All right. It has been great to be with you this week. If you've been enjoying yourself, I've certainly been having a good time. It's been a lot of fun. That Paul Gearhart hymn we've been working on, I will sing my maker's praises, that's actually one we're working on back in Birmingham, too. So that's a really good one. So this morning, we're slated to talk about John chapter 9. I think I told you the first night this would be the gospel according to Jesus' miracles or the gospel according to Jesus' healing, and certainly it is a healing story. But I'm going to take a little bit different approach to it. I'm going to really focus on how John 9 shows us good news in the midst of suffering, how is good news to us in the midst of trial and tribulation. So before I begin, before we get into John 9, I just want to say something more generally about the healing miracles of Jesus that we find in the gospel. Obviously in the gospel accounts, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, we have a lot of healing miracles of Jesus. And these healing miracles, I think, have to be understood as gospel demonstrations. The church has always said that the miracles of Jesus can be looked at in two ways, must be looked at in two ways, inwardly and outwardly. Inwardly, these miracles show us what Jesus does for us now, in a metaphorical kind of way. Outwardly, they show us what Jesus will do for us all, fully and physically, at the last day. Inwardly, miracles like this one we're going to look at in John 9, where Jesus restores a man's sight, shows us that Jesus opens the eyes of our hearts to behold who he is, to behold his glory and his beauty. Our hearts are blind. And Jesus gives us true sight. He gives us insight. He opens the eyes of our minds and of our hearts. It's the kind of thing Paul prays for in Ephesians chapter one when he says, when Paul says that he desires that God would open the eyes of their understanding to be enlightened. that they might behold the riches of his glorious grace. Outwardly, the healing miracles show us that Jesus cares about bodies just as much as souls. In fact, the healing ministry of Jesus really has served as the basis and model for the church's diaconate, for the church's mercy ministry. The church is concerned about ministering not just to souls, but also to bodies. The church is concerned with bringing bodily healing and relieving suffering whenever possible. This is why Christians invented the hospital. The hospital, like the university, is basically a Christian creation, a Christian invention. And Christian doctors, for centuries, were seen as kind of an extension of the church's diaconal ministry, that the church had a healing ministry by extension through Christian physicians and medical caregivers. But ultimately, of course, The healing miracles that Jesus does, the bodily healing that Jesus brings to people, points us ahead to the resurrection of the body at the last day. The healing miracles of Jesus are not suspensions of the natural order, they are restorations of the natural order. They are Jesus setting the world right, making the world the way it should be. The miracles show us creation redeemed, creation restored, they are eschatological previews of the kind of world God has in store for us when all is made right, when we are made whole, when we are glorified. God promises to make all things new. in the end to restore us, perfect us, glorify us inside and out. And the healing miracles show us that. So the healing miracles are good news. They're gospel. They show us what God is doing through his son and his spirit inside of us and ultimately what he will do on the outside, what he will do bodily. But let's look at John chapter 9. I'm going to really focus on what this teaches us about suffering, the gospel in the midst of suffering, the gospel of suffering. Long chapter here. Let me pick up and read in verse 1. John 9. Now as Jesus passed by, he saw a man who was blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. I must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. The night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. When he had said these things, he spent on the ground and made clay with the saliva. And he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. And he said to him, go wash in the pool of Siloam, which is translated scent. So he went and washed and came back seeing. Therefore, the neighbors and those who previously had seen that he was blind said, is this not he who sat and begged? Some said, this is he. Others said, he is like him. He said, I am. Therefore, they said to him, how were your eyes opened? He answered and said, a man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and said to me, go to the pool of Siloam and wash. So I went and washed and I received sight. Then they said to him, where is he? And he said, I do not know. They brought him who formerly was blind to the Pharisees. Now it was a Sabbath when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. Then the Pharisees also asked him again how he had received his sight. He said to them, he put clay on my eyes and I washed and I see. Therefore, some of the Pharisees said, this man is not from God because he does not keep the Sabbath. Others said, how can a man who is a sinner do such signs? And there was a division among them. They said to the blind man again, what do you say about him? Because he opened your eyes. He said, he is a prophet, but the Jews did not believe concerning him that he had been, he had been blind and received his sight until they called the parents of him who had received his sight. And they asked them saying, is this your son who you say was born blind? How then does he now see? His parents answered them and said, we know that this is our son and that he was born blind, but by what means he now sees, we do not know, or who opened his eyes, we do not know. He is of age, ask him, he will speak for himself. His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had agreed already that if anyone confessed that he was the Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue. Therefore, his parents said, he is of age, ask him. So they again called the man who was blind and said to him, give God the glory. We know that this man is a sinner. He answered and said, whether he is a sinner or not, I do not know. One thing I know that though I was blind, now I see. Then they said to him again, what did he do to you? How did he open your eyes? He answered them, I told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples? They reviled him and said, You are his disciple, but we are Moses' disciples. We know that God spoke to Moses. As for this fellow, we don't know where he is from." The man answered and said to them, "'Why, this is a marvelous thing, that you do not know where he is from, yet he has opened my eyes. Now we know that God does not hear sinners, but if Anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, he hears him. Since the world began, it has been unheard of that anyone open the eyes of one who was born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. They answered and said to him, you were completely born in sins and are you teaching us? And they cast him out. Jesus heard that they had cast him out. And when he found him, he said to him, do you believe in the son of God? He answered and said, who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him? And Jesus said to him, you have seen him, you have both seen him, and it is he who is talking with you. Then he said, Lord, I believe, and he worshiped him. And Jesus 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. Then some of the Pharisees who were with him heard these words and said to him, are we blind also? Jesus said to them, if you were blind, You would have no sin, but now you say we see, therefore your sin remains. This is the word of the Lord. Let us pray. Father, we pray that you would give us eyes to see and ears to hear that we may trust Jesus more fully today. We ask this in his name. Amen. Well, Jesus did many extraordinary miracles during his ministry, but this is certainly one of the most interesting, one of the most intriguing miracles he performs, not only because it shows us what Jesus does for us, but it shows us what it means to be a disciple. I really think this historical event in the ministry of Jesus is a parable of the gospel, but it's also a parable of discipleship, and we'll see how those two things go together. Being a disciple doesn't just mean that Jesus does wonderful things for you. Being a disciple of Jesus can also get you in a heap of trouble, as this man found out by the end of the story. By the end of this story, the man born blind had gained his sight, but he had also lost his standing in the synagogue. He lost his family. He gained his sight, indeed he gained insight, but he lost his family and he lost his standing in the synagogue. He gains insight, he gains a sight, a vision of who Jesus is, but he loses these other things. Now, if you weigh them in the balance, of course, what he gains is more than what he loses, as we're going to see. Now, this is a long chapter I just read, over 40 verses. It consists of eight episodes, and it'd be great if I made a little chart for you if you're taking notes or you just want I'm going to give you these eight scenes, because each scene is real easy to identify. Each scene is basically a dialogue between two parties. And there's just eight, and they move very rapidly. Verses 1 through 5, it's Jesus and the disciples. Verses 6 and 7, it's Jesus and the man. Verses 8 through 12, it's the man and his neighbors. Verses 13 to 17, it's the man and the Pharisees. Verses 18 to 23, it's the Pharisees and the parents. Verses 24 to 34, it's the man and the Pharisees. Verses 35 to 38, it's Jesus and the man. And then verses 39 to 41, it's Jesus and the Pharisees. You will note that Jesus is in the early scenes and he's in the closing scenes, the first two scenes and the last two scenes, and he's gone in the middle. And that's going to be really, really important for understanding how this story works. You want to pay attention to that as we go. The disciples at the beginning of the chapter ask Jesus, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind? The disciples assume here, their operating assumption is a kind of one-to-one ratio between sin and suffering. And so they figure that if this man is born blind, it must be the result of some kind of spiritual blindness, that sin, some kind of spiritual problem, produced the physical problem. Now, in Scripture, this is not totally off base. If we look at, say, the book of Proverbs, or if you look at Deuteronomy chapter 8, we do see that there is a moral cause and effect in God's universe. That if you do bad things, bad things will ultimately happen to you. So if you get drunk and then you get behind the wheel of a car and you go wreck your car, you go wrap your car around a tree and you get injured from that, we can say, yes, your suffering is clearly related to your sin. There are times where that is true. Your pain is connected to your rebellion. But the biblical view of suffering is much, much more complicated than that. Sometimes suffering is not due to any particular sin we have committed. In fact, sometimes we suffer for doing what is right. And indeed, that's what's going to happen to this man by the end of this story. He's suffering for righteousness, not for sin, but for righteousness. In this particular case, Jesus tells his disciples that this man is suffering, that God has brought suffering into this man's life so God can be glorified in delivering him from this suffering. Sometimes our suffering may not have any direct relationship to sin or even to righteousness. It may be simply that God wants to glorify himself in rescuing us or delivering us from the particular affliction we find ourselves in. So the biblical view of the relationship of sin to suffering is very complicated and the disciples don't see that, which is hard to imagine given things like the book of Job in scripture or Daniel, but that's where they are. at this point in their understanding. So Jesus says, this man was born blind, not because of his sin or his parents' sin, but so that I, Jesus is saying, so I can bring glory to God by granting him sight. And then Jesus says, I am the light of the world. This is one of the seven great I am statements in John's gospel where Jesus says, I am, and then he fills it in with something that actually connects back, of course, with the Old Testament scriptures. This saying of Jesus, I am the light of the world, is very, very important to this story. In a lot of ways, it's the key to the story. Light, of course, when Jesus says, I am the light of the world, that takes us back to John chapter 1, where Jesus is called light. But of course, John chapter 1 takes us all the way back to Genesis chapter 1 and the creation account. where God says, let there be light. And what we're going to find is this story in John chapter nine is really a new creation story. In fact, here Jesus talks not only about light, he talks about night and day. He talks about working. All of those things connect this with Genesis chapter one and the creation account. So that's the first scene. We get a sense where this is going. This is going to be a new creation story. Second scene, Jesus begins playing in the dirt. He spits in the dirt, he makes some clay, and he anoints the blind man's eyes with this spittle. The word anointing there is related to the word for Christ. He christens the man, he anoints him, he christens him with this spittle. And then he tells the man to go wash in the pool of Siloam. What's going on here? What's the method to this madness? The clay that Jesus makes again takes us back to the creation account, but this time Genesis 2, where God forms Adam out of the clay of the ground. So this is the new creation theme continuing in this passage. working in the dirt to give this blind man a new seeing life. In some way, it's a replication of the creation of Adam in the beginning. He's going to make this man a new creature, a new Adam, a new kind of human. Just as the Lord breathed life into a lump of dirt in order to make Adam a living being, here you see Jesus doing the same kind of thing. He uses breath and water and dirt to renew the blind man, to make him a new creation. You know what you see continually in the Hebrew scriptures, who is the one who works with the clay? It's always God. You've got the creation account where God works in the dirt to create man. You've got passages like Jeremiah 18 that describe the Lord as the potter shaping and molding the clay. Jesus is the potter. Jesus is the Lord incarnate. He's the one who's molding and shaping this new creation. This renewal theme continues as the man goes and washes. Jesus said back in John chapter 3, you must be born of water and spirit to see the kingdom of God, to see the kingdom of heaven. If this man's eyes are to be finally opened, if he is to see the kingdom and to see the King, Jesus, then he must be washed. He must be And so this too is a new creation theme. This man was born blind. That is obviously an emphasis in the passage. He's been blind since birth. So now if the man's eyes are open, if he's made able to see, it can only be because he has experienced a new birth. He must be born again in these waters. John tells us this is the pool of Siloam. And John even translates it for us. He tells us it means sent. It's actually related to the word for apostle. Now John doesn't go into the full meaning here, but he gives us this detail for a reason. The name of the pool and its translation is here for a reason. These details are significant. That word sent, the word that John is using here, is a hugely significant term in John's Gospel. Over ten times in John's Gospel, Jesus is called the one who has been sent by his Father. Even in this passage, back in verse 4, he speaks of him who sent me. Elsewhere, Jesus says he will send the Holy Spirit at the end of the gospel. He sends out his disciples. So sending is a major theme in the gospel of John. This man is sent to the pool of sending, as if he's going to be made some kind of apostle. He's going to be a sent one of Jesus, one who will represent Jesus like the other apostles, the other sent ones. So we have this blind man. This blind man is anointed by the anointed one, Jesus. Now he's being sent to the pool of sending by the sent one. And so as we're going to see as this story unfolds, he becomes a sent one himself, a kind of apostle, an apostle of Jesus. So here's a man who was in darkness. Quite literally, he was blind. The day of his healing is the day when the light shines into that darkness. It is the first day of a new creation, a new life for this man. He is sent into the world as a new man on a new mission. Third scene. In the third scene, our new man meets his old neighbors. They say, isn't this the guy who used to be blind and would sit around and beg? Isn't this the blind man we used to pass by who would sit there begging? Some people didn't recognize him. That shouldn't surprise us. He's a new man, after all. But when he's questioned about this, he answers and says, I am. Very interesting, it is the same wording, it's identical Greek to the language that Jesus himself uses in his I am statements in the gospel. He's echoing the voice of Jesus. He's starting to sound a lot like Jesus. This man doesn't even know who Jesus is yet, but he's already being made like Jesus. He's already speaking like Jesus. He's already copying Jesus' speech. Verse six. He was anointed, and of course Jesus is the anointed one. Verse 7, he's the sent one, just as Jesus has been sent. Now he's talking like Jesus, using I am statements. He's being conformed to Jesus, perhaps without even realizing it at this point. But when they question him about Jesus, when they question him about where Jesus is, he says, I don't know. Jesus has disappeared from the scene. Jesus is off stage. He's off the scene. And that means that this man is left on his own. This man is left to face the Pharisees on his own. The Pharisees show up in the next scene. Now, you know, when the Pharisees get into debates in the Gospels, it's almost always with Jesus. We know about these clashes in the Gospels between Jesus and the Pharisees. You know, whenever Jesus gets into these debates, the Pharisees get into these debates, they're clashing with each other. That's typically the way it goes. But here our new man, the man who's been given his sight, he's going to have to stand in as Jesus' representative, and he's going to have to engage the Pharisees in debate on his own. Normally Jesus does this, but now the man has to do it. He's been sent into battle on behalf of Jesus. He's probably still dripping wet from his baptism in the pool of Siloam, the pool of sinning, and where is he sent? He's sent into theological battle with the Pharisees. Very interesting, isn't it? The Pharisees interrogate him, especially because his healing took place on a Sabbath. And it seems here the Pharisees do what they typically do, they set up a trial and they position themselves as both accusers and judges of the case. The Pharisees finally asked the man what he thinks of the one who has healed him. And so the man replies, he is a prophet. Now this is a progression on his earlier answer. He says Jesus is a prophet. Perhaps this man is thinking back to stories like 2 Kings chapter 5, where the prophet Elisha told Naaman to go and wash in the Jordan, to be baptized in the Jordan, to bring about healing and cleansing from his leprosy. So he's connecting Jesus with prophetic stories he knows. Jesus has done something similar for this man, sending him to the pool of sending. And so perhaps Jesus is another prophet like Elisha. The man doesn't yet have full insight. He doesn't yet see the whole truth about Jesus, the whole truth of who Jesus is, but he's on the right track. He's making progress. The Pharisees, meanwhile, seem blind to what has happened here. A blind man has been given his sight and instead of rejoicing in that, instead of giving God glory for that, instead they want to debate the finer points of Sabbath keeping. They see this new creation work as a violation of the Sabbath. Well, this encounter has the Pharisees frustrated, so in the fifth scene they go and interrogate the man's parents. They want to make sure that this is the man who was blind. They can't believe that this blind man has been given his sight. They're thinking maybe this is some kind of hoax. Maybe he's got an identical twin or a look-alike and we're just being confused or misled or tricked. And so they ask the parents. They don't see who the man is. They don't know who he is. The parents say, yes, we know this is our son, that he is the one who was born blind. But then they say, we do not know how he is able to see now. And then the parents say, he's of age, go and ask him. What people know and don't know in this story is so interesting, the back and forthness there between what people know and don't know, or what they see and don't see. Now, we're told why the parents did this. They affirm, yes, this is our son, but they don't really want anything to do with him now, and they certainly don't want to get tangled up in this debate with the Pharisees, and John tells us why. The parents are shying away from engagement with the Pharisees out of fear. They know that the Pharisees are already on the war path against Jesus and those who follow him, especially against those who would say that Jesus is the Christ, the anointed one. They know that if they are found siding with Jesus in some way, they will be excommunicated from the synagogue. They'll lose their standing, their status in the community, and they don't want that. And so they basically distanced themselves from their son. So here you have a man who's been healed by Jesus, but Jesus has left him. Here you have a man whose parents are not standing up for him. He can't count on his parents to defend him. They have left him to fend for himself against the attacks of the Pharisees. And so again, they call the man born blind. So our next scene, they say, we know the man who healed you is a sinner. Think about what they haven't known to this point in the story, and now what they claim to know. We know this man is a sinner, but how do they really know that? It's like they're saying in a condescending way, look, we're the religious experts here, we're the religious professionals. Don't you think, to the man who was born blind, don't you think that if there was a prophet in our midst, we would recognize him, we would see him, and we would know him for who he is? We're the religious professionals. We would know a prophet if one popped up in our midst. We're the religious professionals. We know a sinner when we see one. And we know this guy is a sinner. Jesus is definitely a sinner because after all, he worked on the Sabbath. The man who had been born blind says whether he is a sinner or not, I do not know. But what I do know is this, I was blind and now I see. Again, you see how this theme of knowledge is being played out here. He says, I don't know about that, but I do know this. I know I was blind, and now I can see. They press him again. How were you healed? The Pharisees are really hardening themselves into bullies. Their arguments aren't working, so they're trying to pressure this man into renouncing Jesus, into saying, yes, Jesus is a sinner. But the man says, hey, look, I already told you, but you didn't listen. Okay, now the ears come into it. Who can hear? Okay, who's hearing rightly? Not just who's saying, but who can hear? Says, I already told you, but you didn't listen. Why do you want to hear it again? And then I don't know if this next part is sarcastic or not, but he says, do you also want to become his disciples? So now the man is identifying himself as a disciple of Jesus, and he's inviting the Pharisees to become disciples as well. They revile him and say, you're his disciple. but we are disciples of Moses. And that's true. They are not disciples of Jesus, but they're really not disciples of Moses either. Because we've already seen in John's Gospel back in chapter 5, those who really follow Moses become followers of Jesus because Moses wrote of Jesus. Just like Abraham looked ahead to Jesus' day in John 8, we learn that, we find in John 5. Moses wrote of Jesus. He spoke of Jesus. If you believe Moses' witness, you're going to become a follower of Jesus because you'll see Moses was pointing the way to Jesus as the Messiah. Here in New and Greater, Moses is in their midst. And what do they do? They cling to the old Moses, really their misunderstanding of the old Moses. And of course I think it's easy to figure out what's going on here more than anything what the Pharisees want to do. They are determined to protect their position as the religious elite in Israel. They want to protect the money flow and the power and everything else they've got going for them. as Pharisees, as the religious and spiritual elite in the nation. And they know that Jesus is a threat to their power and their status. Jesus and those who follow him threaten their position. This is a threat to the status of the Pharisees. And they will not let their status be subverted or undermined. They will do whatever they have to to protect their privileges and their prestige. But as the Pharisees get more hardened in their opposition to Jesus, the healed man gets bolder in his defense of Jesus. Jesus not only opened his eyes, Jesus has loosened his tongue, so he can begin to bear witness and give testimony, so he can courageously voice the truth about Jesus, even though the Pharisees can't and won't hear it, no matter how many times he tells them. You know, there's that old saying, it's really hard to convince somebody of something when their salary depends upon not believing it. Okay, that's where the Pharisees are. That's why they're very hard to convince. But here Jesus has not only opened this man's eyes, Jesus has also loosened his tongue so he can begin to speak the truth. And here I think you have to notice the sarcasm with which he speaks. He says, isn't this a marvelous thing that there is a man who can open the eyes of the blind and you The religious leaders in Israel do not know where he is from. The Pharisees say, we don't know where he's from, and they're exactly right. That's one thing they've got right. They don't know where he's from. They don't know he's the man from heaven, the Messiah sent by God. But here the blind man says, isn't this really an odd thing, a marvelous and wondrous thing that there is a man here in our midst who can open the eyes of the blind and you don't know anything about him? You don't know anything about who he is or where he came from. Then he hammers them with irrefutable logic of his own. He says, we know God does not hear sinners. So he's challenging their premise. He's taking away the premise in their argument that Jesus must be a sinner. He says, we know God doesn't hear sinners, but if anyone serves God and does his will, God hears him. He's identifying Jesus as one who does the will of God, one who is not a sinner, one whose prayers are heard by God. He says, no one has been able to open the eyes of one born blind, but this man has, so he must be of God. So he's moving forward. He's progressing in his understanding of Jesus. Only one who is in tune with God and who has access to God and who has access to God's power could open eyes. Jesus must not be a sinner. He must somehow be one with God if he can tap into God's power in this way, if God hears him in this way. The Pharisees, now seething with anger, say to him, you were completely born in sins. We know that's wrong. That's how the disciples started off, and Jesus said no to that. But the Pharisees here say, you were completely born in sins, and you are trying to teach us. And then they excommunicate him. They cast him out of the synagogue. Who's really born in sin? Who's really blind? Who's really doing the teaching here? The Pharisees claim all these things for themselves. They claim to be the teachers, but clearly they're the ones who need to be taught. And they say this man is completely in his sins. They're the ones who are completely in their sins. They're the ones who are really blind. The Pharisees say he was born in sins. That's again what Jesus denied at the beginning of the story. They say he was born blind because of his sin. They don't recognize he's been born again through the righteousness of Jesus. They say to the man, are you trying to teach us? And the answer is yes. By witnessing to Jesus, he is seeking to teach the teachers of Israel. He knows the truth. He sees the truth. The Pharisees can't. The Pharisees are showing that even though they see, they are really blind. Even though they claim to know, they're really ignorant. even though they've heard they're really deaf. They don't know the truth. This man who was born blind knows and sees more than they know and see. They keep saying, we know, we know, we know. But by the end of the story, he has exposed their ignorance. They started off claiming to be knowledgeable of Jesus, saying, we know that this man is not from God. We know this man is a sinner. but they don't know Jesus at all. And this man's faithful witness exposes their ignorance and their blindness. Well, Jesus has been off stage for quite some time. since the early part of the story. But finally Jesus returns for the closing acts. The man is all alone now. He's been cut off from the synagogue. He's been cut off from his parents. So he has no community now. He's been cut off from the whole community. He's standing alone and Jesus comes to him. Jesus seeks him out and finds him. And Jesus poses a question to him. Do you believe in the Son of God? And the man is ready. The man says, who is he, Lord? that I should believe in him." I think the man probably already knew, but wanted to make sure. He addresses Jesus as Lord, so again, that's a good sign that he's on the right track and continuing to progress. Jesus says, you have seen him and he is talking with you. So you've seen him, now that your eyes have been opened, and he's talking with you, you can hear him. Your ears have been opened. The Pharisees couldn't see him and the Pharisees couldn't hear the truth when it was spoken to them. This man sees and hears. And so the man says, Lord, I believe, and then worships him. Jesus then begins to explain what has happened. He says, for judgment, I've come into this world that the blind may see and those who see may be made blind. Now the Pharisees hear this, they must have been eavesdropping. Pharisees come and say, are you saying we're blind? They're so confident they can see, they're so confident in their own sight, they think they know everything. They accuse the man born blind and they accuse Jesus of being sinners. They think they're the righteous ones. Jesus says, if you were blind, you'd have no sin. Now that's the opposite premise the disciples started with and the opposite premise the Pharisees ended with. Jesus says, if you are blind, you'd have no sin, but now you say, we see, therefore your sin remains. In other words, what Jesus is saying, it's a little bit cryptic, but what Jesus is saying is this. If you're blind, you have no sin. If you will admit your blindness, if in humility you will admit you are blind, then your sins will be forgiven and you will be given sight. But so long as you think you can see on your own, so long as you pridefully claim to be able to see, you are truly blind. And so you are still in your sins. The Pharisees have seen the works of Jesus, but have refused to believe them, which proves they are truly blind. Seeing, they don't see. Seeing, they fail to see. Seeing, they are blind. They are self-blinded. It's as though they have gouged out their eyes. They have stopped up their ears. They are blind leaders of the blind. Now, what does this story mean for us? What does this story do for us? I said at the beginning, this story is a parable of the gospel and a parable of discipleship. How is it a parable of the gospel? Well, I think this is straightforward. What Jesus does for this man is what Jesus does for all of us. Every Christian can say, every Christian can sing with John Newton, an amazing grace, I once was blind, but now I see. We've all been made new creatures. We've all been brought out of darkness to see the light of the world. The light of the world, Jesus. We've been anointed. Like this man, we've been washed in the pool of sending in our baptisms. We've been sent out then as his newly anointed and baptized people to bear witness to him, to go defend his truth to others. That's our story, and that's our salvation. This man's story is the story of every Christian. Jesus is the light of the world. He's the light of the cosmos. He is the creator of new atoms. He not only gives us sight, he gives us insight. so that we come to see and know him for who he truly is. We come to hear him for who he truly is. He gives us light. He gives us sight. He gives us insight. He opens our eyes. He opens our ears. He loosens our tongues just as he does for this man. Jesus gives us eyes to see what is really real and truly true. Now contrast that with the Pharisees. Because of their pride, the Pharisees don't share this insight. They don't share this insight because they don't believe. The man sees because he trusts. The Pharisees refuse to believe and so they remain in their blindness. And just as this man grows in sight throughout the story, throughout the story the Pharisees get blinder and dumber. As the story goes on, they get more and more ignorant, more and more stuck in the darkness. Well, the man who is born blind but has been given his sight comes to see and know more and more. The Pharisees are moving one way, the man born blind is moving the other way. They're moving in opposite directions. The man born blind is moving in a greater light, greater knowledge, greater sight, greater hearing. The Pharisees are moving in an ever greater darkness and ignorance and blindness. And really, as it is with the Pharisees, so it is with This man's parents, because of their fear, because of their cowardice, they don't attain to true knowledge or sight either. They can see. They know what's going on, on the surface at least. They know that their son, who was born blind, has been given eyes to see. They know that he's been healed. They know that miracles happen, but in knowing, they really don't know. They don't know the truth the way they ought because they won't believe in Jesus. And they won't believe in Jesus because they want to cling to the old ways. They want to cling to the darkness. This miracle story really shows us how Jesus brings us to a deeper seeing and a deeper knowing. That's the good news. It's the good news. This is what Jesus has done for us. But I said this is not just a kind of parable of the gospel. It's also a parable of what flows out of the gospel, a parable of discipleship. It shows us what it's like to be a Christian. What it's like to be a Christian living between the times, between the first coming and the final coming of Jesus. This story shows us that for the Christian, what we see with our eyes doesn't tell the whole story. There is a deeper form of seeing and knowing, but that deeper knowledge of Jesus comes in a surprising way. We come to know Jesus better when he seems most absent from us. We come to see Jesus more and more clearly when it seems Jesus is nowhere to be found. And the movements of Jesus in this story are very important. After Jesus sends the man to the pool of sending for healing, Jesus is gone. And the man has to face the Pharisees all alone, and he gets persecuted without his parents, without Jesus, without anyone standing beside him to help him. And you might wonder, why does Jesus seem to abandon this man? Where is Jesus when this man really needs him? Have you ever wondered that in your life? Where is Jesus when you really need him? I need you, Jesus, and you're not showing up. You've got that long middle section of the story. All this action takes place, and Jesus is not a part of it. What's going on? Well, I think the key is really found later on in John's Gospel, in chapters 15 and 16, where Jesus talks in prophetic terms about the same kind of dynamic, the same kind of pattern playing out. There, in this upper room discourse, Jesus tells his twelve disciples he's going to be going away from them, just as he went away from this man. And he tells them, while he is away, the world is going to hate them and persecute them and reject them. As they seek to bear witness to Jesus, they're going to be despised and rejected for it. Jesus says, if they hated me, they will hate you. They will cast you out of the synagogues. And they'll seek to kill you, just as they're doing with me. Well, this is exactly what the blind man has already experienced even before Jesus ascension. It's played out. in a way, in his experience. And it's really exactly what we experience, too. Jesus heals us. Jesus opens our eyes. Jesus washes us. And then Jesus sends us out to bear witness. But since his ascension into heaven, Jesus is not physically, visibly with us. And so we seem to follow him as an absent master. And as we bear witness to Him, we find opposition in the world. We encounter the world's hatred. Various synagogues, as it were, cast us out of their presence because they do not like Jesus. They exclude us from their community. They persecute us and they prosecute a case against us the way they do with this man. They see Jesus as a threat to their power and their privilege, to their ideology and their way of life. as we seek to defend Jesus and stand for Jesus. But here's where this story really helps us two ways. It helps us. First, Jesus does come back in the end. And when he comes back, he passes judgment. And when he passes judgment, he vindicates his faithful disciple and he condemns his persecutors. And what Jesus does for this man at the end of this story, what he does for the man who had been born blind, is what he will do for us if we remain faithful in the time of Jesus' absence from us. Jesus has gone away. He's coming back at the last day. We live in this in-between time. Jesus is not physically and visibly with us. We're bearing witness for Him, but encountering hatred and opposition. If we remain faithful to Jesus, if we cling to Jesus, if we keep on trusting Him and believing Him and looking to Him, even though He seems absent and distant from us, at the end He's going to come back and He's going to vindicate us. When He returns in glory and power at the last day, He will condemn those who have persecuted us and He will exalt us to share in His glory. But there's something else here, and this I think is really, really interesting. Somehow this man's knowledge of Jesus grew even when Jesus wasn't there. You see that in the story? Jesus goes away, and as this man has to bear witness to Jesus and stand up for Jesus, even though he's all alone and Jesus seems completely absent, this man is growing and progressing in his knowledge of Jesus. Or maybe we should put it this way, instead of saying that he grew in his knowledge of Jesus even when Jesus wasn't there, maybe we should say Jesus was there, in some way, revealing himself to the man in some kind of mysterious way, even though he was physically and visually absent. And you're asking, how could that happen? Well, that upper room discourse in John 15 and 16 answers the question. Jesus says to his disciples, I'm going to leave you, but I'm not going to leave you as orphans. I will send my spirit, the comforter, to come and be with you. And the spirit will make me, even though I am away, the spirit will make me present with you. So interesting to look at the progression in John chapter 9. When the man is first questioned by his neighbors, all he can say is he doesn't know who has healed him. He just knows he can see. He doesn't know who Jesus is. He doesn't know where Jesus is. He doesn't know where Jesus is from. Jesus is absent. All the man can say is, hey, once I was blind, and now I see. So Jesus must be some kind of healer. Then he gets tested a little more by the Pharisees, and he confesses Jesus must be a prophet. In verse 17, his knowledge of Jesus is growing, and it's growing under persecution. As he gets persecuted, his knowledge of the absent Jesus grows. Jesus is still absent, but as the man faces more and more pressure and continues to cling to Jesus as the absent healer, his knowledge of who Jesus is grows. After the Pharisees, reach a dead end. After they hit a dead end with the man's parents, they come back and try him again. This time he confesses something even greater. Remember, Jesus is still gone. Jesus is still absent, but now the man says Jesus must be from God. He can't be a sinner. He must do God's will because God hears him. He has access to God's power. He can open blind eyes. Nobody else has ever done this. He surpasses even Moses. Moses did some great things, but Moses never cured blindness. And if Moses was the greatest of the prophets, but still didn't cure blindness, and Jesus has, he must be greater than Moses. This is a man who surpasses Moses in power and in nearness to God. He's a prophet greater than Moses. He must be a super prophet. So in the absence of Jesus, without Jesus being present, the man continues to grow in his knowledge. Finally, Jesus does come back to him in the end and says, do you believe in the son of God? and he falls before Jesus, he worships him, he calls him Lord. This is the climax of his knowledge. Now he sees everything. See, there's a progression in this story, from not knowing Jesus, to knowing him as a prophet, to knowing him as one who is greater than a prophet, who has come from God, finally culminating with worshiping him as the Son of God, seeing him face to face. And I think this gives us a lot of insight into how we are to live as God's people in this present age. Most of that growth that the man experienced, most of his growth in seeing and knowing who Jesus is, you know, to get to the very last step, most of that growth took place while Jesus is away and the man is suffering for his faith, bearing witness to Jesus, even though he feels all alone. He's completely isolated. But he continues clinging to Jesus. And as he does so, his knowledge of Jesus grows. Now, what does that tell you? His story is a paradigm for us, a paradigm of discipleship. Jesus has gone away from us. He is in heaven. We're awaiting his return at the last day. But if you want to know Jesus better in the meantime, what ought you to do? You've got to stand up for Jesus. You have to defend Jesus' truth. Even when it brings suffering, you have to be willing to cling to the truth of Jesus and speak out for Jesus. You're his sent one. You're his apostle. That's what you're called to do, to be his representative, to speak his truth, to declare his identity to others, even when it brings you suffering. And as you do this, Your knowledge of Jesus and your experience of Jesus and your sight or insight into who Jesus is will grow. This is what you see. When Jesus seems most absent, he is really most present. when Jesus seems most absent and we're suffering, we're wondering where Jesus is and why he doesn't come and help us and rescue us. In those moments, that's where Jesus is really teaching you the most about himself and making you the most like himself. If you want to know and see Jesus clearly, you have to speak for Jesus, you have to defend Jesus, you have to suffer for Jesus, you have to continue clinging to the word of Jesus even when it doesn't seem he's there, even when he seems Absent? You know, by the end, this man really does know and see Jesus for who he is. He's got a knowledge that surpasses anybody else in the gospel to this point. But his knowledge has come through experience and his knowledge has come through suffering as he clings to and trusts the absent Jesus. His growing perception of who Jesus is is based on faith, not sight. He's not judging who Jesus is by his circumstances, he's judging his circumstances by what he knows of Jesus. And you see here, really, faith is the true way of seeing and knowing, and faith grows through suffering and adversity. So, are you suffering? Are you in a period of suffering now? Have you been through a period of suffering? Maybe suffering through a great marital difficulty or suffering through a chronic illness or the illness of a child or a difficult situation at work. Certainly there are many Christians who have suffered because of the stand that they have taken for biblical truth about marriage or about life in the womb. It may seem when you're in a period of suffering that Jesus is off stage. It may seem that he is far away. But if you stay true to Jesus, if you stay faithful to him, if you keep confessing him and clinging to him anyway, you will know and see and experience more of Jesus than ever before. We think, oh, it's in times of prosperity. That's when Jesus seems so close. But it's actually in times of adversity that Jesus is teaching you the most about who he is. That's when our faith and our sight really grow. You want your knowledge of Jesus to grow, you've got to be willing to suffer for him. You may not even realize how much you're growing. You may not even realize how much your knowledge is progressing. But at some point you'll be able to look back and say, because of that time of suffering I went through when Jesus seemed absent. And I was crying out, Jesus, where are you? And Jesus didn't seem to show up. But now I can see I experienced more of Jesus because of what I've been through. You'll realize you came to know Jesus better when it seemed he wasn't even there. Let's pray together. Father, we do ask that you would help us to see and know and experience more of Jesus. For Jesus is the gospel. He's your good news to us. He is our salvation. Every blessing is contained in him. Sometimes, Father, he does seem far from us. In those times, would you help us to cling to him? Would you keep us faithful to him? Even when he seems absent from our lives, even when we're suffering and feel all alone and seem excommunicated from all the communities that we'd like to be a part of, places where we'd like to have acceptance and fellowship. Father, even then, help us to cling to Jesus. May he be more dear to us than life itself. And may we know even when he seems absent, he's really present. We ask, Father, that you would keep opening our eyes to show us more and more of his glory, show us more and more of his light, show us more and more of who he is. May the absent Christ be present with us until he comes again in glory at the last day to vindicate us. This we pray in his name. Amen. All right. Thank you all very much. It's been great to be with you. We might have time for just a quick question or two. We're giving Rich the impossible task. We were going to do Q&A tonight, or he said, well, I've got one other subject. And we said, well, it'll be short, but you can do that. So he has to cover the prayers in the garden. What did Luther say? Most complicated. Most complicated. Yeah, Luther called it the most mysterious passage in all of scripture. So in 10 minutes tonight, you know. I'm going to do it in 10 minutes. Yeah. So we do have one more quick talk. Make sure, look at the talent list. If you have any talent, we'd love to see some of it shared. And it usually grows in this last day. And we do have just a couple of minutes before we have to head to the climbing wall. So are there any questions or comments you'd like to make with Pastor Lusk? It was great? Okay. He's encouraging us to pray for patience, isn't he? And John tells us that was because of their fear of getting kicked out of the synagogue. So, I mean, they should have been ready to stand with their son. I mean, they should have said, hey, who healed you? You know, that's who we need to follow. And they're not willing to do that because they already know anybody who claims Jesus is the Christ is going to be persecuted and kicked out of the synagogue. And they'd rather stay in the synagogue than be with Jesus and their son. Yeah. Anyone else? Yeah, that's a good question to tie this with. And of course, what Jesus goes on to say is, blessed are those who believe without seeing. What's interesting, too, with Thomas, Thomas says, I won't believe unless I see with my own eyes and touch the wounds. But this is what's interesting about this, and I don't know if I have a great answer to your question, but this is one thing that's always really struck me about that passage in John 20. Thomas wants to see the wounds of Jesus and touch the wounds of Jesus before he will believe that Jesus has been crucified. We're not told he touched Jesus, but when he sees the wounds, and is invited to come and touch them by Jesus. He doesn't just say, oh, well, now I do believe that the man Jesus has been crucified and who was crucified has now been resurrected. He says, my Lord and my God, which is a confession that goes way beyond the empirical evidence of what he has just seen with his eyes. What he has seen with his eyes is the man Jesus has come back from the dead. The confession he makes goes way beyond that. to confess not just that Jesus rose from the dead, but that he is my Lord and my God. So even there, there's more than just what meets the eye going on. But it is interesting, you have followed up right after that, Jesus says, blessed are those who don't see but who believe. So I think you've got, that would, I'd connect back with this passage. and there's worship that's happening. Yeah, that's right. You got the link with worship as well. Yeah, that's good. OK. Thank you. Yeah, thank you all. Thank you all very much. OK, if you're participating or observing the climbing wall, you just go up the mountain past the gym, lunch at 1230. Make sure the forms get signed and returned to Roger. And if you have things on the tournaments, try