The ever-favorite Christian hymn, Amazing Grace, has a phrase appropriate to today’s message, “I once was blind, but now I see.”  Blindness is a peculiar condition.  About 1 million people in the United States are considered blind.  Blindness comes in many forms.  There is congenital blindness, that is, someone is blind from birth. Others are born with sight but lose sight due to illness or injury.  I was blind in my left eye for a few days in 2011 when I experienced a detached retina.  None of the light striking my eye could be received by my brain. Following a procedure in the doctor's office, vision was restored, albeit with some minor decline.

          Being born blind at birth is now rare. In 2023, 3.6 million babies were born in the United States.  About 50 of those 3.6 million babies were born blind. In our journey today with Jesus to His resurrection, Jesus encountered a man born blind.  The encounter was chronicled in Chapter 9 of John’s Gospel.

The encounter between Jesus and the blind man came just after members of the Jewish ruling council had sought to stone Jesus to death. Jesus slipped away from the council members but remained within the Temple complex in Jerusalem.  John wrote, “1 As he [Jesus] went along, he [Jesus] saw a man blind from birth. 2 His [Jesus’] disciples asked him [Jesus], ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’” (Jesus 9:1-2).  We do not know how Jesus and his disciples knew that man was blind from birth, but they knew.  Ancient people believed there was a direct connection between sin and bodily illnesses. Therefore, the disciples ask Jesus whether the party responsible for the man’s blindness was the man or the man’s parents sinned.  In Jesus’ time, the idea of whether an unborn baby could sin was a hotly debated question among the rabbis.  Either way, Jesus’ disciples wanted to know who was the sinner of record that caused the man’s blindness.  Even though Jesus’ disciples posed this question to Jesus with the words, “Rabbi, who sinned?” it was telling that they asked Jesus this question.  Doing so suggests Jesus’ disciples now believed Jesus knew the mind of God.  “Jesus, who was the sinner here?”

Jesus replied, “’3 Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this [blindness] happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him [the blind man]” (John 9:3).  Even though the man and his parents were sinners, Jesus said those sins did not lead to this man’s blindness.  But this man’s blindness would be used so that the works of God might be displayed in Jesus.  Said another way, “The man’s life began in blindness, but it will not end in blindness. Instead, the man’s blindness would end with the glory of God brought through His Son whom God will glorify” (cf. John 11:4).  The man’s blindness was never about sin, but instead the blindness would be healed for the glory of God the Father and God the Son.  While brief, this dialogue between Jesus and his disciples is very important to our reading of the Bible.  When we read the Bible, we should not find faults or wonder how we might have responded to the story.  Our purpose should be to understand how God revealed Himself through the Bible. Jesus pointed out that the disciples should not focus on the sin of the blind man or his parents but on the glory of God being revealed.

Jesus then explained further that there was an urgency to do the work God had called Jesus to do, the glory of God to show.  Jesus said, “4 As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (John 9:4-5). Jesus is the light of the world. The relationship between Jesus’ statement and the man’s blindness was unmistakable.  The blind man could see no light but Jesus had in mind to heal the man’s blindness and let him not just see the physical world but also see the “light of the world.”

The encounter between Jesus and the blind man came just after Jesus had been to the Temple for the Feast of the Tabernacles.  On the festival's last day, the prayers and expectations for God’s Messiah were at their highest.  In front of the high priest, the Pharisees, and the crowds of common people, Jesus stood and shouted, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them” (Jesus 7:27b-38).  It was Jesus’ clearest public statement that He was the Messiah.  Now, Jesus stood before a blind man, declared himself the “light of the world,” and was preparing to restore his sight.  This, too, would be a declaration of the coming of the Messiah, for in the Book of Isaiah, we would read that the Messiah, “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners” (Isaiah 61:1) and “to open eyes that are blind” (Isaiah 42:7).  Jesus was fulfilling the scriptures, not just with words but with actions.

John wrote, “6 After saying this, he [Jesus] spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it [the mud] on the man’s eyes. 7 “Go,” he [Jesus] told him [the blind man], “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing” (John 9:6-7).  Jesus had cured this man of blindness from birth.  I cannot imagine the man’s joy at seeing and trying to take in everything that he was now seeing.  It must have been difficult to see objects, people, and animals and understand everything.  This man was now a new man, a new creation.  Everything about the way he previously lived had been changed in the instant he encountered Jesus, the light of the world, the Messiah.  What a joyous day indeed.

But to understand what came next, we need to look at the miracle. John said that as part of the healing, Jesus spit on the ground, made mud, and put it on the man’s eyes.  This seems a little strange, but there was a purpose in Jesus’ actions. 

First, Jesus spit.  This is not the only time Jesus used spit in healing.  In the Gospel of Mark, we would read, “33 After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue. 34 He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, “Ephphatha!” (which means “Be opened!”). 35 At this, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly” (Mark 7:33-35).  Also, from the Gospel of  Mark, a blind man was brought to Jesus, “22 They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. 23 He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him” (Mark 8:22-23). In at least three instances, Jesus used spit as part of the act of healing.  It is difficult to know the reason for using spit because, generally, spit was then considered by religious authorities as dirty and unclean.  Spit was used as a sign of great disrespect.  Jesus had prophesied that the religious leaders would spit on him and condemn him to death, and they did.  During the crucifixion process, the Romans also spit on Jesus.  Not much has changed in 2,000 years.  Spit is treated as unclean or dirt, and to spit on someone is still a sign of disrespect. But Jesus used His spit to heal, perhaps demonstrating His authority to reverse any human convention or belief was absolute.

Second, in this circumstance, Jesus spit on the ground, mixed it with dirt, and made mud. We will see in a few moments that this healing happened on the Sabbath and that healing and kneading materials together, here spit and dirt mixed to make mud, were judged by the Jewish ruling council as work and thus against their Sabbath rules.  Again, it seems Jesus demonstrated His authority over human conventions and rules.

As we return our attention to the formerly blind man, we discover that he shared the good news with his neighbors but could not tell them who healed him.  The neighbors brought the man to the Pharisees to share so that the religious leaders could learn of this miracle.  And that is when things went from good to bad.

Upon hearing Jesus’ actions, “16 Some of the Pharisees said, ‘This man [Jesus] is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath’” (John 9:16).  But other Pharisees wondered, “How can a sinner perform such signs?” And so, the Jewish ruling council members were divided among themselves.  The Pharisees sought to heal their divide by concluding that man had never been blind.  If the Pharisees denied the miracle, then the Pharisees would again be united and would not have to deal with the reality of Jesus.  And so, the Pharisees concluded the miracle had never happened, and they demanded the man’s parents appear before them to confirm the man had never been blind.  The parents appeared and confirmed the son’s blindness, but still, the Pharisees were not satisfied.  The Pharisees demanded the man appear before them again.

To the man, the Pharisees said, “Give glory to God by telling the truth.  We know this man is a sinner” (John 9:24).  In essence, the Pharisees were saying, “Before God, own up and admit the truth, you were never blind and this man who claims to have healed you is a sinner.”   The Pharisees desperately wanted the miracle not to be true.  The same is true today.  People want to deny Jesus’ miracles.  Why?  If you deny Jesus’ miracles, then you can deny Jesus’ claims of divinity, of being God. If you deny Jesus’ claims, you do not need to listen to anything Jesus says.  You can continue to do as you do.  However, if you accept Jesus’ miracles as true, then you must deal with what Jesus said about himself.  “I am the light of the world.”  “I am the bread of heaven.”  And, of course, the most offensive of all statements Jesus ever made, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).  To avoid dealing with the reality that Jesus is the way to God, it is best to begin by denying the miracles of Jesus.  This is what is done today and by the Pharisees 2,000 years ago.  The former blind man would not change his story, so the Pharisees kicked the man out of the synagogue, meaning other Jews could no longer engage in conversation with this man.

It would once again seem as though the story would end here. But as we read further, “35 Jesus heard that they had thrown him [the former blind man] out, and when he [Jesus] found him [the man], he [Jesus] said, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’  36 ‘Who is he, sir?’ the man asked. ‘Tell me so that I may believe in him.’  37 Jesus said, ‘You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.’  38 Then the man said, ‘Lord, I believe,’ and he worshiped him [Jesus]. 39 Jesus said, ‘For  judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.’ 40 Some Pharisees who were with him [Jesus] heard him say this and asked, ‘What? Are we blind too?’ 41 Jesus said, ‘If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.” (John 9:35-41).  Jesus concluded the story with a strong warning.  “If you, Pharisee, were ignorant, God would forgive your sins because you did not know the truth.  But you are not ignorant, and yet you still sin.  God will not forgive your sins because you choose actions knowing they were sin.”

What, then, do we take away from this stop on Jesus’ journey to the resurrection?  I think there is one thing for us to consider.  First, Jesus was making it clearer that He is the Messiah.  He suggested that to Nicodemus at their meeting at night. To a Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus said he was the Messiah.  When Jesus healed the man crippled for 38 years, he made known his power to cure and cancel sin.  This, again, was a sign of Jesus anointing from God.  When Jesus said he was the bread of life that came down from heaven, Jesus affirmed God sent him and that he and the Father were one.  Here, Jesus said, “I am the light of the world,” and then Jesus made the blind to see just as had been foretold by the prophets. The evidence of Jesus’ identity was mounting.  The resistance to the truth was strong, but there were now some doubts creeping into the ranks of the Pharisees.  Some of the Pharisees were beginning to question the idea that Jesus was a sinner and not from God.  The high priest and his people could not afford doubt to enter their ranks.  More dynamic action would be required.  Jesus knew this was so because Jesus kept telling his disciples, “He must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed” (Mark 8:31).  Jesus knew His journey would require death.

The key point here is that the longer we spend on the journey with Jesus to his resurrection, the more we understand the truth about Jesus. Near the end of John’s Gospel, John wrote, “30 Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:30-31).  The purpose of each stop on this journey to Jesus’ resurrection is to come to believe Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that we may have life in his name. To believe in Jesus is not taking a weight upon ourselves.  It is taking a weight off ourselves.  Thank you, God, for knowing you love me and how you have provided for me.  Now I see that all I need to do is accept and follow Jesus.

Choose this day to no longer be blind but to see Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God.  Have Jesus change everything about your life, allowing you to leave behind your old ways and worship with a new vision granted to you through the “light of the world.”  Let us each be like the former blind man and face Jesus and say, “Lord, I believe.” Amen and Amen.