John 9, verses 1-18 and 24-34
As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth.
His disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?
Neither this man nor his parents sinned, said Jesus.
But this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.
As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me.
Night is coming, where no one can work.
While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
Having said this, he pat on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man's eyes.
Go, he told him, wash in the pool of Siloam.
So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
His name was in those who had formerly seen him begging, asked.
Isn't this the same man who used to sit and beg?
Some claimed that he was.
Others said, no, he only looks like him.
But he himself insisted, I am the man.
How then were your eyes opened?
They demanded.
He replied, the man they called Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes.
He told me to go to Siloam and wash.
So I went and washed, and then I could see.
Where is this man?
They asked him.
I don't know, he said.
They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind.
Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man's eyes was a Sabbath.
Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received a sight.
He put mud on my eyes, the man replied, and I washed, and now I see.
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.
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.
The Jews still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man's parents.
In verse 24, a second time they summoned the man who had been blind.
Give glory to God, they said.
We know this man is a sinner.
He replied, whether he is a sinner or not, I don't know.
One thing I do know, I was blind, but now I see.
Then they asked him, what did he do to you?
How did he open your eyes?
He answered, I have told you already, and you did not listen.
Why do you want to hear it again?
Do you want to become his disciples too?
Then they hurled insults at him and said, you are this fellow's disciple.
We are disciples of Moses.
We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don't even know where he comes from.
The man answered, now that is remarkable.
You don't know where he comes from.
Yet he opened my eyes.
We know that God does not listen to sinners.
He listens to the godly man who does his will.
Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind.
If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.
To this they replied, you are steeped in sin at birth.
How dare you lecture us?
And they threw him out.
So back again to the Gospel of John, the sixth sign, the healing of the man born blind.
And we'll take that in connection with what we read at the beginning, where Jesus said,
I am the light of the world, where he has come to shine in the darkness,
to reveal the glory and the truth of God to us.
Let me begin with an interview that I came across this week of a man left almost entirely blind,
having been shot in a drug deal that went badly wrong in the States.
And in that interview, the man revealed how those events humbled him.
And he said, as my physical eyes were closed, my spiritual eyes were opened, as it were.
I finally saw how I'd been treating people.
I changed.
It was a terrible price to pay.
And yet I must say it was worth it.
Now our story today is very different.
The man had been born physically blind, but then Jesus healed him.
But there's similarity in that spiritually, his eyes too were opened,
as his physical eyes, in his case, were opened also,
as Jesus, by his mercy, brought that wonderful miracle.
So our sixth sign, it reveals to us,
is a signpost to us that Jesus comes to shine God's light in our world,
to bring mercy, to bring restoration, to bring hope and healing.
But he also comes as a light that reveals the glory and the truth of God.
Now some, and we'll see this really clearly as we think about the story,
some are blinded by the light.
They are blind to the truth of Jesus.
They reject him and turn their back on him.
But others, like this man here, are guided by the light into life-changing joy.
One, Saviour Jesus, two very different responses.
As his light shines, as preachers of our past age used to say,
the same sun that melts the ice hardens the clay.
So again, we'll be thinking about our own response.
But let's begin thinking about this sign where Jesus brings light out of darkness.
Now, did you notice that our story begins with a faulty,
but at the same time, a common view of suffering at the time of Jesus?
His disciples, seeing a man blind from birth, asked who sinned, this man or his parents.
They wanted to make a straight line connection between sin and suffering.
Either a person sinned, a family member sinned.
And so judgment had come.
They're looking for blame.
Jesus takes a different view.
He says that neither this man nor his parents,
but it happened so the works of God might be displayed in him.
So suffering is regarded as not outside of God's control.
And this man's suffering will result in God's work being displayed.
Just as a brief side note,
suffering instinctively makes people, makes us ask the why question.
Why this pain?
Why is this happening to me or to this other group?
And cultures throughout history have always looked to find answer
and to find purpose in suffering.
And one of the challenges with the modern Western view of the world,
that this material world is all there is,
where pleasure and comfort are the only goal to pursue,
then suffering really has no purpose.
Suffering is nothing other than a chaotic interruption.
And so as a consequence,
our modern way of thinking provides no real resources for dealing with suffering.
So we're more comfortable than people have ever been,
but we feel the trauma of loss and grief and suffering
more than any time in history.
Christianity is different.
Think about the story of the two men,
the drug dealer who became a Christian,
the blind man in our story.
They will both say to us in their stories,
suffering can be redeemed in the hands of God.
And Christianity, the Bible says that.
You know, suffering has purpose,
can have purpose in our lives.
It can be a megaphone, like C.S. Lewis said,
to get attention, to remind us of higher realities,
to remind us of our mortality or eternal realities.
In the Christian experience,
suffering can have that refining process of helping us to mature and grow in faith.
And we see, especially in the coming of Jesus,
that our God is not distant and uninvolved,
but in Jesus, he knows suffering.
And further, God is able to bring good from evil.
And we see that especially in the cross of Jesus,
where that great injustice,
Jesus killed by evil men,
according to God's plan,
became the means for salvation
for everyone who would believe.
So Christianity, if you're tuning in
and you're suffering and you're asking why,
Christianity has resources for you.
But to go on with our story,
then we see Jesus is urgent in his sense of mission.
As long as it's day,
we must do the works of him who sent me,
because night is coming.
Now, what does Jesus mean by that?
So Jesus came to be the light of the world.
So he came revealing in his person,
the glory of God,
the glory of God's plan of salvation,
the sending of his own son,
in rescuing people from moral and spiritual darkness,
in recovering us,
restoring us to relationship with God.
And he knows that he has only a certain amount of time
before the night will come,
referring to his arrest and his day.
So Jesus would not always be among us,
but while he was,
he wanted to be doing the work of God.
And so this sign is the work of God.
He's bringing light where there was darkness.
This is both physically and spiritually true
in the man's case.
How does he do it?
Verse six, we see Jesus takes the initiative,
spat on the ground,
made some mud with the saliva,
put it on the man's eyes,
go wash in the pool of Siloam.
He makes a mud pack
and he gives him a command to go.
And a miracle of healing takes place.
Just as in creation,
God said, let there be light.
And there was light to expel the darkness.
So in this story of new creation,
Jesus' light shines and trusting in Jesus
and seeing his glory means the end of our spiritual darkness.
As the light of God's salvation shines,
to fall under those beams and to receive that warmth
is to know light and life and restoration.
Every bit as true as in this man's case.
Now, the Pharisees.
The Pharisees, as we'll see,
are blind to the light.
They reject because of pride and prejudice.
So as the story goes on,
what happens is that the man's neighbours are shocked
and they're confused.
First century people weren't instinctively gullible.
They knew people who were blind
didn't just receive their sight.
And so they're asking the question,
what are we to make of this?
And so they take it to the Pharisees
as the religious and moral leaders of the day.
And in verses 14 to 34 of our text,
what we see effectively,
we don't have time to read it,
but there's an official investigation
that begins into this incident.
We get three different interrogations,
twice of the man born blind
and once of his parents.
But what we'll see is pride and prejudice towards Jesus
that the verdict is already in.
They're not coming to the evidence with an open mind.
Let me at this point issue a caution
for each of you listening today
to be careful that pride and prejudice
in our own hearts wouldn't stop you
from really exploring who Jesus is
to thinking about his claims
and the implications of his life and death and resurrection.
Don't be like the Pharisees, in other words.
Don't dismiss him out of court.
Rather, hear him on his own terms.
Read the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John
and discover Jesus for yourself.
Now let's think about these interrogations briefly.
Verse 1's in verses 14 to 17.
They bring the blind man in
and the focus is on how did this happen?
Not on who did it.
Not only for someone to worship.
There's also a focus on Sabbath rules.
It happens on a Sabbath.
And so here's this controversy about the Sabbath again.
And according to their extra rules,
not biblical rules, extra rules,
Jesus has broken their laws
because he has shown mercy on a Sabbath
when it's not life and death.
They said that was wrong.
How different is that to God who delights to show mercy?
They would have blamed Jesus for kneading mud as work
and anointing eyes was also considered unnecessary work.
So there's three strikes against Jesus' name.
So in their pride,
they say this man is not from God.
This man is a sinner.
He is a lawbreaker.
They stand in judgment of Jesus
because he doesn't fit into their thinking.
Although not all of them agree.
So some of the Pharisees said,
how can a sinner perform such signs?
So some are thinking,
well, hold on a minute.
This is the power of God at work.
So we need to do a rethink.
We need to assess this evidence.
And there's a really healthy attitude
to follow the evidence where it leads.
Very difficult to not come with their own bias and prejudice.
But read the Bible with an open mind.
Follow the evidence to where it leads.
Second interrogation,
verses 18 to 23,
takes place with the man's parents.
And there they're asking the question,
who is this guy?
Is he really your son?
Was he really born blind?
But they're also asking them,
how is he able to see?
So they confirm the first,
yes, he's our son,
but they're afraid to answer the second.
There's a penalty in force.
Anyone who speaks up for Jesus
is going to get thrown out of the synagogue,
thrown out of sort of religious community.
And so they don't want to speak.
They say, well, our son's old enough.
Just ask him.
And so they bring him back in,
a third interrogation from verse 24 to 34.
And what we see from them
is absolute cast iron pride and certainty
that they are on God's side,
that they're the good guys,
that Jesus is the enemy,
that they stand, as it were,
on the right side of history.
So they can say, verse 24,
we know this man is a sinner.
They can say of themselves,
we're disciples of Moses.
We know God spoke to Moses.
But this fellow, Jesus,
we know where he came from.
And they'll say of the man,
because they don't like the way he's responding,
you were steeped in sin at birth.
How dare you lecture us?
They are so certain of their position.
They never stop to consider
where is the power of Jesus coming from?
Where is his authority coming from?
They claim to be on Moses' side.
But Jesus, in chapter 5 and verse 45,
has already said to them,
you're accused of Moses,
in whom your hopes are set.
If you believe Moses,
you would believe me,
for he wrote about me.
Moses promised a prophet to come
who would be like him,
who would know God face to face,
who would lead the people
to spiritual freedom.
And that, of course, is Jesus.
So they have declared their verdict on Jesus.
He's a sinner.
He's not a friend of God.
They want nothing to do with him.
Well, Jesus delivers his verdict on the Pharisees.
Verse 41.
If you are blind,
you would not be guilty of sin.
But now that you claim you can see,
your guilt remains.
To reject Jesus
is to stand on the wrong side of history,
is to be in the dark spiritually,
to remain in the guilt of our sin before God.
Having the laws of Moses cannot help.
The law came after the promise
and after grace.
Jesus came full of grace and truth.
Jesus is the light of the world.
And what's clear from the Pharisees
is that his light as it shines,
it has this function
of exposing the darkness of sin.
Sunshine has that effect, doesn't it?
You clean your car,
you clean your windows,
you think you've done a great job,
then the sun shines
and you see it,
miss that cobweb
or you still see that smear there.
Or think about those
police camera action shows.
You know,
where there's the police helicopter
and he's got this night vision camera
and there's some kind of criminal
hiding in the bushes,
think they can't be seen,
but the light exposes.
That's one of the functions
of Jesus coming.
Jesus must expose the fact
that we have sinned.
And so he must humble us.
Just like the former drug dealer.
I was humbled by my circumstances,
humbled ultimately in the hands of God
to recognise the darkness
that lurks in our hearts,
in our lives,
in our minds.
Ways in which we have failed to love God,
ways in which we have failed to love others.
Jesus must humble us
to admit that we need a saviour,
that we cannot get our way to God by ourselves,
that we cannot have hope
in life and in death without Jesus.
So again,
read the Gospels,
discover Jesus.
And if you've already come to that point
where you know
that Jesus came to be a saviour for sinners
and you know you're a sinner,
then choose Jesus.
Choose the light.
Turn to him.
Turn away from sin.
Trust in him
and live enjoying his light every day.
So that's the Pharisees,
but we need to concentrate
a little bit of attention
on the man
who gives a powerful testimony
to Jesus
as the light of the world.
I always find it fascinating
to read accounts
of how the early church
went from a very small handful
of followers of Jesus in Jerusalem
to spreading
and coming to dominate
the Roman Empire
by the fourth century.
And that happened largely
because of ordinary men and women
sharing their stories
of discovering the truth about Jesus
and how he had changed them.
That change largely came
as Christians faithfully lived their lives
suffering and serving
and all the while seeking
to give glory to Jesus.
People like this guy
are why the church crew
in the face of official opposition,
as he faces insult
and ridicule
and the potential loss
of community,
he clearly,
honestly,
boldly
spoke of what Jesus had done.
He was a man who
from the moment
Jesus came into his life
was all about Jesus.
He's a wonderful model for us.
And the story of Jesus'
powerful, transforming work
in his life
gave him the opportunity
to speak
and he didn't waste it.
Whether it's to friends
and neighbours,
whether it's
to the religious opposition,
that's a beautiful pattern
for us to follow
in the 21st century,
whether you're in Edinburgh,
whether you're somewhere else.
To use our stories
if we're Christians
to give glory
to Jesus.
So we see it
with his neighbours
when they say,
is that really you?
What earth has happened to you?
What does he say?
Jesus
made me see.
When the Pharisees
are interrogating him,
who do you say Jesus is?
He answers,
he is a prophet.
Clearly,
he speaks God's word
with God's power.
And when they accuse Jesus
of being a sinner,
the man says,
that's remarkable.
You don't know
where he comes from,
yet he opened my eyes.
We know that God
does not listen to sinners,
he listens to the godly person
who does his will.
Nobody has ever heard
of opening the eyes
of a man born blind.
If this man were not from God,
he could do nothing.
God performed a miracle.
God doesn't listen to sinners,
but he listens to the godly.
Jesus must be from God.
There's no other way
to explain his power.
Very simple,
very clear,
very powerful testimony.
At this stage,
he doesn't know everything
about the identity of Jesus,
but still there is
that clear faith
and that powerful testimony.
And Jesus isn't done with him.
In verse 35,
we see Jesus again
take the initiative.
Hearing that he's been thrown
out of the synagogue,
he found him and said,
do you believe
in the son of man?
Jesus wants to give him
clearer spiritual light.
And so what he does
in this man's life
is he reveals himself
to the man
as the son of man.
A great title
from Daniel chapter 7
of this figure
coming from the presence
of God,
sent with glory
and authority
and the right
to rule forever.
Jesus says,
that's me.
I am God's true
and final prophet
and king.
And the man's response
in verse 38,
the man said,
Lord, I believe.
And he worshipped him.
He believes
and he honours.
For you,
if you are a Christian
listening today,
recognise that Jesus
wants to keep giving us
new sight,
new insight
into his glory,
his love,
his goodness.
The spiritual blessings
that we have in him,
the home in heaven
that he's laid up for us.
So stay close to him.
Over the summer,
you'll keep reading
and praying,
obeying,
walking with him,
depending on him.
That's the true sunshine
to bathe in
this summer
and every day
of our lives.
There's so much
to know
about our
infinitely glorious
saviour,
Jesus.
And also,
as Christians,
we all have
a once I was blind
and now I can see
story.
And so we have
the opportunity
to share that
with others.
For me,
I can recognise
thinking about my own life
very much
that the Pharisee
attitude
of thinking
that so long
as
I was trying
to keep
a set of
moral rules
and trying
really hard
to earn
God's approval,
then
I'd be okay.
But it wasn't
until
the light
dawned
in my heart
to expose
the darkness
of my sin
and my unbelief,
the folly
of thinking
that by myself
I could be good
enough for God,
the reality
of eternal
judgment
for not having
true faith
in Jesus.
It was
that exposing
of the gospel
that also caused
me to see
the wonderful
light of the cross.
That out of sheer
love and grace
God sent
his son
to live
for me,
to die
for me
and to rise
for me,
to save
me from my sin,
to save me
from my cell.
Now all of us
have a story
to share
and maybe we need
to be creative
in thinking
how can I share
something of my story,
of my faith
online
or face-to-face
as we see people
over this holiday period.
Let me just finish here.
If you find yourself
today,
wherever you're
tuning in,
in a time
of darkness,
maybe suffering,
maybe fearful,
can I ask you
to humbly
come to Jesus
as the light,
the one who came
in love,
the one who came
to die
in the darkness
under the judgment
of God
so that you might
have the light
of life.
Come to him
with your tears
and your pain
and your fears.
Know him
walking ahead of you.
Know him
walking with you
through pain
and suffering
and giving you
hope
that one day
this will be passed,
that there'll be
the great reversal,
everything sad
coming untrue
with the hope
of resurrection.
Thanks.
See you.