John 9:18-34

Relax, Read and Reflect

Prayer- Lord, Open our hearts and open our minds and help us learn. Go-Fight-Win. Amen.

¹⁸The Jews still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man's parents. ¹⁹"Is this your son?" they asked. "Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?"

²⁰"We know he is our son," the parents answered, "and we know he was born blind. ²¹But 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." ²²His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews, for already the Jews had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Christ^a]'> would be put out of the synagogue. ²³That was why his parents said, "He is of age; ask him."

²⁴A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. "Give glory to God,^b]'>" they said. "We know this man is a sinner."

²⁵He replied, "Whether he is a sinner or not, I don't know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!"

²⁶Then they asked him, "What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?"

²⁷He answered, "I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?"

²⁸Then they hurled insults at him and said, "You are this fellow's disciple! We are disciples of Moses! ²⁹We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don't even know where he comes from."

³⁰The man answered, "Now that is remarkable! You don't know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. ³¹We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does his will. ³²Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. ³³If this man were not from God, he could do nothing."

³⁴To this they replied, "You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!" And they threw him out.

Spiritual Blindness

³⁵Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?"

³⁶"Who is he, sir?" the man asked. "Tell me so that I may believe in him."

³⁷Jesus said, "You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you."

³⁸Then the man said, "Lord, I believe," and he worshiped him.

³⁹Jesus said, "For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind."

⁴⁰Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, "What? Are we blind too?"

⁴¹Jesus said, "If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.

The saga of the blind man continues. In the last lesson we learned that Jesus healed a blind man who had been without sight from birth. Jesus did this on the Sabbath, and because he had made mud that he used on the mans eyes, he had violated Jewish law by working on the sabbath.Now the interrogation begins.

First; the Pharisee's wanted to make sure the man was really blind, (it could have been a trick, a well thought out stunt.) They call in the mans parents to ask them. They admit that the man was born blind but were so scared of being excommunicated they would not share if he could see or not."He is of age-ask him." Do we find it difficult to see the truth today if it may cost us ridicule or social standing?

The Man is brought back in and grilled once more. If confesses that he can see because of the miracle that Jesus had performed. The pharisees blame him for sinning and excommunicate him. Jesus hears about this and ministers to him. Re-read vs. 40-41. The Pharisees have visual ability but are blind to the truth.

We fall into the same traps. we can become so jaded to the world that we miss real miracles. We want to see proof, we become driven to prove miracles are hoaxes. Why? Most of us have pretty good physical vision, how is our spiritual vision?

Questions:

1. Why did the parents insist that the pharisees ask their son if he could now see?

2. How did the pharisees justify the miracle?

3. What did Jesus mean when he said "For judgement I have come into this world, so that the blind may see and those who see will become blind."

Prayer- Lord, open our eyes that we may see all of the vision You have for us. Give us the wisdom and strength to share that vision with others. Go-Fight-Win. Amen.