It’s Thursday – I hope you have had a good week so far, and that you are enjoying our journey through John’s Gospel. Today our Bible passage is John 9: 24-41. It is a continuation of the story about the blind man, who was miraculously healed by Jesus.

REFLECTION:

The healing of those who are blind is an important theme throughout the Bible – both in the Old and the New Testament. In the Book of Isaiah alone there are 8 references to the blind being able to see. And there are similar verses in Exodus, Ezekiel and Psalms.

At the start of his ministry, Jesus stood up in the temple and read from Isaiah 61, declaring: “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor…..and recovery of sight for the blind.”

In the Gospels there are 5 occasions where Jesus miraculously restores sight, but many times we read that people brought the blind to him to be healed, so we can assume the actual number was much higher.

However, the restoration of sight is given such prominence in Scripture not just to show compassion for those who are blind; but because the physical healing of those who cannot see is used as an illustration for what it means to be spiritually blind and to have our eyes opened to the truth.

Jesus unpacks this concept of spiritual blindness in John 9 v39, where he says: “I came into the world to bring everything into the clear light of day, making all the distinctions clear, so that those who have never seen will see, and those who have made a great pretence of seeing will be exposed as blind.”

The New Testament writers use similar language and imagery. One of the most well known is 2 Corinthians 5 vs7, which says: “For we walk by faith, not by sight.”

I don’t know if you have ever done any team building exercises where you are blindfolded? Failing that, try and remember what it feels like to play ‘Pin the tail on the donkey’! It’s disorientating, it can make us anxious. You get that feeling of not knowing what is happening, not knowing how you are going to do something, and not feeling in control. It’s similar when we go to new places or try to learn a new skill. In these situations, we often say “It’s like the blind leading the blind.”

However, as Christians, God calls us to follow him to places where we have never been before, and as we surrender to Jesus, we give up our control, and say that we submit to him leading us. That’s what it means to live by faith and not by sight. We walk in the ways of Jesus, rather than relying on our own vision or perception of how we should live and act.

This year as a whole church, we are all committing to the Grow Project – we are actively saying that we want to grow deeper in our relationship with Jesus, we want God to take us to places we have never been before, to experience new things of the Spirit.

In church we sing, “Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders. Let me walk upon the water, wherever you would call me. Take me deeper than my feet would ever wander.”

The question here is, do we actually do what we are talking and singing about? Have we really moved from a place of spiritual blindness to one where we walk by faith, or are we making a great pretence of seeing, when in fact we are putting the spiritual blinkers back on, and living out our Christian faith with shades on?

The Pharisees could see the miracle with their own eyes, in the clear light of day. The distinction was obvious – the man had been blind, now he could see……..and yet still they questioned. They questioned the man twice, they even questioned his parents about whether he was blind in the first place. They asked: What did he do to you? How were your eyes opened? Where is Jesus now? What do you say about him?

Their constant questioning, their need to know all the answers, meant that their eyes were blinkered to the truth right in front of them.