Calvary Road Baptist Church
“TALKING PAST THE ONCE BLIND MAN”
John 9.8-12
Last week we considered the healing of the man who was born blind, recorded in John 9.1-7. Before we turn to our text for this message, John 9.8-12, I want to personalize the man to whom our Lord Jesus Christ gave the gift of eyesight by working a miracle.
Have you ever given thought to life without one of your five senses? Not all senses are equally valuable. Most would agree that the sense of sight and the sense of hearing are the two most valuable of the five senses. How about life without two of your senses? Look up the story of Helen Keller when you get home, who was deaf, blind, and mute.
I am reminded of a woman and her daughter who attended our Church for many years, her blind and mentally retarded daughter completely dependent upon her mother. Life was so very hard for that dear Christian woman. Not many women can survive what she went through, what with her husband abandoning her when he learned their youngest baby girl had been born blind. But she not only thrived, by God’s abundant grace in her life, but she became a very successful businesswoman by necessity, raising her daughters and faithfully serving in the Church.
One day she and I were talking in her home when I asked her about the isolation from others her daughter experienced because of her congenital blindness. She quickly responded that while her daughter was somewhat more isolated from people because she had never seen, she insisted that blindness is far less isolating than is deafness. That surprised me. Then she went on to tell me that her daughter never had difficulties communicating with people because she could hear others and who she could hear she could talk to.
Having always taken my sight and my hearing for granted, I learned something from that dear woman that day that I have never forgotten. Yes, it is a great challenge for someone to be deprived of sight or to be deprived of the ability to hear. It is also a great challenge to lose the sense you once had, to lose your sight or to lose your ability to hear. It is one thing to be blind if you’ve never seen because you don’t altogether know what you are missing. But it is an altogether different matter to know what it is like to see and to then lose your sight, your ability to see.
That said, a person who is deaf can work many kinds of occupations. A deaf person can read, can sew, can build, can farm, and a whole host of other things. “Blind people can read.” Yes, I know that, thanks to Mr. Braille. In short, all other things being equal, a deaf person can support himself or herself, can be gainfully employed, and doesn’t always face imminent starvation like someone who was lame, who was blind, or who was afflicted with leprosy in ancient times.
This man the Apostle John spent an entire chapter informing his readers about, his healing by the Lord Jesus Christ and eventually, his saving by the Lord Jesus Christ, seems from what we read in this chapter to have been a bright and articulate man. His conversations seem to show a bit of irony. If you have never noticed that, go back and read John chapter nine and look for his irony. But regardless of his native intelligence and communications skills, while he was blind, he had to have dealt with the desperate struggle to avoid starvation every day of his adult life.
Thankfully, he was born a Jew and was greatly blessed to live in a community of people governed by the Law of Moses, alms for the poor and the disabled prescribed as a way of life. This recalls our friend Ibrahim ag Mohammed’s first visit to our Church and his explanation to our congregation of life in his 98% Muslim country. When asked by one of our members what care was available for a disabled child in his country, Ibrahim looked puzzled at the questioner for a moment while pondering the question, and then said, “He would be chained to a tree.”
The International Red Cross arose in the West under the influence of Christianity, explaining the symbolism of the red cross. Such institutions as hospitals and orphanages, along with other relief organizations, are an outworking of the Christian faith, with the cultural foundation for the care of one’s neighbor being initially laid by the Law of Moses. Such efforts to care for the sick, the infirm, and the helpless were inconceivable to the fatalism of the Muslim faith, the notions of karma found in Buddhism and Hinduism (their attitude is that a sufferer is getting what he or she earned in a previous life), or other belief systems that place a low value on human life and are unaffected by the Christian faith, until those systems were shamed into providing relief efforts by Christianity’s many obvious examples.
Excuse me, but it is an outworking of the worldview derived from their Islamic faith that has resulted in refugee camps in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt continuing to exist for seventy years rather than allowing those incarcerated to assimilate into those country’s culturally identical populations. As well, why do millions of Arab and Turkish Muslims migrate to Europe for aid and relief when their oil-rich neighbors with identical cultures and languages refuse to help them?
Back to the man born blind two thousand years ago. Imagine him sitting on the ground begging for food or coins from those he heard passing by. Presumably, he has done this to survive for decades. One day he is approached by a man who likely spoke to him (though our Lord’s words to him were not recorded), and who then put mud formed from dirt and His spit into his eye sockets, and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam.” So, the blind man stands to his feet and makes his way to the pool of Siloam to wash as he was told. What’s he got to lose?
What do you think the Apostle John did not record in John 9.7, between the words “He went his way, therefore, and washed,” and the words “and came seeing”? What do you think happened between those two phrases that John does not record for us? What is not recorded is the man’s reaction when, for the first time in his entire life, he can see. What do you imagine his unrecorded reactions to suddenly being able to see might have been?
Are we so different from those of his day that we cannot imagine what his reactions might have been to be able suddenly to see? And yet so many times when we read John 9.7, we just move rapidly over the text to the next verse, and then to the next verse, and then next. Really? That’s the way you read the Bible? If so, then you are reading it wrongly. If you read the Bible that way, you are reading it wrongly. What do you think the guy did between those two phrases?
Do you think he might have jumped up and down? Do you think he might have gotten all excited? Do you think he might have shouted for joy? What phrase can you imagine him saying again, and again, and again, and again? Something along the line of “I can see! I can see! I can see!” People turned to look at him, but they didn’t know he had been blind. Is there any place in your imagination for this man who had been born blind walking back to his neighborhood at a leisurely gait, looking around, looking cool? Can you see him in your mind’s eye strolling along nonchalantly? No! Not if you think. Not if you read with anything like a sanctified imagination, as you fill in the blanks reading the Word of God.
With this recognition of normal, natural, typically human behavior, let us now stand to read John 9.8-12:
8 The neighbours therefore, and they which before had seen him that he was blind, said, Is not this he that sat and begged?
9 Some said, This is he: others said, He is like him: but he said, I am he.
10 Therefore said they unto him, How were thine eyes opened?
11 He answered and said, A man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash: and I went and washed, and I received sight.
12 Then said they unto him, Where is he? He said, I know not.
The man born blind is obviously back in the neighborhood. He very obviously can now see. The passage before us is important in this respect; it is the bridge John has built for us to get the subject of our chapter from his miraculous healing to the encounter he had with the Pharisees and the disclosure that this miraculous healing he had experienced took place on the Sabbath.
I will deal with the five verses under consideration addressing each of the three questions that are asked and answered:
First, THE QUESTION ABOUT HIS IDENTITY
Notice the question that is asked, verse 8:
“The neighbours therefore, and they which before had seen him that he was blind, said, Is not this he that sat and begged?”
I would like for you to consider this question carefully. John informs us that they are the neighbors of the man born blind, so they have known him for what, twenty or thirty years? But we do not have neighbors only who are part of this exchange. There is also those present who, while they might not be properly described as neighbors, are certainly individuals who are not new acquaintances to the man born blind but knew him before his encounter with Christ, when he was blind.
Two more things about this verse before we move on. The people gathered are engaged in a back and forth to ascertain if this man before them, this fellow who obviously can see, is the guy who used to be blind, and who used to as a blind man sit and beg. But have you noticed that they are asking everyone but the one person who knows better than anyone else, the man who had been born blind but who can now see? I am no expert, but this type of thing strikes me as all too common. How many times have I noticed people asking the person with the blind fellow rather than asking the blind fellow?
I don’t want to criticize too strongly, because there is a reason why most people will make comments or ask questions to a person who seems to be with a blind person, rather than initially speaking to the blind person. It’s nonverbal communication. Before most people talk to someone, before most people talk to anyone, if they have any kind of social skills at all (You and I both know people who have zero social skills. Boy, they are as clumsy as clumsy can be when interacting with people. I am not talking about those people). Before most people talk to someone, they acquire something akin to permission to speak, by looking and posturing like they want to say something, while waiting for the person to look back at them with expression and posture of their own that indicates readiness or responsiveness. When those visual clues connect, then words are spoken. But when you want to speak to a blind person, you need to begin talking without those nonverbal clues, since the blind person doesn’t see you looking his or her way using body language to secure permission to speak.
Again, back to our man born blind. It is still fixed in their minds that this is the blind guy, so they talk past him even though he can now see, and even though his hearing has always been acute. They did this because they were faced with a fact, they had great difficulty believing. They just couldn’t believe the evidence presented to them. The man born blind could now see.
Now take note of the three answers recorded in verse 9:
“Some said, This is he: others said, He is like him: but he said, I am he.”
The first answer recorded by the apostle is a reaction with certainty. A few in the crowd were positive that this fellow was the once blind man and said, “This is he.” Others, however, having difficulty coming to grips with the fact that though they would claim they believed in miracles they could not accept that a man born blind was given his sight, said, “He is like him.” Really? Same height. Same weight. Same face. Same hair. Same clothes. But you will only grant that he is like him? This you’ve known twenty years, thirty years? What settles the matter, of course, is the man who had been born blind. The questioners did not direct their inquiry to him, but those standing about and around him. Why ask the guy whose condition you are interested in? Who knows how long he put up with their answers to the question only he could definitively answer. However, he put that question to rest by simply stating “I am he.” He is the guy who was born blind, who sat and begged for years until one day my Savior walked by. He is my Savior. Maybe not yours, but mine.
Next, THE QUESTION ABOUT HIS EYES
Isn’t it nice of them to finally ask him a question? How big of them. Verse 10:
“Therefore said they unto him, How were thine eyes opened?”
The most expert interrogators, interviewers, and investigators typically ask very simple questions, whether it be a doctor, a dentist, a police officer. People who need to gather information ask such simple questions as Who? What? When? Where? How? Or they fail in the performance of their profession. I have books in my library about such things. I like to read about interrogating, interviewing, and questioning. I even have the United States Army Interrogation Field Manual, outlining how captured enemy soldiers are supposed to be interrogated. I know two or three pastors who do this same thing. Two hundred years ago pastors all did and always did the same thing, being skilled at such information gathering. Anyway, that’s precisely what is happening here. The first question was a who question, and this question is a how question.
To answer their question of how he, a blind man, came to be a seeing man, we read his answer in verse 11:
“He answered and said, A man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash: and I went and washed, and I received sight.”
Take note of the utter simplicity of the man’s answer. A man called Jesus did this, and I did that, and I received sight. Bang, bang, bang. No embellishment of any kind, just bare bones statements of fact. Notice something else here. Although the man who had been born blind leaves nothing out of his answer to their question from his human perspective, each of the pertinent facts from the merely human perspective, with nothing left out, doesn’t tell us what happened, does it? Not really. A miracle has been wrought, a miracle that gave this man the ability to see. But since the miracle was quite beyond the realm of human understanding, the only thing the man who had been born blind could do is relate the Lord Jesus Christ’s visible actions and uttered words, and his obedient response. But that’s not all there is. What is left out of this man’s answer to the question put to him is the truly important part, the miracle. So, why did he leave the miracle out of his answer? He left the miracle out because, technically (now stay with me), he did not experience it. “What do you mean he didn’t experience it?” He did not see it, hear it, smell it, taste it, or feel it. That said, he did benefit from the miracle. There is no doubt about that. He could see.
Finally, THE QUESTION ABOUT THE SAVIOR
“Then said they unto him, Where is he? He said, I know not.”
Methinks they only asked about the Lord Jesus Christ’s whereabouts because they had no choice. The man who had been born blind mentioned the actual name of the person on everyone’s mind, whose name they did not want to utter. Who else could be responsible for a man undeniably born blind being undeniably made to see? Who else could do that? Had they not all heard reports for going on three years of Him raising the dead, cleansing lepers, healing the crippled, casting out demons, and miraculously feeding thousands? How could they not have heard these reports?
And his answer? “I know not.” Nowadays he would say “I dunno.” What we have here is a wonderfully blessed but as yet unsaved man with little faith. He does not yet have saving faith. He has been completely, dramatically, astonishingly, and miraculously healed. Why do I point out he has little faith? Because one’s faith is based upon one’s understanding of facts. After all, faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen, Hebrews 11.1. Because this formerly blind man had so little information at this point, he could only have had little faith — teensy weensy. For his faith to increase his access to the truth must increase, and we will see that it did. But it is important to take note of the fact that this man’s blindness was completely healed with him having very little faith.
I bring this up because those of Pentecostal and Charismatic persuasion would have you believe that if someone isn’t healed, it is necessarily because that person’s faith is inadequate or insufficient. But this formerly blind man’s blindness was completely healed with him knowing nothing beyond the name of the man who worked the miracle. That’s all he knew. By God’s grace, we will build on what we have learned from John 9.8-12.
How does one draw a Gospel sermon from our text for today? I don’t think we do while remaining true to the text. After all, the man who was born blind does come to faith in Christ, but he does not come to faith in Christ in verses 1-7 or verses 8-12. The record of him coming to faith in Christ is all the way down in verse 38.
Of what benefit, then, is our text for today? As I mentioned earlier, it is a historical bridge given to us by the Apostle John as he was inspired by the Spirit of God to use him to give us this record of events. Our text for today connects the miracle the man benefited from in John 9.7 with the conflict he will find himself involved in with the Pharisees who obstinately refused to believe Jesus Christ was of God because He dared to work a miracle on the Sabbath.
Of further benefit to us is the evidence that is discovered from the asking of simple questions, as some of the people did on this occasion, to their credit. To be sure, they predictably spoke past the man who was born blind, by asking those who did not know before their question was answered by the one man that did know. However, they did ask questions, something so many people fail to do who end up wondering why they don’t have answers.
“I just don’t have answers.” Usually not stated that way in their minds, being without answers is typically seen by frustration and anger. The reason they don’t have any answers is they don’t ask any questions, or they make sure they ask people who don’t know the answers. Have you ever noticed that? How some people are very prone and very decided to ask people they know don’t know and to not ask people who might know. I have watched this play out for forty years.
So, let me ask you. Do you want to know the answers? Do you? It’s not an automatic yes, because most people don’t. Do you want to know? Then you must be courageous enough to ask the crucial questions. So many people are lost and will remain lost because they are too cowardly to ask Who, What, How, When, and Where? Ask those questions when you are reading the Bible. Always ask those questions when you are reading the Bible and want to understand what you are reading. Also, ask those questions when you are contemplating your eventual death and your eternal destiny.
Let me conclude this sermon, which is not an evangelistic sermon, by suggesting your use of these five questions; Who? What? How? When? Where? Ask yourself where you will spend eternity if you die in your present spiritual condition. It is also okay to ask those around you where they think you will go. Next, ask yourself how your eternal destiny can be altered. Ask yourself Who could accomplish that change in your destiny. Ask yourself what you must do to be saved. And then ask yourself when the best time is to tend to such important matters. It’s not complex. It’s profound, but it’s not complex. It’s hard, but it’s not complex. It’s so simple and so straightforward that even children can come to know Christ.
Find the correct answers to those questions and apply those answers so you and I can then discuss the matter of you being baptized because if you ask those five questions and implement those correct answers, you will become a Christian. And then become a member of this Church.
Question? Comment?
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