Our Sermons

Bible Passage: John 9
Pastor: Pastor Schlicht
Sermon Date:  March 15, 2020

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Today I want to talk about spiritual sight. Now that may sound a little abstract, but we commonly use sight in a non-literal sense. We say things like “I see your point.” We aren’t talking about our eyeballs, we are talking about understanding someone. We say, “I don’t see that working out.” Here sight is connected to trust or confidence. Another example of sight in a non-literal sense is when we realize the truth of something. I used to hear the phrase, “Kids grow up so fast.” But I didn’t understand it. That is, until I had two kids and started wondering where the last few years went. How is Solomon three already? And why is Willow walking? They do grow up so fast. Now I see. When we  see something in this sense, it becomes real. We understand it, we trust it, we get it. This helps us understand what spiritual sight entails. Spiritual sight means that the truth of God, who he is and what he has done, becomes real to us. We trust him, we have confidence in the truth of his Word. The issue is, that even though we may have heard some of these truths a thousand times, we can still fail to see them. Sin distorts our vision in a dark world. That’s why it’s so important to check our eyes this morning. And perhaps no other chapter of the Bible is as well-suited to teach us about spiritual sight than John 9. John chapter 9 is the fascinating account of Jesus healing a man born blind and the events that follow. This account is a case study in spiritual sight.

A case study is a research strategy that investigates something within a real-life situation. John 9 provides us with three real-life examples, three groups of people, who demonstrate what it means to see spiritually, or to lack spiritual sight. There are the disciples who have a misguided question in the beginning, then there are the Pharisees and how they respond, and then we have the man himself. With the disciples we get a corrected view of sin and suffering. From the Pharisees we learn about spiritual blindness. And from the man himself, we see our Savior at work as the Light of the World, who grants both physical and spiritual sight. It is my prayer that this case study in spiritual sight will teach us to see clearly as well.

As Jesus was passing by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Notice two things right away. This blind man wasn’t calling out to Jesus, no our Savior found him, he saw him. And second, notice that the disciples see this blind beggar, but they see him only as an opportunity to indulge their curiosity. “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” The underlying premise they assume, in arrogance, is that this man or his parents must be really sinful that God would cause him to be born blind as a punishment. This is an incorrect view of sin and a blindness to the nature of God. This is still in us today. There’s this idea deep in us that if you have a hard life, you must have done something to deserve it. If something bad happens to you, you must have done something bad to deserve it. This is how we think, by nature. Right? (What comes around goes around! Karma.) This is wrong. First, it creates pride and self-righteousness in the hearts of people whose lives are going well. We all, by nature, have this bias when we see someone in trouble. We think, “Oh they probably weren’t careful, they probably shouldn’t have gone there, they probably didn’t do due diligence, or something like that. We want to assume, like the disciples, that it was the sufferer’s fault. Why? So we can assure ourselves it couldn’t happen to us because we’re not like that. The second reason it is wrong is because it isn’t true to the facts. The fact is that there are plenty of good people who have difficult lives and there are plenty of terrible people who have a nice life, earthly speaking. The assumption that bad things happen to bad people just isn’t true in so many cases. Third, it is incredibly cruel to the one suffering. You make  And fourth, it misunderstands the love and purpose of God hidden within suffering. 

Look how Jesus answered. 3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that God’s works might be revealed in connection with him. 4 I must do the works of him who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the Light of the World.” What an answer! Jesus has a biblical view of suffering. The Bible teaches that God did not create the world to have suffering in it. God created a paradise, not a world filled with death and disease. But when humanity turned away from God, sin infected God’s perfect Creation and things started to get messed up. Death came in, suffering comes in, all these bad things come in. Therefore, in general sin causes suffering, but Jesus rejects the idea that there is a direct line between personal sin and suffering. (Obviously in some cases sin directly results in punishment, like if you shoot someone then you will go to jail. That suffering is your fault.) But in many cases of suffering, there is no connection. For instance, is the Coronavirus God’s plague upon humanity to punish us for our sin? We have no word from God saying that specifically. But what we do have, is a world infected by sin where viruses infect people. But more, Jesus teaches something amazing: that even in suffering God is at work with a good purpose. This man was born blind, but God would use him to reveal himself in Jesus. And God’s good work will be revealed in your suffering too. You may never see it physically, through faith you can trust, you can see that God is working. God’s good work will be done through the coronavirus and through any and all suffering. Just as his work was revealed in Jesus’ suffering on the cross. That’s our first case study.

6 After saying this, Jesus spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and spread the mud on the man’s eyes. 7 “Go,” Jesus told him, “wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means “Sent”). So he went and washed, and came back seeing. Now there are many things we could talk about in connection with the miracle, but the thing that jumps out at us is Jesus’ unusual method. Why did he spit and make mud? It seems crazy to us, but there are a number of good possibilities. 1. The saliva of ancient healers was often regarded as having healing properties. 2. Jesus wanted the man to display some faith in him by washing in the pool of Siloam so he needed to have something to wash off. 3. The use of mud reminds me of how God first created Adam from the earth and here Jesus is at work with earth in another creative act. This especially sticks out in the coming verses where they debate over whether Jesus comes from God or not. And 4: Making mud was prohibited by the Pharisees as work. This was the Sabbath Day and so, just having had a dispute over the Sabbath in chapter 8, Jesus again wants to challenge the Pharisees in their legalistic view of the Scriptures.

This is where our second case study begins about spiritual blindness. After the blind man is healed his neighbors are astonished and take him to see the Pharisees. The Pharisees then have this debate about whether or not Jesus is sent from God because, while he healed the man, he also broke their Sabbath law. Then they send the healed man away and bring in his parents to confirm that he was blind from birth which they do. And finally they call the man back in for more questions, and after he argues that Jesus must be from God, they snap at him. 34 They answered him, “You were entirely born in sinfulness! Yet you presume to teach us?” And they threw him out. This is spiritual blindness. Standing right before their eyes is a blind-from-birth man who is now seeing. Despite the light of God’s glory beaming from this man’s eyes, they refuse to see God at work in the person of Jesus. In the end they try to insult the man by saying he was born entirely in sin, which ironically would actually confirm the miracle they refused to acknowledge. The Pharisees are blind to their own blindness. It is almost comical the more you read John 9. But before we start to laugh, realize that this means we must also have blindspots. Because if we claim that we don’t, then we would be as blind as the Pharisees. Right at the end of the chapter Jesus says to them, “Now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains!” 

The worst type of spiritual blindness is being blind to your own blindness. And this can happen to anyone.  We can believe that we have mastered seeing things as Christians. Yet all the while, like the disciples, we can be blind to opportunities staring us right in the face to do the works of God. We can fall into the proud trap of pronouncing spiritual judgment on the evidence of sin in the world, while failing to see individuals to whom God wants us to show love. The truth is we all struggle with blind spots that only Jesus can teach us to see in our hearts. We can look away from our sin enough times that we don’t see it as an offense against the heart of God. We can see it so clearly in others, but be blind our own darkness. We can even become so blind, like the Pharisees, that we forget that we too were born entirely in sin, deserving no part of God and nothing from God.

As it turns out there are only two groups of people, those who are blind and don’t know it and those who are blind and do know it. I’d rather be in group #2, wouldn’t you? Because no one who thinks they have perfect vision goes to the eye-doctor, right? And if we are ever to see spiritually, we need to admit that we were at one time and still are to a certain extent blind. As humbling as it is to admit membership in this group, it is a far better place to stand. Group #2 are those who freely confess their blindness before the Savior. And this is our final case study: the man-born blind.

This man goes from congenital blindness to 20/20 vision, but, more importantly, from spiritual blindness to seeing Jesus clearly. I just love the way his understanding of who Jesus is progresses through the chapter. First he calls him “The man”. Then he says, “He is a prophet.” Next he argues that Jesus must be sent from God. And finally after Jesus finds him outside the synagogue he says, “Lord, I believe.” He goes from spiritual blindness to spiritual sight. And then he does something really important: “and he kneeled down and worshipped him.” I think that the fact that he worshiped him is so important. The more I read this chapter, the more it sticks out. And I think it really gets at the heart of what it means to have spiritual sight. Because when you worship Jesus as truly God, you see him clearly. Once you are convicted of your blindness, then you see Jesus for who he is: your Savior, the Light of the world. And then you have nothing left to do but worship him. If you worship anything else, you would be blind. But when you worship Jesus, you see clearly. This is what it means to have spiritual sight.

If you see Jesus as your Savior, your only hope from the darkness of sin, your eyes have been opened. Do remember when Jesus was on the cross darkness came over the land. But it wasn’t just a physical darkness. Jesus said, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Jesus was being plunged into spiritual darkness. He was losing the light of the Father’s love that he had always had from eternity. But not on the cross. He was being plunged into spiritual darkness. “Why?” What did Isaiah say? “Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.” He had to be wounded for us to be healed. He had to be plunged into darkness blind, so that we could have our darkness ended. In light of that love, open your eyes, and worship him in thankfulness. 

Amen.