4 As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” NIV
Jesus is the Light of the world. I ponder how He brings literal light- the man born blind now sees; and how He brings spiritual light in this passage: the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and worshiped Him.
6 After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. 7 “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing. NIV
11 He replied, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.” NIV
13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. 14 Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath. 15 Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. “He put mud on my eyes,” the man replied, “and I washed, and now I see.”NIV
25 He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!” NIV
At least four times, the text repeats: the man was blind and now he (literally) sees. I think of the work of God in my life; I think of the work of God in my heart. How many times have I experienced that same testimony? I was blind, but now I see? There is no arguing with that reality. It is. And, O! I am so very grateful. There is no arguing with this one in John 9, although the Pharisees try. They do try.
35 Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
36 “Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.”
37 Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”
38 Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. NIV
The most profound for me is that Jesus went and found him. Jesus healed him. Unmistakably. And then…… he goes to him and finds him. Became for him the very LIGHT of the world. The man, without fully knowing, declares Jesus to be of God. He says:
33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” NIV
After this- and after he is thrown out and away from the Pharisees who can do nothing to make sense of the reality of his physical healing and all the ways it utterly confounds them, Jesus finds the man and fully reveals Himself to him. The restoration and redemption of sight is complete: fully seeing physically and fully seeing spiritually.
I think on what this passage means for me. I want more of the work of God in my life where I can declare: I was blind, but now I see! And it is so. And it is unmistakable. And there is nothing anyone can ever say that can take that away.
Lord, there is nothing like Your truth in the inner heart where spiritual eyes awaken to see. Help me, Lord, that I might experience Your reality and know You as the One who heals; and know You as the Light of the World. Help me not to be spiritually blind like the Pharisees. Help me to rest in You- the One who seeks the lost. But for You alone, that man would remain blind in vision and blind in heart. Jesus! Your Name be praised. Amen.
Sixty-six books in a year 