John 9:1-12

John 9:1-12

1 As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. 2 And His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 “We must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work. 5 “While I am in the world, I am the Light of the world.” 6 When He had said this, He spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and applied the clay to his eyes, 7 and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent). So he went away and washed, and came back seeing. 8 Therefore the neighbors, and those who previously saw him as a beggar, were saying, “Is not this the one who used to sit and beg?” 9 Others were saying, “This is he,” still others were saying, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the one.” 10 So they were saying to him, “How then were your eyes opened?” 11 He answered, “The man who is called Jesus made clay, and anointed my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash’; so I went away and washed, and I received sight.” 12 They said to him, “Where is He?” He said, “I do not know.”

Perspective is very important in our lives.  We all look at things from a different perspective.  Our circumstances and the events of the world in which we live are all subject to a variety of interpretations depending on our perspective.  What might be a nightmare for one person is a dream come true to another person.  We all consider our own perspective to be the correct one because it truly reflects how we feel.  However, the key to having the right perspective is to have God’s perspective.  We must discipline ourselves to look at the circumstances we face in life from His perspective.  Often, we try to convince God and others to adapt to our wishes, but we will be far better off if we will seek to live and interpret the circumstances of our lives from His point of view.  In this text, the circumstance is that of a man born blind.  From the disciple’s perspective, they think that either he or his parents have sinned to cause such an affliction.  From the blind man’s perspective, he simply cannot see as the majority of those surrounding him can.  From God’s perspective, this is a great opportunity to demonstrate His power and impact the lives of people.  Sometimes the worst tragedies are really some of God’s greatest blessings.  There are three valuable lessons we can learn from this narrative.

GOD WANTS US TO DISPLAY HIS WORK: As Jesus was walking by He saw a man who had been blind from birth.  Jesus noticed the needs of people around Him and was interested in meeting the needs of these people.  We often just ignore the people around us and try not to get involved.  Needy people make us feel uncomfortable because we often feel impotent in trying to help them.  Jesus was far from impotent.  He was so powerful that He was constantly surrounded by multitudes of people.  Yet, he saw and took time for this blind man.  The disciples assume that this birth defect is due to sin in the lives of his parents or somehow for his own sin which seem unlikely since he was born that way.  While it is true that all the problems we face in life can be traced back to Adam’s sin, it is wrong to think that we can discern personal sin as the answer to the questions that come up regarding death and suffering in general.  Jesus makes it clear to His disciples that this is a special situation that God had planned in order to make His work known.  All the years this man had endured the suffering of being blind, were for the purpose of displaying the work of Messiah.  This is a very good lesson for us to learn as we consider our own difficulties in life.  It is common for us to ask why we face hardship or difficult circumstances in our lives.  We must always try to remember that the answer may simply be to display the work of God in some way.  His glory is always more important than our comfort.

GOD WANTS US TO DO HIS WILL: Unlike many other occasions, the blind man was not calling out for Jesus to come and heal him.  Jesus simply went over to him and decided to heal him.  He spit on the ground made clay put it on his eyes and then told him to go wash in the pool of water.  This must have been quite the shock for a stranger to come start putting mud on his eyes.  There are any number of ways that Jesus could have healed this man.  Jesus had healed others in different ways, but this time He chose this method.  It is difficult and rather pointless to try and come up with a method for how things should be done based on the examples that we take from Scripture.  We have a tendency to want to be able to explain and understand why Jesus does what He does.  This is not a very wise way for us to deal with the events of our lives.  God does not reveal why He does certain things very often.  We should not expect to be able to understand or explain everything.  God is at work in our lives and He will do what He does and does not owe us an explanation.  Our job is to obey what He reveals to us in His Word or through the work of His Spirit.  It may not always make sense to us and we may be able to think of alternatives that would be more suited to our liking, but that is not what we have been called to do.  God simply wants us to trust that He knows what is best in our lives and then to humbly and quickly obey Him.  The man went to the pool just as Jesus said and when he washed the mud off of his eyes, he saw for the first time in his life.  What an amazing experience that must have been.  A life of trusting and obeying God will always be an amazing experience.  It may not always be easy or pleasant, but in light of eternity, it will be amazing.

GOD WANTS US TO DECLARE HIS WORTH: When the blind man returned seeing it created quite a stir amongst the people who had known him.  Some were amazed by the fact that he was healed, others refused to believe that this type of healing was possible so they thought that he must be someone who looked like the blind beggar.  This debate was halted by the blind man himself when he simply states that it truly was he who had been born blind and that Jesus had made clay, put it on his eyes and told him to go wash.  He makes it very clear that he had been blind, what Jesus told him to do and the result of what happened.  In other words, he gave a very clear testimony.  A testimony is nothing more that stating who we were, what Jesus has done and then who we are now.  He said: I was a blind beggar, Jesus came to me, put clay on my eyes and told me to wash it off, now I can see clearly for the first time in my life.  The next question everyone wanted to know was: where is Jesus?  He answers this question very clearly as well by simply saying that he did not know.  When God works in our hearts and lives, we should be anxious and ready to tell others about what He has done.  How He saved us from sin and the changes that He has made in our lives should be a topic that is always on the tip of our tongue.  God wants us to talk about Him and what He has done in us to the people around us.  We might not know everything that people want to know and we certainly will not have all the answers, but we must be faithful to tell what we do know and then be ready to admit to the things that we don’t know.  When it comes to talking to others there can be those two extremes, those who don’t talk at all, and those who talk too much about things they don’t fully understand. 

APPLICATION: Trust in the fact that God knows what He is doing when we face difficult times in our lives.  Understand that His glory is more important than our comfort.  Obey the Word of God even when we don’t understand the reasons behind all He asks us to do.  Tell others about all God has done in our lives and be willing to admit the things that we don’t know or understand.