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The Gospel of John, The Period of Conflict - The Clash of Belief and Unbelief, Continuing discourse after the feast, The Man Blind from his Birth, Part XXII, John 9:4-7 - Lesson 69
Read Verses John 9:1-3, for review: And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.
John 9:4, I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.
Each man has his day when he can work.
Each man will have his night when he cannot work.
There is a time for work and there is a time when work cannot be done.
Jesus day of work was the period of three and one-half years of public ministry while he was on this earth revealing the perfections of God and ministering to the needs of his creatures.
He knew that his day was limited to that short period and that his night was coming when he would leave the earth and return to his Father.
He must then be about his Father's business.
Time was drawing short.
John 9:5, As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
But as long as he was in the world he is the light of the world.
The efforts of the Jews could not stop him from working the works of the Father.
The light would shine regardless of the efforts of man to get rid of him.
John 9:6,7, When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.
Jesus now shows the power of light in the life of this blind man.
A work must be done to fulfill the Father's will.
Jesus Christ was a doer of good works.
He did not stop with words but he performed deeds.
Jesus could easily have pronounced this man whole but there is more to this healing than opening the blind man's eyes.
Jesus is preparing himself to go to a cross.
He is righteous and must do righteous acts which will put him at odds with the religious authorities.
He bends and spits holy spit onto the ground and forms a wet clay which he then applies to the closed eye lids of the man blind from birth.
The clay applied to the eye lids emphasizes the man's blindness.
Perhaps it emphasized the power of the world to blind or the defilement of the world.
If there was any hint of sight on the blind man's part, Jesus, by placing clay on the lids, shows that man is totally without spiritual sight.
And in making clay on the Sabbath, he performs work, according to the rabbinic definition of work.
Never mind that he has given a man who had never seen a human face the ability to see.
The sabbath is more important than that in the minds of those who are blind to the light that Jesus is.
Jesus continues to confront the established religion of the Jews for he knows that this is the way to the cross.
He sends him to a pool called Sent.
Applying the clay requires removal, it requires the man to exercise faith by obedience.
The man needs water. He's dirty.
He has been told that he is blind. He now is dirty.
He needs water.
The man did not reason about this, he did not ask questions.
He obeys and goes and washes in the water and comes seeing.
What a spiritual lesson Jesus teaches here.
A lesson of comparison between the Jews who did not know that they were blind and dirty and a blind man who knew he was.
They refused the water of the word but the blind man obeyed the word and washed in the water and came seeing.
Perhaps we can skip to verse 39, and learn exactly what took place: And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind. I believe that the blind beggar is a representative of any one of us.
The Father arranged this meeting of Jesus Christ and the blind man for our edification and our learning of his grace.
It has spiritual lessons for all ages.
It accurately depicts what happens today to a sinner saved by the grace of God.
If you are saved it depicts your spiritual history.
The man, found outside the temple, represents the sinner alienated from God.
He was blind and unable to see the Savior coming to him.
He was blind from birth, so too is the sinner, estranged from the womb.
As Psalm 58:3, says The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.
He was totally helpless, beyond the aid of man, and hopeless unless God intervened.
He was simply a beggar, unable to purchase a remedy for his blindness and completely dependant upon charity.
He made no appeal to Jesus Christ for help. |