John 9:1-7 Bible Teaching

John 9.7 part II
April 13th 2014
Milk
Alright, we are going to start our gathering off today with a prayer by ______________ and a sermonette by ______________________.

As a note of clarification we have come to discover that when a male is going to be presenting we ironically will refer to his speech in the feminine – a sermonette but when a female is going to present we have observed that what they have to say typically is better described in the masculine as a sermon.

Just trying to keep it real.

In any case, for those of you who have not been here before we stream these gatherings out into the world and after the prayer and sermon or sermonette we will listen to the word of God (set to music) sit in prayerful reflection for a few minutes then come back to our verse by verse study of the Word – today we will pick it up at John chapter 9 verse 1.

Okay, we left off with Jesus leaving the temple area where he was confronted by the Pharisees and they got so hot they picked up stones to kill Him.

The way John records this it seems like chapter nine happened right after Jesus escaped from them.

Let’s read:

John 9:1 And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.
2 And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?
3 Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.
4 I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.
5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
6 When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay,
7 And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.

Now, as we mentioned last week, this is one of the longer narratives in the New Testament.

I think it will help comprehension if we break it up into scenes or acts and today well try and cover the first three scenes with the first being

Jesus “sees the blind man,” the second being “Jesus heals the blind man” and the third being “the neighbors gain a real interest in the former blind man’s condition.

Verse 1

John 9:1 And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.

In the context of the whole story this “in and of itself” fascinating. Jesus had totally ticked off the religious rulers and was in the process of escaping their wrath and John tells us “He spots” a blind man.

In this occasion it seems the blind man was completely unaware of Jesus and I say this because in Matthews account we read:

(Matthew 20:30) “And, behold, two blind men sitting by the way side, when they heard that Jesus passed by, cried out, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David.”

The point being there are times when the blind know there is help out there are they themselves will cry out for it and there are other times when they sit in darkness and need the light to be made known to them.

Of course this is a picture of spiritual blindness – the result of sin and having the light obscured by sin and some who are in that state realizing not only the presence of the Messiah but their need for Him (like the two blind men in Matthew) and others in the very same situation just sitting in the darkness – and waiting for the light and salvation of the world to be made known to them.

I enjoy very very much approaching what might be considered the low hanging fruit of society with discussions of Jesus.

I don’t mean the homeless – they frequently are pretty well informed on the Gospel message.

I’m talking about the low hanging fruit that run along the edge of sinful living.

I prefer discussions with them than with faithful LDS because they are frequently much more aware of their sinful nature and captivity then those who live morally sound lives.

In other words I prefer an f-bombing, whore-mongering, hot mess to the well groomed socially correct type NOT because one is easier to manipulate but because the former is often humble in heart – and therefore willing to hear.

So it is with our man born blind from birth. Can you IMAGINE being born blind and growing up in the dusty cacophonous din of ancient Israel where poverty and disease and fear of the unclean ran coldly through the veins of most of the cities inhabitants?

Of course in the grand scheme of things this man is a picture of all human beings – we are all born blinded by our fallen nature and needing an interaction with the light of the world – that is what this is all about.

In any case, Jesus notices this man – His infirmity – and apparently his disciples see that the Lord has noticed the man.

John doesn’t say how or why?

Maybe the Lord stopped and glanced at him. Or maybe He paused in his vicinity or even said something about the man to the twelve.

Whatever it was it caused the disciples to ask the Lord a question:

2 And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?

Now, when I was LDS this passage was frequently used by us to defend the teaching of a pre-mortal existence.

We would say, “How else would this man (who was born blind) sin unless it was in his pre-mortal life?”

Makes a great deal of sense doesn’t it? And because the example is taken from the Bible we assume then that it must be alluding to some unspoken truth – that we all lived before we came to this earth and this question the disciples asked proves this was commonly understood in Jesus day . . . and has since been lost in ours.

First of all, because of the covenant of obedience/blessing the law produced it was a common belief that whatever happened to a person was the result of some kind of sin or discretion.

This was only fair and just – so when someone came down with a disease or experienced a loss of fortune or was even born with a birth defect, there had to be blame cast – and it was typically on the bearer of the calamity or the parents or family.

We see this attitude played out time and time again throughout the Old Testament don’t we?

Do you remember how Jonah found himself in the water before being swallowed by the great fish?

It’s quite a story and applicable to a VERY different time and place – but this is how he got in the water.

Jonah was running from the call the Lord had on his life. Remember? And instead of going to Ninevah as God commanded old Jonah-boy went to Joppa and jumped on a boat headed for Tarshish.

In chapter one at verse four we read:

Jonah 1:4 But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.
5 Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep.
6 So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.

(I always smile at the reading of this because you have never met a more superstitious bunch of men then sea-farers – especially the captains of the vessels) Anyway . . .
7 And they said every one to his fellow, “Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah.
8 Then said they unto him, “Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us; What is thine occupation? and whence comest thou? what is thy country? and of what people art thou?”
9 And he said unto them, “I am an Hebrew; and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land.”
10 Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.
11 Then said they unto him, “What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous.
12 And he said unto them, “Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you.”
13 Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they could not: for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous against them.
14 Wherefore they cried unto the LORD, and said, We beseech thee, O LORD, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for thou, O LORD, hast done as it pleased thee.
15 So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging.”

With stories like these preceding the nation of Israel there is absolutely no mystery why they would assign fault to anyone who was experiencing trouble.

Interestingly, we have another time in the New Testament where this attitude presents itself – it’s a story that is often overlooked because so little information is around to substantiate it.

In Luke 13 we read of a situation where Jesus is reminded or told a story about Pilate killing a bunch of Galileans and mixing their blood with their sacrifices.

This is what the first verse says:

1 “There were present at that season some that told him (Jesus) of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
2 And Jesus answering said unto them, “Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things?”

In other words, He had heard the story of some Galileans who were slaughtered by Pilate and Jesus says:

“Do you think that those who were slaughtered were more sinful than the other Galileans who survived them?”

And then in verse three He says simply:

3 “I tell you, Nay:” (and then He adds a truth to them and what was heading their way, saying) “but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”

There is a VERY VERY natural response (especially among the religiously minded) to believe that those who suffer are suffering because they (or someone related to them) have sinned.

The entire book of Job is about this topic. And the Bible seems to clearly show us that sometimes people suffer because they are in error or have sinned and other times it presents us with stories of misfortune where the parties have not brought misfortune upon themselves.

What do we do with it all? How should we view people who find themselves confronted with insufferable circumstances?

With love?
Withholding judgment.
Trusting that God loves them as much as He loves us, and whatever they are going through our job is to have compassion, love, and mercy?

Very good.

So back to our blind man. It was not only a universal opinion among the Jews that calamities (of all kinds) were the effects of sin with blame being required and so with this being the case the disciples wanted Jesus to tell them who did the sinning in his case – His parents or the man himself.

For the parents being to blame is easy to extrapolate – they had fornicated or committed some other crime which produced a blind child.

Anyone who has ever been a parent knows how often we find ourselves looking in the mirror and finding fault with ourselves for the suffering of our children but to believe that the blind man had himself sinned was due to a doctrine known (among the Jews) as the “transmigration of souls,” or the belief that the soul of a man, in consequence of sin, might be compelled to pass into other bodies and be punished there.

In all probability such a belief came from the Greeks who had beliefs that were quite similar to the pre-mortal existence of Man.

There was also a parallel to reincarnation to the thought of the transmigrations of souls where a person was forced to leave one sinful life and to quickly jump into another where they would suffer for former actions.

The late sci-fi writer L Ron Hubbard (founder of Scientology) capitalized on this thought in his best selling book “Dianetics” and suggest that all people, at death, are faced with choosing another body or life to inhabit as a means to reinter the world and those who die without becoming “cleared” of all their sins or messed up thinking would impetuously (and fearfully) jump into the first body available but that those who have been cleared (through the expensive process of being audited by another scientologist) would wisely and carefully choose what life they would embrace since they are not bearing any negative influences on their person which would otherwise cause them to choose poorly.

Hence Tom Cruise and John Travolta, when they die, will pick yet another charmed life while the rest of us schmucks will choose poorly – and come back as slaves or paupers or whatever.

I mean, why people are born badly has been the topic of conversation for as long as people have been born.

Additionally, at the time of Jesus, there was also a belief that suggested that while in utero babes had the ability to sin.
(you know, the ones who kicked mom a lot) ?

I would strongly suggest, that in light of all of this and more we could agree upon the following:

First, sinful people have healthy babies and forgiven people will give birth to defected ones.

That it is the result of the Fall of this world into sin that human beings (animals, etc) are born defective and become diseased and finally that we can agree to believe that no matter what the situation we face, God is in charge and can work it out for the good of all involved – if we allow it.

In the face of the question, “who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind,”

3 Jesus answered (clearly), “Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.”

Now, we have some options on how to read and understand this response.

First of all we CAN apply the response to this specific case of this specific man and His being born blind.

This opinion I maintain.

The question is, can we take His response and apply it to all people born with or facing infirmity?

I think so.

This is not to say that all who are born with defects or who suffer with maladies over the course of their lives are in that way SO that the will of God can be made manifest in and through them but I would suggest that the will of God CAN be, MAY BE, MIGHT BE manifest in and through them if we choose to let it.

Another way to say it is in the face of birth defects and other trials we can choose to either curse the dark and die or light a candle with the former being “cursing God” and the latter being we choose to let the glory of God shine forth in the face of the situation.

Here is where, from what I can tell, God allows human beings to choose to praise Him in the storms of life . . . or not.

With regard to this man’s situation, however, Jesus plainly says that his blindness was not the effect of his sin or that of his parents but was present so that God’s will could be made known.

And I suppose this refers to the fact that Jesus was about to heal him of the ailment He was allowed to suffer with from birth . . . that God allowed this man to experience blindness from birth as a means to show forth His will among men.

Was it by arrangement of God or act of God?

I suggest arrangement – but accept act of God just as readily. His ways, and thoughts are far, far, far above ours.

Of late I have been fascinated by how utterly awesome and unfathomable God is . .
I recently read (and shared with the group on Thursday night) that if we take two individuals, and set them in front of a chess game, where there are sixty four squares with 32 pieces with various abilities, the possible moves between the two players of this game would be represented by a 1 followed by 45 zeros

(it’s what math genius’s call a quaterodecillion).

Put it this way, a trillion is 12 zeros.

45 zeros are the possible moves between two chess players . . . and we think we can understand and comprehend GOD!

God who created all things? Governs all things?

Scientists say that the Universe is 93 Billion light years across.

Think about it now – 93 BILLION light years across (an ever expanding universe) and a light year is composed of how far light can travel in a vacuum in one calendar year which is about 6 Trillion miles.

Dude!

In the case of what we are reading here I would suggest that the point is that in every situation – even one so difficult as a man born blind back in ancient Israel God can work it to our Good . . . and His glory – if we allow it.

And here is how it was going to be done – through Jesus. (verse 4 Jesus says)

4 I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.

This statement brings it all together for us contextually. The man, while born blind, was put in this place by whatever means God uses, so the Lord could do the works He was sent to do, “while it is day,” He says, which to me means while I am able, while the days of my life here on earth are present.

Because, he says, once they daylight ends, once the night comes, no man can work.

Very symbolic language.

Make hay while the sun still shines is a big line amidst various sales forces.

Of course Jesus is referring to his mortal life, given to present God and His will to the world and to redeem it.

The night is approaching,” He seems to be saying, “and once it comes, the time to work is over.

At this point in the narrative His life was drawing to a close. It would probably be about six months before He would be put to death – before night.
Jesus adds:

5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

We’ve talked at length in days and weeks past about the Light and Christ being that light so I am not going to hit this too hard right now but to say that the physical healing of this man born-blind is but a picture for the spiritual healing He came into the world to give all human beings.

Again, this New Testament physical healing of a man born blind is but a physical picture of the light He shines into the blind hearts of all people since and the vision – the spiritual vision He bestows.

As long as He was there among those folks He was the light that could and would shine into their hearts – and this ability was illustrated by His bringing real actual light into eyes that had never seen nor understood the visible world around him.

Though many of you disagree, and while I do not discount physical healings as ALL coming by and through the hands of God, the physical healings of the New Testament are but pictures of the spiritual healing Jesus came to give every man.

Proponents of physical miracles in and through the name of Jesus almost always claim that failure to receive such healings are because the individual does not possess enough faith.

To this I would say, absolutely.
But I would also add that for someone to possess such faith is as improbable as someone walking on water.

I put it this way to reasonably explain that while all things might be accomplished by and through faith applied in their fallen world, for a human to apply such faith is as rare an event as a human moving mountains or walking upon the sea.

To say or suggest that people just need to have faith would, in my opinion, be as valuable expenditure of time as a person who wishes to fly wishing he could sprout wings and take to the sky.

If a man had wings could he fly? Certainly. Why not. But this fact does not mean the man should beat himself up because He will never receive them – no matter how much he wishes and winces.

In the realm of healings and faith, we also have to take note that in this situation, Jesus never asks the man born blind if He believes before taking action.

He just takes action. Of course the man pursues the directives Jesus gives Him but desperate men would.

I say this to show that while the man exhibited faith in being healed, Jesus was the one who chose him, and healed him, without any solicitation on his part at all.

God does this at times. So let’s wrap this all up with the healing itself. (verse 6)

6 When he (Jesus) had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay,

There are a couple of (known) reasons that Jesus may have made this clay and anointed the eyes of this man with it.

First the Jews thought spittle was a good medicine when applied to diseased eyes.

I dunno – it sounds kind of gross to me – but maybe there is something to it we don’t know about. Probably is just that in an arid land even spit would feel good to a crusty eye.

Additionally, and this plays right into what Jesus was doing, the orthodoxy of the day forbade the use of medicines on the Sabbath.

And being that they believed spit had medicinal value (and they regarded the Sabbath so strictly) Jesus was, in their eyes, breaking the Sabbath (once again).

He was plainly showing that their interpretation of the law of the Sabbath was contrary to the intentions of God, and that his disciples were not bound by their notions of the sacredness of that day.

Another reason Jesus approached this manner of healing this man was it was common for prophets to use symbolism in working miracles.

This goes all the way back to Moses and rod of Aaron, to Elisha commanding that his staff be laid on the face of the child who was dead, and other things like this.

I also believe Jesus – and this is my opinion clearly – that Jesus was showing that healings come from God – and the methods, where typifying the prophets of Old or applying medicines on the Sabbath day, we not standardized – He would heal as lead . . . God does the same.

In fact, we find the Lord healing in all manner of ways throughout the gospels.

In Mark 1:26, Matthew 9:1, and John 5:8 He healed people by and through speaking words.

In fact, in Matthew 15:22 He spoke words and healed someone from a distance!

In Matthew 8:3 He used His touch but in Matthew 9:20 a person who touched Him was healed. HMMMMMMMMM?

In Matthew 12:10 he said it was by the individuals faith, but here the man born blind had NOT idea who Jesus even was!

I love the healing He did in Mark 7. Listen to it:

Mark 7:32 And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him.
33 And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue;
34 And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.
35 And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain.

Religion will try and capture the system, create the words, demand the specific rite, but Jesus plainly shows healings are done by the power of God (not the performances of man) and however He is working . . . He’ll work.

In this case Jesus used spit and dirt to make clay and after applying it to the eyes of the man gave Him further instructions, saying:

7 And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.

Why Jesus sent the man there to wash there is not known. I do not believe we can suggest that the waters had any medicinal value for a man born blind but I do have a crazy idea as to why Jesus did this. (Lord, forgive me if I’m wrong).

Human beings are frightfully sheep-like. We follow alone and mimic and replicate like no other.

We never read this but I would bet that after Jesus did this – in the days and years to come – all sorts of people were spitting in the dirt, slapping it on the eyes of some poor unsuspecting blind person, and telling them to also go and wash in the pool of water known as Siloam.

All to no effect.

And I wonder if this was the point. To get people who believed the magic was in the spit, or the clay, or the pool of water to, through failure, to examine the missing element – Jesus – and to possibly then try and add Him into the mix?

Just a thought.

Of course there is the idea that Jesus did His part in the healing and that as a test of faith He wanted the man to then exhibit faith on His . . . to actually work his way to the pool of Siloam (how he got there or knew where it was we aren’t told) and this is quite possible.

Because God has people at times involved in the healing of their body and soul seems to show that people need to be involved in order to believe.

In the case of the man born blind we find an absolute willingness to “blindly” follow the Lord’s instructions for him – or at least we have no question on the part of the man recorded.

But this is not always the case with those needing healing.

In 2nd Kings 5:10 we read of a similar story.

We’ll end with a recounting of it. It begins with a powerful Syrian man named Naaman, who was a leper:

2nd Kings 5:9 So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha.
10 And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.
11 But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the LORD his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper.
12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.
13 And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean?
14 Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
15 And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him: and he said, Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel: now therefore, I pray thee, take a blessing of thy servant.

We’ll continue with the saga of the man born-blind next week.

Questions?
Prayer.