This morning I am reflecting on the story of the healing of a man who was born blind, found in John's Gospel, chapter 9. I have reflected on this story many times, and this morning I saw something I hadn't really seen before, concerning the Pharisees. Here are some of the verses from the story, starting with the healing, and following - John 9:6-15,18-21,24-27 NIV:
[6] "After saying this, he [Jesus] spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man's eyes. [7] “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
[8] His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn't this the same man who used to sit and beg?”
[9] Some claimed that he was.
Others said, “No, he only looks like him.”
But he himself insisted, “I am the man.”
[10] “How then were your eyes opened?” they asked.
[11] He replied, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.”
[12] “Where is this man?” they asked him. “I don't know,” he said.
[Section heading - the Pharisees investigate the healing]
[13] They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. [14] Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man's eyes was a Sabbath. [15] Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight.
“He put mud on my eyes,” the man replied, “and I washed, and now I see.”
[18] They still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man's parents.
[19] “Is this your son?” they asked. “Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?”
[20] “We know he is our son,” the parents answered, “and we know he was born blind. [21] But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don't know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself.”
[24] A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God by telling the truth,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.”
[25] He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don't know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”
[26] Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”
[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?”
As I mentioned before, my focus this morning is on the Pharisees. They became engaged in this story, because people (apparently the man's neighbors and those who had seen him begging) brought the man to them. Apparently they were the experts, and these people were trying to understand how something like this would have happened.
I believe verse 18 is the critical juncture for, prior to speaking to the man's parents, the Pharisees didn't believe the whole story. Once they were confronted by the truth that man had indeed been born blind, then they had to figure out the how and why. So apparently, after talking to his parents the Pharisees now believed that he had been blind and now could see, so they had to backtrack and figure out how he was healed. The how was an answer that clearly confounded them, Jesus spit in the dirt and made mud and put it on the man's eyes. It was so confounding that they brought the man back a second time and asked him to tell his account once more. The whole focus on how he was healed related to the religious observance of the Sabbath, and making mud would be considered work, and was thus forbidden.
However, everyone knew that a miracle of this magnitude, could only be done by someone with God's power. The man himself said, "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.” (John 9:32-33 NIV).
They were trying to figure out why the man was healed by looking at how he was healed. They just couldn't wrap their heads around the fact that God, or one of God's servants, would ever break one of His rules or laws. They pretty much completely ignored his actual healing, and focused on the fact that Jesus did this simple loving act on the Sabbath. Talk about being blind! Looking directly at one who was healed of blindness, they couldn't see the miracle in front of their faces!
The spirit of religion has an amazing ability to blind us to the actual moves and works of God! We get so caught up in our own ideas, our own constructs of how God works, how the world works, or what is allowed in church or even outside of church, or whatever, that when we see God moving, we say it can't be Him, like we are some self-appointed experts on every way that God could possibly work. We have people of faith arguing these same basic things even today, for there are those that believe that God stopped doing miracles after the Apostles passed and anything that seems miraculous now, must be from the devil or must be fake, because God doesn't do miracles any more (according to them). We have those that claim any religious group who is experiencing miracles in their midst is clearly heretical, dangerous, and even cults. We have those that believe only in the rules of science (our own observations about how this complex world works) and say that anything outside those rules is fake or not possibly true, as if we have actually figured out everything. We see the Pharisees in this story ending up this investigation by throwing the man out - John 9:34 NIV: "To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out."
Paul, in his letters, spoke about this very issue on more than a few occasions. He was one who was schooled in all the wisdom of that age, a Pharisee by training, having studied under Gamaliel (Acts 22:3), and yet he saw the truth and recognized the inadequacy of what he had once believed. He wrote, "For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness” ( 1 Corinthians 3:19 NIV). Later, in his letter to the church in Philippi, he talked about forgetting all that he attained and had learned. Here is his expansion of that thought - Philippians 3:4-9 NIV:
[4].."though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: [5] circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; [6] as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless."
[7] "But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. [8] What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ [9] and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ---the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith."
My encouragement this day is to check my heart and mind, my way of thinking, to make sure that I make room for God to move in ways I have never seen Him move before! I am encouraged to look at my limited perspective on all things and humbly admit that I don't know or understand everything! I am encouraged to recognize that God can do the impossible, the improbable, even the uncomfortable, and that I need to be ok with that. God sometimes offends our minds to get to our hearts.
In this story, Jesus wasn't willing to let His concern about religion get in the way of expressing His love and care for the blind man! He knew full well it was the sabbath and that people would get bent out of shape by His making mud on the sabbath. He knew the "mud-slinging" that would result from that simple act of love and provision. He revealed His heart for the man, and later caught up with him, that he might have real relationship - John 9:35-38 NIV:
[35] "Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
[36] “Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.”
[37] Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”
[38] Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him."
Lord, thank You for loving each of us individually and personally! Thank You for offending our minds to get to our hearts! Thank You for breaking through the man-made rules and boundaries and expressing Your absolute divinity, authority and power! Thank You for exposing spiritual blindness by healing this man of his physical blindness.
Amen!
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