Thursday, June 25, 2009

Jesus heals a man born blind

A teacher once taught that "In a dark room, the blind man has the advantage. He is in a better position." He was speaking about spiritual blindness. Here is an excerpt from my Bible journal...

John 9:3 "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, said Jesus, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life."
9:4 "As long as it is day (light) we must do the work of him who sent me. Night (darkness) is coming when no one can work.
5 "While I am in the world, I am the light of the world."
6 Having said this he spit on the ground (used to heal a person's eyes, the ground is spoken of and used often in the Bible, dirt and dust, and the woman caught in adultery, wipe the dust off your feet. Jesus wrote in the dirt. He told the man born blind "go, wash in the Pool of Siloam." (Man was obedient).
11 "The man they call Jesus," he replied made some mud and put it on my eyes, so I went and washed and then I could see." (Man born blind was obedient; he was healed on a Sabbath day).
12 "Where is this man," they asked him. "I don't know," he said.
16 "He is a prophet." (The Jews always seemed to need proof).
21 "Ask him, he is of age, he will speak for himself."
23 "He is of age, ask him." (Were the parents willing to risk their son being put out of the synagogue but not themselves, was this right? Twice they told the Jews to ask their son.
22 "His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews."
24 They're accusing Jesus of being a sinner.
25 The blind man said "I don't know" twice in this passage, "One thing I do know, I was blind but now I see." (He's rejoicing in his healing). He's not concerned of who did it. Do we sometimes act like the Jews and have to question everything instead of giving glory to God. Maybe it even prevents us from praising him or delays the praising. When this happens it's not expressing our faith in God the way he intended, but doubting. God wants us to be believers. "The work of God is this to believe in the one I have sent." I love the response of the blind man. I feel as though I want to rejoice with him. The Pharisees spent too much time investigating things. Like trying to be God themselves, to me that's idol worshiping.
27 He answered. "I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again?" "Do you want to become his disciples, too?" I think the blind man had immediately following his healing decided to follow Jesus.
28 (He was insulted and suffered because he'd decided to follow Jesus),
29 (The Pharisees did not believe in Jesus because they couldn't prove him to be who he said he was. Even the healing of the blind man didn't change their mind. What stubbornness. I'm proud of how the blind man stood up for Jesus to the Pharisees, he was brave. "You don't know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes."
30 The blind man was not afraid of them especially where he said "Now that is remarkable, you don't know where he comes from yet he opened my eyes." (I think he was very good at defending Jesus and brave. He didn't know that Jesus was the "Son of Man" but he chose to believe by faith in him, take him at his word because he knew what he had done for him).
31 "We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does his will."
32 Now look at the testimony he offers to the Pharisees "nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind."
33 "If this man were not from God, he could do nothing." (I'm proud of the blind man; he risked being thrown out of the temple and stood up for Jesus. We should speak up for Jesus like he did. They were the ones sinning because they didn't believe, how tragic. How many people today are acting like the Pharisees and have to have everything proven to them before they'll believe by faith? Who were they to judge him? I see several sins here by the Pharisees 1) they didn't believe 2) they were idol worshipping themselves 3) false testimony-they said he was "steeped" in sin at birth. We're all sinners who need a Savior. They acted like they were without sin and set themselves up to be this man's judge, very dangerous. Their lack of unbelieving to me was the greatest sin. The blind man wanted to know more about Jesus when Jesus asked him "do you believe in the Son of Man?" He said to Jesus "tell me so that I may believe." Jesus said, "in fact, he is the one speaking with you. Then the man said "Lord, I believe, and he worshipped him." Beautiful demonstration of how we are to respond to Jesus. I love Jesus.
41 Jesus accused the Pharisees of sin. To him, I believe, "to see" meant, "believe." I think some of us are blind, it means we need to believe in Jesus. Eyes are used figuratively and literally. The blind man was without sin, he could now see. The Pharisees were blind, they couldn't see, had sin.
Heartstrings Two, Copyright © 2008 by Library of Congress

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