Jesus Came To Make Us See
What Jesus Came To Do 14 June 09
John: 9: 1 – 38
Today I want to take the theme for these studies and turn them into a question.
Q. What do you want Jesus to do for you?
This is a question that Jesus often asked the people who came to him; he would look them in the eye and say, ‘what do you want me to do for you?’
Even though I imagine Jesus already knew the answer, he invited people to share their needs it in their own words, which is what we do when we pray.
So what would you say to Jesus?
I’m not suggesting that God will always give us what we ask for but our questions have a way of clarifying our thinking.
The people who went out to Jesus on Palm Sunday had expectations of Jesus that He couldn’t meet. They wanted to make him their King but that wasn’t his purpose.
Jesus knew that the people didn’t need a new King because it wasn’t the political structures that needed to change, it was the people themselves.
‘Everyone thinks of changing the world but no one thinks of changing themselves.”
What Jesus went on to do at Easter was to make it possible for us all, to change for the better.
During his three years of public ministry Jesus did some wonderful miracles, he was the greatest teacher who ever lived- but he didn’t come primarily to teach nor to thrill the crowds with his miracles.
He came to change people’s lives – to give freedom to people who felt trapped; to bring forgiveness to those who felt guilty about sin; to give a future to those who feel the hopelessness of life.
In John 9, we see an example of something else Jesus came to do.
He brought light to the dark places of a man born blind – healing not only of his physical blindness but also his spiritual blindness.
The first few verses of Chapter 9 are about his physical healing, but John takes the rest of the chapter to describe something much more important – the healing of his spiritual blindness and so by the end of the story the blind man can, ‘truly see for the first time’.
The profound value of this story is that it explains the way God inspires and builds faith in people like us.
This poor man had been blind all this like, which would account for the fact that he is a beggar, there was no welfare state in Israel.
Q. Can you imagine that at least once every day he must have thought?
‘What would it be like if I could see? How would things change for me if I could only see?”
Put yourself in the place of the blind man.
Q. What is it that you long for?
What would you love to see happen in your life – personal things, spiritual things?
Maybe – you’d like to see yourself as a person of greater faith, that seems so easy for other people but you can’t see it happening for you.
Or ‘maybe you’d love to see your family getting along better’.
Whatever it is – write it down
When we can do this, it makes our encounter with Jesus very much more real.
Now, four things happened to this blind man after Jesus helped him to see, four further things to build his faith.
The same four things that need to happen to us.
1. I Need to Break Through the Either or Syndrome
The disciples were guilty of the wrong kind of thinking – exposed by their question:
“Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents – that he was born blind?”
vs. 2
Someone must have sinned, this was the only option that life had taught them – all sickness is the result of a person’s sin.
If a person was suffered any kind of misfortune, they must have done something to deserve it.
Perhaps some of us have had the same thoughts?
But they were wrong – their belief was wrong and the worst part about it was that it trapped them in a way of thinking that made this man’s situation totally hopeless.
This is what ‘either or’ thinking does – it traps us into tunnel vision (example – Matthew’s sleep).
It doesn’t teach us to think outside the square as Matt eventually did!
Either I marry this person I don’t really love OR I’ll be lonely the rest of my life.
Either I live my life feeling guilty for the things I’ve done OR I become a Christian and won’t have any more fun – not true of course!
But if we are guilty of ‘either/or’ thinking, we victimise ourselves and as a result we feel trapped.
Trapped often in bad situations, maybe a bad marriage and we start asking the wrong questions like; “why me, why do I deserve this, where is God when I need Him?”
In the process we fail to see the other possibilities for our situation.
Now look at what Jesus has to say about either or thinking in verse 9 and I paraphrase;
“Jesus said, you are asking the wrong question, you are looking for someone to blame there is no such cause and effect here.
Look instead for what God can do. Look for God’s third option – the option of faith.”
God can change things that we can’t change; He can turn crucifixions into resurrections.
Sometimes God changes the circumstance; He heals our body, mind or marriage but most often, He changes us by healing our bad or wrong attitudes.
So when we are caught in an either/or trap e.g. ‘either the doctors can cure me or I’m going to die’, begin to look for God’s third option.
A way that is so radically different that it could only be God.
Step # 2 in building faith;
2. Ask Jesus to Help You – with your struggles in life.
Jesus told the blind man to go and do something very ordinary,
“Go and wash yourself, in the Pool of Siloam. And so the man went and washed, and he came home seeing.” John 9:7
He had probably walked the same streets and washed in the same pool many times before but miracles occur when someone does something very ordinary in obedience to God.
Moses was asked to hold up his staff to separate the waters of the Red Sea.
A school boy was asked to give up his lunch with a few small loaves and fishes and God was able to feed thousands of people.
Something very ordinary becomes miraculous in the hands of God.
Q. Are you willing to do something ordinary as an act of obedience?
Maybe our simple step is to make a phone call to restore a relationship.
Or to pray for something that we have stopped praying for.
It might be going to see a doctor or a counsellor or it might be giving a little to help someone when you don’t appear to have enough.
However, when we take these small first steps of faith beware that the first thought you’re probably going to have is, “This isn’t going to work”.
But then just remember that everything you’ve tried hasn’t worked either so you may as well give it a go.
When you make that phone call or write that letter and begin to pray – don’t be surprised if your first thought is to doubt.
It’s amazing how God can take a small step of faith even with doubt filled people like us and make an incredible difference in our lives.
Now let me add two warnings here;
i. Don’t confuse the method with the miracle
The blind man’s miracle did not happen because of the method Jesus used to heal him.
On this occasion Jesus made mud from the dust of the ground and his own spit, placed it on his eyes and told the man to go and wash it off.
If that happened today someone would be marketing the dirt –‘miracle working mud’. Jesus healed people in many different ways.
(Story of the two blind men)
God is creative, He has many ways of doing things – the miracle is that He does them at all!
So don’t try to argue someone out of a miracle because God is gloriously unpredictable and don’t confuse the method with the miracle.
ii. Don’t confuse your part with God’s part – wood pecker story
Yes God invited Moses to hold up his staff and yes God invited the people of Israel to blow their trumpets at the walls of Jericho and yes God told a blind man to walk down to the pool to wash the mud off his eyes.
But in all these examples, it was God’s work that brought about the miracle. Certainly the people’s obedience made the difference – but only God deserves the credit for what happened.
And God alone deserved the credit for what happened next in this man’s life.
After he had received his sight he went back to the people who knew him well; people who had only ever known him as a blind beggar.
For the first time he was able to see the faces that belonged to the voices he knew so well.
But you know it must have been a very disappointing experience for him because in every face all he saw was doubt and scepticism.
They all pointed at him and said, “This cannot happen”, this must be someone else who looks like him but it can’t be him.
But he replied to them, “I am the man.”
Here is the point – instead of rejoicing with the blind man, now he has to convince them of this amazing miracle that had taken place in his life;
This brings us to our third step of faith.
3. Look Beyond What Others Can See.
There will always be people around us to tell us why we shouldn’t believe; that we may as well accept our blindness because sight is impossible.
That a personal relationship with God, through Jesus Christ ,who loves us and will take care of us, is a fairy tale; that forgiveness and a clear conscience is nonsense.
There will always be people whose own negativity and unbelief will dampen down our faith if we don’t do something about it.
There are two kinds of people in the world; those who will gently fan the flames of faith to life and those who have a big bucket of water ready to douse them.
They are not usually bad people but people who have been disappointed by life’s struggles and in the process they have become increasingly sceptical.
We need to surround ourselves with the kind of people who are good at fanning the flames of faith, which is what the Church is all about; meeting and mixing with others who are further along the road that we want to travel down.
This why we need to join a small group where we get to know a few other Christian’s well.
Now John records that the sceptics were, “The Jewish believers who wouldn’t believe that he had been blind.” vs. 11 NLT
But don’t you just love his answer; it’s a perfect response for all doubts and criticisms expressed about Jesus?
“One thing I do know, I was blind but now I see.” vs. 25 NIV
“You can protest all you want but here I am, I was blind and now I see.”
Great answer – this is the power of personal testimony!
It reminds me of John Newton’s amazing testimony and his great hymn of faith – Amazing Grace.
“I once was lost but now I’m found, was blind but now I see.”
Amazing Grace is the testimony of a man who was spiritually blind but Jesus saved him and he began to see so clearly that the slave trader became the slave reformer as a Methodist minister.
Q. What is your miracle?
“I was bitter but now I’m joyful. I was without hope but now I have hope. I was hateful but now I’m full of love.”
Or maybe you are thinking; “I haven’t really come to know Jesus like that. How does this kind of faith happen in a person?
The answer is that we must take step # 4:
4. Trust Jesus to Save You
The idea that ‘Jesus saves’ come from the Biblical idea of salvation, which means that Jesus rescues or restores us; like the life guard who seeks to save a drowning person.
In the same way Jesus came, ‘to seek and to save that which was lost’.
His desire is to restore us to a relationship with our Heavenly Father.
Sometimes this can happen suddenly – dramatically but most of the time it’s a growing realization – like turning up those switches that dim the lights.
If we remain obedient to God and “walk in the light as He is in the light” we will see more and more clearly and suddenly we will be able to say, “Eureka, now I see; now I understand”.
And so it was for the blind man by the end of the story;
“Then the man said, “Lord I Believe.” and he worshipped him.” vs. 38
What began as a wonderful miracle went way beyond that because Jesus was committed to this man’s greater needs.
Q. How are we going to ensure that we don’t settle for anything less than the blind man found?
Many people cry out to God for help when they are in trouble and when God helps them they are grateful but then they hang up the phone until the next emergency come along.
The tragedy is that God wants so much more for us than this; he wants us to learn to stay in the light. But for that to happen three things are necessary.
i. We need humility
In order to be able to see spiritually we must admit that we are spiritually blind; this takes a lot of humility. “Blessed are the poor in Spirit…”
“Then Jesus told him, ‘I have come into the world to give sight to those who are spiritually blind…” vs.39 (TLB)
As long as we don’t admit our spiritual blindness we will never be able see beyond our own understanding.
Jesus said,
“I’ve come as a light to shine in this dark world so that all who put their trust in me will no longer remain in the darkness.” John 12:46
Jesus wants to teach how to live in the light so that we can make sense of life when it doesn’t make much sense to everyone else.
We are all a lot like John Newton unable to appreciate how blind we are without the light of Christ – so that we can’t fully recognise the affect of our sin.
ii. We need enlightenment!
We need to recognise that Christ is not just a wonderful person who bought us to the light. He is the light of the world!
It’s interesting how the light slowly dawned on this blind man;
In verse 11, Jesus was just another person and a lot of people see Jesus this way- just a man who lived 2000years ago.
A little later on as reflected on what happened –by verse 17 he realised that Jesus was a prophet. Many people today regard Jesus as a great moral teacher, someone sent by God.
But the light was really turned on for him, at the end of the chapter, vs. 38 when he came face to face with Jesus and called him Lord.
When we see Jesus as the light of the world only then we can fully appreciate and understand the nature of the light.
But only those willing to take the third step will know what it is like, ‘to walk in the light as he is in the light’.
iii. We need commitment
Jesus never forces his way into anyone’s life but he is always ready to help us when we ask – he is our best friend.
He helped the blind man before the man believed in him and he will help us when we ask.
But we must move on, he wants us to know him and become one of his friends and this can only happen through commitment.
“Jesus said you are my friends if you do what I command you.” Jn. 14:15
Sadly many people, who profess Christ, live their life one step short of commitment – and never fully make it into the fullness of God’s light.
It’s the light that will lighten the world when we are willing to do what Jesus challenges us to … to let our light shine out for him.
If you would like to take this step, pray this prayer with me now.
Prayer
The words aren’t so important but you may like to say something like this.
Lord Jesus Christ, I recognise my need to trust in you more completely than I have done before.
I need your forgiveness and your guidance. I want a close relationship with you and I ask you to rescue me from the things that I struggle with. Please give to me a relationship with you that brings joy and direction to my life and I in turn promise to commit myself to follow your commands.
“Lord I believe in you, I trust you and I’m willing to obey you as the Light of the World and my personal Saviour and Lord.”
I pray this in your wonderful name Jesus. Amen.