Delivered June 10, 2007
by Pastors
A certain pastor had a weakness for golf, but had trouble finding time to play in his busy schedule. He searched his schedule and finally found a day he could play. But it was Sunday.
He apologized to God and traveled a long distance to a golf course hoping no one who knew him would see him playing on Sunday.
As he teed up the first ball, an angel looked down from heaven aghast: "A pastor playing golf on Sunday!" He quickly told God about it being certain God would punish the pastor in some way.
On the third hole, God sent a gust of wind that blew the pastor's ball into the hole for a hole in one.
God replied. "Think about it, who can he tell?"
Just like the angel, some believe God is the big guy upstairs with a club in hand, waiting to punish anyone who sins. Some believe God is a gentle old Santa Claus giving good things to everyone whether they are naughty or nice.
Who is God and what does he do in the world?Before we read John 9 there's a few things that may help us understand the various responses to Jesus.
1,200 years before Jesus, God was the one who made a covenant with a people through Moses. God had established relationship with a people. These people identified themselves as God's people. God told the people "if you obey my voice and keep my covenant" you will be my special possession, a kingdom of priests, a holy nation." Prophets and priests called the people to remember the covenant, obey the law, live as God's people.
A predominant theme of the OT is that if a people love the Lord and obey his commandments it will go well with them. God will bless that people with big families, abundant crops, livestock that always reproduce, freedom from diseases and sickness, and peace in a land of their own, or give them a hole in one.
But if people disobey the commandments and forget the covenant punishment would surely follow. So if a person was sick, crops failed, another nation defeated them it was automatically assumed someone was disobedient to the covenant and commandments.
The response of Jobs friends are an example. Job's body was covered with sores, his children and livestock had been killed. Job's friends assume that he had sinned-disobeyed the covenant and called Job to repent.
Fast forward to the time of Christ which is about 1200 years after God had made the covenant. If you would have asked many Jews living in Jerusalem "Who is God and what does he do?" they may have answered that God is one and has made a covenant with us and has given us the law. Many Jews identified themselves as God's people and tried to obey the covenant which contained the commandments. Within the larger group of Jews was a small group of Jews called Pharisees that were strongly committed to the exact obedience to the commandments. They were the puritans or conservatives of the day.
God sent Jesus who began teaching, healing, casting out demons, and asking people to be his disciples. When he claimed to be the Son of God, or did certain things, especially on Sunday, people had various responses. Some were like the angel, thinking God should punish Jesus, others weren't quit as certain. People respond differently to Jesus today.
As we read together John 9 notice that people are watching what Jesus does and trying to figure out, who is Jesus?
Who is this healer called Jesus claiming to be the light of the world?The Pharisees were divided on the answer. v. 16 Some were certain that Jesus was not from God because he sinned by disobeying the Sabbath laws. Anyone from God would obey the commandments as they understood obedience. Some believed that only God could heal a life-long blindness and that God only worked through people who were not sinners.
Next in v. 22 the Pharisees have put into practice ostracism for anyone with differing beliefs.
As a way of defending their beliefs, the Pharisees in v. 27 refused to listen for new possibilities. Anyone suggesting that God acts differently than they believe is v. 28-29 insulted and lectured.
Sadly, the Pharisees thought they could see, thought they were living in the light, but were blind. In the gospels they move farther and farther from Jesus who came to give life and light.
The Pharisees response to Jesus can serve as a warning of what to avoid.
The response of the man born blind is a contrast to the Pharisees. The Pharisees appear to become more and more opposed to Jesus, more and more convinced that Jesus is a sinner, and move farther and farther from the one who claimed to be the light of the world.
The healed man doesn't know the identity of the healer right after the healing. He just knows the man named Jesus put mud on his eyes he washed and now he can see.
The Pharisees ask the man if Jesus is from God or not. The man says he's a prophet in v. 17. The Pharisees and the man believed prophets were of God and performed miracles. Elisha sent the leper Namaan to the Jordan River for healing of leprosy. Elijah brought a widow's son back to life. Moses struck a rock and water came out to save the people from dying. To say Jesus was a prophet was to say he was from God.
During the second interrogation by the Pharisees, the healed man again asserted that Jesus somehow healed him. He added sarcastically in vs. 27 Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?
Who is this healer? The healed man believes that Jesus is at the least a prophet of God and like Moses, should have disciples. A disciple learns from the master teacher and embraces their beliefs.
The healed man is seeing or understanding Jesus in new ways. To end his time with the Pharisees v. 30-33 the man boldly declares his present beliefs . Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.
After being asked to repeat his story of healing several times, being challenged and insulted, the healed man is convinced that Jesus is heard by God, has performed a miracle, and is from God. He believes and is becoming more and more convinced and determined that Jesus has been an agent of God's healing power.
But there's one more encounter that brings him even closer to Jesus. It is a conversation with Jesus in v. 35-38.
Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he found him, he said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" He answered, "And who is he, sir? Tell me. so that I may believe in him." Jesus said to him, "You have seen him and the one speaking with you is he." He said, "Lord, I believe." And he worshiped him. Jesus said, "I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind. "
Who is this healer claiming to be the light of the world?He is the Son of Man and LORD. The man healed has progressed to a fuller belief that Jesus is God in the flesh. His physical and spiritual vision are clearer, brighter, and more complete. The more he talked about his encounter with Jesus, the more he understood the identity of Jesus.
Jesus is the light of the world. Let us humbly receive healing and grow more and more in our understanding of Jesus Christ.
Eph. 5.8-9 declares For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light-for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true.
May we be identified as people who live in the light of Christ and embody all that is good and right and true.
Petitcodiac Mennonite Church