John 9:1-12. The Role of the Church

The game of ‘bowls’ is played with bowls that have an internal bias that swings the ball away from the straight line. Churches also have a tendency to deviate from the path they were set on by their Lord. Some become preoccupied with theological issues, as if adherence to their understanding of correct theology is the main purpose of the church. Such churches tend to be inward looking and are renowned for their ability to see what is wrong with everybody else.

John Wesley was visiting one of his Methodist groups in Norfolk. He enquired of the leader,

“Pray tell me, Sir, what special talent hast the Lord endowed you with?”

“Sir,” he replied, “I consider I have the talent of seeing what is wrong in others.”

“That, Sir, is a talent that I am sure the Lord would have you bury!”

There are many denominations that have crashed on that rock. Others have the priority to help people with their physical and social needs and fail to stress the emphasis Jesus has on helping people to be saved for eternity. Our world needs to be taught the whole Word of God.

This story addresses these issues. It emphasises that churches must, above everything else, focus on Jesus.

“As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’” John 9:1-2

False doctrine

The disciples seem interested in the theology of illness and suffering. It is possible that this was also an issue in the early church in Ephesus and John is using this story to help resolve the issue. Jesus refutes the doctrine that illness is the direct result of sin in a person or their parents.

This week I was phoned by a lady whose children have seemingly incurable psychiatric and physical problems and she enquired whether this could be because of something she had done wrong in the past. A leader in the church she used to attend had expressed the view that her problems were the result of some undisclosed sin and that prayer for deliverance and healing would change everything. It didn’t! The Bible makes it clear that we live in a fallen world where suffering and death are part of the fall.

“Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and in his way death came to all men, because all sinned.” Romans 5:12

“I consider our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay . . .” Romans 8:18-20

Jesus brushes aside popular theology. Sin is the cause of sickness and disability as a whole, but this is not true for individuals. Jesus replied,

“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,’ said Jesus, ‘but this happened that the work of God might be displayed in his life.’” John 9:3

What does Jesus mean when he says,

“. . . that the work of God might be displayed in his life”?

A little earlier Jesus had said,

“The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” John 6:29

There is a special urgency in performing the work of God (in the Greek the word ‘work’ is in the plural). Jesus says,

“As long as it is day, we must do the work(s) of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no-one can work.” John 9:4-5

Note that Jesus uses the word ‘we’, the works of God includes the work of his disciples. The darkness could refer to the time of his execution, when the disciples hid away in the upper room out of fear for their safety, or other times of oppression. Death, another form of darkness, will also bring an end to any possibility for evangelism.

It was only when the Holy Spirit of God engulfed the Christians that they were enabled to do these ‘works’ of God and many were faithful in doing this.

False emphasis

A headmaster told the sixth form pupils in his school,

“The point of life is to discover the point of life and then make that the point of your life.”

The Bible teaches that the point of life is to discover who Jesus is and then follow him, whatever our circumstances. This is surely the focus of this story. The blind man is a wonderfully real character. He repeatedly says things to those interrogating him just as they are, without fudging.

It is all too easy for churches to make the social and physical needs of people their priority. Jesus passionately longs to heal people of physical and psychological problems but he always keeps to his priority. When he was inundated with people wanting to be healed, he prayed and then declared,

“Let us go somewhere else – to the nearby villages – so that I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” Mark 1:38

Two marvellous things happen in this story, the first is physical but the main point is spiritual.

Physical

This man had been blind since birth. This makes the miracle even more astounding as his brain had never been trained to perceive and interpret images from his retina. Yet immediately he can see. The man himself emphasises this when he is later interrogated by the Pharisees,

“Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind.” John 9:32

Jesus has just said that he is ‘the light of the world’ and he demonstrates this by giving the man born blind his sight.

Jesus made a mud pack by mixing his saliva with mud from the ground. He then applied this paste to the man’s eyes. Such mud eye packs were used in the Roman world to treat conditions such as conjunctivitis. The ‘salve’ mentioned in Revelation 3:18 refers to ‘little rolls’ or bars of a dried out silky mud found near Hierapolis that were widely exported. The bars would be ground up with water and applied to the eyes. Jesus didn’t ask the man to use his own saliva to make the mud. The initiative all came from Jesus.

Whatever the explanation for the mud, the significance of the next action is clear. The man is told to go and wash the mud from his face in the Pool of Siloam and John interprets this for his readers,

“Go, wash in the pool of Siloam (this word means ‘sent’).” John 9:7

The significance is clear. Jesus himself is the ‘sent one’. Later, immediately after his resurrection, Jesus says to his disciples,

“As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” John 20:21

The blind man must recognise that Jesus is ‘the sent one’ and therefore, as a believer, he must also be ‘sent’ to share the gospel with others.

The man obeyed Jesus, washed in the ‘sent one’ and left seeing to start a life of service.

Spiritual

Yet this chapter gives particular emphasis to a greater miracle than the physical healing. The blind man came to see who Jesus is and he became a believer. Look on to the end of the story, where Jesus seeks out the man to talk with him,

“’Do you believe in the Son of Man?’ ‘Who is he, sir?’ the man asked. Tell me so that I may believe in him.’

Jesus said, ‘You have now seen him; in fact he is the one speaking with you.’

Then the man said, ‘Lord, I believe,’ and he worshipped him.” John 9:35-38

This episode makes it clear that the title ‘Son of Man’ was recognised as a title for the Messiah that the Jews were expecting to come and save them. ‘Worship’ is a strong word and it was forbidden for a Jew to worship anyone but God, yet this man ‘worships’ Jesus. John’s inference is clear.

As we read the story, John describes a steady progression in the man’s understanding. Most people who eventually become believers in Jesus take some time before they grasp the truth. Notice the gradual evolution in his understanding,

“He replied, ‘The man they call Jesus . . .” John 9:11

Subsequently he says,

“He is a prophet.” John 9:17

Then finally he understands,

“ . . . and he worshipped him.” John 9:38

The Context

This is most important. John uses this account to reinforce what Jesus has been saying in the previous chapter where the key verse is,

“Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” John 8:12

The darkness Jesus referred to could either mean the darkness of despair or the darkness of ignorance. People who have not discovered a solid reason and purpose for their life, that will stand even when they are dying, are in the dark, however much success they have in their prime.

This claim of Jesus, made in the brightly lit Court of Women in the temple of Jerusalem was hotly contested by the Jewish authorities, yet Jesus sticks to his claim and robustly defends it.

“I am the light of the world.” John 9:5

In this story light shines on one man who needs his eyes to be opened.

The work of God

Jesus has stressed that this man’s blindness is not because of his or his parents sin but emphasises that his healing was to enable people to understand the work of God that he had been sent to do. This sharing of the good news about Jesus still symbolises the work of God.

When Paul was on trial before King Agrippa and Festus, the Roman Governor, he recounted what the Jesus had said to him when he met him on his journey to Damascus. Jesus had said,

“Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you. . . I am sending you to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are being sanctified by faith in me.” Acts 26:16-18

This was the apostolic ministry that has been passed on to us in his church. We are not primarily here to heal but to open people’s eyes to the truth. The opening of people’s eyes is symbolic of letting people see the truth about Jesus.

Professor Barratt, in his famous commentary on John’s Gospel says the following,

“This short chapter expresses perhaps more vividly and completely than any other John’s conception of the work of Christ. On one hand he is the giver of benefits to humanity that apart from him is in a state of complete hopelessness. The illumination presented is not primarily intellectual but the direct bestowal of life or salvation.”

This is the work that God wants all of us to be involved in, to bring friends and family to hear this message so that God may open their eyes. The difficulties are immense for the following reasons, yet that is what we have been called to do.

Man’s plight is hopeless

This man had been ‘blind since birth’. He could see nothing. The significance of this is clear to all who have tried to win friends for Jesus. They are blind and this can fill us with despair. When Jesus’ disciple, Peter, came to see who Jesus was and confessed him to be the Christ, Jesus said,

“Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.” Matthew 16:17

Jesus is saying that Simon Peter could never have understood this through his own intellect. Although the evidence is impressive, there is a moral aspect to Christian conversion. God has to open our hearts so that we are willing for him to be in charge of our lives. It is much, much more that an intellectual decision. If our heavenly Father hasn’t opened our eyes we will never submit to Jesus. Paul said something similar,

“The man without the Spirit does not accept things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.” 1 Corinthians 2:14

Some years ago, a man was standing on a soap box at Hyde Park Corner, trying to ridicule the Christian message. “People tell me God exists, but I cannot see him. People tell me that that there is life after death—but I cannot see it. People tell me there is a judgment to come—but I cannot see it. People tell me there is a heaven and a hell—but I can’t see them.”

There was a slight ripple of applause as he climbed down. Another man then struggled up on to the soap box and said, ‘People tell me there is green grass around—but I cannot see it. People tell me there is a blue sky above but I cannot see it. People tell me there are trees nearby but I cannot see them; it is because I am blind!’

This is the diagnosis that the Bible makes.

“The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” 2 Corinthians 4:4.

This is why so many cannot understand. Its because they are blind, not because the gospel is untrue.

There are parts of the modern church that seem to be saying that if only people could hear more and more arguments about the creator God who really entered this world as Jesus Christ, then people will come to believe. This is untrue because we are naturally blind. Elsewhere the Bible says that we are ‘dead’. There is ‘no life in us’.

“As for you, you were dead in your trespasses and sins . . . But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with christ even when we were dead in transgression – it is by grace that you have been saved.” Ephesians 2:1-5

For several generations there has been enormous optimism about man with unlimited hopes about what advances we can make, both scientifically and politically. But now there is increasing scepticism. No-one has the ability to make this world into an Utopia since the raw material is people just like you and me, selfish people at heart. The Bible says that we are naturally incapable of living together and we are incapable of living with God. We all need the grace of God to change us. It is so easy to be discouraged if we have not come to terms with the fact that man is without hope - we are dead.

This is why we must all cry out to God to save us and our families and friends. How we need his Spirit to change us, to empower us, to equip us to do the work of God but then to go before us to prepare people for the message we share with them. Unless God is working, through his spirit, there is no hope for us.

Our hope is not in great evangelists but in God alone. Unless he is at work no-one will want to come to hear the gospel explained and they will reject Jesus when they hear about his claims.

Significantly this story doesn’t even mention the faith of the blind man or why Jesus picked him out. It is entirely God, in his mercy who steps into people’s lives so that we may see and believe. Our role is to respond gratefully when the message of God’s grace is explained to us.

BVP