Hey, everybody. Thanks for starting off the week with us.
Thanks for being with us on this Monday as we continue through the Gospel of John.
I don't want to use the word finally,
but we are out of the eighth chapter.
We are into the ninth chapter.
And I mentioned before we started, Michael, this is,
this is one of my favorite chapters of the Gospel of John.
I think it's, I mean, in some ways, I'd argue a signature chapter.
I don't know if John intended it that way, but it's an extended story.
So the narrative part of me likes this and,
a lot of themes as we go through this, I hope if this is a new chapter to you
or if it's if it's chapter you've read but not perhaps studied.
Pay particular attention to some of the things John does in this chapter,
particularly the themes of seeing and blindness, light and dark,
discovery and refusal to see that there's just
this is a really nice example of John taking a lot of threads
and weaving them together in, in my opinion, really, really well.
So, let's look at the opening scene here.
Jesus is traveling and encounters a man.
So let me read it to you.
Start with verse one here, and then we'll come back and talk it through.
As he walked along, he saw
a man blind from birth.
His disciples asked him, Rabbi,
who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?
Jesus answered, neither this man nor his parents sinned.
He was born blind so that God's works might be revealed in him.
We must work the works of him who sent me while in the day.
Night is coming, when no one can work.
As long as I'm in the world, I am the light of the world.
When he said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with saliva
and spread the mud on the man's eyes, saying to him,
go wash in the pool of Siloam, which means sent.
Then he went and washed, and came back, able to see
the neighbors, and those who had seen him before
as a beggar began to ask, is that not the man who used to sit and beg?
Some said it is he.
Others said, no, it's someone like him.
But he kept saying, I'm the man.
But they kept asking him.
Then how were your eyes opened?
He answered, the man called Jesus made mud,
spread it on my eye, and said to me, Go to Siloam and wash.
Then I went and washed, and I received my sight.
They said to him, where is he?
He said, I do not know.
So a couple of interesting things.
The first is that
we begin this text with a little bit
of a theological,
conversation, at least a theological foothold here.
So as Jesus and the disciples are walking, they see this man.
And again in John, Jesus knows the background.
So if we saw the man or if the disciples saw the man, they simply see a blind man.
But Jesus is aware.
Perhaps the disciples are somehow also aware
that this man is blind from birth.
And so the question when one would look upon someone
struggling out of the sort of worldview in which
that would be a punishment for sin, they ask, well, is it his sin?
Or is it his parent's sin?
And the idea of generational punishment is a part of the Old Testament story.
It's one of the threats and warnings that God gives
the nation of Israel at several points in the Old Testament.
And so that's the idea here.
Did this man do something?
How could he have done something if he was born blind?
How was that his parents fault?
Did they do something?
And Jesus gives this answer.
It was neither him or his parents.
He was born blind.
That God's works might be revealed in him.
And the word revealed really means sort of uncovered,
which is an interesting word to use about healing blindness.
Michael, I think we have to be careful here.
We always should be cautious building a theology or a theological viewpoint
based on on a single text or single sentence.
But it is encouraging, I think, in in the history of the church,
I think it has been an encouragement to hear Jesus say
that this man's condition isn't a reflection of his or anyone sin.
It's an opportunity for God's goodness to be seen in him.
Now you can take that lots of places, but at the surface level,
I think we've taken this as a kind of,
affirming statement that Jesus makes.
So clear that is a reflection of the ways in which the New Testament church
came to see that Jesus fulfilled the law, as opposed
to just being a repeat of the law,
that there was something about who he was that radically transformed it.
In the book of like Matthew, you're going to have how the laws intensify, right?
It's not just that you don't commit adultery,
it's that you don't look upon the woman with lust.
Jesus intensifies the law.
I think you could see something like that happening here, that Jesus
is repeating what is a very common refrain.
It would have been taught by rabbis, spiritual teachers in that day
that, the clear teaching of the Decalogue of, of the
the Old Testament laws is that ultimately
God gives the just reward for action.
So therefore, this is the very appropriate question is who is responsible for this,
that the person or the person who is begot, the person
who is ultimately the one that made the infraction?
And ultimately, I think when Jesus reveals God's kingdom,
it's not just a reordering of the chairs on the deck of the boat.
It's an absolute transformation of everything that was known and assumed.
And here we see that in action.
So let's look very closely.
He was born blind so that God's works might be revealed in him.
In other words, you see the shift in subject there.
It's neither the man nor his parents.
They're not the subject of this moment.
The subject is God himself.
That that God has a will and a plan that will be brought to full completion.
In this moment when Jesus sees this man, he sees him as God sees him with,
with a purpose, with, with a plan that God's works might be revealed.
There's an intention in what God has done here,
and ultimately God becomes the focus as opposed to the
the sort of laying claim of the legal responsibility.
And so Jesus is fulfilling the law in this way.
He, of course, is not come to abolish the law as he says, but rather
he's come to help us see how the law is transformed in light of his revelation.
And you're exactly right to point out that we should be very attuned
to the darkness, into the light,
and to the revelation language here, because ultimately, what is this is really
the beginning scene is to help us see how deep that revelation goes.
It transforms everything all the way down.
And it begins here with the assumption that it's
this man's sinfulness that is the core of what's happening in this story.
It's not.
I think it helps to keep in mind that in the gospel of John,
the idea of sin is not typically
the things that a person has done or not done.
It's it's not the rule that we think of.
It is their reaction and their response to Jesus.
So sin is denying
what God is doing in Christ, and sinfulness is that which takes
people away from the awareness
of who Christ is and who Jesus is.
So it's not simply the behavior one exhibits
and the quote unquote wrong that one does that would be sinful for John.
Ultimately, being sinful is not to be aware
that Jesus is who Jesus claims to be.
And so in that framework, this story is a story
of an unfolding awareness on a man's part
who starts off not able to see,
but ultimately is going to see things that others don't.
And so we get some of that language already here in verse four,
the day the night is coming, we have to work
during the day when we can see during the night it's dark
and as long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
A kind of restatement.
In other words, you see by me,
sight is given through me by Christ.
Christ is the light by which we see the world.
Again Christ is revealed, he is uncovered,
and to refuse to see what is obvious in Christ presence is sinful.
So then we move to the actual healing story.
And again, Michael, the kind of odd twist.
There are very few stories where Jesus uses some kind of prop in regard to
healing.
I think there's a story in Mark where he puts his fingers in a man's ear
and it says he spit and then touched his tongue.
It's not clear if he touches his tongue with the spit, but here
Jesus makes a piece
of mud and puts it on the man's eyes
and tells him to go wash. And,
we have seen and we've seen
Jesus already act with without need of anything.
We're going to see.
Not far from now, Jesus calls a dead man out with his words.
Do not think that this mud is medicinal.
I think that's the wrong way to read this text,
and I especially think that's the wrong way to read this text.
In the Gospel of John, Jesus does not need help.
So what might this be doing for us?
Well, think about that idea of mud falling off your eyes,
of scales, of washing, of revealing,
of being able in the in the washing of what
keeps you from sight to regain your vision.
I think. I think this is
not medicinal.
I think this is metaphorical.
And so there's lots of questions about the mud
and what I think John's trying to tell us something
by telling us this story about the mud, and I don't think it's how he's healed.
I think it fits into the broader themes of light
and dark and opening eyes and being cleansed.
At least that's how I read it. Michael.
Well, let's see that in clear detail.
Let's keep going just a little bit here, Clint.
Then he tells him to go wash in the pool of Siloam.
Now our I that there's have this in parentheses here which means sent.
And now that you just shoot off interpretive fireworks all over the room,
this should grab our attention with two hands and hold us,
because ultimately, whenever John goes out of the way to offer
an interpretive word like that, it has meaning.
Not only is this mud
a teaching moment, a way of illustrating
the miraculous power that Jesus is going to bring into this man's life.
But here, in just a moment, we have, through the very naming
of the place where he will be washed, some of the work
which is going to be done through him, he's going to go to the place
and be washed in the scent water
that he's going to find himself
sent out, literally from the place where he begged
into a new way of not just seeing who Jesus was,
but revealing that through his story to everyone that he encounters.
And by the way, that's exactly what happens
instantaneously when people don't recognize who he is.
That John literally tells us his neighbors.
I mean, guys, just imagine that you come back to your neighborhood
and you don't recognize your neighbor who's been living there.
That's the kind of transformation that happens in the pool of scent.
It comes that
this man not only can begin to see, but it renews, transforms his visage
in such a way that he's unrecognizable to those who should have known him well.
And don't miss that he has.
He is healed in his obedience.
When he listens to Jesus, he can
then see now the next step again.
And a little bit of an odd turn in the story.
As you mentioned, Michael.
Now there's the reaction to what has been done.
Some said that's him
and others said no, he can't see.
So it has to be someone like him. Again.
In the Gospel of John, when Jesus does something,
it always presents a choice that the observers have to make.
Do they believe it or do they not believe it?
Do they get it?
You know, in the language of this story, do they see it
or do they refuse to see it?
So some say, yeah, that's him.
And others say, no, it isn't.
And he said, it is me.
And then
they asked him, how were your eyes open?
And he tells them this story.
Jesus did this thing.
He put something on my eyes, mud on my eyes.
He sent me to sent.
He sent me to Siloam to wash.
Then I washed, and I received my sight.
And they said, where is he?
And he said, I do not know.
So this is a wonderful introduction to the rest of this chapter.
If the story ended here, we would we'd miss a lot.
But this is a, I think, really a masterpiece introduction
for where John's going to take this story, where Jesus takes the story,
where John records it.
Is really good stuff.
If you've ever had a moment where you learn something
that transforms your memory of what that thing was,
or it transforms the way you've ever thought about it?
Clint, you know, for some people this may be controversial, but if you're
if you ever read the Harry Potter series, there's a moment at the end
where you learn something about one of the pivotal characters
that transforms the entire story that came before this.
It's a pretty remarkable moment.
I think what we discover in Scripture
is that we get used to some of the patterns,
like a healing story has the elements of a healing story,
and, you know, the thing that you might be tempted by.
And you led off with this, Clint, in the beginning was the mud
that somehow the mud is the thing that makes this story interesting.
And it is interesting as a teaching device.
I think what makes this story amazingly interesting is how it
it sets us up to see from the start that at the end of the day,
Jesus is the one who does the work in us.
And I want to just point out, did you know this is at the beginning, the story,
there's no reaching out to Jesus in this story.
There's no calling for his name. Lord.
You know, a measure of faith is the thing that has brought healing.
Know this.
Jesus coming to this man, assuring him that God has a plan to work in him
if he's just willing to go, to be sent to this pool where he will be sent
and in that place this man experiences the kind of renewed transformation.
Everything that he thought about.
The world was changed when he could suddenly see.
He literally had never seen a day in his life.
And for many of us, especially people who've either had negative experience
of the faith itself or have been wounded by the faith
at some point in their journey,
there's often a
moment in which you can no longer
see the winsome, gracious goodness that comes in the revelation of Christ.
But if you ever have the grace and the gift of of that being washed away,
there's a kind of transformation where everything is suddenly clear again.
Everything is brighter than it was before.
It has a kind of unity and depth and gravity and wisdom to it.
It is an amazing gift that comes to the glory of God.
And I think what this text resists, Clint, is some kind
of, well, good thing this man worked hard enough for.
He begged well enough or at it.
This is a story of grace.
It's Jesus doing something up to this point.
Jesus doing something only for the sake of showing
God's might and glory and justice and desire
to bless this man and to work something good through him.
And we're going to have to follow through the rest of the story.
You see the the ways that that's renewed, transformed, in fact,
affecting the community and all these kinds of things.
I think, and I'll probably wait for this tomorrow.
But I think this is a unique miracle story in a
you suggested as much, Michael. But,
there are things that happen in this story that aren't really a part
of other miracle stories, and we'll see that pretty much right away.
Tomorrow.
If you can come back with us,
because this is a great opening scene,
but it really is just the intro.
There's a lot yet to happen in this story,
and, I think it's really, really good.
Hope you can be with us as we go through it.
No doubt if you found this teaser interesting,
give it a like helps others find it in their study.
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so you do not miss the continue conversation as we study again tomorrow.
Until then, be blessed.