John 9:35-41. Decision Needed
This section summarises what the apostle John wants us to learn from the miracle of the man born blind who was healed.
Today there are some who doubt the miracles of Jesus because if they did occur it is clear that he is someone exceptional. The healing of the man born blind is one of the best attested miracles. It was independently scrutinised by a group of religious sceptics who were antagonistic to the claims of Jesus and they confirm that the miracle did occur. It was not just a miracle of restored sight. This man had never seen, so the capacity of his nervous system to receive and interpret images also had to be restored. The miracle means that everyone should take notice of Jesus.
John makes it clear that this miracle is also a parable about Christian conversion. The blind man represents those who are inwardly or spiritually blind. Christian conversion, the discovery of who Jesus really is, is having our eyes opened to the truth.
This summary occurs in three sections.
Jesus finds and speaks to the man born blind and asks a question
John makes it clear that it is not we who find Christ but Christ who seeks and saves us.
“Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him . . .” John 9:35
If Christ hadn’t sought out this man, after he had gone to the Pool of Siloam to wash the mud from his eyes so he could see, he would never have become a disciple of Jesus. It is the same for all of us. Although we have to make a decision about Jesus, it is always he who first initiates our concern and interest. We are all, naturally, spiritually dead and on the run from God – just as Adam and Eve tried to hide from God in the Garden of Eden after they had rebelled against him. We are frightened of God, we want to hide and don’t want to be found.
Jesus found the healed man and, as any good personal worker does, he asked a direct question.
“Do you believe in the Son of Man?” John 9:35
The emphasis in the original Greek is on the personal pronoun ‘you’,
“Do YOU believe in the Son of Man?”
There is some debate as to whether this should read ‘Son of Man’ or ‘Son of God’. There are different manuscripts using both terms. However the two oldest manuscripts have ‘Son of Man’, so this is the most likely original text. Furthermore if the original was ‘Son of God’ there would be no incentive to change to ‘Son of Man’. The term ‘Son of Man’ was first used for the Messiah by the prophet Daniel. He wrote,
“In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshipped him.” Daniel 7:13-14
Jesus called himself the ‘Son of Man’ eighty times in the gospels. Jesus used the two terms ‘Son of God’ and ‘Son of Man’ interchangeably. Jesus had said earlier that the title ‘The Son of Man’ emphasises the humanity of the ‘Son of God’.
“I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of Godand those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man. John 5:25-27
What does it mean to hear the voice of the Son of God? I was talking with a lady and asked her whether she was involved with a church.
“I’m a Roman Catholic,” she replied.
“Yes, but are you a Christian, someone who is personally committed to Jesus.”
“No, I’m not!”
A Christian is not someone who has been through the initiatory rites of a church, such as baptism, confirmation or even ordination, a Christian is someone who has a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and is committed to living as his representative in this world.
The man’s response
Jesus challenged the healed man with that essential question,
“Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
He challenges each of us similarly. Clearly the man genuinely wants to understand and he responds with a genuine question,
“‘Who is he, sir?’ the man asked, ‘Tell me so that I may believe in him.’” John 9:36
He clearly knew that there was a creator God and knew enough of the Scriptures to know that God’s Messiah would come to earth to save people. The word ‘believe’ is a massive word. It means nothing less than to worship Jesus as our creator God. It is all too easy to outwardly bow before someone without having our hearts dedicated to them. Our word ‘believe’ is related to the Old English word ‘lieben’ which means to love. In German this original meaning is seen in their word ‘geleibt’ meaning ‘loved one’ or ‘leibling’ meaning ‘darling’.
In Shakespeares play, Richard II, Bolingbroke kneels before the king, but it is apparent that in his heart ‘he is not really his servant’ Jesus explained that the only type of worship God accepts is genuine devotion to him and his Son. Jesus said to the Samaritan woman,
“Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth.” John 4:23-24
This woman understood that such worship would involve the Messiah so she said,
“I know that the Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes he will explain everything to us.” Then Jesus declared, “I who speak to you am he.” John 4:25-26
When talking with the healed man Jesus again makes his nature clear.
“‘Who is the Son of Man?’ . . . ‘You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.” John 9:37
John clearly teaches us that there is no worship of God without the worship of Jesus. When some Greeks came to Jerusalem ‘to worship God’ they approached Philip with the request,
“Sir, we would like to see Jesus.” John 12:21
The healed man in our story understood what true belief meant. He said to Jesus,
“‘Lord, I believe,’ and he worshipped him.” John 9:38
There is no doubt therefore that this man worshipped Jesus as God. Saving belief is such commitment to Christ as God. It should not be an impulsive emotional response but the result of a painstaking search for truth. It is certainly not a leap in the dark but a thought-out step into the light.
‘Worship’ mean ‘worthship’. Becoming a Christian is the response to recognising the worth of Jesus – who he is and what he has done for me and all humanity. When his worth is recognised no price is too high. Isn’t this why Jesus told the parable about a merchant looking for fine pearls?
“When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.” Matthew 13:45-46
For the healed man in this account the consequences of his new faith were far from easy. He was ‘thrown out’ or excommunicated. They all knew that this would happen to those who became believers in Jesus.
“. . . for already the Jews had decided that that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Christ would be put out of the synagogue.” John 9:22
Saving faith is never easy because all Christians are called on to openly confess Christ. We are called to love all people which must include sharing with them the way of salvation.
One Way
V. J. Menon was raised in a loving Hindu home in India, but when he moved to London he heard the gospel for the first time and recognised the worth of Jesus, he also turned to Christ and worshipped him. He later became a member of the General Synod of the Church of England. On one occasion another Synod member said to him,
“Hinduism is a way to God as much as Christianity.”
What an awful statement to make to V.J. Menon, who had himself been brought into the light of Jesus from Hinduism. Doesn’t the Bible make it absolutely clear that Jesus is the only way to become right with God? Jesus said,
“I am the way, the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6
“I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved.” John 10:9
Peter and John told the Sanhedrin who had had them arrested,
“Salvation is found in no-one else, for there is no other name under heaven, given to men by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12
Without a relationship with Christ we all remain responsible for our own sin.
“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.” John 3:36
Jesus and the onlookers
Jesus now turns from talking with the healed man to address the onlookers. He makes a memorable statement:
“For judgment I have come into this world, so the blind will see and those who see will become blind.” John 9:33
We tend to think of judgment as coming in the future when we die and come face to face with God. The Bible certainly does speak in such terms but here Jesus is saying that the verdict is being made today by our reaction to him. Those who turn to him as their Saviour have passed God’s judgment of our sin over to Jesus. Then the spiritually blind will see what life is all about and make living for God their priority in life. However those who are satisfied with their own enlightenment, who are proud of their own insight into the world and its problems will turn out to be blind. Those who recognise their spiritual blindness long to see but those who are self-dependent will never see.
Note that Jesus says this message is for the whole world and not just for the Jews. He came for those in all walks of society, for people from all nations. Everyone is being judged according to their response to Jesus now. We are either on the road to life or the road to destruction, there is no other road. This is one of the horrific separations that Jesus describes in the gospels.
Jesus and the Religious
The Pharisees were most upset and shaken by what Jesus was saying and reply sarcastically,
“What? Are we blind too?” John 9:40
From what Jesus has already said you would expect the answer, ‘Yes!’ However Jesus replies in an unexpected way that again makes people think.
“If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.” John 9:41
Jesus reminds us all that God is fair. If a person is ignorant and uninstructed, has never had any light, if no-one had ever taught them, if the sun has never shone, then obviously their sin is very different from those who had the light and teaching but rejected it.
Yet in our world today there are many who were ‘blind’ who are coming to see the light of Jesus. In Communist China and Iran the church is growing very fast. In South America many are coming to put their faith in Jesus. In such areas the judgment of God is bringing life.
Yet those who claim to see are becoming blind. It is striking that in countries with much formal religion there are problems. Religion whether Judaism, Roman Catholicism or Anglicanism has little appeal unless the leaders focus on teaching the people the Bible and encourage a personal faith in Jesus.
It is significant that some organisations, claiming to be ‘Christian’, invite sceptics and agnostics to become their teachers and leaders. How many organisations that had a Christian foundation have drifted. Many notable universities, such as Oxford and Cambridge, Harvard, Yale and Princeton were originally based on the Christian gospel. Many aid organisations started with Christian teaching but most, over time, have moved away from promoting Jesus Christ as the hope of the world. Those who see have become blind. Many bishops and clergymen today have turned away from the teaching of Jesus and his apostles. They do not agree that Jesus is the only way to God and have rejected the authority of Scripture over their lives. Radical theologians have infiltrated into our seminaries and have poisoned the minds of many future church ministers so they have little to say to others. Surveys have shown that many ministers now deny the unique deity of Jesus Christ, they deny his virgin birth, they deny the unique salvation that he alone can give, they deny that on that cross the only full sacrificial atonement for our sins was made, they deny the authority of Scripture, they deny his physical resurrection and his return they call an ‘unhistorical event’. Yet such people are appointed as church leaders!
Jesus was scathing about the role of the religious teachers of his day. He said,
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites . . .” Matthew 23:13-39
These blind guides looked at externals and not at what God really required. He describes such leaders in vivid terms,
“You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell. Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers . . .” Matthew 23:33-34
Jesus is saying that he will raise up others who will teach the Word of God to his people and to the world.
Ludovic Kennedy was a brilliant journalist, an outspoken atheist, who was invited into universities and schools with Christian foundations to talk about his atheism. He was dogmatically sure there was no God and yet so-called Christians in authority encouraged him to promote his views! This was in spite of all the evidence that there has to be a creator and that Jesus is his embodiment. He received prestigious invitations to pass on his blindness though he had no truth to share, no purpose to invigorate people and no power to offer them. The Bible says that any man, however brilliant, who does not believe in God is a fool – a blind fool.
“In his pride the wicked does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God.” Psalm 10:4
“The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” Psalm 14:1
The Jews had all the advantages of having the Scriptures. These clearly teach the response God expects from all people. The religious Jews claimed they could see but shut their eyes to the light. They followed their own interpretation of Scripture but had rejected what it teaches about the holiness God requires and the Saviour who was to enter this world to pay the ultimate price for their sin. The Pharisees were determined to reject the evidence both of Scripture and of their own eyes – they were blind.
The Pharisees claimed they could see but Jesus is saying that they are in fact blind guides and their guilt remains. They claimed to be teachers but they opposed God’s Messiah and those who believe in the Christ.
What a contrast there is between this blind man who came to see the truth about Jesus and the religious leaders who became blind to the truth about him.
The question God wants all of us to answer is still,
“Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
BVP
