The Anatomy of Healing the Blind | Fuel for the Weekend

God told me to share my faith on Fridays and call it Fuel for the Weekend. It's my desire that the posts I put up on Fridays will give you something to think about, ponder, consider, and reflect on throughout the weekend. If it leads to discussions with your family and friends, even better!

Have you ever thought about how miraculous it is for a person blind from birth to see? It is mind-boggling. We have an account in John chapter nine that I want to dissect. I broke this chapter into ten parts and I could do a ten week series on it but since this is in written form, I want to just keep the points only in this post and you can then study it on your own and chew on it a little longer, if you want.

The Healing (verses 1-7)

So to get started, we are going to look at the first seven verses. The text starts out with Jesus seeing a man as He passes by and the man was blind since birth. The disciples, much like many people today, were quick to ask which parent was the sinner that caused him to be born blind. It was a common thought that if a child was born with an infirmity it must be the mom or dad's fault. Jesus was quick to say that it was neither the blind man, nor either of his parents that sinned. This particular man was born blind and grew up in that manner so that God could do a miracle in his life and help others to believe in God. Jesus states that He is the Light of the World and in the next two verses He spits on the ground, making a clay eye mask, and places it on the man's eyes. He then tells the man to go to the pool of Siloam, which is interpreted to mean Sent and the man did that and he came back with eye sight! It is incredible! That could have been the end and that would have been a wonderful account of God's goodness, love, and mercy and miraculous power, but we have so much more to read.

The Doubting (verses 8-9)

Imagine the neighbors the blind man grew up around. Many knew him and could attest that he was blind. Now that he came back seeing, it startled everyone. People started to doubt. Some said, "This is the blind man that sat and begged." Others said, "No, it is not him, but it sure looks like him." There was doubting and people going back and forth. Finally the man said, "Yes, it is me. I once was blind, but now I see!" What an incredible testimony he had!!!

The Questioning (verses 10-15) 

They did not rejoice with the boy. There was no celebration. The interrogation began. Everyone wanted to know how he got his vision when he never had it before. He told them how Jesus made clay, anointed his eyes, sent him to the pool called Sent, and that he went and washed and received his sight!

They demand to know where Jesus is. They were not seeking Him out to thank Him for healing the man. He said he did not know where Jesus went. So they drag the young man to the Pharisees. You see, this was no ordinary day, it was the Sabbath and the Pharisees made up a bunch of impossible-to-follow rules about the Sabbath and even they were not able to avoid breaking the rules.

The Accusing (verses 16-18)

The Pharisees demand to know how he received sight. The young man rehearsed it all over again so they could hear it. They immediately speak lies against Jesus. They said, "He is not of God because He does not keep the Sabbath." But others spoke out and said, "How could he be healed if Jesus is a sinner? Sinners do not have this kind of authority and power." So there was a division among them. They could not even agree whether or not God did this powerful, miraculous deed. Who else opens the eyes of the blind but God?

They want to know what the man thinks about Jesus who has healed him. The man said, "He is a prophet." The Jews heard that and decided the man was making the whole thing up and that he was not even blind until they asked his parents.

The Fearing (verses 19-23)

They asked the parents if this was their son and they confirmed it was. They asked them how the man was able to see now, even though he was born blind. The parents said that he had indeed been born blind but they had no idea how he was able to see now. They said, "Further we do not know the man that did this but our son is of age, so let him answer himself."

We need to understand what is going on here. They were about to be kicked out of the synagogue. They were scared of the religious leaders at that time because they had boasted, "If any man confesses Jesus is the Christ, they will be put out of the synagogue." This was especially meaningful because of the power that came with the religious leaders of that day. They were too scared to answer anything, so they throw their son under the bus and say, "Ask him!"

The Interrogating (verses 24-26

Now they are trying to intimidate the man. They demanded, "Give God the praise! We know that this Man is a sinner." The man spoke up, "I do not know if he is a sinner or not, but one thing I know, that I once was blind and now I see." That should have been cause for jubilee and celebration! No one was moved by the boy's answer.

Now they are applying the pressure. "Who was He? What did He do to you to cause you to see? How did He open your eyes?" They wanted to find something amiss, or shady, that they could say, "See? I told you He was a phony!" But they could not do it. They were speaking despicably of the Son of the Living God.

The Enlightening (verses 27-33)

You can feel the tension in the air as these men demand answers and the former blind man is telling the same thing over and over and over and they refuse to believe it. They want to find a reason to hate Jesus more. They want a reason to kill Jesus and they are not able to find anything against Him because Jesus is the Son of God. 

The healed man said, "I have told you already, and you did not listen. Do you want me to repeat myself? Are you interested in being His disciples?" This man has had enough. Something incredible and marvelous has happened to him and instead of enjoying his sight and being able to look at things he has never seen before, he is being berated by these religious, heartless men.

They countered, "You are His disciple. We are Moses's disciples. We know God talked to Moses, but we do not even know where this Man comes from." They opened their mouth and openly confessed that because they did not know enough about Jesus, they were going to condemn Him. They felt they had the authority to judge King Jesus!

I have no idea what religious teachings this man had heard or studied, but watch his reply to the religious leaders.

"This marvelous thing happened, and you don't know where He comes from, and yet He has opened my eyes. We know that God does not hear sinners: but God does hear from those that worship God and do the will of God. Since the world began it was never heard that any man could open the eyes of one that was born blind. If this Man were not of God, He could do nothing."

I don't know about you, but I want to stand up and start cheering. Yes! This is wisdom. This is truth! But for those who would rather have rules and rituals than a real relationship with Jesus Christ, they will never be convinced.

The Casting Out (verse 34)

Now they look down their nose on this man. They insult him and banish him from their clubhouse. "You were born in sin and you dare teach us?" Such arrogance! They refused to even listen to the man who has been transformed and given the gift of sight. What a shame!

The Saving (verses 35-39)

It's okay if others kick you out of their church, their Bible study, their cliques. Let them! They are doing you a favor. Watch God put you in higher places because of it. He has not forgotten you. Watch how He treats the man who now can see and is an outcast.

The Bible says Jesus heard they kicked him out of the synagogue, and Jesus went looking for him. Jesus did not stop until He found him and this is what He said. "Do you believe on the Son of God?"

The man said, "Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him?"

Jesus answered, "You have both seen Him, and it is He that is talking to you."

The man said, "I believe." He worshiped Jesus. He was thankful for the sight; not just the physical sight, but the spiritual sight as well.

Jesus's beautiful reply is, "I came to this world for judgment, so that they that do not see might see, and they that see might be made blind."

What a beautiful expression. He came to open all of our eyes to His wonderful truth. But He knew that some would profess to see truth, and would remain blind. They refuse to hear what Jesus has to say. They failed to trust what they saw Him do. If it did not match their cookie cutter mold of what religion should be, they did not want any part of it.

The Clarifying (verses 40-41)

Of course there were some Pharisees that watched this whole thing. They asked Jesus, "Are we blind, also?" Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you should have no sin: but now you say, 'We see,' therefore your sin remains."

If we go to Jesus and we think we are good enough, kind enough, religious enough, then we are blind to our need of a Savior. We will miss out on having our sins washed clean by His blood. If we can open our eyes to see that we are wicked and inherently evil creatures and left to our own devices we would destroy one another; and if we can see we have flaws and failures only Jesus can fix, then we will go from blinded eyes to seeing clearly.

How is your sight? I hope you are like our friend in today's text: I hope you once was blind but now you see!

God bless you!

~Bridgett Owens

Gift of Sight | Thankful Thursday

 

Today I took my son to pick up his brand new eyeglasses. He tried them on and everything fit well. It was a very rainy day, so he put the glasses in his hoodie front pocket. When he was inside the vehicle, he slipped his new glasses on and said, "Oh wow! I can see!! There's the sign for the mall.... and there's the sign for Chick-Fil-A!" 

I asked him, "Have you not been able to see those signs before?"

He answered, "No," and then kind of laughed in disbelief.

I told him, "You didn't know how much you couldn't see, until you could actually see, huh?" 

Of course that reminds me of our walk with Christ. He reveals His Word to us and we learn more about His character and His goodness the more we spend time with Him. We see how much we know about Him is really not that much in comparison to how great and magnificent we know Him to be!

Having good vision is a blessing. I had Lasic eye surgery a couple of years ago. I now have 20/20 vision. I can see far away with no problem. When it rains, I no longer have to hide my glasses in my pocket and squint into the horizon. I no longer have to wear prescription sunglasses. I can wear any sunglasses I want. No more having to take off my Rx sunglasses and put on my Rx glasses to go into a store or the house. It is the little things that I am so thankful for and what I was looking forward to the most with having this surgery. What I did not expect was to have crisp vision and to see so far! It was a blessing! It still is, and I thought about how much of a gift sight really is.

I cannot imagine being born blind. I have nothing to compare it to. Once when my siblings and I were younger, my mom told us to close our eyes and try to get around the house. Well I bumped into all kinds of things. I knew where the furniture was because I was born seeing and so I had already seen it with my own eyes, but in the darkness, no vision, I miscalculated steps and nearly fell. It gave me a tiny glimpse of what it might feel like. I felt scared and helpless and nervous. Do you remember the man in the Bible who asked Jesus to heal him? You may say, which one? Good question! We are going to look at two encounters, two different men, and two different methods of healing that took place.

It is a private miracle.

Mark 8:22-26

And He cometh to Bethsaida; and they bring a blind man unto Him, and besought Him to touch him. And He took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when He had spit on his eyes, and put His hands upon him, He asked him if he saw ought. And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking. After that He put His hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly. And He sent him away to his house, saying, Neither go into the town, nor tell it to any in the town.

Jesus gets into town and as soon as he gets there, they bring this man to Him. They urgently and fervently asked Jesus to heal him. Who is the man? The Bible does not say in this text. We only know that a lot of people cared about him because they took the man to Jesus. The faith in Jesus to cause the man to see again was so great that they were waiting on Him to arrive.

We do not know why Jesus did not heal this man in public. I find it significant that he took the man by the hand and led him outside of town. Maybe it was not far, but Jesus took him by the hand and led him away. See the love there? He did not ask someone to go with them. This was personal. This was private. He took the man so they could be together apart from the crowd's prying eyes, and those who wanted to be entertained with a miracle.

Jesus could have spoken the Word and healed him. He could have made a clay mask like He did for another blind man. He could have used any method He wanted. Jesus spit in the man's eyes. We can all agree that is an unusual way to heal someone. Yet, the man is never recorded as getting upset or questioning Jesus's method. Jesus put His hands on the man and asked if he saw anything. The man's vision has returned. It is not perfectly clear, but he recognizes shapes and things. This lets us know he had sight before because he recognizes people and trees.

Jesus did not leave the man in that condition. He did not say, "Well at least you can see a little better now." Jesus loves this man so much, He wants him to have perfect vision. He put his hands on the man's eyes and made him look up, and the man was restored and saw clearly. Then Jesus gave him strict instructions to not return to that town and not tell anyone in that town what Jesus had done. It was a private miracle.

Maybe the man was wounded in his eyes by someone in the town. Maybe they had been making fun of him. We have no idea but Jesus clearly did not want him to go back to that town. He told him to go home and stay away from that town and the people there. Not everything Jesus heals us and delivers us from needs to be made public. Some things are private miracles and God will still get the glory in those times.

New identity.

Mark 10:46-52

And they came to Jericho: and as He went out of Jericho with His disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the highway side begging. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, and say Jesus, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me. And many charged him that he should hold his peace: but he cried the more a great deal, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood still, and commanded him to be called. And they call the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise; He calleth thee. And he, casting away his garment, rose, and came to Jesus. And Jesus answered and said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way.

I find it interesting that Mark identifies this man as "blind Bartimaeus." Often we read things like the man who was blind, or the woman with the issue of blood. This is indicative that Bartimaeus was born like this. He had a special cloak that he wore to let others know he was blind and he was begging because he could not work for money. He was doing what he could do with his life's circumstances, but Bartimaeus did not want to remain blind. He wanted a new identity.

Bartimaeus sat near a busy road. His hearing was sharp, and from what we know about the human body, it was probably a little sharper with his sense of vision gone. He undoubtedly heard people talking about the miracles of Jesus along the road. He must have had some knowledge of the Scriptures because he connects Jesus as the Son of David. When Bartimaeus finds out that Jesus is going to be walking right past him, hope came alive in his heart, like it never had before. He was desperate for a touch from God.

He has no idea where Jesus is in relation to where he is sitting, so he lifts his voice as loud as he can, and he starts begging Jesus for mercy. He is getting on the nerves of everyone around him. They start saying things like, "Blind Bartimaeus, be quiet!" They keep labeling him what he does not want to be. He refuses to hold his peace. This is his chance, his opportunity, and he is not going to miss it. He refuses to be hushed by those around him.

Jesus stops. Sometimes we can cry out with great faith and need and it will stop Jesus in His tracks. He tells them to call the blind man to Him. Now the annoyed people who once were shouting at him to shut up are the very ones who are comforting him. "Be of good comfort. Rise because Jesus is calling for you." They don't call him blind Bartimaeus now. He has the attention of the Master so they are starting to look at him differently.

Bartimaeus immediately shed his identity as a blind beggar. He removed what told the onlookers that he was a blind man. He threw that robe from his shoulders in eager anticipation to see. He stood up, no longer in a posture of begging. He was about to get an answer to his prayer. He came to Jesus. Can you imagine the intensity of this moment? He is in the final moments of being without sight.

Jesus knew Bartimaeus was blind. It was no secret. He saw him at the side of the highway begging. He knew the man's need but Jesus asked Bartimaeus, "What do you want Me to do for you?" And this is finally the moment he had been waiting on. "Lord, that I might receive my sight." What is your need that Jesus knows you have? He is asking you, "What do you want Me to do for you?" This is your moment. Ask him for what you need.

Jesus does not use any of the other methods of healing blind eyes. He says to Bartimaeus, "Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole." Bartimaeus did not have to wait for the healing to come. He immediately received his sight and followed Jesus in the way. He was made whole and another translation says he was saved. He followed Jesus. What will you do when Jesus gives you what you have been praying for? Will you follow Jesus in the Way?

I am so thankful for the gift of sight. I am grateful for glasses so my son can see clear, sharp images and words. I am thankful that not only can I see in the natural but I can see in the spiritual. My eyes are open to the truth of God's Word. I once was blind, but now I see. What an awesome God we serve!

What are some things you are thanking God for today? I pray something I shared today has been strength for your journey and light for your way. God bless you!

~Bridgett Owens