John 9:1–41
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Grace, Mercy and Peace to you from God our Father, and the Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text for today’s message is the Gospel reading from John, chapter 9, in which Jesus heals a man who was born blind. Please join me in prayer:
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
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For the blind man in our text today, his problem started at birth. That’s a pretty significant fact. It means that no action or inaction; no sin or failure committed directly by him resulted in his blindness. He was born that way.
In our modern world, we want to take that even a step farther and say, “it wasn’t his fault that he was born blind.” And Jesus seems to agree. Sort of.
He declares that, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.” (John 9:3 ESV).
Jesus says, you can’t connect this man’s blindness directly to his sin or his parents sin. There is not a circumstance in which, if he’d only done something different; or if his parents had only done something different, he would have been free from his blindness.
But that’s not quite the same as saying that this man and his parents are without fault. Instead, Jesus is saying that the fault, the blame, and the effects of sin are actually far bigger than any one person. Sin is not just this man’s problem, manifested in his blindness, but is is the problem of all humanity, and manifested in all manner of brokenness and suffering in our world. Or, in the words of Paul, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And the wages of sin is death.”
The proof of this is the fact that the man was born blind, and there is nothing he could have done, good or bad, to change that. And in the same way all people are born sinners, and there is nothing we can do, good or bad to change that. This is the doctrine of original sin. And that’s really what Jesus is exposing here. He is shining a light on this reality. Sin, like this blindness, is a condition of our birth that cannot be changed by our own action or inaction.
We are all, in fact, born spiritually blind.
During Lent, we think about the cross. We think about the darkness of this broken world, which leads to the crucifixion. We think about how lost and deceived our world is. In the dark, we can see nothing.
But when the light shines, suddenly we can see. And Jesus is the light of the world, shining in the darkness.
But today, we see that, in fact, the spiritual problem we face is not just about what’s going on outside of us. It’s not just the fact that we live in a dark world. That, we know to be true. This is a dark world. Truth is hard to come by.
But Jesus today shows us a deeper spiritual problem. Blindness. For the man born blind, it didn’t matter how dark or light it was around him. The light could have been shining brightly everywhere, but still, he would see nothing. And the same is true for the spiritually blind.
In fact, that’s one of the themes of John’s Gospel. Jesus the light of the world has come to shine in the darkness. But the world did not know him. The world did not receive him. The light was shining, but because of this deeper problem of spiritual blindness, the world remained in darkness. Unable to see that the Savior had come.
Here we may be tempted again to think about all the people we know who are blind to the truth of God’s Word. We can think about how how far they are away from God and about how their lives are filled up with other things, and how, even when they hear the truth, even when the light shines in the darkness, they still don’t know that they are sinners. And they still don’t know and trust in Christ.
And if we do that, we are likely to become like the Pharisees in this account. We can point out the blindness and sin of others, while missing the fact that we, too, are plagued with blindness and sin.
Listen again to how they accuse this man. After he declares that it is obvious that Jesus is from God … After all how else would he have brought sight to the blind…, they say to him, “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?”
They’re not wrong. The blind man was born in utter sin. But then again…so were you. And so was I. And so were those very Pharisees who rebuked the man born blind. All have sinned. We are all born spiritually blind. And ironically, in making this rebuke, the Pharisees epitomize blindness. The light of Christ is shining in their midst. Bringing light to the darkness. But they still cannot see. They reject this man’s common sense confession…because they are blind.
The Pharisees, of course, don’t believe that they’re blind. They say as much in verses 40 and 41: They said to him, “Are we also blind?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.
If the Pharisees admitted their blindness and confessed their sinfulness, then their guilt would be removed by the mercy of God in Christ. But their guilt remains because they are unwilling to admit their blindness. They are unwilling to confess their sins.
“What sins?” They ask defiantly.
There is a temptation within each of us to believe that this blindness of sin is a problem for others. But not for us. There is temptation to deny that we are blind, to deny that we are in bondage to sin. Maybe others are, but surely not me.
It’s not just Pharisees that are tempted this way. For instance, a life long Christian once commented that she didn’t much like the song Amazing Grace. Oh it’s a nice enough song until you get that part where it says that God saved a wretch like me. That’s not me, she said, I’ve never been a wretch. You can hear in that comment the echo of the Pharisees prayer from Luke 18: I thank you God that I am not like all these other sinners.
The disciples too have succumbed to this same temptation. Remember the beginning of this account? They’re trying to find someone to blame for the man’s blindness. There must be some reason. He or his parents must be especially bad sinners, right? They must have really and truly been wretches compared to us, right?. But Jesus says, no, that’s not true. This man and his parents are no better or worse than you.
But, that can’t be, Jesus! We aren’t blind!
Yes, Jesus says, yes you are. Maybe not physically blind. But your blindness is a worse kind. It’s the kind of blindness that rebels against God, and then denies the truth. It’s the kind off blindness that refuses to acknowledge sin, and rejects the Word of God and the life that it brings. And where that blindness persists and is not admitted…there is no removal of guilt. There is no forgiveness. Because there is no confession. As John says in 1 John 1:8, If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
But, where that spiritual blindness of sin is acknowledged, Christ is there. He is not only there as light shining in the darkness. But also He is there as the healer who enables us to finally see and receive from him the gift of forgiveness and life. Again John says in 1 John 1:9, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
When Jesus first answers the disciples question about the blind man, remember what he says: “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.” (John 9:3 ESV).
We know that Jesus was not saying that this man wasn’t a sinner. All have sinned. All are blind. But what Jesus was saying is that God is able to heal his blindness and forgive his sins. That of course is the miracle. That is the work of God that is displayed in this man. Yes it begins with physical healing. With a man who has never seen anything his whole life, now suddenly seeing. But the more extraordinary and remarkable miracle is that his spiritual blindness is also healed.
I mean think of it…this man was blind. And Jesus, the light of the world came up to him…but still he could not see him . Only when Jesus came to him and anointed his eyes and commanded Him to wash in the pool of Siloam. Only when he has received the gift of God in water and the word, this baptism of sorts, only then could he begin to see and confess the truth. And with his eyes opened, he did confess, even before the hostile and skeptical Pharisees that this man Jesus came from God. And finally he could truly see Jesus, the light of the world, and confess that he is Lord of all.
Dear people of God, it is the same miracle of sight that God is eager to deliver to you today. This gift comes to you as God proclaims his word to you. It begins with the Law that declares that you are blind. Yes, you. You are a wretch. You are a sinner.
Now don’t be like the Pharisees. Don’t say, me? I’m not blind. I’m not a wretch. No, confess your sins. Agree with God. Tell the truth. Humbly say: I am blind to my own condition. I often fail to see the light of Christ, even when it’s right in front of me. And worse still, I sin often against God and my neighbor. I am a wretch! And having confessed your sins, now gladly receive the gift of God’s forgiveness, won for you by Christ on the Cross and delivered to you in word and sacrament.
For in the waters of Baptism, in the Preaching of His Word, in the Absolution and in the Lord’s Supper, Christ comes to YOU, just as he came to the man born blind. He comes and heals you of your blindness. He comes to you and forgives all your sins. So that you can join with the confession of the man born blind and say of this Jesus, “He is my Lord and God. He is my Savior. And this I know because though I was blind, now I see.” I see forgiveness, life, hope and a future, I see my salvation, which lasts forever in my Lord, Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Now the Peace of God, which surpasses understanding guard your hearts and minds in the one true faith in Christ Jesus. Amen.