How Did Jesus Heal the Blind?

Tom:

Understanding the Scriptures, we are continuing with the gospel of salvation and we are looking at verses from the Gospel of John and we continue to tell people if you’re not used to spending time in God’s Word or maybe you haven’t started we really recommend that you begin with the Gospel of John. It just lays out so much with regard to important information about the gospel, who Jesus is, his deity and what you must do to be saved.You must be born again he said to Nicodemus in chapter three. But Dave, we’re beyond that.We are in John 9 and we’ll pick up with verse 13: “They brought to the Pharisees him that aforetime was blind.” And of course this refers to Jesus had just healed a blind man and they were a bit (they being the religious establishment) upset with it.Now why would they be upset Dave?

Dave:

Well Tom, before we get to that let’s go back just a little bit.I’ve been gone a long time, so let me refresh myself a bit here.The neighbors and friends who knew this man—they are so confused.They can’t believe, this can’t be the same man, because he was blind.

Tom:

From birth.

Dave:

Yes, and now, he’s able to see.I mean he looks like him, but he certainly couldn’t be the same man.And he says, well I am, I am he.And so they say, “Well wait a minute, how did this happen?”And he says “Well, a man whose name is called Jesus, the people call him Jesus and he healed me.”Then they say in verse 12, “Well where is he?”He said, “I don’t know.”And now we’re in verse 13 and they bring him to the Pharisees.

Tom:

Verse 14: “And it was the Sabbath day when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes.”We talked about that a little bit last week.Here Jesus seems to be applying some kind of technique or methodology which doesn’t seem right.

Dave:

Well if it is, he doesn’t do it every time.

Tom:

No and we’re not to do it today.

Dave:

Exactly why he did that Tom, I’m sure there is some reason for it.

Tom:

I’ve heard people say Jesus is just demonstrating he doesn’t seem to heal the same way each time.He’s not discounting the healing of physicians or using technology or medical technology and so on.Although he never had to do that, this is the Creator of the universe.He spoke the word and he could.But he chose to do this.It must be to teach us something.

Dave:

Well Tom, obviously he wants this man to enter into it.It reminds me of Elijah.You remember when Naaman the captain of the Syrian host came?And Elijah could have healed him, you know by the power of God, but he said go and wash seven times in the Jordan and he didn’t want to do that.I mean why wash seven times in the Jordan?What does that have to do with it and aren’t there cleaner rivers where I come from?Perhaps the Lord is showing the same thing to this man.He wants him to participate.The fact that he would go to this pool and wash was an act of faith.He’s obeying Christ’s command.So instead of just opening his eyes with a word, the Lord is getting this man’s participation which is an exercise of his faith.Maybe that is an indication—after all his eyes are being opened.We have something to do on our part, some responsibility if my eyes are to be opened, I’ve got to see, and I’ve got to be willing to see things as they are.Tom, I cannot explain the symbolism, nor can anyone in everything that Jesus said and did and everything that he taught.

Tom:

But it did have an effect, not just healing of this man, but look what it did in regard to another issue and his healing on the Sabbath.

Dave:

Yes, that’s what I was going to say.He didn’t just heal him.He did a work, he worked.He made clay out of his own spittle.So that’s a work.In other words you might say well just healing someone is not a work.So Jesus is, it seems deliberately, shall I say, tweaking the Pharisees?Maybe that’s the wrong word.

Tom:

But he is demonstrating to them that once again, they are not doing things or understanding things God’s way.They’ve come up with their own system.

Dave:

So that’s going to play a key role in this.Verse 15: “Then again the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. He said unto them, He put clay upon mine eyes, and I washed, and do see.”Woo, now we have the man washing.We’ve got the man doing a work on the Sabbath.“Therefore said some of the Pharisees, This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the Sabbath day.”So whether there was any other reason why Christ did it this way, I think this is clearly a major reason so that he could seemingly justify their criticism.

Tom:

Dave, before we go on to the next part of the verse—why do people do this?God lays out a way for us to go about out lives, to do things in a way that not only pleases him, but is efficacious, that has really good results and so on, but we keep wanting to add to it.You go over some of the laws, some of the rules and regulations in the Jewish legal system.They are incredible in terms of their absurdity.It’s like lawyers getting together and making up laws and then making up laws to get around the laws and then making up other laws to get around those laws and so on.It’s insane!

Dave:

Well the Sabbath is an important subject Tom, and we don’t deal with it enough.There are those who say that Constantine changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday and the Seventh Day Adventists even call Sunday worship the mark of the beast.

Tom:

And they have a legalistic system of their own.

Dave:

They do.Well, the Sabbath has not been changed from Saturday to Sunday, that’s for sure.The Sabbath is the seventh day and that cannot be changed.What happened was that God rested on the seventh day from creating the universe which he made in six days.That universe came under his judgment.Man came under his judgment.Man was one of those who was made within that six days and we are under the judgment of God and this old universe must be done away with.There must be a new creation.Christ is called the second man, the last Adam.He’s the progenitor of a new race and Christ, having paid the penalty for our sins, he rose from the dead on the eighth day which is the first day of a new week. We are in the new creation, not in the old creation.The Bible makes that very clear.We have been created in Christ Jesus, Ephesians:2:10For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
See All... “…unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” Or in 2 Corinthians:5:17Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
See All..., “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away, behold all things are become new.”So this is why we meet together to remember Christ and his death, burial and resurrection.We meet together to worship God, to sing his praises and so forth on the first day of the week because this was the beginning of a new creation.Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15 that Christ is the firstborn of a new creation and he will bring many sons into glory in his image.So we are worshipping on the day that of the resurrection of Christ.We are rejoicing in a new universe that one day will happen.This old universe will pass away.All the elements, Peter tells us will melt with a fervent heat.This heaven and this earth will pass away.So we are no longer honoring the old creation.Now for the Jew, if I could just turn very quickly to Psalm 147, for the Jew this does have a special significance, the Sabbath.Psalm:147:19-20 [19] He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. [20] He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the LORD.
See All... says, “He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel.He hath not dealt so with any nation and as for his judgments, they have not known them.”We find in Ephesians 1 (actually 2:11-12) we were Gentiles separated from the commonwealth of Israel, without God and without hope and so forth.Now there’s one thing that we have and that’s Roman 2 tells us that God’s law has been written in every conscience.There is the moral law which applies to all mankind, but it does not including worshiping on the Sabbath.It does not include the Sabbath.There is no one anywhere in this earth that had written in his conscience to keep the Sabbath day.So it is clear from that as well as from scripture that the Sabbath keeping was for the Jews, was for the old creation.We didn’t change the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday.We worship Christ on Sunday because this is the day he rose from the dead, the firstborn of a new creation and we are new creatures in Christ Jesus.But the Sabbath was a big thing to the Pharisees and this is why they were going to reject him as the Messiah, because he couldn’t be of God if he didn’t keep the Sabbath after the manner that they understood it to be done.