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| John 9 - Blindness and sin |
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Continues from: John 8:28-59 - The truth shall make you free Joh 9:1 And passing by, He saw a man who was blind from birth.
Joh 9:2 And His disciples asked Him, saying, Master, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?
Joh 9:3 Jesus answered, Neither has this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God might be revealed in him.
Here we have a situation where the disciples asked if the blind man was thus as a result of who sinned. Cause and effect. It is important to note here that although Jesus called essentially simple folk as disciples, they were influenced by the law and had some education of the law not as we are led to believe they were not. My guess the one who posed the question was Peter.
Notice what Jesus said, neither have sinned and then goes on to say that the works of the Father might be revealed in him. We are seeing here that this was an occasion where a miracle was foreordained and little much beyond the healing. It is from this passage the famous hymn Amazing Grace came. Joh 9:4 I must work the works of Him who sent Me, while it is day. Night comes when no man can work.
Joh 9:5 As long as I am in the world, I am the Light of the world.
Here Jesus refers again to by whom He is sent, the Father. Talking of while it is day and that night comes when no man can work, what does this mean? We all know we can work at night and even back then w/o electricity, work at night was possible albeit limited, under a full moon one could do much if you think of it. I am not 100% sure here but possibly the day was the time of Jesus' life and night was the dark times that would come. Verse 5 says as long as Jesus was in the world, He was the Light. By this I see that He was saying that the Father working through His was in essence exclusive and that later as we know it became corporate, for that period in time, Jesus was the light bearer. The light is also the revelation of the Father that Jesus spoke of and the darkness also the law. Even we who are in the world, are to be the Light of the world so we can take that verse to represent us too. There are many parallels with respect to light and darkness. Joh 9:6 And when He had spoken these things, He spat on the ground and made clay from the spittle. And He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay.
Joh 9:7 And He said to him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam (which translated is Sent). Therefore he went and washed and came seeing.
This is where Jesus used mud to do the healing and He also sent him to wash off the mud in the pool of Siloam. The pool was discovered in 2004 click here to read more. What I see in the article, the pool was fed by a natural spring and there appears to be local myths associated to it. Specifically, there was a stairway leading down to it, my guess is as a blind man, you would require help to go down into it. "As a freshwater reservoir, it would have been a major gathering place for ancient Jews making religious pilgrimages to the city."
Surely Jesus could have just laid hands on the man, why mud? I believe here was more than just a healing as we shall see later on. Jesus wanted this miracle known. Joh 9:8 Then the neighbors and those who had seen him before, that he was blind, said, Is this not he who was sitting and begging?
Joh 9:9 Some said, This is he. Others said, He is like him. He said, I am he.
Joh 9:10 Then they said to him, How were your eyes opened?
Joh 9:11 He answered and said, A man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and said to me, Go to the pool of Siloam and wash. And going and washing, I received sight.
Joh 9:12 Then they said to him, Where is he? He said, I do not know. Here we see that there was a testimony to his neighbors. It is important to see a lesson here. This was a model for healing. We know of other miracles where Jesus said, your faith has made you whole and here we see obedience is a key too. There was a process; a covenant of agreement is you will. There was no magic in the spit nor the dirt. There is another layer here but that will detract from what I am sharing. There is a key part that follows: Joh 9:13 They brought him who once was blind to the Pharisees.
Joh 9:14 And it was a sabbath when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes.
Joh 9:15 Then again the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. He said to them, He put clay upon my eyes, and I washed, and I see.
Joh 9:16 Therefore some of the Pharisees said, This man is not from God, because he does not keep the sabbath. Others said, How can a man, a sinner, do such miracles? And there was a division among them. Notice the first thing here, the Pharisees had objection to that which was done on the Sabbath and hence by the law Jesus has sinned as he had "worked". We know the Jesus proclaimed He was Lord of the Sabbath. Jesus seems to like messing with the religious deliberately doing the things that would offend their law. They did not even look or acknowledge the healing; they simply measured what had been done by the law. However others saw it differently. The division among them shows that even law does not provide absolutes, it is subjective to interpretation.
The Sabbath commandment was simple when God gave it: Exo 20:8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy (set apart).
Exo 20:9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work.
Exo 20:10 But the seventh day is the Sabbath of Jehovah your God. You shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger within your gates.
Exo 20:11 For in six days Jehovah made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore Jehovah blessed the Sabbath day, and sanctified it. I believe too much was read into this law. Here it needs to be taken literally and see that work here was about physical labor. One wonders if the Jews had church on the Sabbath as by implication, the priests would have to work that day and thus by default they would be not observing it. It was a day of rest. Mat 12:5 Or have you not read in the Law that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath and are blameless?
Mat 12:6 But I say to you that One greater than the temple is in this place.
Mat 12:7 But if you had known what this is, "I desire mercy and not sacrifice," you would not have condemned those who are not guilty.
Mat 12:8 For the Son of Man is Lord even of the sabbath.
Mat 12:9 And when He had departed from there, He went into their synagogue. Joh 9:17 They said to the blind man again, What do you say about him, for he has opened your eyes? He said, He is a prophet.
Joh 9:18 But the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of him having received sight.
Joh 9:19 And they asked them, saying, Is this your son, whom you say was born blind? How then does he now see?
Joh 9:20 His parents answered them and said, We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind.
Joh 9:21 But by what means he now sees, we do not know. Or who has opened his eyes, we do not know. He is of age, ask him. He will speak for himself.
Joh 9:22 His parents spoke these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone confessed that He was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue.
Joh 9:23 Therefore his parents said, He is of age, ask him. In an earlier study I touched on the testimony of two things are established and here we see both his parents (two witnesses) testify to the fact that he was blind. We must remember that the first witness was the man himself. Thus the requirements of the law had been fulfilled. These guys were hung up on the Sabbath more than anything else. It is likely they had no Divine healing abilities and all what they had was according to the law. Joh 9:24 Then a second time they called the man who was blind and said to him, Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.
Joh 9:25 He answered and said, Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that being blind, now I see.
Joh 9:26 Then they said to him again, What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?
Joh 9:27 He answered them, I have told you already, and you did not hear. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also desire to be His disciples?
Joh 9:28 Then they reviled him and said, You are his disciple, but we are Moses' disciples.
Joh 9:29 We know that God spoke to Moses, but we do not know from where this man is.
Joh 9:30 The man answered and said to them, Why, this is a marvelous thing, that you do not know from where He is, and He has opened my eyes. Here we see this man who was blind explains a second time and now goes further to say that Jesus must be of God as without God, Jesus could do nothing. Notice here all that these religious folk had was the law of Moses and as such said only Moses was spoken to by God. This all started back when Moses had set it all up for God to speak directly to the people. The people chose Moses to be their intermediary. This would lead me to believe these folk did not care much for the prophets, they were observers of what Moses said and nothing else. So by inference, no one but their chosen Moses was of any authority. In fact they had not only exchanged relationship with the Father for a golden calf, they now exchanged the calf for Moses. They had their religion and their articles of faith, their rules and their sin lists. They had a system. Joh 9:31 But we know that God does not hear sinners, but if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He hears him. Is this true? Does God not hear sinners or is this how these men were taught?
See the precursor for God to hear one, we must be God fearing. Can you see that their system had shut God off and that this was a lie? Tradition cherry picks this to still enforce their set of rules and to keep us sin focused. If you can see the blindness being as a result of the parents sin which the disciples and the Priests had, it is likely there were many things/lies that the people had been taught. Joh 9:32 From everlasting it was not heard that anyone opened the eyes of one who was born blind.
Joh 9:33 If this One were not of God, He could do nothing.
Joh 9:34 They answered and said to him, You were altogether born in sins, and do you teach us? And they cast him out. We see here that there is a strong testimony of no one previously having their eyes opened from blindness particularly one blind from birth. The man acknowledges that Jesus must be from God. See now the traditional belief that this man was blind as a result of sin was believed by all, it was their doctrine, and the sick were always put away just in case their "sin" would taint the others. The whole focus was on sin and not on the Father. They all were sin conscious; yes the devil had made their religion of no effect. Is that not the same today?
I still remember a brother from a Pentecostal church that split that he went back to another church, the reason? He said "At least there they still preach sin." How sad, I really thought that was weird as in my book preaching should be of Jesus and the Father, not sin. How many of the mainstream church are in bondage to a system that does exactly this in spite of Jesus? Most, I would guess.
You are what you think. Joh 9:35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and finding him, He said to him, Do you believe on the Son of God?
Joh 9:36 And he answered and said, Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him?
Joh 9:37 And Jesus said to him, You have both seen Him, and it is He who is speaking with you.
Joh 9:38 And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshiped Him. Clear here that just like with this man, Jesus had to reveal who He really was. It is like that today. The Father still has to draw us through the myriad of doctrinal lies to reveal Himself to us. Notice the subtle way Jesus revealed who he was. He did not ask do you believe I am the Son of God. Joh 9:39 And Jesus said, I have come into this world for judgment, that they who do not see might see, and that they who see might be made blind. What does this verse mean? It certainly does not mean that Jesus came to judge but came for the sake of judgment. That judgment was not against Him although we see it happening here. Joh 9:40 And those of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these words, and said to Him, Are we also blind?
Joh 9:41 Jesus said to them, If you were blind, you would have no sin. But now you say, We see. Therefore your sin remains. Notice how Jesus takes blindness = sin and now shows that seeing = sin, a total turnaround. This is not about literal vision but rather the heart. The Father looks unto the heart and not what we perceive to be as truth.
Like the bind man and the disciples, they both had been hoodwinked into what they believed.
I have touched on the warning by the Father to Cain but let us look at that portion again: Gen 4:6 And Jehovah said to Cain, Why have you angrily glowed? And why did your face fall?
Gen 4:7a If you do well, shall you not be accepted? All it asks here, if you do well will you not be accepted? I have broken it down a bit to focus on what I am seeing. This is commonly taught as you must do right to be accepted. That IMO is rubbish. It was a rhetorical question, nothing more. Let me pose it this way, "If you do well (to others), will they not accept/like/love you?" And if you do not do well, sin crouches at the door; and its desire is for you, and you shall rule over it
Here is the clue. If you do not do well sin enters in not because of not doing well but it stands as an accuser and the only way we can rule over it is by a law. This is the law of sin and death. I really do not believe that Abel was favored over Cain. The honoring of Jehovah differed from the two. Abel brought the firstling and Cain merely part of. I believe God was showing symbolically that He wanted first place aka intimate relationship and not just a casual relationship when it suits us. Joh 9:41 Jesus said to them, If you were blind, you would have no sin. But now you say, We see. Therefore your sin remains. If you were blind to sin you would have no sin, if you see your sin therefore your sin remains.
If the Father does not weigh or remember our sins why should we? We judge ourselves and others carnally, the Father judges no one, and neither did Jesus.
Blessings
Next study: John 10:1-10 The Shepherd's Door of Forgiveness
All references to MKJV quoted NKJV linked
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