February 25, 2008 John 9:1-39

¹ As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. ² His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"

³ "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. ⁴ As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. ⁵ While I am in the world, I am the light of the world."

⁶ Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man's eyes. ⁷ "Go," he told him, "wash in the Pool of Siloam" (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

¹³ They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. ¹⁴ Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man's eyes was a Sabbath. ¹⁵ Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. "He put mud on my eyes," the man replied, "and I washed, and now I see."

¹⁶ Some of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath."

But others asked, "How can a sinner do such miraculous signs?" So they were divided.

¹⁷ Finally they turned again to the blind man, "What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened." The man replied, "He is a prophet."

³⁴ To this they replied, "You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!" And they threw him out. ³⁵ Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" ³⁶ "Who is he, sir?" the man asked. "Tell me so that I may believe in him."

³⁷ Jesus said, "You have seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you."

³⁸ Then the man said, "Lord, I believe," and he worshiped him.

³⁹ Jesus said, "For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind." (NIV)

Jesus Produces a Miraculous Mud Pie

The miracles of today=s text all happen so incidentally, yet so powerfully at the same time. Jesus and his disciples were just going along on their way through the streets of Jerusalem. The Bible doesn=t say where they were going, and maybe the disciples didn=t even know for sure. What we do know is that Jesus was somewhat on the run. He had just had a fiery exchange with the Jews. He told them that they were slaves of sin and children of the devil. Well, they didn=t like that too much and counter claimed that Jesus was a demon-possessed Samaritan. Jesus denied it, and even went a step further to tell them that he had seen Abraham B and that He existed before Abraham - that Jesus was in fact the great AI AM@ - the LORD Himself. The Jews really hated this. They picked up stones to kill him for what they considered blasphemy. But Jesus slipped away through the temple grounds.

As they were walking along they happened to see a blind man along the road. Somehow they knew he was blind from birth. The sight of this poor man who had to live without sight made the disciples ask the Rabbi a common question that is still asked today, Awho sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?@ Later on the Pharisees reflect this seemingly common view when they get angry at the man and tell him he was steeped in sin at birth. Jesus answers the question with a complete negative to either question. Neither this man nor his parents sinned. This doesn=t mean that they were perfect. It means that the blindness was not the result of a specific sin or a specific punishment due to a sin.

All pain and suffering in this world is a result of sin and death entering the world through one man=s sin. Paul says as much. (Romans 5:12) But this doesn=t mean that every back ache or headache or car crash has a specific judgment from God behind it. God doesn=t look in heaven and say, AI remember when you lost your temper with your sister two weeks ago. You never apologized, so I=m going to give you a migraine as punishment!@ We like to try and compartmentalize all of our happenings in our life and try and figure out the how=s and why=s of it all. Many times in life there are no explanations for why things happen the way they do. All God says is to trust Him to be who He says He is; a God of mercy, love and forgiveness.

Jesus doesn=t just answer this question in the negative, however. He gives a reason WHY the man was born blind. It=s rather interesting. This happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. Think about that for a second. God worked it out in this sinful world that this man - who in Jewish terms was most likely at least 30 years old - would be allowed to live a lifetime of blindness - all so he could be healed by Jesus at this time and place. For years and years he had to be led by the hand, fed, clothed, possibly walk about with a cane, all so that at this time and place Jesus could heal him and perform a marvelous miracle on his eyes - something that hadn=t been done before. This all happened by God=s design so that through his life Jesus could testify to him and to the people of Jerusalem that He really was the light of the world.

Now stop and think for a minute how Jesus goes about showing He is the light of the world - the I AM that He claimed to be. Look at what He does for the blind man. He uses common and even dirty items - things that people would even find repulsive by modern day standards. Imagine, for instance, that I came up to you and spit in your eyes. That may be fine and proper for a mother to indirectly do on her child in order to remove food from the face, but it is unheard of among adults. Yet here Jesus spits on the ground, makes mud out of the spit and dirt, and then places this homemade mud pie on the blind man=s eyes. He then told the man to go away from him and wash in the Pool of Siloam, which was a fount of water in Jerusalem. So here the man was weaving and waving his way through traffic on the way to this pool with mud on his eyes. Finally, after he gets there and washes the mud away - he can see; but Jesus is nowhere in sight. He knew who did it, but he didn=t even know what Jesus looked like or where he had gone.

Let the story progress from here. Everyone wants to know HOW this miracle happened. They want to know WHO did it. They want to know WHY he did it on a Sabbath. So inadvertently the formerly blind man and his family are brought in to testify as to who the blind man is and to what happened and to who Jesus is. Before this point nobody really seemed to give two cents worth about the blind man. They all just assumed he was suffering under some curse for a sin his parents or someone committed. The blind man lived a lifetime of being judged and ignored. But now he and they were being brought in to the temple and being asked to testify as to who Jesus was.

The blind man was put on the spot. He was being pressured by the Pharisees to try and profess that the man who healed him was not from God - that he was a sinner for healing him on the Sabbath. Would he cave in to their pressure? How would he answer? Did he have anything to really say? Well, he seemed to have some training in the Old Testament Scriptures. He talks about prayer, and how God listens to the prayers of godly people who do God=s will. He knows that miracles come from God. He also knows about the prophets. He professes these different aspects of his faith to Pharisees. He also seems to have been waiting for the Messiah to appear. So would he still defer and say, AI don=t know,@ like his parents did, out of fear of being thrown out from the temple? No. In spite of their threats the man defends Jesus and calls him at the very least a prophet or a man of God. Showing no fear of their pressure he sarcastically asks them if they want to be his disciples too. What a wonderful witness from this man!

But Jesus wasn=t done with the man. The formerly blind man still didn=t know the full picture as to who Jesus was. So Jesus sought him out one more time. He wanted him to see the full picture. Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" ³⁶ "Who is he, sir?" the man asked. "Tell me so that I may believe in him." ³⁷ Jesus said, "You have seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you." ³⁸ Then the man said, "Lord, I believe," and he worshiped him. The man had looked forward to the Messiah through the eyes of faith, but now as he was speaking to Jesus the sight became three dimensional. All that he had hoped and dreamed for through the promises of the prophets was standing right before him. With Jesus words of confirmation, the man was brought to faith in Jesus as the Savior. He worshiped Jesus immediately as His Lord and His God. Not only was he brought physical sight, but full spiritual sight as well.

The miracle of this story is not just in the changes that the man went through, but more importantly in the way that Jesus brought about these changes in the man. This was all according to God=s design. Jesus used this blind guy - a common man who had no standing or status in the city up to this point - to profess Jesus= name and status to the Pharisees. It is amazing how Jesus works in such hidden and subtle ways. He does His work through spit and dirt. He does it through a formerly blind beggar that nobody else cared about or could do anything about. Through these weak and discarded and even disgusting things of the world, Jesus has one message for the people of Jerusalem and the world. AI am the Light of the world.@ The strange thing is in how He lets His light shine; through spit, dirt, and beggars. Jesus remains in the background throughout the whole story as He works through the beggar - yet the whole story revolves around Him.

Even though it was an indirect witness, it was still a powerful confrontation - a bright light that could not be ignored. Just look at how the people tried to ignore it. They claimed that the blind man really wasn=t the blind man. When they couldn=t get around that he was who he said he was and who he looked like and his parents looked like, they had to find some other reason to deny him; an application of the Sabbath law that didn=t even apply to the LORD of the Sabbath. So you see how bright this light is. You either have to try your hardest to shut your eyes to it and blindly deny what is obvious, or concur that He is who He obviously and miraculously claims to be. It is as Jesus said, "For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind." The words and actions of Jesus leave no room for a middle ground.

Is it too narcissistic for us to think about how we might be connected to this story? Consider the fact that you and I were God=s modern day blind men. Like a poor and pitiful beggar you were born groping in the dark, being led down the streets of despair by your master Satan. Yet God saw you there laying there in your helpless state and led you to your own pool of Siloam at your baptism. As you were carried away with water dripping from your forehead, the sinful old man was left like a drowned rat in the blood of Christ and Satan no longer had a chain around your neck. All of your sins were left drowned at the cross. The Holy Spirit then filled your heart and opened your eyes as you left the font to see the world in a completely different way. Throughout further instruction from the Rabbi you came to not just trust but to also know and see that Jesus is the Christ; as you witnessed his death and resurrection for the sins of the world - including all of yours. He opened up the gates of heaven and helped you to see - through the eyes of faith - that His body and blood were coming to you in the Lord=s Supper - and that the same body and blood still cries out for your pardon day after day. He helped you to see that angels are protecting you against demons. He promised you an eternity of bliss after death. Through simple water, spoken words, sinful and weak teachers and preachers, God has led you to the Light. He has come to you and said to you, Alook at me. I am the Son of Man. I am the Light of the world. I am your righteousness and salvation. I am your hope. I am your future.@

Consider who you are in the world. You are meant to be a confrontation - a testimony of God=s power and grace as you stand out from the sinful world in your words and actions. Do people notice that something has changed in you? Do they see something different in the way you spiritually walk and you talk that professes to Christ? Do they see that a miracle has occurred in you? Or have you decided to keep your cane and act as if you still were blind - so as not to draw too much attention to yourself? For some strange reason do you think that blending in and acting like everyone else is the best way to witness? Do you think that sarcasm, pessimism, and anger is more attractive to Christ? Do you continue to live like blind men in a world of blind men, trying to keep hidden the fact that you can see? Do you like blending in?

You may say to yourself, Awell, I haven=t had my sight restored! People have no reason to look at me. I haven=t had any miracles like that happen to me!@ How can you say that no miracle has happened on you, when out of all of the millions of people in the world - you are here praising Jesus and listening to his Word - believing that He died for your sins and made you holy? Do you think this came naturally to you? Then you=ve forgotten what a miracle it is that you simply say, AI believe in Christ.@ Don=t forget the miracle that happened to you at your baptism. You were taken from the realm of Satan to the kingdom of God. You were freed from the fear of death and hell by the blood of Christ. You were enabled to do God pleasing things to the glory of His name. You=ve had much more instruction in Christ for your whole life than this blind man ever had.

Jesus loves to use weak and worthless things in the eyes of this world to send the strongest messages of His mercy, love, and grace. Today He used spit, dirt, and a blind man. Think of how He used Rahab the prostitute, a blind and battered Samson, a young man=s sling, and a criminal=s cross to bring about deliverance. Weak as you are, dust as you are, God has designed and formed you to send a message to your own little world that Jesus is the Light of the World. Don=t close your eyes to this wonderful miracle God has worked on you. You were blind, but now you see.

Think also on how Jesus used this miraculous physical healing to bring an opportunity to the man to witness. If you=ve been miraculously healed of an addiction, recovered from cancer, survived a deadly disease, or even just suffered for years and years under an affliction - could it be that God has kept you alive through all this time so that at a specific time or place you might have one golden opportunity in your life you might be called to the stand to witness to someone else who is going through a similar disaster? You may not draw the crowd of the blind man. You may not have as fantastic a story as his. But even if it=s just one person that you have the opportunity to witness to, don=t pass it up. Jesus worked with dust and spit, water and a blind man to testify to who he was. You are dust. You were blind. You are human. You=ve been washed. Jesus is powerful enough to work through you as well.

Mud is something that people don=t like to get into. It dirties their clothes. It gets on their carpet and their cars. It makes their shoes dirty. Yet mud can also serve a good purpose. It provides a place for plants to grow. Kids can have a great time playing in it. When used in the right way it can actually cleanse the skin and cleanse it and make it softer and gentler from what I=ve heard. It depends on who is using it and why it is being used whether mud is useful or not. Either you jump into it or you try to avoid it.

This morning Jesus has spat on the ground. He has made some mud and applied it to the blind man=s eyes. Through faith he went to the pool and washed. In desperate faith he didn=t mind getting mud and water on his eyes. He was cleansed. Jesus worked a miracle on him. He used mud and water to do it.

Many people try to avoid Jesus. They don=t want to get baptized. They don=t want to be shown how dirty they are. They want to remain blind. By the grace of God, you=ve already gotten wet. Your baptism has washed away the dirty filth of sin not just from your eyes, but from your whole body. You=ve been given a wonderful view of life and salvation in Christ Don=t be embarrassed about it. Don=t shy away from it. Rejoice in it. When God connects Himself to you through whatever elements, water, wine, bread; when He allows terrible things to happen to you - sickness, disease - whatever - it always has a cleansing and purifyingg purpose. Whenever He works on you, however He works on you, even dragging you into the mud or His blood, He will do whatever it takes to make you see who He is, so you can see the Light and testify to the Light. Amen.