The Man Born Blind

The Man Born Blind

John Chapter 9

In the story of the man born blind Jesus gives us one of the major reasons why you and I and all of us in this fallen world have so many afflictions, tribulations, and suffering. He doesn’t answer all the questions. He didn’t intend to. But with this passage and many more in scripture the answer begins to form and take shape. God in His grace has revealed in the pages of scripture many reasons for the suffering that is so much a part of human history and life.

We pick up the story after Jesus has been teaching in the Temple complex during the Feast of Tabernacles and walked away from the hostile Jewish leaders who actually picked up stones and tried to kill Him. But God would not permit them to harm Him because “His hour was not yet come.” It was not yet God’s time for Him to die. So Jesus simply walked through their midst and left the Temple grounds. That account is in John chapter 8. John 9 begins this way: “And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man who was blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, ‘Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘Neither has this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.”

          The disciples understood from the Old Testament why there exists sickness and suffering and pain and death in the world. It is because of the Fall and the Curse which followed as a result when God pronounced His judgment on the world in Genesis 3. Adam and Eve disobeyed God and chose to do that one thing that God had prohibited: they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and immediately died spiritually and brought into existence physical death. “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” Romans 5:12 “The wages of sin is death. . . .” Rom. 6:23

We all share in the suffering brought on by sin and God’s judgment. The Fall of Man and the curse of God on the world was basic truth that the disciples well knew, but they were confused on the application of the truth that we are fallen creatures in a fallen world. Sin and sorrow, pain and death come as a result of sin in the world, and if a person is sick or infirm, he/she is sharing in the fallenness of this world.

In the situation before us the disciples wanted to know, “Who sinned, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus’ answer is dramatic and sweeping and greatly reassuring to us: “Jesus answered, ‘Neither has this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.’” John 9:3

Jesus is obviously NOT saying that they were sinless (for that would contradict scripture such as “All have sinned” “There is none righteous, no, not one,” etc.) His point is very clear: this man’s blindness was NOT the direct result of his own sin or that of his parents. He was born blind; he hadn’t done anything good or bad before he was born while he was in his mother’s womb.

But what was the reason for his blindness, then? Jesus gave us the answer!

“that the works of God might be displayed in him.” That answer gives all of us a very important reason why God sends affliction and suffering our way. To be sure, we must all share in the suffering of this fallen world, but God is doing much more in your affliction. “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” 2 Cor. 4:17 And in the NIV: “for our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” So God is doing something, producing something through our sufferings. Elsewhere in scripture we are told many of the things He is doing. Just one example: He is making us more like Christ as we share in His sufferings and He strengthens and comforts us in our sufferings.

And what was the means–and this is very important!–that God used to bring the man to Jesus? A terrible affliction–he was blind from birth. How many times do you suppose he told others, “Once I was blind but now I see” –and realized what happened to him spiritually as well as being given his physical sight. (Which was unheard of since the creation of the world!) That man surely was thankful that he was born blind because that was the way God gave him his spiritual sight and salvation in Christ and eternal life.

The means God uses to bring countless people to Christ is affliction and problems and troubles so that they will realize their inadequacy and lostness. Then when they hear the gospel, they can repent of their sins and turn to Christ with their empty hands of faith and Christ will receive them.

And once the Lord succeeds in bringing a person to Himself–usually through “much tribulation” and reaping the results of their folly, then the lost sinner falls on his face before a holy God and repents and cries out to Him, “God, be merciful to me a sinner and save me for Jesus’ sake.” When that happens, then God has begun His good work in you. So we are back to the work of God being manifest in us.