Eyes to See John 9:1-41
A tour bus driver was leading a tour of Civil War Battle Sites in the Nashville, TN area. At one sight, he said, “Right over here a small group of Confederate soldiers held off a whole Yankee brigade.”
A little further along he said, “Over there a young Confederate boy, all by himself, fought off a Yankee platoon.”
This went on and on until finally, a member of the tour group asked, “Didn’t the Yankees win anything in the battle of Nashville?”
The bus driver replied, “Not while I’m the driver of this bus, they didn’t.”
Prejudice means to “pre-judge.” It means to have an opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience. “I’ve got my mind made up. Don’t confuse me with the facts.”
There is a lot of prejudging in the world and a lot of prejudging in Christianity. We have an event recorded in the life of Jesus in John 9 where we see this “prejudice” illustrated in the life of a man who needs healing from Jesus.
SUFFERING DOES NOT (NECESSARILY) RESULT FROM SIN – 9:1-5:
There is a very, very old belief that dates at least as far back as the book of Job that God punishes people in this life for the sins they commit. The other side of that belief is that if you are suffering, it’s because God is punishing you for your sin. If we, as Christians, are not careful, we’ll fall into that same mentality. “Something bad is happening to me. God is not pleased with how I am living my life.” That is not true. Someone might say, “I can’t get pregnant. I guess God does not think I would make a good mom.”
#1 – It is very, very dangerous to try to guess what’s in God’s mind. The only way we can know what is in God’s mind / thoughts is if He reveals those thoughts.
#2 – The Bible, the only record of God’s thoughts we have, does not teach that all suffering is a result of sin nor that God punishes all sin in this life nor that all suffering is God’s punishment for sin.
So, consider the thoughts expressed in this paragraph from Christ’s apostles. Jesus clearly says that neither the man nor his parents were guilty of sin such that the blindness was a punishment from God. Rather, in this situation, this blind man was brought into contact with Jesus so that “the works of God might be displayed in him.” That is, to provide Jesus an opportunity to perform a miracle and heal this work of Satan, the blindness.
THE MIRACLE AND ITS RESPONSE – 9:6-12:
Now let’s see how Jesus heals the man and what the response is among the people.
The miracle is in verses 6-7. We do not know why He healed in this way. A good guess is that Jesus wanted the man to do something (wash off the mud) so that he would have to show his faith in obedience. Also, Jesus may have known how the Pharisees would react and challenge the man’s faith, which would be good for him.
The response is in verses 8-12.
Paul Holland