John 9:1-7: Jesus and the Man Born Blind

INTRODUCTION

I want to talk today with you about the most troubling question in the world.

The most troubling question all of all is “Why?”

A young couple in our church lost their beautiful six-year-old daughter to cancer. This was several years ago—but they keep asking themselves, “Why?”

They are still faithful believers, they have not lost their faith in God, but they still wonder.

Even godly people ask that question. A psalmist asked, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And Jesus took that prayer on his lips while he hung on the cross.

Some people think they know the reason for the suffering in the world. Here are some of the answers they give:

1. People get what they deserve.

2. God sends pain and suffering to improve our character.

3. Some say that our troubles are actually blessings in disguise.

4. Others tell us that God afflicts us to get our attention, and to prove to us that we need God.

Each of these “answers” has a bit of truth in it:

1. Often people do get what they deserve—but just as often they get what they don’t deserve. We see scoundrels become millionaires, and saints get incurable diseases.

2. Pain and suffering can improve our character if we can bring our suffering to God with faith. But often great troubles make people bitter, or hopeless, or despairing.

3. Suffering sometimes is a blessing in disguise. A young man became gravely ill. In the hospital he met a wonderful, caring nurse. They fell in love, married, and had a happy marriage. He says, “Getting sick was the best thing that ever happened to me.”

4. And sometimes we do hear God’s voice in our suffering, but sometimes in suffering, people despair and give up on God.

A number of years ago a Jewish rabbi (Harold Kushner) wrote a book that was a best seller. It was entitled, Why Bad Things Happen to Good People. It was a good and thoughtful book.

The well-known Christian author C. S. Lewis wrote a book called The Problem of Pain. Because Lewis was a brilliant writer and a former atheist, his book was helpful to many Christians.

But after Lewis lost his wife in a terrible battle with cancer he found that he still had questions.

The problem of so much sadness and sorrow and pain in our world is the strongest weapon that skeptics use against belief in God.

They argue that a good and all-powerful God could have made a world without sorrow.

They say that all the suffering proves that God isn’t loving—or that God isn’t all powerful.

A notable atheist wrote a book recently making this case against belief in God. His book is called God’s Problem.

We might expect that the Bible would have the answer to this problem—but it doesn’t.

The Bible was written to teach us how to know God—and how to live in the light of that knowledge.

It was not written to answer all our questions—especially questions, the answers of which we couldn’t understand, given the limitations of our minds.

The Bible is written to give us light for living. And if we live for God, we can live rich and useful lives—even though we have to live with questions.

Let me read to you the story of The Man Born Blind, from John’s gospel, chapter 9:

As he passed by, he saw a man blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be made manifest in him. We must work the works of him who sent me, while it is day; night comes, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

As he said this, he spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle and anointed the man’s eyes with the clay, saying to him, “Go wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent).

So he went and washed and came back seeing (John 9:1-7).

I. The disciples assumed that the man’s blindness was punishment for sin. That is why they asked, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

A. The Bible teaches—and life also teaches—that sin brings suffering. So—the disciples reasoned—somebody’s sin must be the reason for all the suffering in the world.

But now they had a problem. The man had been born blind. For whose sin was he being punished? It couldn’t be his own sin, unless he had sinned while he was in his mother’s womb.

But if it was his parents’ sin he was being punished for—that isn’t fair. Why should he suffer all his life for the sins of his parents?

B. This was an honest question—but Jesus didn’t answer it.

Instead he gave his disciples—and us—a different way to look at the problem of undeserved suffering.

Jesus turned their minds away from their question “why?” because there’s a more important question we need to address.

Jesus changed the subject. He said, ”We must work the works of him who sent me, while it is day; night comes, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

This should also be our attitude. Rather than bemoaning the sorry state of the world—or assigning blame—we should respond to suffering by doing what we can—by doing the work of God while it is day.

Jesus did what he could, and he healed the man.

We aren’t Jesus, and we can’t heal with a touching. But we can do something.

We’re not put into the world to figure everything out. We are put into the world to do all the good we can, in every way we can.

And for that we don’t need all the answers. We are saved to work with God to bring light into the world—the light of God’s goodness and love.

Sometimes by our love—our kindness—to those in trouble, we can draw them towards God.

I believe that the more love people experience in the world the more likely they are to believe God is loving.

People need to see God’s love through us who are his children.

Jesus knew he could not eliminate blindness in the world—but he could help this blind man.

We also have opportunities.

When we pass by a needy person whom we could help, and do nothing, we prevent God’s love from reaching that hurting person.

We can’t heal the blind, but we can offer a word of encouragement. We can be a friend. We can listen. We can pray.

Jesus said, “I must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. Night comes when no one can work.”

Our time on earth is short—but it’s all-important in view of eternity, because what we do during our short lives has consequences for good or evil for all eternity.

II. Notice how Jesus went about healing this man.

A. The blind man had heard the discussion. He was in the dark, but he was curious. He had heard an unfamiliar voice say, “I am the light of the world.”

All his life he had wondered what light was. He wondered what colors were. He wondered about the sun, the moon, the stars, the rainbow. He wondered about the things people talked about that he couldn’t imagine.

Isn’t it odd how Jesus went about healing this man? Sometimes Jesus healed with a touch. Sometimes he healed with a word.

But this time, Jesus made an ointment with his saliva and a bit of clay from the ground and anointed the man’s eyes!

This sounds strange, but I think I know why he did this.

This man couldn’t see anything—he couldn’t see Jesus. He couldn’t see the expression on Jesus’s face. He couldn’t see the kindness shining out from Jesus’s face.

When Jesus anointed the man’s eyes he was acting out the healing that he intended to do.

And when he sent him to the pool of Siloam, he was giving the man a way to express his faith.

Jesus usually required faith on the part of those he healed. That is why he so often told them: “Your faith has healed you,” words that can also be translated, “Your faith has saved you.”

B. The way to make faith grow is to put it to work. So the poor man had to grope his way—or be led—to the pool. How his heart must have been pounding!

Think of the conflicting thoughts in the poor man’s mind as he set out for the pool!

He probably asked himself, “Am I making a fool of myself?... Will people laugh at me if nothing happens?... This man who anointed my eyes sounded pretty confident…. Anyway, what have I got to lose? …I can believe that I will get healed! I can’t wait to get to the pool!”

Imagine his excitement when he washed the mud out of his eyes—and opened them and suddenly saw light and colors and peoples’ faces for the first time in his life!

C. When the healed man got back, Jesus was gone. The rest of the chapter tells about an argument the blind man had with Jesus’s enemies, the religious authorities.

They insisted that Jesus was a bad man because he had healed this man on the Sabbath. But the healed man insisted that Jesus must be a good man, a prophet. He told Jesus’s enemies: “One thing I know, that though I was blind, now I see.”

The upshot of it was that the healed man was banished from synagogue. This was tough because the synagogue was their church—where they prayed and worshiped, and heard the scriptures.

When Jesus heard about his predicament he sought him out.

Jesus found him and asked him, “Do you believe in the Son of man?”

The man answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?”

Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who speaks to you.”

Then the man said, “Lord I believe”; and he worshiped Jesus.

Now, in addition to the healing of his eyes, Jesus gave him salvation and eternal life.

Now he has a saving relationship with Christ.

CONCLUSION

This story is telling us that “Why?” is the wrong question.

The right question, when we suffer is: “How can I honor God in this situation?”

When Jesus said, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God may be made manifest in him,” he wasn’t saying that the man had been born blind so that someday 30 years from then Jesus could come along and heal him.

He wasn’t saying that it was good that the man had been born blind.

He wasn’t saying that it was God’s will that this poor man should suffer blindness all those years.

He was saying that even in this tragic event God can be honored.

This is the question we should ask ourselves when we suffer.

Not “Why?” or “Why me?” but “How can I honor God in this situation? How can I use my sorrow to prove my faith in God?”

We should ask ourselves, “Is there some lesson of wisdom I can learn from my situation?” “Can I find in this predicament some way I can serve others?”

Let me suggest two ways that God uses difficulties in our lives.

(1) Trouble gives us an opportunity to prove that our faith is real.

St. Peter wrote, “Now for a little while you may have to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold—which though perishable is tested by fire—may redound to praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:6-7).

Trials and tribulations are hard to bear, but they do give us an opportunity to fight the good fight of faith—and to prove that our faith is real and that God is real.

That is why people get satisfaction in looking back to difficult times, knowing they were a battles won against the dark forces that threaten our souls.

(2) The second way that God uses the sorrows in our lives is to open a door for us to serve others.

St. Paul wrote: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).

We have friends at church whose son was born profoundly retarded. He’s a grown man now. His mother and father have a ministry at our church that brings together mentally- handicapped adults from all over the area for a time of worship and friendship every Sunday afternoon.

It’s not good that their son is retarded—that’s a heavy burden—but it is good that his affliction has led them into a useful ministry to help others.

We have two friends who suffered painful divorces. God brought them together, and for years now they have hosted a divorce recovery group that has helped many people.

Someone said: “To have suffered much is like knowing many languages; it gives you access to many people.”

The world is full of sadness. God uses those who have experienced sorrow to strengthen and comfort others who have also experienced affliction.

Our troubles—if we offer them to God—can fill us with compassion for others who suffer and make us useful in ways that would never have been possible if our life had been untroubled.

Father Damien worked in the leper colony on the Hawaiian island of Molokai. Week by week, he preached, addressing the people as “you lepers.” Nothing much happened until the day came when he stood up to preach and began with the words, “We lepers.” He had contracted the disfiguring and fatal disease himself! And that made all the difference.

The beginning of Father Damian’s suffering was also the beginning of a great revival in that village of the dying. Father Damian’s suffering proved to be redemptive for others. That is because Christian suffering is never suffering in a vacuum. Father Damian—and we—suffer with Jesus.

A woman named Peggy lost her 28-year-old daughter to cancer. As she mourned and suffered, she poured her broken heart out to God. She offered herself and her suffering to God, just as Jesus did on the cross.

That hasn’t made her suffering any easier, but now everywhere she goes she meets people who have lost adult children to death. Peggy sits next to them on airplanes, meets them in the supermarket, and bumps into them on vacation. She shares their suffering and offers them Christ and his comfort. Her suffering, united with Christ’s suffering has meant salvation for many.

The deeper sorrow carves its way into our hearts, the better we understand the sorrows of others—and the better we are prepared to extend God’s love to suffering souls around us.

Prayer:

Dear Father, give us understanding in our tribulations.

Help us to deeply pity others’ misery.

Teach us to weep with those who weep

and to ardently thirst for their happiness as you do.

Show us how we may be instruments of your mercy in a sad world.

May the same mind be in us that is in Christ Jesus.