much greater blindness than physical blindness. This is of much more serious consequence. This is not a blindness for which we can afford to never be healed of. We need a new set of eyes.
Verse 5, As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”: Jesus healing the blind man is a display of His light. Jesus says He is the light of the world, and that night is coming. I believe the coming night was in reference to his leaving the world, as Jesus says “as long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Jesus isn’t saying that He is going to stop being the light of the world, He was just making the point, that during His earthly ministry it was time to do the works God sent Him to do, for soon He would suffer & die before rising again and ascending to heaven. So when Jesus gives the blind man his sight, Jesus is showing Himself to be the light of the world, as He brings light to darkness. This man knew nothing but utter darkness of sight, Jesus comes along and says that He is the light of the world, and for the first time in this blind man’s life, there is light. He is the light that shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.
Verse 6, Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud: So what’ the deal with Jesus spitting in the dirt to make mud, applying it to the man’s eyes, and having him wash in the pool? The use of dirt here may cause us to think of several different things, and one way to see this is as a work of recreation; or a new creation work, playing off of the Genesis account where God makes man from the dust. The Jews would’ve believed that only God is the creator of all things, Jesus here is making a new creation, making sight where there is none, thus showing Himself to be creator and God. This miracle is a sign that Jesus is God.
You see, there was a man made from the dirt in whom we all sinned, and feel the effects of that sin. Jesus then comes along and spits on that dirt, sort of condemning it if you will, but then picks it up and redeems it, and makes a new creation. Just like at creation when it was nothing but darkness, it was nothing but darkness for this blind man, until Jesus said “let there be light.” This plays off of John’s theme of the new birth and regeneration; we don’t just need the dirt with which we were made, we need to be made again, to be remade – and so Jesus takes dirt and baptizes it, if you will, and makes a new set of eyes. Jesus mixes His saliva with the dirt, so again, we were made with dirt, we need to be remade, and Jesus’ saliva is the water of regeneration.
There is also another way we could understand this use of saliva and mud, and that is that it could cause us to think about how Jesus cleanses the unclean. Jesus cleanses the unclean, because think about it: saliva and mud are dirty things – they are unclean things. And thus Jesus takes the unclean and makes clean, cleansing the man’s eyes.
Still yet another thought for our consideration as to why Jesus would put mud on this man’s eyes when He was already blind, and the mud itself didn’t heal him: by putting the mud on the man’s eyes, Jesus is showing us how easy it is for Him to make blind men see – it’s like wiping mud off of your eyes. It’s as easy as spitting in the dirt. What is absolutely impossible for man is no problem with Jesus. Born blind? No problem for Jesus. Putting mud over a blind man’s eyes could easily be seen as a bit of mockery, making fun of the blind man who can’t even see that there is mud on his eyes, and the mud on his eyes showing his blindness. But Jesus certainly isn’t mocking the poor blind man, but He is “mocking” the blindness. He is mocking the enemy. He is mocking death, as the Apostle does, saying, “O death where is thy sting, O death where is thy victory?” This is what Jesus is doing, He mocks the enemy, just as the Lord sits in heaven and laughs as the nations rage and plot in vain against the Lord’s anointed. Likewise the enemy has plotted in vain against this man born blind, for he will but in a moment fully see with new eyes.
There is still yet other importance here with the dirt and mud. And that is that we have to die before we can be made new. We have to be buried before we can be resurrected. So as Jesus takes dirt and mud and puts it over this man’s eyes – Jesus buries him, if you will. He puts him in the dirt. And then He is resurrected, He is raised to life out of the baptismal waters, if you will. And this is true for us, church. We have to die in order to be raised to life. Our flesh has to die, our old man has to be put in the dirt, so we can be raised out of the grave and made new. You can’t have resurrection without death. Resurrection is like one of the best things about Christianity. But you have to have death in order to have resurrection. Jesus had to die so that He could be resurrected, so that we could be resurrected. So of course, every story of resurrection is ultimately a story about Jesus – Jesus is telling His own story in burying and resurrecting this man, mocking the enemy with what He would soon do to finally defeat the enemy. Because you do realize that the way the death and the enemy is defeated is by death and resurrection. So Jesus mocks and defeats the enemy by “burying and raising” this man, all the while showing the enemy how He is going to defeat him and ultimately mock him.
Verse 7, and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.: Upon a face value reading of this passage, many people might struggle a bit in being perplexed about the mud and the washing in the pool. They may, in their minds, give too much credit to the mud and the washing in the pool – or even the man’s obedience in doing as Jesus instructed, thinking that these means were the basis or the power in the healing. However, we must recognize that this is actually trying to show us the absurdity that mud or water could heal someone born blind. These outrageous means are used to show us the power of Christ, and that those means are indeed outrageous. While Jesus used means like spit, mud, water, and told the man to go wash in the pool, it is clear that the healing power was not in the spit, mud, water, or the man’s obedience, but in Jesus Christ Himself.
It is very interesting that Jesus tells this man to go wash in the water for healing. Because there is actually a pretty rich biblical tradition of washing in water for the purpose of healing. We saw in John 5, the invalid tells Jesus that he is unable to make it into the healing waters of Bethesda to be healed, so Jesus heals him right there. But there was the tradition there of invalids going to the pool at Bethesda to be healed. Baptism also gives us some of this symbolism where we are buried in the water and raised to life, having our sins washed away. There is also a story in 2 Kings 5 where this Syrian army commander named Namaan who the Lord gave victory, has leprosy. Leprosy of course a terribly unclean disease. And during one of the Syrian raids they captured a little Israelite girl, and the girl ended up telling the other people that there’s a prophet in Israel who could heal Namaan’s leprosy. Word gets to Namaan and Namaan actually believes this girl, and long story short, the prophet Elisha ends up telling Namaan to go wash in the Jordan River seven times and he would be made clean and have his skin restored. He ends up doing as Elisha said and behold he was healed, he was made a new creation, as it were. So here in John 9, Jesus heals something even more impossible to heal than leprosy – he heals not a disease, but a birth defect of blindness. And he does so with greater ease than seven washings in the Jordan. In some sense Jesus is showing Himself to be a greater prophet, or a greater Elisha here.
But we must know that this miracle was not just a miracle, but it was a sign that Jesus was and is the Christ, the Son of God. More specifically, this miracle of giving sight to the blind is a sign that Jesus is the messianic Light of the World. It was merely a good deed or act of mercy to a poor man; it was a revealing of who He was. And this is the purpose for us having this passage preserved for us today, that who Jesus is would be revealed to us and that we may believe. John says toward the end of his gospel that he writes these things, the things he has written in his gospel, so that you may believe. That’s what this is for, that Jesus would be revealed to us, and that you would believe in Him, the Son of God, the Light of the World.
When we think about the spiritual picture of salvation here, we must recognize what it was that Jesus did. Jesus totally transformed this man. He took his defective set of eyes and made them into a new set of eyes that could see. The work of salvation is not just getting zapped to heaven when you die. It is a work of total transformation. Jesus gives us a new heart to desire new things. He gives us a new set of eyes to see new things. He gives us new ears to hear new things. He totally transforms us and remakes us into totally new creatures. When Jesus gives you new eyes, you are not the same person.
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