John 9:13-23

John 9:13-23

13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who was formerly blind. 14 Now it was a Sabbath on the day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. 15 Then the Pharisees also were asking him again how he received his sight. And he said to them, “He applied clay to my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” 16 Therefore some of the Pharisees were saying, “This man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.” But others were saying, “How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?” And there was a division among them. 17 So they said to the blind man again, “What do you say about Him, since He opened your eyes?” And he said, “He is a prophet.”

18 The Jews then did not believe it of him, that he had been blind and had received sight, until they called the parents of the very one who had received his sight, 19 and questioned them, saying, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? Then how does he now see?” 20 His parents answered them and said, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; 21 but how he now sees, we do not know; or who opened his eyes, we do not know. Ask him; he is of age, he will speak for himself.” 22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone confessed Him to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue. 23 For this reason his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”

There is a difference between physical and spiritual blindness.  That difference is clearly displayed in this passage.  There was one man who was desperately in need of healing from his physical blindness; but as the story unfolds, it becomes obvious that there are several groups of people who need healing from spiritual blindness.  The Jews were constantly asking for a sign, but when a sign was given, they continually refused to believe.  Too often we demonstrate our own spiritual blindness when we fail to trust God in the midst of difficult circumstances.  Even though He has been so faithful time after time in our lives, when we find ourselves in the midst of another trial, it is easy for our hearts and minds to be filled with doubts and fears.  Satan wants to do all he can to blind us from the glorious truth of the Word of God.

THE PHARISEES ARE BLINDED BY THEIR RULES: The whole line of questioning by the Pharisees was due to the fact that the miracle Jesus performed was done on the Sabbath.  Performing any miracle on the Sabbath would have been considered questionable, but since Jesus made clay to apply on the man’s eyes, this was yet another form of “work” that made this healing sinful in their eyes.  They implied that the miracle had been performed by some other evil force since, in their minds, God would never do such a thing on the Sabbath.  They kept questioning the healed man about how all of this came to pass and the answer always remained the same.  One group of people concluded that God would never approve of this kind of activity on the Sabbath so Jesus could not be from God.  Another group questioned how a sinner could do these kinds of miracles.  Finally, they asked the man who he thought that Jesus was.  His answer was the Jesus was a prophet.  These questions and statements demonstrate how blind these people were.  They could not identify who Jesus was.  The identity of Jesus continues to be a key issue in today’s society as well.  Many people continue to live in spiritual blindness because they refuse to recognize Jesus as the Sod of God. 

THE PARENTS ARE BLINDED BY THEIR FEAR: The controversy over the identity of Jesus spilled over into a controversy over the identity of the blind man.  Since some people did not believe that the healed man was the same person as the blind man, they called the parents to question them about the identity of their son.  They clearly state that he was their son and that he had been born blind.  When questioned about how their son came to have his sight restore, they stated that they did not know and told them that their son was of age and told them to ask him.  The Bible says that the reason they refused to position themselves on this issue was their fear of being cast out of the synagogue.  The fear of men can be a crippling sin in our hearts.  We all long to be accepted and recognized by others.  Rejection can be a difficult pill for any of us to swallow.  When our desire to please men or our fear of being rejected by men outweighs our desire to please God or causes us to refuse to do what we know God wants us to do; the fear of man has become an idol in our lives.  Courage to do and say what is right no matter what the consequences may be is a virtue we must strive to develop in our lives. 

APPLICATION: Do not allow our traditions and preconceived ideas to blind us to the work God wants to do in our hearts and lives.  Battle the fear of man by developing the courage to please God no matter what the cost.