GOOD NEWS FROM ST. JOHN
Meditations in the Gospel of St. John
St. John 9:35-41
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THE man born blind came into great blessing from his firm stand, and his allegiance to Jesus. He seemed to be all alone in his persecution, but he was not. He was always in the mind and heart of Jesus, and soon as Jesus heard that he been thrown out, and suffered so much for love of Jesus, Jesus found him and gave him greater blessing than just physical sight.

In persecution and in the troubles we may experience in the Christian life, we may think we are all alone. We may feel that Jesus has forsaken us, but it is not so. Jesus is always watching over us. All our experiences are working for our good, and just at the right time, we shall find him coming to us and increasing our blessing.

The man born blind had real faith in Jesus, but because of lack of knowledge and understanding, his faith fell short of the great blessing of knowing Jesus as God and rejoicing in him as Saviour. He had faith, and through the physical healing he had received, he believed in Jesus, but he had not up until Jesus came to him in these verses, entered into the fullness of faith. It is difficult to say when he became a believer so that he was saved from his sins. What we see here is that Jesus brought him into the fullness of the experience of being saved from his sins, and becoming a child of God and an inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Jesus asks the man if he believes in the Son of Man. The man owned to his lack of knowledge, but indicated how much he wanted to know and believe in the Son of Man. This man who had been born blind plainly understood Jesus was speaking of the Messiah, the Christ, when he spoke about the Son of Man. The faith of this man was wonderfully rewarded. Jesus opened his spiritual eyes, which was a far greater blessing than having his physical sight.

Jesus told him that he was the Son of Man, the Messiah. Jesus said in verse 37, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking to you.” It was rare for Jesus to speak so plainly of the truth about himself. He tells the man directly. What great blessing this was. Faith was rewarded. What Jesus also did was to make the man able to receive the truth. This is the gift of spiritual sight. The truth told is not enough of itself. How many people, people we all know, have been told the truth, but because of their spiritual blindness they cannot receive the truth. Jesus gave sight to this man’s spiritual blindness. This is the great blessing of salvation and new birth.

The result for the man born blind was that he saw Jesus as he really is - as Son of God and Saviour, and in a personal way as his God and his Saviour. His response was the response of all who are blest in this way. The man born blind worshipped Jesus. He worshipped him as his God. This is the Christian experience - we worship Jesus as our God.

Jesus then goes on to say that this is why he has come into the world. He has come to give sight to the blind, that is give sight to spiritual blindness, but for those who think they have spiritual sight, this revelation only increases their blindness. This is why the coming of Jesus has an element of judgement about it. It sorts out the reality in the heart.

The Pharisees thought that they had spiritual sight. They prided themselves that they could see. This is plain in their response here to what Jesus was saying. They understood that Jesus was implying that they were really blind, and they resented this, and so they say indignantly “What? Are we blind too?”

Jesus then replies with devastating truth which is rather enigmatic. “If you were blind, your would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.” They were spiritually blind, but they claimed they could see. This claim shut them out of receiving spiritual sight, and the forgiveness that goes with spiritual sight given by Jesus. Because of this they did not receive forgiveness, so their sins remained with them, and the guilt also. How terrible is the condition of those who think they know spiritually, but really are blind.

The important question we have to ask ourselves is whether we are like the man born blind, seeking spiritual sight, or whether we imagine we can see, so remain blind and still not forgiven.