Blind

There is a story in the Bible found in the Book of John that tells the story of a blind man. The man was blind his entire life. He has an encounter with Jesus and ends up healed and given the gift of sight. This is the story where Jesus rubs mud on the man’s eyes, tells him to wash them in the water. He washes his eyes and realizes his sight is restored.

The story doesn’t end there. The entire time Jesus is talking with the blind man, the Pharisees are hounding him about why he is blind. In that time and that culture, things like blindness meant you or your family had some type of sin in your life. If you had some sort of physical ailment, you must also have sin. The illness or disability was punishment for you or your family’s sin. So, when Jesus rolls up and starts talking about this man’s blindness being caused by something spiritual, the Pharisees lost their marbles.

The blind man gained his sight because he began to believe in the Savior. The moment he enacted his faith was the moment he regained his sight. His healing had nothing to do with mud and water and everything to do with Jesus. The Pharisees just could not wrap their minds around this. The blind man was encompassed by Jesus. He got it. The Pharisees, on the other hand, knew who Jesus was but remained blind to his true identity and power.

“It is possible for Jesus to be in our midst and for us to still have a Pharisee heart.” Lysa TerKeurst

Lysa TerKeurst says that we can know Jesus yet remain blind. The Pharisees absolutely knew who Jesus was. They witnessed his miracles and teachings. Yet, they continued to live for their rules and not in faith in Jesus. We, too, can live in this space. We know Jesus. We are totally aware of who he is and what he has done. Yet, our hearts are not connected to what our brain knows. We remain weary, skeptical, and closed. The rules feel like a safer place to reside so we stay there instead of taking the leap of faith towards a Savior.

The blind man gained sight before he washed the mud off of his eyes. He saw before his eyes were 20/20. The Pharisees, however, could not bring themselves to seeing. Their vision was hyper-focused on the Law and what they had convinced themselves to be true instead of the Truth. God desires us to rub the mud off of our eyes. In order to see, we must act. We must walk over to that water and wash the mud off of our eyes. Are you ready to do that today?

Walking down the street, Jesus saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked, “Rabbi, who sinned: this man or his parents, causing him to be born blind?” Jesus said, “You’re asking the wrong question. You’re looking for someone to blame. There is no such cause-effect here. Look instead for what God can do. We need to be energetically at work for the One who sent me here, working while the sun shines. When night falls, the workday is over. For as long as I am in the world, there is plenty of light. I am the world’s Light.” He said this and then spit in the dust, made a clay paste with the saliva, rubbed the paste on the blind man’s eyes, and said, “Go, wash at the Pool of Siloam” (Siloam means “Sent”). The man went and washed—and saw. Soon the town was buzzing. His relatives and those who year after year had seen him as a blind man begging were saying, “Why, isn’t this the man we knew, who sat here and begged?” Others said, “It’s him all right!” But others objected, “It’s not the same man at all. It just looks like him.” He said, “It’s me, the very one.” They said, “How did your eyes get opened?  A man named Jesus made a paste and rubbed it on my eyes and told me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ I did what he said. When I washed, I saw.” “So where is he?” “I don’t know.” John 9:1-12