The Traits of the Blind & the Seeing | Sermon 07/02/2023

John 9:13-41

After the healing of the blind man, his neighbors brought him to the religious leaders in their district so they could speak a word on this incredible miracle. John tells us that Jesus healed the man on the Sabbath thereby breaking the man-made rules of Jewish leaders’ Mishnah. All they can see is transgression eclipsing this marvelous wonder from God. The now-seeing man begins to have infant faith in Jesus, understanding He was sent from God. The Pharisees dismiss this and want the man’s parents to confirm whether he was blind from birth or not. John pulls us out of the narrative and explains that if anyone confessed Jesus as the Messiah they would be excommunicated. There is already a high cost to follow Christ and the man’s parents weren’t willing to pay it. The man picks up on the leaders’ lack of impartiality and sees an unwillingness to accept the truth. They pit Jesus against Moses, and followers of Christ against followers of Moses, but as Jesus said: Moses wrote about Him. This is a false equivocation.

The man, with remarkable logic, establishes that Jesus must be from God and has not sinned otherwise He could not do anything. The Jewish leaders then reject the man and excommunicate him. Jesus then seeks out the man and reveals Himself to him. The man believes on Jesus as the Son of Man and worships Him, recognizing at least in some sense this is the Redeemer from heaven. And Jesus ends this chapter with traits of the seeing and the blind. The spiritually blind don’t hold to the truth, they adhere to works-based salvation, they worship a man (Moses), fear other men (parents), oppose those who see the truth, and remain in the sin of unbelief. The spiritual seeing abide in the truth, seek the grace of God in Christ, they worship Jesus not man, they fear the Lord over men and their devices (excommunication), they receive opposition from the blind, and their sins are removed from them.