John 9:24-34

The Jews continue to try to find something wrong with the blind man’s testimony about Jesus. They want him to stop glorifying Jesus, and they tell the blind man that Jesus is a sinner. They command him to glorify God instead, seeking to silence his testimony about Jesus’ work in his life.

 

The seeing man continues persistently, saying, “I do not know whether He is a sinner. I know one thing: Although I was blind, I see!” In other words, the facts remain true. And I’m not going to stop testifying that Jesus made me well just because you people say you know He’s a sinner.

 

So they ask the seeing man about what Jesus did again, trying to find some way to accuse Jesus and prove Him guilty of sin. By now the seeing man can tell that they don’t really care that he can see – all they want is to prove that Jesus is not worthy of honor and glory! He calls the shot as he sees it (paraphrased): “I’m not going to waste my breath telling you again. You really don’t want to become His disciples, do you?” In the Greek, it is perfectly clear that he expects them to say, “Certainly not!”

 

They play hardball, too. “You want to choose sides? Fine, you can be His disciple. We are Moses’ disciples! We know that God has spoken to Moses. Who knows where Jesus is coming from?” We’re with God, and you’re opposing us!

 

The seeing man retorts, “Here’s the amazing thing: Jesus opened my eyes and you still can’t figure out where He’s coming from! We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners; but God listens to anyone who is God-fearing and does His will. From eternity past no one has ever heard of anyone opening the eyes of a man born blind! If this man were not from God, He would be unable to do a thing!” Jesus must come from God! There is no other explanation!

 

They couldn’t attack his argument, so they attacked him! “You were born entirely in sins! How dare you teach us!” And they threw him out!

 

This man who was born blind – this man who could see – was faithful! He knew what had happened. He knew who had healed him. He knew what he believed. And he was not about to let any human authority – even religious authority – tell him that Jesus, his Healer, was anything other than God-sent!

 

We get leery sometimes of making the same arguments this man made. We reason that counterfeit miracles exist, and that we can’t trust miracles to tell us whether a person comes from God or not. And we have biblical reason to think that way (Deuteronomy 13:1-5). Probably the Pharisees were approaching this whole situation with this text, or similar ones, in mind! But this text does not teach us to distrust miracles! Rather, it counsels us to be aware of a teacher’s words and guidance. If a teacher is encouraging us to honor the God of our fathers, and if signs and miracles accompany his work, we ought to praise God! Miracles are intended to be an eye-opener, and a sign of God’s hand at work. The only times we should oppose a worker of miracles are when those miracle workers lead us to worship someone other than God.

 

The Pharisees couldn’t understand how a servant of God could work on the Sabbath; this really seems to be the main thing confusing them, at least in this instance. And because of this one thing, they rejected all the rest of Jesus’ miracles and teachings. Discernment has always been a scary thing. It means that we do not understand at least some of what is happening; otherwise, we really wouldn’t need discernment. The Pharisees were too afraid to venture beyond what they thought they understood, but we now know that their understanding was incorrect. How blessed they would have been if they had accepted Jesus’ teachings as the God-honoring sayings they were, if they had become Jesus’ disciples!

 

Father, this is certainly one of the areas I’m afraid of. I am both afraid of believing someone I should not believe because his teachings are so close to mine that I ignore the differences (and they turn out to be huge), and afraid of condemning the teachings of someone I ought not to condemn because I think I have detected flaws in his teaching – flaws that actually reflect my own misunderstanding! Father, protect me from both of these. And help me to remember that this seeing man was right to reason as he did – Jesus came from You, because Jesus did things that only someone connected to You could do! May this be my initial response when people are asking for discernment in these sorts of things, a response born out of a desire to glorify You for what You do! You are worthy of all glory and honor! All that is good comes from Your hand! You are able to do much more than we could ask or imagine! May I be bold, just like this formerly blind man, to say so!