Hi this is pastor Ken and these are my thoughts on a Thursday…Too Blind To See.
John 9:1-3 (NCV) As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been born blind. His followers asked him, “Teacher, whose sin caused this man to be born blind—his own sin or his parents’ sin?” Jesus answered, “It is not this man’s sin or his parents’ sin that made him blind. This man was born blind so that God’s power could be shown in him.
There are several things I find interesting about this particular scripture. First, yet quite possibly least important is that this is one of a very few cases where one entire chapter is dedicated to one miracle Christ performed. I’m not sure that has any meaning beyond that we shouldn’t hurry past it and by virtue of the scriptural time given to it, there are likely many lessons to be gleaned from this one passage.
The second thing I find interesting is that this event took place in Jerusalem and yet the disciples who were not from there, seemed to know that this man was born blind. That may have been for several reasons. Jesus certainly knew, and He may have told them. The man was obviously begging, and may have used the fact that he was born blind as part of his ‘pitch’ to elicit help, or they may have remembered him from annual trips they had taken to Jerusalem throughout their lives for events such as the Passover. Whatever the reason, they were aware that the man had been blind since birth and it provoked them to ask, “Who sinned here, this guy or his parents, that caused him to be born blind?”
Why did they ask this question? In the society of the day, when someone was sick, lame, blind, deaf, etc. it was assumed that God had done that to them to repay some unrepentant sin in their lives. Sometimes people even in our day and age have the same mindset. As a pastoral counselor I am often asked in response to a person’s emotional pain “Did I do something wrong to make God mad at me? I find that to be an interesting line of thought, because the reverse isn’t always true. All healthy people in this day or that, were and are not free of unrepentant sin.
Nevertheless, they asked the question and Jesus gave them His answer, “It is not this man’s sin or his parents’ sin that made him blind. This man was born blind so that God’s power could be shown in him.” Jesus’ answer did indicate that the man had been born blind for a reason, and it seems as though that was so that on that particular day, by miraculous healing, Jesus could bring glory to God.
I’m not at all sure though that man’s life had to progress to that one moment in time when Jesus healed him for his blindness to show the awesome power of God. Certainly Jesus healed him as a part of His ministry to show the power of God to those who witnessed it, those who heard about it, and indeed everyone throughout history from that point forward who read about it as we have today. However, I have to take pause and consider this significant possibility…that man’s life had the same potential to exhibit God’s power just as clearly…blind or sighted.
When we go through difficult times, when we are sick, perhaps even like this man, when we are faced with a life-long physical, emotional, or mental struggle, our lives have thorough potential for showing God’s incredible power. God can and still does show his power through miraculous healing in the lives of his people, I myself have experienced it and it is nothing short of amazing! Just as marvelous however, are the ones who God chooses to allow to continue in their disease, disability or pain. Yet the way they live their lives…the awesome grace that they operate in on a daily basis in spite of their difficulty…in their lives, God’s miraculous power is shown and magnified to the world around them! Glory be to God! I believe one of the important lessons from this account is not only that Christ can heal, then and now…but that God has awesome power, and whatever you and I must deal with, whatever we may be going through, we have equal opportunity to illustrate that power to the world around us…this side or the other of our healing.
So now, understanding the potential your life holds to showcase His power…Go be awesome!