Spiritual Sight and Blindness
John 9:35-41
There’s a saying that ‘There’s none so blind as those who will not see!’ As Helen Keller said: “What would be worse than being blind? To have sight with no vision.” In the Bible blindness and darkness are often pictures of those who lack spiritual understanding and are incapable of knowing God and comprehending divine truth. In Jeremiah 5:21 he says,
“Hear this now, O foolish people,
Without understanding,
Who have eyes and see not,
And who have ears and hear not:”
In Matthew 13:13 Jesus says, “Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.”
We have been studying the story of Jesus healing the man born blind in John 9. Today we come to the conclusion of that account. We have already studied the physical healing in John 9:1-12 and the resulting investigation by the Pharisees in John 9:13-34. As we’ve seen, this miracle, which Jesus performed on the Sabbath, caused a division among the Pharisees: Some said (John 9:16), “This Man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.” But others argued, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” The group of hardened, unbelieving Pharisees couldn’t refute the testimony or the reasoning of the blind man, so they cursed him and threw him out of the temple (John 9:34). Our text picks up the story in John 9:35 when Jesus found the formerly blind man and asked him a crucial question, leading him to believe and worship. This last part of the story contrasts the spiritual sight of the former blind man with the blindness the unbelieving Pharisees in John 9:35-41:
35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He had found him, He said to him, “Do you believe in the Son of God?” 36 He answered and said, “Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?” 37 And Jesus said to him, “You have both seen Him and it is He who is talking with you.” 38 Then he said, “Lord, I believe!” And he worshiped Him. 39 And Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind.” 40 Then some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these words, and said to Him, “Are we blind also?” 41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see.’ Therefore your sin remains.
I want to examine this contrast today between the spiritual sight of the believing healed man and the spiritual blindness of the unbelieving Pharisees. Or as Jesus puts it (John 9:39), “that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind.” The blind see and the seeing are blind.
First, we encounter,
1. Spiritual Sight (John 9:35-38)
The news gets to Jesus that the Jewish leaders had kicked the healed man out of the temple. This was a serious matter in Jewish society. People would have shunned him out of fear of having the religious authorities target them for exclusion as well. Remember back in John 9:22 this is the very thing that the blind man’s parents had feared. But it was at this time, perhaps as he was standing in bewilderment outside the temple precincts, that Jesus found him and asked him the most important question in the world (John 9:35), “Do you believe in the Son of God?”
In these verses we see three truths about spiritual sight. First, Spiritual sight:
A. Begins with Jesus (John 9:35).
Spiritual sight does not begin with us learning to see or understanding for ourselves. It begins with the Lord. Jesus takes the initiative by seeking those who are blind. That is what we see in verse 35. It says, “Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He had found him.” “Found him” (9:35) implies that Jesus was looking for him. Jesus said (Luke 19:10), “for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” The religious authorities had rejected this poor man. He was an outcast. But at that very moment, Jesus went looking for him. Chrysostom wrote; “The Jews cast him out of the Temple; the Lord of the Temple found him.”
Jesus always makes the first move. Jesus initiates salvation. If God didn’t take the first step, no one would be saved. Remember Jesus said in John 6:37, “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.” Again Jesus said in John 6:44, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.” He told Nicodemus in John 3:3, “unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
The Bible repeatedly stresses that if you believe in Jesus, it’s not because you came up with the idea first and went looking for Him. Rather, God took the initiative by sending His Son to save you from sin by His death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead. Romans 3:9,10 says, “There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God.”
If you have received spiritual sight so that you believed in Jesus and confessed Him as Lord it is because He sought you and found you. He made you alive when you were dead in trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1-4). Your salvation is a gift of God (Eph. 2:8). He is the one “who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light,” (1 Pet 2:9).
Opening blind eyes is a God-thing (Ps. 146:8). As the former blind man pointed out to the Pharisees (John 9:32-33), “Since the world began it has been unheard of that anyone opened the eyes of one who was born blind. If this Man were not from God, He could do nothing.” Jesus’ healing of the blind man was also a parable about salvation. Just as opening the eyes of one born blind is something that only God can do, so saving a soul is something that only God can do.
Paul uses this blindness and light metaphor in 2 Cor. 4:4 saying about those who are perishing, “whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.” He goes on in 2 Cor. 4:6 to show how can we gain spiritual sight, “For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” Just as God’s power spoke light into existence, so His power opens blind eyes when He saves a soul.
Jesus does that here with the healed man by asking him, “Do you believe in the Son of God?” As the footnote points out, some of the texts read, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” Both terms speak of the divinity of Jesus as the Christ. The title “Son of Man” is used over 80 times in the Gospels, including 12 times in the Gospel of John. In John’s Gospel, the term is always associated either with Christ’s heavenly glory or with the salvation He came to bring. To see the importance of believing on the Son of Man look back to John 3: 13-15,
“No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, [that is], the Son of Man who is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”
We must believe in Him to have eternal life. So spiritual sight begins with Jesus and Who He is as the Son of Man and Son of God who gave His life on the cross for our salvation. He is the eternal Word who took on human flesh and offered Himself as the sacrifice for our sins (John 1:14, 18; 3:13; 12:23, 32, 34). He is risen from the dead and one day He will judge all the living and the dead (5:27). He is the one in whom we must believe.
That brings us to the our second truth. We can only move to spiritual sight when we
B. Admit our spiritual blindness (v.36)
When Jesus makes a direct appeal to this man to believe the former blind man asks a question that reveals his awareness of his lack of spiritual understanding. John 9:36, “He answered and said, “Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?”” This man’s reply reveals something about the man’s heart. God has been preparing that heart. Remember the progress; the man has been healed; he already perceives Jesus as a prophet (John 9:17) and that He was from God (John 9:33). But he readily admits that he does not know who the Son of Man is. He is ready to believe, he just needs his spiritual eyes opened to see Jesus for Who He is.
The third truth about spiritual sight is when we
C. Believe Jesus is Lord (John 9:37-38)
Yes salvation begins with God admits our sinfully blind condition, but it must result in a response of faith. Look at John 9:37-38, “And Jesus said to him, “You have both seen Him and it is He who is talking with you.” And probably with just as great an excitement and enthusiasm as he had when he received his physical sight, “Then he said, “Lord, I believe!”” He was blind, but now he saw (9:25).
When the man said, “Lord, I believe” his whole world changed. Verse 38 concludes, “And he worshiped Him.” True belief in the true Lord results in true worship. How do you know when spiritual sight comes to someone? Well, it’s initiated by God, the heart is prepared, it believes the truth, confesses Jesus as Lord and results in worship.
The word translated ‘worship’ literally means “to kiss the hand.” It probably pictures the act of a slave that kisses the master’s hand. It is a mark of reverence, respect and affection. It often means that the person kneels or falls prostrate to give honor.
How do you know when someone is a believer? Because he becomes a what? A worshiper.
Can you say, “One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see”? Do you openly confess Jesus as your Lord? Do you bow before Him in worship, not just outwardly, but in spirit and in truth (4:24), and not just on Sundays, but all through the week? Those are some of the marks of genuine saving faith.
But, sadly, the story does not end there, with the blind man seeing. It goes on to warn us by showing that there are some who think they see, but they’re really blind.
2. Spiritual Blindness (John 9:39-41)
While the blind man illustrates those who progress in faith to the point of worship, the Pharisees show us that some regress irretrievably in unbelief to the point of judgment. Jesus has already warned them (8:21, 24) that unless they believed in Him, they would die in their sins. Now, He says (9:39), “For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind.” When they sarcastically retort, “Are we blind also?” Jesus answers (9:41), “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see.’ Therefore your sin remains.”
Briefly, note three things about spiritual blindness:
A. Refuses to admit sin
As we’ve seen, the way to see is to admit that you’re blind. Jesus is in the business of opening blind eyes. But if you insist that you see quite well without Jesus, then He will leave you in your blindness. In other words, pride keeps you from grace. God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble (1 Pet. 5:5).
B. Rejects the offer of sight
Even to these sin-harden Pharisees who wish to kill Him Jesus offers a gracious invitation: “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see.’ Therefore your sin remains.” Jesus is saying, “If you would admit your blindness, I would heal you and you would not come into judgment. But your stubborn rejection of Me keeps you in your sins.” Rejecting the light that God graciously gives leads to further hardening and judgment.
C. Results in eternal judgment
There is a scary principle in the Bible: If you reject the light that God graciously gives you, He will confirm your rejection and leave you in your blindness. In Matthew 13, the disciples ask Jesus why He spoke to the people in parables. He responds (13:14-15) by citing the prophecy of Isaiah 6:9:
‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, And seeing you will see and not perceive; For the hearts of this people have grown dull. [Their] ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with [their] eyes and hear with [their] ears, Lest they should understand with [their] hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.’
This means that the way you respond to the question, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” has huge consequences! If you shrug your shoulders and say, “I don’t know,” or “I don’t care,” or “I’ll think about it later,” you’re closing your eyes to the light that God is offering you. If you keep on rejecting His gracious offer of salvation, you may keep on hearing without understanding and keep on seeing without perceiving. Your heart may grow dull and you may die in your sins, to face eternal judgment.
“The more knowledge a man has the more he is to be condemned if he does not recognize the good when he sees it. If the Pharisees had been brought up in ignorance, they could not have been condemned. The condemnation lay in the fact that they knew so much and claimed to see so well, and yet failed to recognize God’s son when he came. The law that responsibility is the other side of privilege is written into life” (William Barclay).
John 3:19, “And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”
Have you examined your spiritual eye sight lately? There aren’t charts on a wall to help with these test; only attitudes inside your heart. Is the Holy Spirit showing you any symptoms of spiritual blindness; are you dimming your ability to follow the Light of the World?
Your eternal destiny hinges on your response to Jesus’ question, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” Join the former blind man by responding, “Lord, I believe.” And fall at His feet in worship!
