Seeing
John 9:1–7, 13–17, 34–39 What’s this about? It’s about a fellow who was blind since birth, who received his sight from a miracle that Jesus performed. Yeah, that’s part of it. But that’s not the main part of it. While having his sight restored and seeing for the very first time in his life was indeed big, there’s something much much bigger going on here....something much more important! I know, its hard to to top getting your eyesight back, but as the Gospel of John would say, this miracle was but a sign....a sign that points to something else. A sign that the Savior, the Messiah, the Christ was here! Eyesight was just the beginning of what he came to restore! He came to restore life to us all! He came to restore the earth! He came to restore our relationship with our creator. And the miracles he did were signs, clues, and prearranged cues to signify that he was the one who was sent by God. The greatest miracle that happened on that day was not that the man’s eyesight was restored. The greatest miracle of that day was that this man would have his eyes of faith opened and would see the Savior that God sent into the world and see him as his Savior too! Look at how it happened. He and Jesus didn’t even exchange a word at first. Jesus put the mud on his eyes and sent him to wash. His regular eyesight was restored. The Pharisees get involved and start questioning him vigorously. They ask him who he thinks Jesus is. The man says “He’s a prophet!” Do you see? His vision of who Jesus is is getting clearer and clearer. But the vision of the pharisees was getting cloudier and cloudier. They threw the man out of synagogue because they couldn’t bear to admit that Jesus was, in fact the Messiah and Savior of the world. Jesus caught wind of the the man’s excommunication, so he seeks him out. When he finds him he asks. “Do you believe in the Son of Man.” He could have just as well said, “Do you believe in the Coming Messiah”. “Who is he sir” , the man asked “Tell me so that I may believe in him.” And Jesus said “You have now Seen him, in fact, he is the one speaking with you.” YAHOO! “Lord, I believe!” Said the man and he worshipped him. He was blind but now he he sees! This was the greater miracle: A sinner meeting his Savior and being saved for all eternity. At the end, where Jesus summarizes the events of the day he says: “For Judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.” Obviously he wasn’t talking about eyeballs here. He was talking about souls. There would be some souls that are spiritually blind that would be given sight and be saved as in the case of the beggar man, but as we see in the case of the Pharisees, there would also be souls that should have or could have been able to see, and perhaps also thought they could see, who would be blinded and would not be saved and would miss their opportunity to know the Savior. This is the way that it has always been with Jesus. People either see him as Savior or they are blind to who he is. They will come into the light, or they will plunge themselves into darkness; they will either be saved or they will be damned. So the question that we need to be asking ourselves is this: How can we avoid becoming spiritually blind. It’s kind of tough to figure that out on one’s own because spiritual blindness is different from blindness in the eyes. A person becomes spiritually blind, doesn’t know that they are blind; they think they can see. Ask a pharisee if he thinks he’s spiritually blind and your going to get a pretty severe thrashing! Pharisees thought they could see better than anyone! The pharisees didn’t need to learn anything more! And so they didn’t! Their own arrogance made them blind and made it impossible for them to see the Savior whom God had sent for them. Spiritual arrogance is most often the companion to spiritual blindness. The heart that is Spiritually arrogant says, “I know all I need to know and I don’t need to learn anything more.” Like the pharisees before him, the spiritually arrogant person can be heavily involved in religious matters, He might be in church all the time, but he doesn’t take anything that is said to heart....no, he’s wondering if this or that person is listening because this or that person needs to hear it....of course they themselves don’t need to hear....they got it all figured out. Sometimes the spiritually arrogant are closely connected to the church; sometimes, they have no connection whatsoever; but arrogance still reigns in the heart. Those who are outside the church often times see themselves as knowing better ...in that they are not so gullible as all those people who go to church on Sunday morning. Arrogance does appear to be a big part of spiritual blindness. And that makes sense....It’s all connected our original sin....They ate the fruit so they could be as Gods.....arrogance. Or as Paul puts it in Romans “Professing to be wise they became fools” (Rom 1:22) To be arrogant is to make an idol of yourself, and when you make an idol of yourself you worship yourself instead of the Lord and so you become spiritually blind. Contrast this with the blind man to whom Jesus gave sight. Do you see any arrogance in that guy? I don’t. Jesus put the mud on his eyes and told him to wash. It must have seemed strange and out out of the ordinary to the man, but obediently he went. And the later when Jesus asked him if he believed in the Son of man, “Who is he sir, so that I may believe in him?” Any arrogance there? Nope. Then when Jesus told him who he was, He worshipped him and that meant to fall down in a submissive posture. Any arrogance there? Nope. There was no arrogance in the man to prevent him from seeing. What helped him was probably that he had to live so many years as a beggar. He was accustomed to admitting his weaknesses; accustomed to asking for help from others. Jesus once said “blessed are the poor in spirit for there’s is the kingdom of God.” In this man we see why this is so. This gives us a clue as to how we can avoid being overcome with arrogance. First, we must realize that in his presence, we got nothing to crow about because we are all imperfect sinners. We are, in effect, beggars who are completely dependent on his mercy. That’s all we got. In his word, God says “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God so that may lift you up” (1Peter 5:6) Humble yourselves! As you hear his word instead of listening for others, listen for yourself. When you hear the law in full and true humility say “That’s me! I did that! I have sinned in that way! ” But at the same time when you hear how Jesus died so that your sins would be cancelled. Once again, say “That’s me!” “He did that for me!” This is what those who can see are like. They see themselves truthfully; they do not put blinders on in regard to their own sins. But at the same time, they see a God who is Gracious and merciful and willing to forgive all of their sin for the sake of Christ Jesus. That how you See! AMEN |
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