Doubting Jesus’ Power?

Blind Unbelief

John 9

The Situation – A  Man Born Blind;–this is the sixth sign of John’s Gospel.  Jesus healed many blind people. There are several specific events along with some general narratives in which Jesus healed the lame, the mute and the blind and all manner of diseases. (Matthew 9:27-31; 12:22; 15:30, 31; 21:14; Mark 8:22-26; 10: 46-52; Luke 7:21, 22) In Luke 7 Jesus pints to this fact as an indication that he was Messiah when John the Baptist sends men to question Jesus. According to Exodus 4:11 God makes man either seeing or blind. Restoring of sight to the blind is a messianic activity—Isaiah 29:18; 35:5; 42:70

There is no statement of time or place, but only the recording of the incident. It probably is sometime after the attempt to stone Jesus, and we detect the growing hostility toward him in the way this man is treated. Jesus took notice of him, and perhaps made a statement that he had been blind from birth; alternatively, the man perhaps was known to many because of the unusual circumstance of his having been blind from birth.

Question of Cause (verse 2) – They shared the assumption of the religious teachers that physical imperfection meant that God was judging some specific personal sin. No suffering without iniquity was the accepted viewpoint. This is not entirely unwarranted, for Jesus Himself indicated this as operative in the lame man in John 5. But Job clearly teaches us that, though we all deserve chastening at any time of life, suffering does not mean that the sufferer has done something that distinguishes his sin far beyond that of others. Having been born blind, however, does pose a dilemma for the common aphorism. How could he have sinned before birth?

Answer of Purpose (verses 3, 4)

Jesus points not to a prior cause in the person of the man or his family but a particular purpose of God. God had designated the affliction so that Jesus might give another strong evidence of who he was and further demonstrate the sinful and adamantine resistance of the religious elite of Israel.

He aligns himself with this divine purpose immediately to “work the works of Him that sent me.” Jesus identified his work with the work and purpose of the Father. As we view natural cause and effect relationships in the world, this healing qualifies as a miracle. For Jesus, however, he sees it as a mere continuation of the work that the Father does. He upholds all things from moment to moment and can give sight in an instant without any alteration in or special exertion of  power that he is not already manifesting in the world.

Action of the Creator 5-7 –

1.  This miracle give concrete illustration of the spiritual claim made by Jesus that he is the light of the world (8:12). He repeats that claim in verse 5 as a prelude to the healing.

2. Jesus employs the symbol of creation by performing this miracle through the use of dirt.

3. He required an action of the man that would imply a trusting attitude on his part. Perhaps we do not recognize it as clearly, but the entire deportment of this man throughout the situation is a part of the miracle. He is drawn to a final posture of faith and worship.

Sensation among neighbors and acquaintances 8-12

1. A man that had never seen anything now sees. The change seemed so incredible that some of his acquaintances did not believe it was he.

2. He stated clearly, however, that he was indeed the man that they had seen begging because he was blind. He recounts the event with a simple statement of the facts. There is no need to embellish an event like this. Nothing of mere imagination or attempt at sensationalism could expand the startling

Blind Authoritarianism vs. the Evidence

The Dominant Authoritarian

Absolutize personal theory or opinion  13-16; Though he has done a divine and Messianic work, they will not accept the evidence because of a mis-shapen tradition about the Sabbath.

Avoid or minimize Evidence  17-19 – Perhaps it was not so great a miracle after all,. Perhaps the man was not born blind. Check the parents and find out.

Tactic of intimidation  20-23 – The parents tell the Pharisees that this is their son and that he was indeed born blind. But their known threats concerning Jesus made them go no further, but place the burden of inference from the fact back on the shoulders of their son.

Assumption of piety but falsely grounded 24. Their blindness is such that they feel they can honor God and not honor the Son.

Spiritual superiority 28, 29, 34 – His insistent recitation of the facts and his challenge to their failure to see Jesus as a servant of God is amazing to him. They can only bluster their way above his forceful logic by an oppressive dismissal of his testimony and his self-evident logic. They move back to the idea that began the entire event in the first place by saying that his blindness was an evidence of unvarnished sin. How could he dare instruct them when he had been born blind. My, what compassion these religious pundits had and how sincerely they shared the joy of this life-changing restoration of sight! Here they demonstrate that not only do they not love God, but they also despise their neighbor.

Their might becomes the truth  34b.  How many times has this fallen world demonstrated that one need not be right, if he only has might?

Evidence and Truth