John Chapter Nine: A Miracle and a Scandal
By: Deji Yesufu
In 2013, Grace Community Church, led by Pastor John MacArthur, did the “Strange Fire” Conference. They pursued one single theme throughout: to correct the Charismatic movement in all its variations because they were leading Christians to offer up ungodly worship to God. On one hand, God could be extremely merciful with these people and do nothing; on another extreme, God could bring judgment on these people and kill them in the same manner that he killed Nadab and Abihu who offered up strange fire in Leviticus 10. Another thing that the Strange Fire Conference taught us was that biblical miracles were not primarily meant to solve human problems. Miracles were mostly focused on making the people of the land believe God’s apostles. This was why God introduced the ministry of Moses with miracles. And this is why Jesus’ ministry were replete with miracles. The miraculous event of John chapter nine, where Jesus healed a blind man, is one of the most eventful of the New Testament. It is this miracle we have the opportunity to examine in this article.
The chapter opens with the disciples of Jesus asking the Lord “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus’ response revealed God’s sovereignty: No one sinned. This man was born blind so that the works of God may be made manifest through him. The concept of “works” is central to Jesus’ ministry in the book of John. In John chapter John 5:31-47, we learnt that there were four witnesses to the person of Christ: John the Baptist; the works he did; God the Father; and the writings of Moses. These “works” were the miracles that Jesus did on earth. John explains to us that Christ did many such works, except that the writer chose only seven of these miracles and recorded them. The sixth was the healing of the blind man as recorded in this chapter. The lesson we can glean here is simple: nothing happens in our lives by accident. Everything that befalls us, good or bad, is ordained by God for a higher purpose. So, we can trust God always. In any case, Jesus heals this man of his blindness and this begins the whole drama of the chapter.
First, the people who knew him as blind could not recognize him anymore. Some said he was the one; others said he was not. He confirmed to them “I am he.” The natural question was then: how did you regain your sight? He explained to them that a man made clay and put it on his eyes, and he washed and returned seeing. The Pharisees would not buy this line of reasoning, even though they could see clearly that there had been a miracle. So, they found a “technical” point to discredit the miracle: Jesus had healed on a sabbath – a man from God would never heal on a Sabbath. A man truly sent by God must be “biblical” – he must follow well-structured doctrinal truth. In our day, we would say that such a man who would work such a miracle must be confessional. Some might even insist that he must be a reformed Baptist. He must fit a certain theological mode that we think is right. Looking at the criticisms of the Pharisees reminds me that every one of us could very easily become pharasaical in our reasoning. “If God will do certain things today, he must do it in our structured way” – we tend to think. We must settle it forever that God is the maker of the heavens and the earth, and he might just as well do whatever he wishes to do – whenever he wants to do it. The wonderful sovereignty of God can be extended to the reality of God working in all kinds of mysterious ways.
Then there was a division with regards to what to think of Jesus. Some said he was from God; others said he was a deceiver. They asked the man: “Who do you think he is?” He replies: a prophet. Now this is the first of the great confessions this man would make. When the blind man declares that Jesus is a prophet, he is saying in essence: this man has some truths from God, and we must listen to him. The point of all the miracles Jesus did was to help the people to appreciate the fact that he was a man sent from God to teach them some new truths. Somehow all the healthy people missed this point. It took a man to be healed from blindness to make this mighty confession. This might not be too surprising. Most people are comfortable in their securities; they are comfortable in the little knowledge they have – they do not wish to know more, or to have what they know challenged. A lot of people who are healthy and wealthy have very little grasp of spiritual things. God makes us poor so that we can be rich in faith. A man who had not had sight but received it miraculously is likely to appreciate the bearer of this miracle more than those who have their sights. This man could see Jesus as a prophet because he was the recipient of God’s gracious works.
To ascertain the veracity of the miracles, the Jews call for the man’s parent. They asked them if this was their son, and how he got his sight. They confirm the former, and they defer the latter question. They would not wish to enter any trouble with the Jews. They are again forced to ask the man: how did you get your sight? Irked by their actions and words, the man asks whether they also want to be Jesus’ disciples. They then revealed to him that they were disciples of Moses and not of Jesus. This little spat can be a lesson to us today: we must avoid rigid intellectualism at all costs. We must realize that the truth affects not just the mind, but the heart and the will. What it means is that biblical truths must change our mindset. If the Jews had read Moses and gained the spirit with which Moses was writing, they would have recognized Jesus for who he was. The trouble with the Jews was that while they held an intellectual assertion to Moses, their hearts and will were far from him. So, they knew biblical truths, but they were not doing them. In every age, orthodoxy must work hand in hand with orthopraxy. If not, what we end up with is a dead religion. They eventually throw the formerly blind man out of the temple, where Jesus Christ found him.
Christ asks whether he believes in the Son of God. This man, unlike the Jews, did not ask to know the “biblical” reason for this question. He did not wish to see another miracle. That he could be delivered from blindness was enough. He simply asked: where is this Son of God – I would want to believe in him. Then Christ pointed him to himself, and he worshipped the Lord. His worship was a second confession. He was saying “Jesus Christ – you are God”. This is very instructive because these two confessions: Christ is a prophet, and Christ is God, were the two confessions our Lord had been labouring to get the Jews to make. They would not.
The healing of the blind man was meant to be a blessing to a man in need. It was meant to show the Jews that Jesus Christ was sent from God. It was meant to reveal the divinity of Christ. Unfortunately, the last would become first and the first would be last in this case. The ones who should naturally believe Christ, did not; and the ones who should not, did. This is the scandal behind the miracle and it was best summarised by Christ when he said “For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind” (verse 39). In chapter ten, Christ continues his analogy. He was comparing the sheep that hear the shepherd to people like the blind man; while he was showing that the Pharisees were hirelings. Throughout John, Christ’s miracles created both positive and negative reactions. Through the miracles, many believed. And through the same miracles, the unbelief of many was deepened. We see clearly that the challenge of religion is not the absence or presence of miracles. The trouble with many is their inability to hear God and believe what he is putting before them as truth. This is the scandal of religion and the Bible is replete with many accounts of these.
Deji Yesufu is the Pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church Ibadan. He is the author of HUMANITY.
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