The man blind from birth (John 9:1-25)
We looked last time at a case where there was a clear connection between sickness and personal sin.
We now turn to a case where there is no such connection.
The story
Seeing a man who was blind from birth, Jesus’ disciples asked him,
Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind? (v. 2).
The popular understanding of that day was that all sickness was caused by sin.
Jesus’ reply is highly significant: Neither this man nor his parents sinned, he said (v. 3).
In saying this Jesus was clearly rejecting the notion that all sickness is caused by sin.
But some cases of sickness may be, as in John 5
Jesus does not say, Of course not! No sickness is caused by sin.
Neither does Jesus point out the stupidity of the disciples’ question – how could the man’s blindness have been caused by his own sin if he were born blind?!
He could hardly have committed sin before he was born.
Rather, Jesus chooses to reveal a totally different purpose for the man’s condition:
This happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life (v. 3).
Here he seems to be suggesting that God allowed the man to be born blind so that Jesus might work a miracle in healing him, so bringing glory to God.
But this in itself raises an immediate problem.
How could a God of love allow a man to be born blind just so that Jesus could show how powerful God is by working a miracle for him?
However, the solution to this problem is to be found in reminding ourselves of the purpose for which John wrote his Gospel. He wrote it so that people may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name (John 20:31).
Physical affliction in this life, hard though it may seem, is relatively insignificant compared with the blessing of eternal life in heaven.
We are often in danger of viewing things from only the short-term perspective, rather than seeing as God sees, from the viewpoint of eternity.
Is it possible that this man would never have found faith in Christ had it not been for the mighty miracle that Jesus worked upon him?
And how many more would find salvation by coming to faith in Jesus because of this one miracle?
Problems with regard to healing are often resolved by taking the long-term perspective. The Bible even occasionally suggests that suffering in this life has its compensations in the next (Hebrews 11:35).
The next two verses also seem to underline the purpose of the miracle and therefore of the blindness without which the miracle could not have happened.
Jesus says:
As long as it is day we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world (John 9:4-5).
Spiritual Blindness
Verses 35-41 (which NIV heads Spiritual Blindness) show that John has included this story in order that we might learn a spiritual lesson.
We are all spiritually blind from birth, and Jesus is the light that God has sent into a world that is in darkness in order that we might see.
The most important lesson that the reader can learn from the chapter is not what Jesus can do – although it certainly teaches that – but who he is!
This is almost certainly the intention of the verses that follow.
Jesus spits on the ground, makes mud with the saliva, and puts it on the man’s eyes.
He tells him to go and wash in the pool of Siloam.
The man does so and comes back seeing (vv.6-7).
Jesus did not use saliva because it was considered to have healing properties!
Healing through natural means would hardly have been a sign of who Jesus was!
And there’s no evidence that the mud was intended to stimulate faith in the blind man.
It’s much more likely that these verses are an allusion to Genesis 2:7 where God made man from the dust of the ground.
This is completely in harmony with John’s use of miracles as signs to point to who Jesus was.
John is teaching that Jesus performed a creative miracle and is claiming here, as elsewhere in John’s Gospel, to be none other than God himself, something to which the Jews of his day were completely blind (cf. vv. 13-41).
The main purpose of this miracle, therefore, is undoubtedly to teach spiritual lessons about the blindness of humanity and about Jesus who alone is the light that can set us free from the darkness of the world in which we live.
But does that mean that the passage has nothing to teach us about healing? By no means. There are at least seven lessons that can be learned about healing from this passage:
If Jesus could heal a man who was born blind, with God, nothing is impossible. In this connection we need to remember what Jesus said later in John 14:12 – I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these…
We must never assume that a person’s sickness is caused by their personal sin. This can be the case, but it need not be.
God may sometimes allow sickness in order to bring people to himself through the healing of that sickness.
Although the man must have exercised a measure of faith in obeying Jesus when he told him to go and wash in the pool of Siloam, there is no explicit mention of faith in this passage. It is Jesus who takes the initiative and, if anyone is exercising faith, it’s Jesus!
Jesus says that he is doing the work of him who sent him (v. 4). This is in keeping with John 5:19 where he says that he can only do what he sees the Father doing. If we are ministering to the sick, we need to learn to hear from God as to what he wants in each situation.
In this connection it would be a mistake to copy exactly what Jesus did. This does not mean that God would never tell us to do such a thing – what he has done once he can do again! But it is highly unlikely that he would tell us to put mud on people’s eyes! The important thing is not copying Jesus’ methodology, but following his example in hearing what God is saying.
Finally, we must always remember that salvation is more important than healing. At the end of the chapter Jesus takes time to make sure that the man who has already been healed of his blindness comes to a full understanding of who Jesus is. As a result the man professes faith in Jesus and comes to worship him (v. 38).
Conclusion
These two miracles show us that healing stories may be used as powerful illustrations of something even more important, man’s need for salvation.
However, they also teach important lessons about sickness and healing.
We notice that God does not heal everyone on every occasion.
It is also clear that, though some sickness may be caused by personal sin, this is by no means always the case.
Furthermore, it is evident that it is not always the responsibility of the sick person to approach Jesus for healing.
In both cases it is Jesus who takes the initiative.
This was because he knew in each case exactly what God wanted him to do.
If Jesus in his healing ministry did not act independently, then neither should we.