“The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had
received his sight, until they called the parents of the man who had received
his sight and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How
then does he now see?” His parents answered, “We know that this is our son and
that he was born blind. But how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who
opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” (His
parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had
already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be
put out of the synagogue.) Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask
him.””
“So for the second time they called the man who had been
blind and said to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.”
He answered, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that
though I was blind, now I see.” They said to him, “What did he do to you? How
did he open your eyes?” He answered them, “I have told you already, and you
would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become
his disciples?” And they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are
disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man,
we do not know where he comes from.” The man answered, “Why, this is an amazing
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 if anyone is a worshiper of God and
does his will, God listens to him. Never since the world began has it been
heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not
from God, he could do nothing.” They answered him, “You were born in utter sin,
and would you teach us?” And they cast him out.” (John 9:18–34, ESV)
This is a longer passage. After debating about breaking it
to look at it in smaller pieces it become clear that I really could not do so.
In the first half we find the man’s parents at a loss for answering how he was
healed. They told the Pharisees the basic fact that their son was born blind
but that he could now see. But how this happened they did not know. Being
intimidated and even fearful of the Jews, they threw the responsibility to
explain back on to their own son and they sent the Jews back to him to inquire
further. For fear, they wiped their hands of any responsibility and left their
son to fend for himself, after all, he was old enough to do so. He was a grown
man.
So, the Jews did exactly that. They brought the man back in
and began the inquisition again. They led off with an interesting demand and a
way of fulfilling the demand. They demanded that he give glory to God and the
way they gave him to do this was by declaring Jesus a sinner. The man did not
do what they demanded. Rather, he responded by saying that he knew nothing
about Jesus’ state as a sinner. He had already said that he did not even know
Him, so how could he say now that He was a sinner. The only way he could do
this was by giving in to their demands and saying something he did not know to
be true. In fact, he actually believed it to be untrue. He went on to tell the
Jews after some more interaction that the work that Jesus did was proof enough
for him that he was not a sinner. He said that no one had ever heard of anyone opening
the eyes of a man born blind. In order for this to happen it had to be because
God worked through Him, and God certainly would not listen to sinners. Jesus,
by the fact that He did such an amazing thing, proved Himself to be from God.
If He were not from God He simply could not have done it.
The simple truth for this man is that Jesus gave Him his
sight. No man could do this on his own, nor has any man ever been reported to
do so. In order for Him to do this He must have been heard by God, and God does
not hear sinners. Therefore, for God to do this for Him, Jesus must not be a
sinner. He was not a theologian and did not have to understand all of the reasoning
of the Jews. What He knew was the simple truth that the man (Jesus) was enabled
by God to give Him back His sight, and for this man it meant that Jesus was a
man of God.
Of course, the Jews were incensed at this, and they turned
on the man. They tried to belittle him as an unlearned man trying to instruct
the learned, and then they threw him out. They had no answer, so they threw the
problem aside. What an amazing thing. When they did not like what they heard
and they did not like where the logical progression took them, they ignored it
as if it did not exist. Man is no different today. There are so many situations
in our world that the facts seem to point one, but because it does not fit
preferred views it is put down, ridiculed, and attempts are made to toss it
aside. This is what those pushing for extreme views in life are attempting to
do with Christians and their biblical values today. If they don’t like it they
ridicule it and try to remove it from their presence or to invalidate its voice
in some way. But the simple truth remains that God is; He has revealed Himself,
and He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. Rather than being intimidated as
the man’s parents were, we can take great encouragement from the man who stood
on the simple truths He knew and was not ashamed to speak about them.
Yesterday was the anniversary of the horrible
decision of the Supreme Court which opened the floodgates of legalized
abortion. As I was driving home I had the opportunity to listen on the radio to
a group of young people and others speaking out about this great wrong on the
steps of the very Court who turned this tragic corner in our history. As they
spoke I heard their chants that they are the pro-life generation. They were not
intimidated by the opposition, and they chose to stand in front of all and make
this known.
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