The One Who Was Blind

This is Christ the King Sermons. Christ the King Sermons is a ministry of Christ the King Presbyterian Church located in Raleigh, North Carolina. CTK is a community rooted in the depth of the gospel, refined by hard conversations, fueled by meaningful relationships, and committed to redemptive work in Raleigh.

We must work the works of him who sent me. While it is day, night comes when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. As he said this, he spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle and anointed the man's eyes with clay saying to him, go wash in the Pool Of Siloam, which means sent. So he went and washed and came back seeing. The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar said, is not this the man who used to sit and beg? Some said, it is he. Others said, no. But he is like him. He said, I am the man. They said to him, then how were your eyes opened? He answered, the man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and said to me, go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed and received my sight. They brought to the pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. The pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, he put clay on my eyes and I washed and I see. Some of the pharisees said, this man is not from God for he does not keep the Sabbath. But others said, how can a man who is a sinner do such signs? There was a division among them. So they again said to the blind man, what do you say about him since he has opened your eyes? He said, he is a prophet. So for the second time, they called the man who had been blind and said to him, give god the praise. We know that this man is a sinner. He answered, whether he is a sinner, I do not know. One thing I know that though I was blind, now I see. Jesus heard that they had cast him out And having found him, he said, do you believe in the son of man? He answered, and who is he, sir, that I may believe in him? And Jesus said to him, you have seen him, and it is he who speaks to you. He said, Lord, I believe, and he worshiped him. Jesus said, for judgment, I came into this world that those who do not see may see and that those who say see may become blind. Some of the pharisees near him heard this and they said to him, are we also blind? Jesus said to them, if you were blind, you would have no guilt. But now that you say we see, your guilt remains. — John 9

Lord God, we thank you for this beautiful story and beautiful passage of scripture. We pray that you would open our eyes, that we could see you in it, that we would not be like the Pharisees, blind to this story and its importance to our own lives. But instead, we would be like the man and that we would be brought to worship. Lord, work in our time together. Use it, we pray. In Jesus' name, Amen.

The Context of the Feast of Tabernacles

Well, last week, we talked a little bit about the context of this section of John. Paul talked about how this whole series of events happens in the context of the Feast of Tabernacles. The Feast of Tabernacles was a celebratory feast that, among other things, celebrated God's deliverance of his people through the wilderness, leading them with the cloud of fire by night and the pillar of cloud by day. Presumably, light at night because the fire would light up. And so in order to celebrate this, one of the things that the Jews did was they would put all these lanterns in the tabernacle, all this light. It was in many ways a celebration of light.

And so Jesus is doing all of this teaching about him being the light of the world, and he's healing this blind man and talking about him being the light of the world in the context of this great celebration where the people of Israel are celebrating how God is their light who brought them out of Egypt and in his mighty hand led them through the wilderness to the promised land. It's a celebration of God saving by light. So Jesus talking about him being the light of the world is incredibly meaningful at this time for his listeners. And these miracles that he's doing are meant to highlight—no pun intended—but to really press home what the point is of him saying that.

It's also worth noting that the entire gospel of John—I said this last time that I preached—that John was the gospel writer who wrote his gospel at the end of his life. He didn't immediately write down all of his memories of what happened. He let them marinate. And almost all of the miracles that he describes have a double meaning. John is reflecting back on the miracles that Jesus literally did, and he's saying, hey, he literally did these so that we could see more of the importance of who he was.

And so all of his miracles, whether it's feeding 5,000 people, is meant to communicate that Jesus is the food we need. Or he has a conversation with a woman at the well, and he says, "I'm the living water." So all of the physical things in John are meant to communicate a spiritual reality.

One thing to think about: oftentimes I get this question as a pastor. Jesus came and he healed all these people, but he only healed some people. Why didn't he just heal everybody? Why not make all the blind see?

What John wants us to see is that that's what Jesus did. Through giving this blind man sight, he was spiritually attempting to bring healing to all of us who are spiritually blind. Do you see what John does? Do you see what Jesus was doing that John saw and now wants us to see? Do you see the metaphor within the metaphor within the metaphor? The healing of the blind man is meant to heal our blindness.

In John, this miracle particularly is important.

His purpose is that we will see and believe in Jesus. — John 20:31

If there's one of these metaphors that is nearest and dearest to John and that he really wants to press home, it's this one. Don't miss who Jesus is. Don't be blind. See him as he is.

There are three points that I want to look at. One, I want to look at the blindness of the disciples and what Jesus is trying to teach us through their blindness. I want to look at the blindness of the Pharisees and what Jesus is trying to teach us through their blindness. And finally, I want to look at the sight of the blind man and what Jesus is trying to teach us through him.

The Disciples and Suffering

First, the disciples. I want you to notice that there's almost a throwaway section at the beginning that I think is incredibly important, and I'm tempted to make a whole sermon within my sermon just about this first point, largely because I have experienced a fair amount of suffering recently. Jesus and the disciples have this kind of almost throwaway conversation about suffering, and I see incredible importance in it. I'm going to try to not spend too much time on it, but I don't want you to miss it. Jesus didn't want you to miss it either, and John certainly wanted you to see it.

This conversation begins this way. The disciples are looking at a blind man, and they say, "Rabbi, who sinned? This guy or his parents?"

Notice the assumptions in their question. First assumption—and this is a very common assumption—is that when you see somebody who's suffering, they messed up somehow. We do that both for ourselves and for others. One of the very first things that you do when you experience suffering is you go, "What did I do wrong?" You start this process of self-evaluation. "I must have messed up somehow. I must have offended God somehow. What did I do?"

And then you see somebody else who's suffering, and you feel bad. Why are they suffering? They're no worse than me. And so what you try to do psychologically is you try to make them worse than you. They messed up somehow. That's why they're dealing with this, and then suddenly you feel better. Psychologists have actually studied this and noted that people have a tendency to do that.

Those are the two things that we do. When we encounter suffering, what do we want to do? We don't want to admit that it's out of our control. We want to control it. We want to somehow make it about something we did wrong or something that somebody else did wrong. And Jesus is saying that's not necessarily the case. He rejects that assumption.

The other assumption that they make is that this man's suffering is the end of the story. Do you notice that? Sin, then suffering, the end. And Jesus is very quick to reject that as well. I think oftentimes when we're in the midst of suffering, we think this is the end. God has forsaken me. All of this suffering that I'm experiencing, that's the bottom line. There's nothing coming after this. Jesus rejects both of these assumptions.

He says, very clearly, "This was not because of this man's sin or his parents' sin. It's because of some future event that God is going to do. It's something that God has done to show forth his glory. It's something valuable beyond it in and of itself." It's not the end of the story. God is going to do more.

You see, the Christian theology of suffering is a very nuanced theology. Sometimes God does react immediately to sin. We have to acknowledge that. In the Old Testament, you see that again and again. The nation sins and then God sends judgment. Sometimes God does respond to sin with his wrath, especially for those who are not his elect. For those who are his elect, sometimes he responds with discipline. Hebrews talks about this.

Sometimes when we are wrong as believers, God does bring hardship to correct us, to teach us, to change us, to transform us in a loving way, to turn us away from things that are bad for us and towards himself. So we can't reject their assumptions entirely, but that's not the only example of suffering. That's not the only way that God prevents suffering. That's not the only reason. But it's easy for us to be simple, black and white. This is why, and that is why. It makes us feel better about ourselves. Our control makes us feel better about others. But sometimes suffering comes for other reasons.

Sometimes suffering comes just because of original sin. We live in a broken world. There's brokenness all around us. Sometimes you do nothing wrong and the brokenness of the world around you comes at you. That happens all the time.

Sometimes suffering comes because people choose to enter suffering for other people. Parents will make incredible sacrifices for their children voluntarily. They will bring suffering on themselves for the sake of others.

And sometimes God uses suffering for glorious purposes, for his own glory. We see that in Job's story, for example. Incredible suffering is brought on Job. He doesn't know why, but God has a purpose for it. We see it in Joseph's story. He goes through all this suffering. His brothers sell him into slavery. He winds up in prison for years of his life. Why? Ultimately, we find out so that he could be elevated to second in command in Egypt and feed not only his family, but the whole area and save them from starvation. And eventually, he reflects on that and he says, "What you meant for evil, God meant for good."

We can know that whatever suffering exists, God always takes suffering. It's not that he necessarily brought it on, but he always takes it and he uses it for some good purpose.

Jesus Sees the Value of the Sufferer

When we wrongly conclude that someone is suffering simply because of their sin, when we are rushed to judgment, we are quick to invalidate them and the suffering that they're experiencing. We invalidate them by simply saying, "Well, this is because they're wrong. Therefore, I'm better than them. They don't matter. I matter." When we invalidate the suffering, we do that this way. We say, "Well, this is just what they get. There's no purpose beyond this other than their penalty, their judgment." And we miss the fact that God may be up to doing something really, really great through that.

But I want you to notice Jesus here in his correction to the disciples. Notice that he sees the value of the sufferer. He sees the blind man. He hears the dismissive comment of his disciples, and he immediately corrects it. "Neither him nor his parents." He defends them. Can you imagine what that must have felt like? This guy had been walking through life hearing that this was his fault, and Jesus shows up and he says, "You know what? Your individual sin didn't cause this. Yeah, you're a sinner, but that's not why you're blind. You're blind because God is up to something with you."

Can you imagine what that must have felt like to this guy who had been sidelined his whole life?

Those of you in this church that are experiencing suffering, do you feel the beauty of your Lord's gaze upon your suffering? That it's not something that you did? It's not because he hates you. It's because he's up to something good.

Notice the value of the suffering: "the works of God may be manifested in him." God isn't done with us in the midst of our suffering. God is going to use this just like he used Joseph, just like he used Jesus' sufferings. Jesus wasn't sinful. He was sinless. And yet it's hard to argue that anyone suffered more than the man who took upon the sins of the world on the cross, died, bore the wrath of God in order to pay for them. And that wasn't the end of the story, was it? That was Friday, but Sunday, he rose.

There's always more to the story in an economy of a resurrection kingdom. And that, brothers and sisters, is the economy that we live in. God is not done with us once we get to our suffering. We're in the middle of the story.

There was a little girl, my last week at Saint David's, the school that I worked at before I took the job here, who fell into a lake and drowned. The family asked me—I had just returned from a mission trip—they said, "Hey, will you come speak at the funeral? We have a pastor at our church who's gonna speak, but we want you to speak to this little girl's brother and sister." I had two days to prepare. What do you say? What do you say to little kids who have just lost their sister? Here's all I could do. I got the Jesus Storybook Bible, the one we just gave you guys, the Grimleys.

It's the one we give out when we baptize infants. And I told the story of Jarius and his daughter about how he came to Jesus and pleaded for his daughter's life. And then men came and said, hey, she's dead. Don't bother the teacher anymore. And Jesus said, don't doubt, just believe. And I stopped right there, and I said, this is the point of the story you're at. As far as anyone knows, the girl's dead. And Jesus is just saying, believe in me. It's gonna be okay. In a resurrection economy, death is not the end. Suffering is not the end. God is always using it to bring about his glory because he's bringing a resurrection. Never forget that. Alright. Sermon one done. Let's move on to sermon two.

The Pharisees' Pride and Blindness

Jesus uses the pharisees and their blindness as well to teach us something. What is he teaching us? Teaching us about pride. Notice their pride is on full display. Just a couple of things that they say in this passage. We aren't his disciples. How dare you suggest that we would be that guy's disciples? We're disciples of Moses. We're the ones that really know the law. You, blind man, were born in utter sin, yet you would teach us. That's verse 34. You're here to tell us about this guy? No. No. No. We are the teachers. And then verse 40, Jesus has all this stuff to say about blindness, and then they say, you have the audacity to suggest that we too are blind? Hear the pride in their statement? It is all about them. They are the judges. They are the kings. They are the ones that matter in this story.

And notice how their pride blinds them. They can't see the man. They've already dismissed him. He's a sinner. Yeah, Jerick. We're not listening to you. It was either you or your parents, but whatever. Get away from us. You don't matter. And they can't see the miracle. This incredible miracle happens. This blind man can see and they're like, I'm pretty sure that guy broke the Sabbath even though the laws that they're referencing are their own made up laws, not ones that are in scripture. They can't see the man. They can't see the miracle, and they can't see Jesus. They see him as a sinner when, in fact, he is the one sinless son of God who's come to save them.

Notice they have this investigation. They talk to the man. They talk to his parents. They talk to Jesus. They're investigating, but they've already reached their conclusion. In their case, unlike the man, their blindness is caused by their sin. Do you see? Do you see that their pride is the cause of their sin, and they won't let go of it? Notice the logic of Jesus in 41.

If you were blind, this wouldn't be your fault. But you can see. So this is your fault. You have seen the works of God. He has done incredible things and right in front of you, and yet you insist that you see them clearly even though you do not. And as a result, the poetic judgment of your sin is blindness.

You miss it. Isaiah predicted this in chapter six verse nine. It's a messianic prophecy talking about how the messiah would come and said:

Go and say to these people, keep on hearing, but do not understand. Keep on seeing, but do not perceive. Make the heart of this people dull and their eyes heavy and their blind, and then blind their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and turn and be here healed.

It's the poetic judgment of God that because these men had predetermined what they would see before they let the light come into their eyes, God gives them over to their choice to be blind. Romans one talks about this terrible judgment that God will give people over to the desires of their heart. They want a world where they're the judges. They're the kings. They don't want to let in any evidence that would suggest otherwise, that they have any need, that they would be like this poor blind man. They can't stand it. And so Jesus says, fine. Have your kingdom of self. You will rot in it, but if that's what you want, I'll give it to you.

Denying the Work of God

We're prone to denying the work of God around us all the time. It's really the case, I think honestly, in a church where another church has offered to give us an $11,000,000 or whatever the value of this space is place that we ought to come in here every day and go, wow. There has to be a God. But we've already started thinking of this as my place. Somehow, we've been really nice to these folks, and we've endeared ourselves to them. No. No. God is at work. God's done this.

Every day, the sun comes up. Every day, our eyes open. Every day, breath goes into our lungs. And every day, we just take all of that for granted or we think that we've earned it. And the truth is that all of it—all of it—is a gift from God. And when you see Jesus and you see our salvation as it is, when you understand the resurrection, it's like the end of the Matrix. Right?

Like, it's all of a sudden—all the people are just zeros and ones in the little green lines, and it's all god. GK Chesterton, a famed author and Christian thinker from about a hundred years ago, was once asked: if you were stuck on an island, what's the one book you would like to have? He paused and thought for a second, and his answer was: the one book I'd like to have if I was stuck on an island and I could only have one book is Thomas's practical guide to shipbuilding. What was he saying? He's saying that if there's anything important when you're stuck on an island, it's to get off of it.

I think he was a great Christian thinker. The person asking the question expected him to say the Bible, but in some ways, the Bible is that book. Because it brings us to Jesus, and Jesus is the only thing that can get us off of ourselves. The Pharisees couldn't see beyond themselves. That's what Jesus wants us to see—that there is something greater, something more beautiful, something amazing beyond us. So we have to let go of our pride.

This is why we do a confession of sin every Sunday during our worship service. It's an invitation for us to get off of our islands. It's an opportunity for us to acknowledge the fact that we are not the king—that Jesus is the king. It's an opportunity for us to depart from the way of the Pharisees and self-righteousness and say: we're blind. Jesus, we're desperate. We need you.

What's beautiful about that confession is that it's always followed by an assurance of pardon. We're always reassured when we come blind. Jesus was very clear: if you'd been blind, it wouldn't be a problem. When we come humble, when we come knowing our blindness, when we come knowing our need, he's quick to meet it. That's why that assurance always follows and why it's such a beautiful part of our worship service.

The Blind Man's Progression

In addition to the curse in Isaiah 6, Isaiah 35 offers hope that comes with the Messiah:

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap like a deer and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. — Isaiah 35

Notice the end of the prophecy is always worship. The healing, the assurance, the gift of life that comes from those who pursue the Messiah for salvation is rejoicing.

When I go to the doctor, they give me that little test—the letters, and you gotta read the letters or point to which way the E is facing. That's your eye examination. In a spiritual sense, the Christian form of life is worship. Are you seeing Jesus? Well, if you're seeing him, you'll worship.

Notice the progression of the blind man's spiritual sight. His blindness is healed with spittle in the mud, which is just fabulous. I was just sitting there, and this guy spat on some mud and put it in my eye and said to go wash. I love it.

But notice the progression of the blind man's spiritual sight. First, he's blind from birth, then Jesus comes, puts the mud in his eye, tells him to wash. Then notice how he refers to Jesus from that point on. In verse 11, Jesus is "the man called Jesus." In verse 17, they're interrogating him, and when they ask who he thinks Jesus is, he says, "He is a prophet." Then in verse 27, they're asking all these questions again, and he's like, "Why are you asking again? Do you want to be his disciples too?" Suddenly now he wants to be Jesus' disciple. Then in verse 33, he says, "You're saying he's a sinner and he's not from God. But I say, if he were not from God, he wouldn't have been able to heal me." So he goes from "the man Jesus" to "a prophet" to "someone I wanna learn from" to "someone sent from God."

And then finally, in verse 38, when Jesus meets with him after the Pharisees have rejected him and tells him who he is, the man says, "Lord, I believe," and he worshiped him. He worshiped him.

There's something really beautiful about this man's story and his progression. I think oftentimes we think, okay, we immediately see who Jesus is, and then we're saved, and now we're done. We've graduated from all the majesty and grandeur and glory of who he is. I think we do that just like we do with everything every day. We take things for granted, and we think, okay, we're gonna start to take credit for that. We do this with our faith. We think, okay, we were saved by Jesus, but now suddenly we're gonna pull it together, and we're gonna be righteous. Even though Colossians says:

As you received him, so continue to grow in him. — Colossians 2:6

That doesn't mean our sanctification isn't both us and him. Yes, we do make an effort to grow towards him, but it's him. And as we grow in our knowledge of him, the more and more beautiful he becomes.

For God has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. — 2 Corinthians 4:6

We read testimonies when people join the church because when they start talking about seeing the Lord Jesus, when their blindness has been removed and they see God for the first time, it reminds all of us of the glory of his face, and it leads us into worship.

I pray that you may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of God which surpasses knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. — Ephesians 3:18-19

I love that passage because what he's saying there is he's praying that you will know the unknowable. The height and depth and width and breadth of the knowledge of God is unknowable. It's constantly expanding. So I pray that you'll be able to see the unseeable, that your blindness would be healed to such a degree that the scope of your vision would expand to see the expansive nature of the love of God in Christ.

When we get to heaven, brothers and sisters, seeing Jesus in his fullness is something that we will spend an eternity trying to just take it all in, and we'll never get bored. And yet somehow in this life, we think after we've attended enough Sunday school classes, we read through the Bible one time, we've graduated. We get it. We're done. We know about his glory.

Every Sunday, we should come in with the attitude of the blind man: "Lord, I believe," and we should just fall on our knees in amazement at who Christ is and what he's done.

I'm convicted because I don't do that. So often I come in here, and it's my heart's desire to just go through the motions to get to the end because of whatever's next. And yet I know because I'm trained to know and because it's my job to know that this is the moment. This is the moment when we get to see him as closely as we can. It's the time that we, as believers, come together to collectively view him in all of his glory, remind one another of the grace and beauty of who Jesus is, and to celebrate that.

The Pharisees missed it. They missed it. They missed the Sabbath. They're like, "He broke the Sabbath." They had all the things that you're not supposed to do on the Sabbath. What if we started thinking about the Sabbath in terms of what we are supposed to do? Like giving sight to the blind and rejoicing at the beauty of who our Savior is. That is what Sunday is about.

A Call to Continued Discovery

So brothers and sisters, when we come into this place, can we come with an attitude that maybe we're just not seeing all of him? Maybe, just maybe, he's gonna show up in some way to give us a small glimpse of something we haven't seen before. There's some wrinkle, some aspect to the diamond that is the love of God that we've never encountered or that we've forgotten that once again will come face to face with, and our hearts will be restored. And we, like the blind man, can say, "Lord, we believe," and fall on our feet and worship.

CTK, that is our prayer for this church. I don't really even care if we grow in numbers. I mean, I care. I want to grow in numbers. But this prayer of Paul's—that our knowledge of who Christ is, that we would never give up growing in that way, that the ground conquered in our hearts in terms of our amazement and awe at who Jesus is—we'd never stop. Conquest would continue.

So as we close and as I pray, let's prepare our hearts to sing and to rejoice in who Christ is and all that he's done for us.

Lord Jesus, we confess that we're blind. Lord, even those of us who believe, we don't see all of you. We could never see all of you unless you gave us eternity, which you have. And so, Lord, we rejoice at this journey that we're in discovering who you are and the majesty and beauty of your love for us. Lord, we long for the day when you will bring us home.

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then we'll see face to face. — 1 Corinthians 13:12

Lord, in the intermediate, as we walk through this life, as we face suffering, as we enjoy blessings, may we see beyond them to the giver of those things—the one who redeems our suffering and the one who offers our blessings because he is the only one who is good. Lord, fill our eyes with him. Let the things of this world grow strangely dim, and may Jesus be at the forefront of our sight and our hearts. We pray this in his name. Amen.