John 9:24-34

00:00:00:27 – 00:00:21:34
Clint Loveall
Hey, everybody. Thanks for being with us. Thanks for joining us. Wednesday of this week, as we continue through the ninth chapter of the Gospel of John. Really one pretty well crafted story runs through this entire chapter. Where we are, if you if you haven’t been with us the last couple of days, Jesus has healed a man that was born blind.

00:00:21:36 – 00:00:50:49
Clint Loveall
This has caused, some unhappiness from the the religious leaders Pharisees on two fronts. A that it was a Sabbath, and b it’s occasioned an argument, about whether or not Jesus is able to do this and who Jesus is. Some really great themes that run through this chapter about seeing and not seeing. And then I think today, we see and also another theme, developing the idea of knowing and not knowing.

00:00:50:54 – 00:01:12:18
Clint Loveall
So we are jumping in at verse 24. I’ll read through about verse 30 for ten verses or so. Then we’ll come back and and see what we find in it. So for the second time, they called the man who had been born blind, and they said to him, give glory to God. We know this man is a sinner.

00:01:12:23 – 00:01:35:48
Clint Loveall
He answered, I don’t know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see. They said to him, what did he do to you? How did he open your eyes? He answered them, I told you already and you wouldn’t listen. Why do you want to hear it again?

00:01:35:52 – 00:01:57:05
Clint Loveall
Do you want to also become his disciples? Then they reviled him and said, you are his disciple. We are the disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from. The man answered. Well, this is an astonishing thing. You do not know where he comes from.

00:01:57:05 – 00:02:24:07
Clint Loveall
And yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to the one who worships him and obeys its will. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. Then they answered him, you were born entirely in sins, and you are trying to teach us.

00:02:24:12 – 00:02:49:18
Clint Loveall
And they drove him out. As we’ve seen, I think, Michael, John gives us an escalation of the conflict. It starts with an issue. It then picks up with some conversation, with some argument. And now, interestingly enough, some of the most heated part of the discussion is with Jesus in the background, which is a little bit unusual in the gospel.

00:02:49:19 – 00:03:09:23
Clint Loveall
Typically, Jesus is front and center in these kind of arguments, but the Pharisees now take it upon themselves to try and get to the bottom of this. So they say, give glory to God. In other words, admit that God did this. We don’t think this man had anything to do with it. And he’s a sinner. And a wonderful reply here.

00:03:09:25 – 00:03:31:28
Clint Loveall
I don’t know if he’s a sinner. Here’s the thing. I know I was blind and now I see if that sounds familiar to you, that that is the guiding, or he is the inspiration for the hymn amazing Grace. John Newton, who wrote amazing Grace, was drawn to that idea through this verse. And then they try to get to the bottom of, well, what did he do?

00:03:31:30 – 00:03:42:51
Clint Loveall
How could he have done this? And, then the man asks, well, I guess what? You want to be his disciples. And that’s kind of when things ratchet up to 11. Michael.

00:03:42:55 – 00:04:14:52
Michael Gewecke
There are so many threads within this text alone yet alone. The the larger piece that we’re seeing unfold here. I just want to point out a couple of them and the first is no, it’s the theme of sinner within this story itself. It starts off with that amazing nod here. We know that this man is a sinner, and the blind man who, you know, is really already bending up in this conversation.

00:04:14:52 – 00:04:41:58
Michael Gewecke
Did he sin? Did his parents sin right? You or my brother remember the disciples asking Jesus that now? Now we see that being teased out and pointed at Jesus, we know that Jesus is a sinner, but this man who just previously everybody would have assumed was sick because or was blind because he of his sin or the sin of his parents, is now asked to give account to is Jesus a sinner?

00:04:41:58 – 00:05:05:29
Michael Gewecke
Is he the one? Is he acting in some evil or insipid way? And Clint, I think what’s fascinating about this is the Pharisees are working against their own benefit in argument of this form. They’re going to a witness to try to mount a case against Jesus, that they would have not held this a reputable witness from the jump.

00:05:05:43 – 00:05:48:23
Michael Gewecke
And yet they’re going to turn to him to try to turn the tables on this man Jesus, who they at this point, I have already been given ample motivation to want to kill. I mean, John has mentioned already numerous plots and the desire for Jesus Jesus’s life to be taken. So what we have happening right in front of us here is a strange kind of reversal, where the locus of who is the sinner is being sort of sought out by these religious leaders while treating this man in a very inhuman way, looking at a man who’s just healed and using his as argument against Jesus is, in its way, its own kind of sinfulness.

00:05:48:23 – 00:06:14:13
Michael Gewecke
And so John is doing this amazing sort of turn where the people obsessed with sin are the very people who say that sin lands on the very people for whom sinfulness could be most accurately, you know, applied or ascribed. And so I think, Clint, it’s just that’s one small aspect that has gone now through the story. But we’re beginning to see John flesh it out.

00:06:14:13 – 00:06:17:58
Michael Gewecke
And I think it’s done to great literary effect.

00:06:18:03 – 00:06:39:50
Clint Loveall
I agree, and I think this is where two of those themes come together. We’ve been saying for the last couple of days that one of the one of the powerful threads of this text is the idea of what is obvious. In other words, what is seen and what is missed. And so these men, they they don’t see what’s in front of them.

00:06:39:50 – 00:07:06:22
Clint Loveall
They’ve already gotten a conclusion and it keeps them blinded. And so now we have this wonderful reversal where the ones who can’t see are criticizing the one whose blindness has been healed. And then there’s the idea of knowledge of of knowing. We know this man is a sinner. And the other man says, well, I don’t know that. I know that he healed my blindness.

00:07:06:27 – 00:07:46:37
Clint Loveall
And I know that God does good things. And nobody’s ever talked about people being healed of their blindness. And don’t you think that that means something? Here’s an astonishing thing. You don’t know where he comes from. But he opened my eyes. So, in other words, what is obvious to the man who used to be blind is now hidden from the ones who think they can see and what what they think they know is the opposite, exactly the opposite of what is reality that is observable and obvious to even those who can barely see.

00:07:46:37 – 00:08:12:06
Clint Loveall
And so, John is just doing a really nice job here of weaving this all together. We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the one who worships him and obeys his will. If the man were not from God, he could do nothing. So, interestingly enough, this is the statement of the blind man.

00:08:12:10 – 00:08:40:34
Clint Loveall
He looks at his situation he now sees, and where it leads him is, if this man wasn’t from God, he couldn’t do these things. What’s the implication? He’s clearly from God. And and it’s at this point where affirming Jesus sets the Pharisees off the most that they insult him. They accuse him of being born in sin and they drive him out.

00:08:40:35 – 00:09:12:20
Clint Loveall
In other words, they they rid him or rid the the temple, the synagogue, not the temple, the synagogue of him. And if you remember where we started, this text, you see that John again has done a really beautiful job of bringing this full circle. You were born entirely and in your sin, so remember that this whole episode starts when Jesus and the disciples see a blind man and the disciples asked, who sinned?

00:09:12:25 – 00:09:39:34
Clint Loveall
Whose sin was the problem, that this man would be blind? And Jesus says, no, this man is about to show the glory of God. And now, having done that, the very ones who should know better see instead and accuse this man, instead of being born in sin, of being steeped in sin entirely in sin. Just a a really nice, simple.

00:09:39:39 – 00:09:54:54
Clint Loveall
Literary mechanism here to show us how far the Pharisees are from the mark. And that this man who just beginning this passage, this chapter was blind. What he now sees about Jesus.

00:09:54:59 – 00:10:21:52
Michael Gewecke
There’s a really explicit reference to evangelism and discipleship in this text that I don’t think we should miss. It comes right here in verse 27, when the Pharisees, are asked by this man, I’ve told you and you wouldn’t listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples? John uses questions like this.

00:10:21:52 – 00:10:45:50
Michael Gewecke
So impactful. And this is a question that both rings with a note of sarcasm, a note of rhetoric or argument. Right? Like what more do you actually want? And simultaneously, I think, is in many ways a whole hearted question. Do what? What is the thing that you want to get from this line of questioning? Because there’s a nod here.

00:10:45:50 – 00:11:27:25
Michael Gewecke
There’s a tip here that if you are engaged in questioning Christ with an outcome already in mind, you will get that outcome right. If you come to Jesus and you were dead set, that I’m going to interrogate you to prove that you are a sinner, not in the line of Moses, but in the line of self-aggrandizement, that in a a heretical teacher, if you come to Jesus and your expectation is that he is this thing, then this story serves as a unbelievable illustration that there’s no amount of evidence, not even the man that you walked by every day, your neighbor who was blind.

00:11:27:25 – 00:11:52:15
Michael Gewecke
You will not even recognize who that man is when God is done with him, because you are so dead set on the outcome that you preconceived. And so that question. Right, like, do you want to be his disciple? Is that the goal or is there something else? And of course, they’re not interested in being his disciple. They’re interested in catching him and being able to sort of turn the plot against him.

00:11:52:15 – 00:12:01:05
Michael Gewecke
And, in John, it’s not Jesus’s time, so that won’t go their way. But they’ll keep at it until they get their ends.

00:12:01:10 – 00:12:20:24
Clint Loveall
There’s also, I think that since Michael, we saw this, you know, remember that the Pharisees go to the man’s parents and they say, you know, tell us about your son. And they say, go ask him, right. Go to the source. And now the man says, do you want to be his disciples? Why are you talking to me about whether he’s a sinner or not?

00:12:20:29 – 00:13:00:16
Clint Loveall
Here’s here’s what I know. I was blind and now I see. Do you want to follow him? Well, go to him. And so, again, part of the part of the plotting of the Pharisees is to not deal with Jesus directly, but to try and find some reason to be unhappy with him, and something that will bring the situation in to what they’ve already decided that Jesus is off base and the story itself keeps just pushing us toward, well, go to the source, go to the source, go to Jesus, go ask him.

00:13:00:16 – 00:13:48:31
Clint Loveall
Go listen to him. Go watch what he does. And, it is really interesting how John, particularly I think I would say this, push back Michael, if I how John particularly uses the Pharisees to push a theme to the reader. There’s conflict with the Pharisees in, in all the Gospels that’s built in, but I think John uses their characters especially well to push the reader to, to join in on some of the debates and discussions and to make a decision about what we see when we encounter these stories of Jesus.

00:13:48:36 – 00:14:16:03
Michael Gewecke
I think there’s a different tone, because I think of the accusations that Jesus makes against the Pharisees, you know, whitewashed tombs, or he calls down, different sort of warnings against Jerusalem. I think what you have in John is a the Pharisees stand as a representative sample of those who are so close and spiritually as far away as you can possibly be.

00:14:16:03 – 00:14:43:12
Michael Gewecke
I think they’re a warning sign out on this on the road of faith that look at these people who deny actual healing, that a man who could uncontroversial be be claimed as a miracle story. No, no one here asked after, you know, they confirm that this isn’t some kind of dupe or switch, right? That this man was the one that they all knew to be blind.

00:14:43:12 – 00:15:07:07
Michael Gewecke
He’s now healed. With that now settled, they move on to by what powers this Jesus doing this because he’s clearly not doing it from God’s power. They move on to the next thing that needs sort of sought after. And I think what’s really telling about that is they deny the physical reality itself. And I think that’s what makes his statement here in verse three so powerful, clinched.

00:15:07:12 – 00:15:33:19
Michael Gewecke
And yet he opened my eyes. It is that simple for a book that’s all about metaphor and complex theology and and all of these nuances which we say over and over again, this book is also unbelievably simple. It’s human. It’s flesh and blood. This man, you can you can just imagine this moment where this man says, guys, I’m not here to debate theology with people.

00:15:33:28 – 00:16:08:22
Michael Gewecke
I’m here to tell you what happened to me. That’s all I’ve got to say. I was blind now I see and by the way, the moment he does that simple reflection of what has happened to him, he’s witnessing. He’s discipling. He’s inviting these Pharisees to question the assumption that they’re coming to him with. I think that that’s exactly what John wants us to see is that evangelism, sharing the faith, witnessing to what God has done in our life is not some complicated, messy, scientific process that you need to have a PhD to do.

00:16:08:27 – 00:16:29:45
Michael Gewecke
Now, it’s very simply you seeing in your own life the things that God has done or is doing, and then you simply giving voice to that to other people as an invitation for them to see the same in their own life. That’s it. John’s not looking here in all of its nuances. John’s not looking to make this more complicated.

00:16:29:45 – 00:16:52:24
Michael Gewecke
That is, I was blind. Now I see the character of the person who can make the world right when it’s broken is enough for me. And and that’s all that there is to it. Would you like to be his disciple, too? Or is this all in jest? Are you just after chasing windmills? And that’s the question that the Pharisees will quite frankly not answer correctly.

00:16:52:37 – 00:16:56:46
Michael Gewecke
And the same question that we’re tempted to answer the same way.

00:16:56:51 – 00:17:45:45
Clint Loveall
Yeah, there is I mean, I think one of the takeaways here is that there is an obviousness to this story. There’s oddness in it. Jesus makes mud for whatever that may be meant. And, and perhaps we’re not sure any longer what it did or didn’t mean. So we guess at that. But when it comes term to when it comes to the act itself, Jesus encounters a man who sin is blamed for his condition, and Jesus frees him of that condition while simultaneously declaring that it was not a sin, but that he, his life and and the moment he’s in is an opportunity for the glory of God to be seen.

00:17:45:50 – 00:18:18:52
Clint Loveall
And who can’t see it? The self-righteous. Everyone else can see it. Even the blind man can see it. I know that he’s from God, right? But those who refuse. And tomorrow, as this story comes to the conclusion, we’re going to hear this pronouncement against blindness, and John will bring it all to kind of ahead as we see what it really means to see and and what it means to remain blind.

00:18:18:57 – 00:18:24:19
Clint Loveall
Well, I just think this is a the I this may be my favorite chapter in the book of John. I think it probably is.

00:18:24:23 – 00:18:40:00
Michael Gewecke
It’s an important word to make sure that you join us tomorrow, because it does come to a head. And that’s not just a saying that you make. That’s the reality of what John is trying to do is point us to the head.

00:18:40:10 – 00:18:41:25
Clint Loveall
He’s been taking us somewhere.

00:18:41:33 – 00:19:10:59
Michael Gewecke
Exactly right. And and the culmination of this story in a human sense, could simply be. And we might be tempted to think it’s the human aspect. Like, look at this man who’s got his sight back. Look at this man who’s being mistreated by these Pharisees. I mean, these are real things. But John wants to show us and make sure to join us tomorrow to see how this comes together, because John wants us to see that this all rises and falls upon who Jesus is.

00:19:11:04 – 00:19:39:09
Michael Gewecke
And and your response to who Jesus is is 100% related to this massive turn that all of history has taken when God entered reality, when the light comes into darkness, the darkness is in its nature transform. It’s change is chased away. And we’re going to discover how that is lived out, not in theological, grandiose terms in real human lives.

00:19:39:09 – 00:19:49:39
Michael Gewecke
What happens when light and when darkness encounters the light? When the light comes into it, everything changes. And John is going to show us that. Don’t miss it tomorrow.

00:19:49:48 – 00:19:50:52
Clint Loveall
Yeah. Hope you can be with us.