Graham Shearer continued with our summer series on the signs in John’s gospel, considering John chapter 9, when Jesus heals the man born blind. All summer we have been looking at how these signs point us to Jesus, to lead us to believe that he is the Messiah, the Son of God.
Graham had three points:
Graham Shearer continued with our summer series on the signs in John’s gospel, considering John chapter 9, when Jesus heals the man born blind. All summer we have been looking at how these signs point us to Jesus, to lead us to believe that he is the Messiah, the Son of God.
Graham had three points:
- Jesus works in the darkness
- Jesus’s light brings life
- Real life is seeing Jesus for who he really is
The man in John 9 is living in darkness as he is physically blind, but this is only one aspect of his darkness as he lived in social darkness as well. The disciples and the Pharisees traced his blindness back to sin, but Jesus pointed out that the man’s blindness was the context for Jesus to work in. His blindness wasn’t a direct consequence of his sin or his parents’ sin.
We all live in a broken world and therefore live in some kind of darkness. It is in that darkness that Jesus will work.
It is a remarkable way in which Jesus heals the man – using his saliva and mud. We have already seen in John’s gospel that Jesus could heal with just a word. Graham showed the connection with Genesis and the creation account, where God takes the dust and combines it with His breath to create humanity. In John’s gospel we see Jesus taking something from the ground and mixing it with his saliva and restoring the man. This is the impact that Jesus has: he brings life, real human eternal life!
When the man’s sight is restored, he doesn’t fully understand who Jesus is. He is questioned by his family and the Pharisees about Jesus. When he eventually meets Jesus again and sees Jesus for who he is, he falls down in worship. Jesus is not the means to the end; he is the reason we are given sight, so we can really see Jesus. True satisfaction is only found in Jesus. Graham pointed out that the man would have seen many amazing things after he received his sight, but it is only the Son of God that causes him to bow down in worship. We too need to see Jesus as the object of our delight and worship. We are not given sight so that we can see, but so that we can see Jesus!
There is much to ponder from this sign in John’s gospel:
The man in John 9 is living in darkness as he is physically blind, but this is only one aspect of his darkness as he lived in social darkness as well. The disciples and the Pharisees traced his blindness back to sin, but Jesus pointed out that the man’s blindness was the context for Jesus to work in. His blindness wasn’t a direct consequence of his sin or his parents’ sin.
We all live in a broken world and therefore live in some kind of darkness. It is in that darkness that Jesus will work.
It is a remarkable way in which Jesus heals the man – using his saliva and mud. We have already seen in John’s gospel that Jesus could heal with just a word. Graham showed the connection with Genesis and the creation account, where God takes the dust and combines it with His breath to create humanity. In John’s gospel we see Jesus taking something from the ground and mixing it with his saliva and restoring the man. This is the impact that Jesus has: he brings life, real human eternal life!
When the man’s sight is restored, he doesn’t fully understand who Jesus is. He is questioned by his family and the Pharisees about Jesus. When he eventually meets Jesus again and sees Jesus for who he is, he falls down in worship. Jesus is not the means to the end; he is the reason we are given sight, so we can really see Jesus. True satisfaction is only found in Jesus. Graham pointed out that the man would have seen many amazing things after he received his sight, but it is only the Son of God that causes him to bow down in worship. We too need to see Jesus as the object of our delight and worship. We are not given sight so that we can see, but so that we can see Jesus!
There is much to ponder from this sign in John’s gospel:
There is much to ponder from this sign in John’s gospel:
- Where is there darkness in our lives? How do we view it? Do we see it as a context in which God will work? How does this change our attitude to this darkness?
- Are we tempted to see Jesus as a burden we have to bear, a drain on our life? Or do we know the real life that Jesus brings? Do we rejoice in having real human eternal life?
- Do we really believe in Jesus? Is our delight found in the Messiah, the Son of God? Do we worship the King who brought us real life?
