Blind!

It would be a miraculous thing indeed if we were solely speaking of Jesus restoring someone's physical sight.  Yet, the power and meaningfulness of John 9 goes beyond that.  Why?  Well, let's think about it for one minute.  What does the act of a person restoring another persons physical sight accomplish?  How does that impact my life?  If I witnessed it myself, I would be awestruck and testify to that person's greatness.  But, Jesus came to inhabit earth for one purpose. Namely, to be a sacrifice for us and to show us how to be one with the Father as he is one with the Father. (John 17) He didn't come to be regarded as powerful, mystical, unique, or even great. I mean, we all know that was true of him then, true of him today, and will be true of him forevermore!  What I am driving at is that Jesus himself did not come with that mission.  He was absent any ego, profit motive, power, material gain, etc, etc. He came to serve, not to be served. He came to do the will of his Father, period!  

Therefore, how does John 9 apply to me and impact the way I live if it is only looked at as a physical healing?  Not much at all.  Therefore what meaning can be ascertained from John 9 that has eternal, significant, and personal meaning?  The answer is found at the end of John, 9:41,  "Jesus said (to the Pharisees), 'If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains."  See, Jesus was directing this comment at the Pharisees or Jewish scholars.  Jesus says in verse 39, 'For judgement I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.'  The blindness Jesus is speaking of is spiritual blindness.  In this story, Jesus is saying that those who have no personal knowledge of God and he (Jesus) are in effect blind.  They are groping around in life with no direction and no moral compass.  The Pharisees did have knowledge of God.  They possessed the best book (Bible or in their case Talmud) knowledge among all the people of the world. Yet, they had no personal knowledge of God.  Knowledge and knowing are two entirley different things. They had all the scholarly details down pat but they didn't know God.  Not like Job, 'my ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you. (Job 42:5)  Even here in Job, the word "eyes" is used to convey a real knowing of God, although he did not actually see God.  It is this same emphasis on sight that Jesus uses in a parabolic way to emphasize spiritual sight as knowing God.

We can possess all the Bible knowledge we want and quote scripture front to back.  Yet, the question remains.......do I really know God?  What do I do with all that knowledge of the Bible?  Do I try to impress my friends or use it as a symbol of righteousness?  The Pharisees did and look at their predicament throughout the New Testament.  Jesus took them to task.  We must take that knowledge and personalize the word of God to our everyday lives.  We must work out our salvation......daily.   The sight that has meaning to me is that when I look at my life and my circumstances and I read the Bible, I can see that God has been with me the entire time.........his gentle footprints slightly ahead of mine leading me through ALL of life.  And with that knowledge, developing a faith so strong that I need not worry or toil anymore.  The kingdom of God is when I can walk this earth each day muttering, "thy will be done, not mine" and be like the lillies of the field that do not labor or spin and like the birds of the air that do not sow or reap or store away in barns.