In John 9 we have been told of an
incident with a great outcome. This was good news not only for the person
involved, but also for the community which subsequently heard his testimony.
Such testimony speaks of God being at work, and points to the full identity of
Jesus (as Son of God) – the One who brings us out of darkness into the light.
This is out there for people to either accept or reject. For those who accept,
then there is for them a whole new future. Those who reject remain in the dark,
which is such a great tragedy.
This was all very important for the original
Jewish readers of John’s Gospel who were being persecuted and ‘put out’ of the
synagogue because of their primary allegiance to Jesus. The testimony of the
man who had been born blind showed once again that belief in Jesus was correct,
and all opposition to Jesus such as that demonstrated by the Pharisees was in
error. Such a realisation stands as an encouragement for all of us who follow
in the Gospel tradition.
Textual questions
We read at the beginning of the text
that Jesus initiated this healing ministry (v.6). Jesus didn’t require, in this
case, any statement of faith … however their does seem to be faith progressively
expressed later (so this healing was certainly well invested). Why did Jesus
take this initiative??
Jesus did so it seems for various
reasons:
(i)
Jesus’
disciples had pointed to this man as a theological conundrum (v.2). Why was it
that this man was blind? The disciples had some prior knowledge that this man
had been BORN blind … perhaps they had been told, or perhaps it was his
physical appearance that led them to this assumption. Either way, the disciples
were working under a primitive uninformed idea that someone must have sinned
for this man to have been born blind. To illustrate their theological
immaturity, they even included the possibility of the man himself being the
sinner – but how could that have been the case prior to his birth!?! Having had
this man pointed out to him in this way, I reckon that Jesus was already
committed to healing him. What a stigma this man was having to live under; and
this certainly brought out the compassionate heart of Jesus. The people of the
day saw someone seemingly deserving of derision; the disciples just saw an
unsolved theological question; Jesus saw a child of God in need.
(ii)
The
response Jesus gave, concerning the question about where this man’s blindness
originated, also meant that something terrific was about to occur (v.3). It’s
not that anyone sinned … it just is! The question as to who sinned or who was
responsible for this blindness was actually the wrong question. The right
question is what we would do, and in this case … what God would do, when faced
with this level of need. If we look at this response with a Hebrew mind we
might think that God causes such states as blindness (for God’s own purposes).
But we know this could not be true, and it would be a very
dangerous proposition to run with. God simply is not cruel. There are
many people born blind who never receive physical healing in this world.
Blindness, like many other states of being, is just something that happens in a
fallen and imperfect world! Yet things don’t have to remain as they are. That IS
the point being made here!! This is because God, the great Creator and
Redeemer, lives! And more to the direct point – this God is fully present right
here in Jesus – this is a sign of the very presence of God. And now, for those
ready for change, change can happen. Ken Manley in his recent book on the
Gospel of John critiques this common translation of John 9:3 and prefers, “Because
of his blindness you will see God work a miracle for him”, or alternatively, “Let
the works of God be displayed in him”.
This man who had been born blind, and
had no doubt suffered in many ways, was ready for the touch of God. There was not
only the stigma and ridicule mentioned earlier that he lived under, but there
would have also been the need to beg to survive, and all the issues of
isolation and dependency in that society. So, Jesus made a mud paste using his
own spittle … which was believed to have healing powers, and applied this to
the man’s eyes. The making of “mud” perhaps recalls a man being formed from the
dust of the earth (Genesis 2:7); Jesus very publicly supplying the eyesight
that had not formed (for whatever unknown reason) in the womb. God was at work
restoring the broken!
This blind man would have to show some
trust in grappling his way over to the pool of Siloam to wash. Yet in doing
this without any apparent hesitation, he seems to understand that his life had
been touched in a remarkable way. Upon washing his eyes in the pool of Siloam,
the man could see for the first time in his life.
Spiritual meaning
We can be awestruck by the
transformation that God brings about. Nobody had ever heard of a person being
blind FROM BIRTH ever gaining their sight. This healing miracle becomes a sign
then that yet nothing is impossible for God. We could and should also apply
this in a spiritual way, whereby those who have been born into an environment
completely devoid of any vestige of faith … ‘blind from birth’ if you like …
can still come to faith later in life. This spiritual interpretation is brought
out by Jesus’ self-reference as being “the light of the world” (v.5). Jesus can
bring light into all sorts of dark places.
Practical outcomes
We now read scene after scene where
people could not come to grips with what happened. The simplest explanation,
that this man had been healed by Jesus, was actually the most elusive
explanation. Some thought this must be someone else and not the blind man,
while some recognised him correctly but had no idea how he could now see. So
the people brought the whole situation before the Pharisees, who should be able
to bring some sort of explanation concerning this happening, but they proved
themselves to be in the ‘dark’ (to be the ones who were really ‘blind’). The
Pharisees of course, with their closed minds, would likely never be convinced
that Jesus was the source of this man’s new sight, despite the obvious. And
certainly these Pharisees were also locked into the ‘no healing on the Sabbath
ban’, which facilitated their attempts at discrediting Jesus – a
‘Sabbath-breaker’ could not possibly be an agent of God … this was their persistent view (a view of
course based on their own agenda rather than God’s). So this formerly blind man
was given a bit of a hard time, when really there should have been a big
celebration.
God was not only working in this man’s
life toward the beginnings of faith, but towards a thorough discipleship as
well. The more this man was questioned, and the more his testimony was
challenged, the firmer and more forthright he became. This culminated with
these great words of personal witness, “One thing I do know, that though I was
blind, now I see” (v.25). Such questioning and such challenge would normally
result in doubt, even fear, yet this man was open to the reassurances of God
such that he became more confident, more courageous, and thus more effective in
his witness. Here he is compared with his parents, who couldn’t move past the
fear of being “put out of the synagogue” (that was attached to confessing
anything positive about Jesus). The newly sighted man was even able to become a
little sarcastic with the Pharisee’s lack of response to the obvious (v.27),
and then even went on to preach a little sermon based on the notion that if
Jesus was able to heal a man BORN BLIND, then, far from being a normal sinner, then
Jesus must be from God (v.30-33). The irony must have occurred to him
concerning these so-called religious leaders who had never done anything to
help him his whole life, and now were more interested in the issue of Sabbath-observance
than his obvious healing.
Conclusion
The special and most impacting thing
in this narrative for me, is that this formerly blind man simply told the story
of what had happened to him, and through the power of that sharing became more
confident in pointing to the source of this great happening. When as a result
he was ‘driven out’, i.e. religiously rejected, Jesus came back
to him … of course he did, and through some helpful dialogue, the newly sighted
man was able to fully embrace faith – “Lord, I believe” (v.38), he said! “The
healed man now has the full gift of sight; he not only
sees, but he sees Jesus” (Manley).
Jesus comes to the excluded and stigmatised
in all his compassion and turns things around. Jesus will always be where he is
needed! Those in the dark sought to silence one who had come into the light,
but just couldn’t do so. This should all encourage us in our witness to what
Jesus has done, is doing, and will continue to do, in us, through us, and
around us. The light will continue to shine!
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