At the church where I serve, we have been spending
our time together in the weeks leading up to Easter looking at seven
unexplainable events from the life of Jesus that are recorded for us in an
account of Jesus life in the Bible called the gospel of John. This week, I
would like for us to look at the sixth of these events
from history that seem to be unexplainable. And as John gives us a front row
seat to this event from history, we will discover another timeless truth about
Jesus that have the potential to powerfully impact how we view Jesus. So let’s
look at this event from history together, beginning in John 9:1:
As He passed
by, He saw a man blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, "Rabbi,
who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?"
John brings us into this section of his account of
Jesus life by providing the context for this unexplainable event from history.
John tells us that as Jesus and His disciples left the temple after escaping
the self righteous religious leaders of the day’s attempt to stone Jesus, they
encountered a man who had been blind from birth. In other words, this man had
never been able to see a single thing.
And in the culture of the day, being born blind
would result in a life of suffering that was totally dependent upon others. Being
born blind would result in a life without hope. After all, this blind man had
never seen, so how could he ever hope to see? This man was in a hopeless
situation. The disciples, upon seeing the blind man, decide to ask Jesus a
theological question: "Rabbi,
who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?”
Now to fully understand the
significance of this question, we first need to understand what the disciples
believed that drove them to ask this question. You see, the
disciples, along with many people who lived in Jesus day, believed that
blindness, leprosy and other physical diseases were the result of sin in the
person or the family. The disciples believed that bad things happened to bad
people and good things happened to good people.
But, here was a man who was born blind. So, from the
disciple’s perspective, how could this man be blind before he ever sinned? How
could this man have experienced the bad things that he experienced in his life
before he had done any bad things to earn such bad experiences? So, from the
disciple’s perspective, it must have been the parents who had sinned. From the
disciple’s perspective, since bad things happen to bad people, his parents must
have been bad people, which resulted in their son experiencing bad things in
his life.
Now here is something for us to consider: how often
can we find ourselves thinking the exact same way? How often can we find
ourselves assuming that bad things happen to people because they are bad
people? How often can we find ourselves assuming that the bad things that
happen in someone’s life is the direct result of the bad things that either
they have done or that those who are close to them have done? How often can we
find ourselves assuming that if I simply do good, then I will experience good
from God? We see how Jesus answered the disciple’s theological question in
verse 3:
Jesus
answered, "It was neither that this man sinned, nor his
parents; but it was so that the
works of God might be displayed in him. "We must work the works of Him who
sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work. "While
I am in the world, I am the Light of the world."
Jesus replies to the disciples question by
explaining that this man was born blind so that his blindness could be used to
bring glory to God through what Jesus was about to do in his life. You see,
while Jesus was asked about the cause of the blindness, Jesus answered in terms
of the purpose of the blindness. Jesus here is revealing for us the reality
that there are times that bad things happen to bad people. And there are times
that bad things happen to good people. And there are times that God uses the
bad things that happen to people to make much of Him and point people to Him by
the way that people respond to the bad things that happen.
You see, nowhere in the Bible are we promised a
wrinkle free life. We live in a world that has been corrupted by selfishness
and rebellion. And God often works through the corruption of this world to
reveal His greatness and glory through our response to the bad things that may
happen in our lives. Jesus then explained to His disciples that they must be
doing what God wants them to be doing during this period of time, because over
the passage of time, the opportunities to be a part of what God is doing will
pass them by. Those opportunities are going to pass by because Jesus is fully
aware that He will soon be put to death.
As we discovered this past Christmas, when Jesus states
that He is the light of the world, He is revealing the reality that Jesus, in His very being and nature, is life and light
that helps us see that there is a Creator who is light and life and there is
creation that was covered in darkness. Jesus is explaining to His disciples
that, as the Light of the world, that He came to humanity in order to point
people to God.
While Jesus was on earth, He revealed and explained
God to the world, and revealed and exposed the selfishness, sin and rebellion
that was in the world. And in the same way today, as followers of Jesus, we
have a responsibility to partner in what God is doing and calls us to be doing
with the opportunities that He gives us while we are here on earth.
Just as Jesus was the vehicle that God used to point
people to Him, as followers of Jesus, we are to be the vehicle that God uses to
reveal Himself to the world. After answering their theological question, Jesus
then turns His attention to the man born blind in verse 6:
When He had
said this, He spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and applied the
clay to his eyes, and said to him, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam "
(which is translated, Sent). So he went away and washed, and came back seeing.
Now a natural reaction right about now is “well Dave
that’s kind of gross. That brings new meaning to the phrase “here’s some mud in
your eye”. And another question that arises here is “Why didn’t Jesus just heal
the man? I mean why place mud in his eye and then tell him to go wash it off in
a pool of water?” That just seems weird doesn’t it? I mean Jesus does not even
tell this man His name. Instead, He simply goes spit. spit. Go wash.
To fully understand what is happening here, we first
need to understand where the pool of Siloam was. The pool of Siloam and the
Temple were on opposite ends of the town. The distance between the Temple and
the pool of Siloam was approximately a half of a mile. In addition, the pool of
Siloam is located at a much lower elevation than the Temple. And as you might
imagine, the pool was a long walk for any man, let alone a blind man.
Now, I want us to take a minute and imagine
ourselves in this event from history as the man born blind. You have spent your
entire life suffering as a result of being born blind. You are sitting just
outside the Temple panhandling because that is the only way that you can
possible provide for yourself. Then some guy named Jesus and His friends come
up and start having a conversation about why you have been blind your entire
life.
Now, while you are blind you are not deaf, so you
hear this entire conversation. You don’t say a word to Jesus or His friends.
Then as Jesus finishes His conversation, He turns to you, spits on the ground,
makes a mud pie and places it on your eyes and tells you go walk a half of a
mile down to the pool of Siloam. Jesus basically says to you “I am sending you
to the pool of sent so that you might be able to see.” You’re the blind man.
You did not ask for this. What would you be thinking? What would you be
feeling? How would you respond?
John tells us that the blind man responded by making
the half mile trip to the pool of Siloam. Can you imagine what that must have
looked like? What would be running through your mind if you were the blind man?
What would you be thinking as you arrived at the pool? What would you be
feeling as you began to wash the mud off of your eyes? What would you be
thinking and feeling as you began to see for the first time?
You see, by having to go wash in the pool of Siloam,
the blind man had to demonstrate His trust in Jesus by obeying Jesus
instructions. And the blind man’s trust in Jesus resulted in the unexplainable
happening.
Tomorrow, we will see how those who knew the blind
man responded to what had happened…
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