We were in the optometrist’s office last week picking up some new glasses.  Also in the office were a mother and her three daughters, two of whom had just tried on their very first glasses. It was fun to see them get super excited about being able to see things clearly.  I couldn’t help but think of what it must have been like for the blind man that Jesus healed that we read about in John chapter nine. 

     Jesus had gone to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles.  All male Jews were required to attend three annual feasts in Jerusalem: Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles (or booths).  During the Feast of Tabernacles, which commemorated the wandering in the wilderness and dwelling in tents or booths, the Jews had a ceremony of carrying water from the Pool of Siloam and pouring it into a silver basin at the altar of burnt offering each day for the first seven days of the Feast, to symbolize how God miraculously provided water for them in the wilderness.  On the eighth and final day of the Feast, this was not done, symbolizing their awaiting the coming day of refreshing when Messiah came. It was on that day that Jesus stood and cried out, “If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes on Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water’ ” (Jn. 9:37,38 cf Isa. 44:3; 55:1; 58:11; Jn. 4:10).  

     The next day Jesus again came to the temple, sat down and began teaching, when some Scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman who had been caught in adultery (Note that they didn’t bring the man with them!), expecting Him to condemn her to death. Instead, Jesus turned the tables on them. With His finger, He wrote something on the ground (maybe their sins?) and said to them: “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her” (Jn. 8:7).  Rather than picking up stones, the menfiled out in order by age!  Jesus forgave the woman and sent her on her way, saying, “From now on sin no more” (v. 11).    

      Jesus resumed teaching, saying, “I am the light of the world, he who follows Me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life” (Jn. 8:12).  He followed that up by adding, “Unless you believe that I am He, you shall die in your sins…before Abraham was born, I Am” (vv. 24,58).  At that point the Scribes and Pharisees “picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple” (v. 59).  This revealed their spiritual blindness for they were acknowledging that Jesus claimed He was God but considered Him a blasphemer, worthy of death (cf Ex. 3:13-15).

     With that as the background, as Jesus left the temple, we come to the encounter with the “man blind from birth” (Jn. 9:1).  The disciples asked an interesting question, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?” (v. 2).  Sickness and suffering were commonly thought to be the consequences of one’s sin. But this became complicated when the victim was born with a handicap such as blindness!  Jesus first corrected the false idea then focused on the purpose of this particular suffering, which provided an occasion for revealing God’s glory. (v. 3).  Jesus healed the man in a rather unusual way by putting mud in his eyes and asking him to go to the Pool of Siloam and wash it out. He did and received his sight (v. 11).  The healing caused quite a stir among the spiritually blind Pharisees, especially because Jesus performed this miracle on the Sabbath, violating some of their made-up rules.  They pressed the man for more information about how this happened and who the man was who healed him.  Then they interrogated his parents who, out of fear of being excommunicated from worship and fellowship in the synagogue, said, “He is of age; ask him” (vv, 22,23). So they again approached their son and basically said, “Tell us the truth, how can this man we know is a sinner have healed you?” “He therefore answered, ‘Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see’ ” (v. 25).  Just imagine what it must have been like to have been blind from birth and suddenly have perfect vision, opening up the amazing world around you which you had never seen before!  

     But that is not the end of the story; the best is yet to come!  Jesus heard that the man had been put out of the synagogue, “and finding him, said, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’ He answered and said, ‘And who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?’ Jesus said to him, ‘You have both seen Him, and He is the one who is talking with you.’  And he said, ‘Lord, I believe.’  And he worshiped Him” (vv.  35-38).   Not only could the man now see the physical world around him, but the “eyes of his heart” were opened. His whole world was illuminated for the first time–both physically and spiritually. He had “been called out of darkness into His (the One who is ‘The Light of the World’) marvelous light” (I Pet. 2:9). The man who was “formerly darkness” was now “light in the Lord” (Eph. 5:8). 

     Proverbs 20:27 tells us that “The spirit of man is the lamp of the LORD…” and when we, by faith, put our trust in Jesus Christ to save us, the “Light of the World”  “lights our lamp” (Psa. 18:28). We often use the idiom, “the light came on” to describe finally seeing the solution to the problem we have been struggling to understand or solve. Well, when we are “born again,” the ight really comes on and we have a whole new view of the world around us, our purpose for being here and what our future holds. Something to get excited about for sure!

      With the Apostle Paul, I pray for you “that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe…” (Eph. 1:18-19). 

Forever His,

Pastor Dave