NO LONGER BLIND! – (4)

"As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth." John 9:1

“The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.” John 9:11

Read the story here: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john%209&version=NIV

Listen to story here:  http://www.biblegateway.com/audio/dramatized/niv/John.9  

Jesus said: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness.” 

But he didn’t just say it.  He acted it out.  He created an object lesson to show the people the truth of who he was.  In the same way he had said “I am the bread of life,” and then he gave them bread.

Jesus did an unimaginable thing in this passage: He created sight.  This man had been born blind.  There was never an illness or injury which robbed him of sight so that sight could be restored.  These eyes did not have the capacity for sight – and Jesus gave them sight.  This is a creative miracle.  Everyone recognized the difference.

Everyone, that is, except an elite group of religious leaders.  You see, Jesus broke a law while doing the creative miracle.  Through Moses, God had given the people  a law: “Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy,”   but over the years many more rules had been added.  NO WORK, even if it was helping someone, could be done without breaking the law.  Jesus broke the law, therefore he was bad:  “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.”

But despite persecution, the healed man himself declared:

“Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”

This is one of the clearest statements—proving Jesus was sent from God because of the miracles he did—in the entire New Testament.  Bravo! to this man who saw things so clearly!

So the story ends ironically.  Jesus said:

“For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”

Jesus IS the LIGHT of the world:

With him, we will see;

Without him, we will become blind.

Got light?