Blind Crossing

John 9:1-41: Look Out

I don’t know what it was like in your school, but in my school, the cool kids were in the science club.  Well, maybe not the cool kids, per se, but anyway, I was in the science club.  We actually did some really fun activities, including spelunking.  That’s the fancy science word for cave exploring.  We trekked a couple of miles into the backcountry until we got to the cave entrance, and then, flashlights in hand, we went into the cave.  As we got deeper in, it got darker until the only light came from our flashlights.  At one point our guide told us to turn off our flashlights and to be silent.  If you’ve been there, you know how dark it was.  It’s can’t-see-your-hand-in-front-of-your-face dark. We only stayed in that darkness for a few moments, but it was striking.

It was so good to get to see again.  As we once again turned on our flashlights, as light shone into the darkness and illuminated the cave, we once again appreciated the ability to see.  In John 9, we meet a man who appreciated the ability to see; he had been blind since he was born. 

Jesus’ disciples’ reaction to this blind guy is pretty typical, isn’t it?  We find out later that this guy was a beggar – do they offer to give him money or ask Jesus to heal him?  No, they ask a philosophical/theological question.  Why do bad things happen to good people?  The underlying theory was that someone sinned.  This is why bad things happen.  Either this guy sinned (possibly while he was still in the womb), or his parents sinned. 

Jesus cuts to the chase here.  Neither this man nor his parents sinned.  This happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. (John 9:3).  Did you get that?  Many times we get hung up on a difficulty, a handicap, a problem, or a struggle.  We sit in figurative darkness and cannot see our own hands in front of our eyes, let alone God’s hand in our lives.  We can’t see beyond the issue.  And worse, we elevate the issue to the primary spot in our lives.  In all practicality, we’re saying, “God is less powerful than my handicap.”

What happens when we accept that God might have allowed us to go through tough things for a reason?  That maybe God will use you, the one who has suffered greatly, to do great things? In his commentary The Gospel of John, F.F. Bruce put it this way: God overruled the disaster of the child’s blindness so that, when the child grew to manhood, he might, by recovering his sight, see the glory of God in the face of Christ.

This guy gets to go from not seeing anything straight to seeing the glory of God in the face of Jesus!  This guy can really appreciate Jesus – kind of like how much everyone has been appreciating the sunny, warm weather.  When the weather we’ve been having comes in October, people complain at how “cold” it’s getting, but when it comes, melting February’s snow, we really appreciate it.

Jesus then makes an awesome statement: I am the light of the world. You’re ready for this statement, aren’t you?  Only a couple of weeks ago, we heard Jesus say “I am the bread of life” and we went into the ramifications of the words he used.  He is equating himself with God here, using the same “I AM” that God spoke to Moses in the burning bush.

In the preface to John’s Gospel, we read this: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. (John 1:1-5).  If we’ve read this and continue reading John’s gospel, we should understand that Jesus is making it abundantly clear who He is.  He is using God’s Name to describe Himself. He is saying that He Himself is the light shining in the darkness. 

Did you notice how John describes the Word?  As co-creator with God… and then, Jesus makes a physical demonstration of his creative power.  Much like God created humans from the dust, Jesus mixes dirt and saliva and re-creates the man’s sight.

Jesus is truly the light of the world.

Not everyone “gets” it.  This isn’t surprising – especially from the readings I’ve been doing this past week in my “through the Bible in 40 days” journey. I’ve been in Isaiah, where Isaiah prophesied the coming king who would reign in righteousness, where the eyes of those who see will no longer be closed, and the ears of those who hear will listen. (Isaiah 32:3)

Isaiah 42:6-7 likewise prophesies: “I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand.  I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.”  This is exactly what Jesus is doing!  In one action, Jesus has fulfilled the prophecy from Isaiah.  He demonstrates his ability to give sight to the blind. He releases this man from the captivity of his disability.  And he brings light to those who have been sitting in utter darkness, releasing them from their dungeons.

But not everyone is pleased with this development.  The Pharisees, the holiness movement folks who have been doing their best to walk in God’s ways, don’t get it at all.  They determine that the man must not have been born blind.  Last week we talked about people who refuse to believe because they don’t have a category for the miraculous.  Today we see the Pharisees doing something more insidious. They believe in miracles, but they have preconceived notions about who can and cannot do them.  They held that Jesus wasn’t who he said he was, that he didn’t come from God, so he obviously couldn’t have done a miracle, so the miracle did not happen.  Can you see the fault in their “logic?”  Jesus didn’t come from God, and only one from God could have done this miracle, so the miracle that everyone saw… it didn’t happen.

Perhaps besides the episode of Balaam’s donkey, this is maybe the funniest passage of scripture I know. Can you imagine what the Pharisees would do when confronted with their poor logic?  And it gets better.  They go and search out the formerly blind man, and he gives them a straight-up answer. “He is a prophet.” (John 9:17) Since they don’t like this answer, they ask his parents, who deflect their questions: We know he is our son, and we know he was born blind. But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself. (John 9:20-21). So they question the formerly blind man again, and (I love this part), he answers them. “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?” (John 9:27).

I love it!

But the Pharisees don’t want to become Jesus’ disciples.  They are exactly what the prophet Isaiah spoke of in Isaiah 42:20 “You have seen many things, but have paid no attention; your ears are open, but you hear nothing.”

Jesus tells the formerly blind man, “For judgment I have come into the world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.” (John 9:39). The man, born blind, now sees.  The Pharisees around him are indignant. What? Are we blind too? (John 9:40).

They don’t see it at all. It’s just like Isaiah prophesied. [The LORD] said, “Go and tell this people: ‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”

The Pharisees have calloused hearts, and they refuse to admit their own blindness.  They are blind, but they’re so used to being blind that they don’t even realize how blind they are.  They are those spoken of in Isaiah 59:9-10 We look for light but all is darkness; for brightness but we walk in deep shadows. Like the blind we grope along the wall, feeling our way like men without eyes. At midday we stumble as if it were twilight; among the strong, we are like the dead.

While they think they’re seeing, they’re really just groping around in the darkness.   Now, up until this moment, we’ve stayed focused on the Pharisees; it’s easy to target them, because they were so obviously in the wrong.  They finish up this section indignantly asking, “What? Are we blind, too?” (John 9:40) The answer is supposed to be, “Of course not.  I’m talking about other blind guides.”

There are places we don’t like to go and things we don’t like to hear.  One of those things we don’t like to hear is “you’re blind.”   But it’s something that Jesus said – to the Pharisees, the ones who were doing their best to follow the Law.  In short, Jesus was talking to church people like us.  We who have faithfully attended church and done our best for all these years… Jesus is talking to us.  So I have to ask the question: are we blind, too?

It’s one of the hardest questions we can ask, because when we do ask, we get answers.  Where are my blind spots?  This isn’t just about “I’ll do better” because when you’re blind, the point is you can’t see! It’s not just about “doing better” because in your blindness, you have no frame of reference. 

I know what it’s like to be blind, because I have been privileged to be given sight into some of those blind areas.  I remember going on a Walk to Emmaus, which is an intense spiritual retreat weekend, and after a restless night, before everyone else was awake, I went for a run.  I like to pray while I’m running – I’ve found that I’m much less distracted while I’m on the road (I can’t get to a to-do list or any of the items on that list while I’m out). Anyway, I was praying, and my prayer was for the Holy Spirit to show me my blind areas.  If you want an immediate answer to prayer, pray that honestly.  As I ran through downtown Columbus, I would steer clear of the homeless people – probably a good idea in any case, but I realized that I was more aware of those of other races than mine.  If you’d asked me, “Are you racist?” I would have answered “No! Of course not!” but the way I was behaving was racist. 

Then when I returned to the church where the retreat was being held, all of the other men were waking up and preparing for the day, so I hurried to get my stuff so I could get in line for a shower; it was an older building and I knew there wouldn’t be enough hot water for everyone… then it hit me.  Why did I deserve a hot shower over these other men? It was the Holy Spirit opening my eyes to my self-centeredness. 

I tell you these things remind you that I’m no different from you; I have faults, and I’m working on them. This should remind you that we’ve all got blind spots.  What are yours?

If it’s truly a blind spot, you probably won’t recognize it right away, because, well, it’s a blind spot!  It’s hard to recognize blind spots when you’re in darkness – when I was in the cave, my eyes worked, but I couldn’t see at all, not even my hand in front of my face.  So if you truly want to see, you’re going to have to get out of the dark. 

Jesus tells us, “I am the light of the world.” (John 9:5).  He completely lights up the world.  Everything.  Like what was foretold by Isaiah 60:19 The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.  God himself is our light, lighting everything.  And Jesus is identifying Himself as this light – as God Himself.

God, in the Person of Jesus Christ, is that everlasting light that illuminates everything. And we have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit to live within us, to light our way.

When God lights every aspect of our lives, don’t expect for everything to be easy.  There is an old Russian story about when they first brought electricity and the electric lamp to the Russian countryside.  When the guy who installed the light bulbs came back shortly thereafter, he found the people in darkness.  Yes, their lamps worked fine.  No, there weren’t any problems with the light bulbs.  He started asking questions, and he found out that the problem was with the light itself.  With these new lights, they realized just how filthy their houses really were. So instead of living with the filth and instead of cleaning house, they turned off the lights.

The choice is yours.  Do you allow the Holy Spirit to illuminate every aspect of your life?  Are you willing to allow Him to light up the darkness, even to expose your areas of blindness?  In 1 John 1:5-7 we read: This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.  If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.  But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

He goes on later to write this: 1 John 2:9-11 Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.

In other words, we who call ourselves Christians, we who have accepted Jesus in our lives, who have the gift of the Holy Spirit, given in our baptism, have been given the Light.  In one respect, it’s terrifying, because it’s a light that illuminates all of the filth in our lives.  But in another respect, it’s freeing, because not only does the Holy Spirit illuminate every aspect of our lives, but the gift that Jesus gave us on the cross does a deep cleaning as well.

But he gives us some requirements as well. As John wrote, if we claim to be in the light but harbor hatred in our hearts, if we decide that one part of ourselves is “off limits” to the Truth of the Holy Spirit, that “this is my private place, and nobody is allowed there, not even the Holy Spirit” then we’re still in the darkness.  God doesn’t allow us to halfway follow Him.

The choice is ours.  Will you pray for the Holy Spirit to illuminate your life?  Will you allow Jesus to clean house?  Will you walk in obedience to Him?