Focal Passage: John 9:1-7; 32-33, 35-38
Why? This is one of the primal questions of life, along with How? When? Where? Who? We want to know why things happen, especially if those things cause suffering. Often, God will give us whole or partial answers to these questions. At other times, God remains silent reminding us that He has reasons for how He providentially cares for His creation that are above our “pay grade.”
But why would I raise the issue of asking Why? The events surrounding the healing of the blind man at the Pool of Siloam raises the question of why so that we can see through the lens of this event to the truth of who Jesus Christ is.
God the Son glorifies God the Father (John 9:1-7.) On observing a man blind from birth, the disciples asked Jesus who had sinned to cause this man’s blindness — him or his parents. The thinking at that time (and still is) was that all suffering was a direct result of sin. To be clear, we can suffer because of our sins (Galatians 6:7-10). But not always. God may have other purposes in our sufferings (II Corinthians 12:1-10).
Shrum
Jesus’ answer in John 9:3 is mind-bending: “ ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned,’ Jesus answered. ‘This came about that God’s works might be displayed in him.’ ” What? Jesus’ answer helps us draw only one conclusion — God made or allowed him to be blind for this point in time so that God’s glorious power could be put on display.
Such an inference reminds us of what God said to stuttering Moses in Exodus 4:11, “Who placed a mouth on humans? Who makes a person mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?” In other words, God is providentially working all things — even our physical maladies — for His glory and our good. Spitting on the ground and making mud pies that fitted his eyes, the man is commanded to wash in the pool of Siloam. And he’s healed!
God the Father working through God the Son (John 9:32-33). Amazed at the miracle working power of Jesus, the crowd draws two conclusions.
First, no one in history has ever healed someone blind from birth, doing so in public without slight of hand. Second, they conclude that if Jesus were not from God He would not have been able to do this miracle. Or, to put it another way, because Jesus was from God He was able to heal this blind man. In doing so Jesus was doing the work of His Father.
Jesus enables the spiritually Blind to see,(John 9:35-38). Thrown out by the doubters of the day, the former blind man is left to seek his own answers about what had just happened to him. Jesus finds him and sets him spiritually free. Jesus asks him if he believes in the Son of Man. His answer is an emphatic yes.
Physical healing does not necessarily mean spiritual liberation. The purpose of this miracle, or any miracle for that matter, is not for us to focus on the miracle itself but on the One who worked the miracle, Jesus Christ. He is the way, the truth, and the life who sets us free from sin, death, and hell.This is the truth Jesus wants us to see. There are none so blind as those who will not see. May Jesus open the eyes of our hearts to see Him for who He is — Prophet, Priest, King, Lord (Ephesians 1:15-23), B&R
