The Progression from Blind to Seeing

Start with reading John 9:1-41.

Let's start with looking at Christ's compassion in this passage. In the midst of Christ trying to elude his would-be murderers, he stops to look after someone else who needs him. And this shows us a few things about Christ. First of all, He is never too busy to win someone to himself. Secondly, he is more concerned with the welfare of others more than his own welfare. And lastly, he notices those around him who are typically ignored by others. And of course, this is a great lesson to us. Too many times we try to allow our schedules and interests to overtake our lives and we forget to share the love of Christ with those around us who need it. We need, instead, to take the focus off of ourselves and make sure that we are ministering to those around us and pointing them to Christ.

 

We can also learn a lesson from the Disciples faulty thinking here. They believed, and this was a common belief among the Jews, that physical problems are God's way of punishing someone for sin in their life or in the life of their parents. So, they believed that either the blind man or his parents must have committed a HUGE sin. Now, we know that that is not how God works. Sometimes, physical problems are results of sin (think STDs), but not always. And many times, God does use these types of circumstances to bring glory to His name and to draw people to Him.

 

So, Christ shows the truth here. He shows them the mistake in their thinking and then heals the blind man, using this man's weakness to bring glory to God.

However, Christ doesn't leave this man with just physical healing. He also brings him spiritual healing. This man comes to know Christ in stages, which is revealed through the Jewish leaders questioning of him. First of all, in verse 11, he sees Christ as a mere man and that's how he answers their questions. Then, in verse 17, he starts to recognize that there was someone special about Christ and this time when the Jewish leaders question him, he answers that Christ is a prophet. He even goes so far in verses 27-28 in which he rebuked the Jewish leaders for their questioning of him and Christ's miracle. Moving onto verses 30-33, we see that the blind man finally sees Christ as God and this is how he answers the Jewish leaders when they again question him. And if you think about it, this is how many people have to come to Christ. I like how this passage ends with the man worshipping Christ as he finally realized who Christ is for him.