John 9:1-41

… ²⁰ “We know he is our son,” the parents answered, “and we know he was born blind.²¹ But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself.” ²² His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who already had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. …

“Jesus came … the blind will see …”

In the TV show Kitchen Nightmares, British chef Gordon Ramsey tries to help failing restaurants. Often the problems are easy to find: the outdated décor, the disgusting food and the poor customer service! But surprisingly, the restaurant owners often struggle to see this. They have become so deluded, that they actually believe what they are doing is good! 

In this passage, the Pharisees seem equally unable to see the obvious truth in front of them! The evidence seems irrefutable! This beggar was born blind, as confirmed by his parents (v.20) and his testimony is clear that Jesus opened his eyes (vv.15, 25-27, 30). Not anyone can perform such a miracle and so the only logical conclusion is that Jesus is a prophet (v.17) and a man from God (v.33). But the Pharisees don’t want this to be true and so they focus on what in their eyes was a breach of the Sabbath (vv.14-16) and use intimidation tactics to try and distort the evidence (vv.22, 28, 34).

Often our non-Christian friends can seem equally reluctant to want to find out about Jesus, but this is not surprising when we look at the Bible. The Bible says that humans are naturally God’s enemies (Romans 5:10). Explaining the Pharisees’ own hostility, Jesus concludes that their father is not God but the devil (8:44). It really will require a miracle then for people to come and put their faith and trust in Jesus!

But this passage does bring hope! Not only did Jesus open the physical eyes of the blind beggar, but he also cured him of his spiritual blindness, as demonstrated by his finally worshiping Jesus (v.38) as the Son of Man (v.35). Jesus then really is the light of the world (v.5), allowing those who were once hostile to God to see who Jesus really is, so they want to follow him.

Do we thank Jesus enough for having cured our own spiritual blindness? And are we praying that Jesus would do the same for our non-Christian friends?

Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you that Jesus is the light of the world and that through him we can come to see who you are. Thank you that despite once being your enemies, we can now know you as our Father. We ask that Jesus would continue to open our eyes, so that we would more and more submit to his will and follow his ways. And we pray that our non-Christian friends would also come to see how amazing Jesus is and would want to follow him. Amen.