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About Jesus - Steve Sweetman Previous Section - Chapter 8:48 - 58 Next Section - Chapter 9:13 - 34
Jesus
Heals A Man Born Blind (ch.
9:1-12) The
last verse of chapter 8 tells us that Jesus slipped away from those
wanting to stone Him as He left the temple.
Here, in chapter 9, verse 1, Jesus is somewhere outside of the
temple and meets up with a man that has been blind since birth.
In verse 2 His disciples ask Him who sinned, this man or his
parents. Obviously they
thought that sickness was related to particular sins, as some think
today. Jewish
leaders often taught that certain sickness was a result of sin on the
part of a parent. When God says in the Old Testament that the curse of
sin will be visited onto children of the third and fourth generation,
they interpreted that to mean people were sick because of parental sin.
See Exodus 20:5. This idea
still exists today, but I believe is a misinterpretation of what God was
saying in Old Testament times. That
being said, the sin of parents, say drug abuse, can create physical
illness in their children, but I don't think this is what the disciples
were talking about here. It
made no sense that this man’s blindness was a result of sin he
committed since he was blind from birth.
It was possible in the eyes of the disciples that his parents
sinned. Now I'm not discounting the notion that sin cannot lead to
illness in a life. Some
suggest that Jesus alluded to the idea that sin can cause sickness in
John 5:14. James 5:14 might
also suggest this. Sickness
might well be a method of God disciplining us.
In
verse 3 Jesus clearly points out that sin is not responsible for this
man’s blindness and therefore the disciples should not think in such
terms. The thing to think
about is that this blindness can be used to the glory of God as Jesus
also says in verse 3. This
is a better way for us all to think.
Instead of being introspective and searching for sin and
generational curses, Jesus is simply saying; "Think how God can be
glorified in this man’s blindness."
In this particular case God was glorified when Jesus healed the
man. In
verse 4 Jesus continues by saying that "As long as it is day, we
must do the work of Him who sent me…"
He also says that He "Sis the light of the world."
The reason why this particular time in history is called day by
Jesus is because He was the light of the world and He was in the world
to light the world. Jesus
then says that the time will come when it will be night and no one can
work. This statement tells
me a couple of things. One
think it tells me is that the world will come to a place in the last
days where it will be very dark, so dark that doing the will of God will
be impossible. People will
be so darkened in their sin that they will not accept the gospel.
Jesus might well have had the end times in mind as He spoke these
words. Also, this statement
tells me that it is quite possible that a person, a people group, can be
so dark that the light will not have any affect on them.
For some, it might be too late for the gospel.
It
is interesting to note that Jesus says "we" must do work.
He is including His disciples in the work of the Lord, even at
this early stage in His ministry. The
disciples back then had work to do in promoting the We
might think that spitting is a disgusting habit and it probably is, but
we see Jesus spitting here in verses 6 and 7 for a purpose.
He spit on the ground. He
mixed His saliva in the dirt and put the mixture of mud on the blind
man’s eyes and told him to wash his eyes in the Pool of Siloam.
A
bit of cultural history is important here.
Among Jewish medical tradition, one's saliva was often mixed with
something else to help heal an eye disease.
It appears to me that Jesus was taking a Jewish custom and
turning it into a real miracle. This
would have been much more significant for the Jews who saw the miracle
than it is for us today. Again,
here is where a bit of cultural history sheds some light on a Biblical
passage. The
blind man came back seeing Once
again, there is no formula to healing.
Jesus healed people in many different ways, of which, this was
one of the most different ways. We
must not take this instance and build a doctrine of healing around it. The
pool of Siloan was a spring fed pool that flowed from the temple mount
– the hill the temple was built on.
The word "siloam" is a Hebrew word that has been
translated into Greek by John, meaning "sent".
So this pool is the pool of the sent water.
In Isaiah 8:6 we note that this pool was symbolic of the
blessings of God that flowed from the temple, and so it was in this case
when the man was healed as he washed his eyes.
King Hezekiah built an underground tunnel that would bring water
from a spring just south of In
verses 8 through 9 we note that people who knew this man saw that he
could now see. Some asked if
this was really the blind man that they’ve seen begging for years.
Others said that this could not be him, but only looked like him.
Sometimes we just have a hard time accepting a miracle. In
verse 10 the man who was healed insisted that he was once blind and now
he sees. People then ask who
made him see. He explained
the process of Jesus putting mud on his eyes and sending him to the pool
where he was healed. At this
point in the life of this man he didn't seem to understand just who
Jesus was. He called Jesus
"the man they call Jesus."
Jesus just seemed to be a man to the man born blind.
This is often the case. Before
we accept who Jesus really is; before we can trust our lives with Him,
we don't necessarily understand who Jesus really is.
In
verse 12 the people ask the man who was healed where Jesus was.
The man didn't know where Jesus was.
Jesus once again had slipped into the crowd so He would be
unnoticed. His time for His
arrest and execution had not yet come.
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