John’s Gospel shows us some of the things that happened in the life of Christ.
The Gospels show the events of the life of Christ from His birth to His ascension back to the Father. In the New Testament, we are given the revelation of Jesus Christ the Messiah, the Anointed Savior of the world.They speak clearly of His anointing, ministry and miracles.
John chapter 9 presents a significant miracle in Christ’s life and ministry. Each of His miracles reveal something of Christ’s deity and relationship with the Father.
There are five things that declare the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ.
- His virgin birth
- His sinless life
- His miracles
- His vicarious suffering for the sins of the world
- His bodily resurrection from the dead
Healing is a fascinating and important subject to each of us. From the moment we are born, the process of decay begins. This process is headed toward death step by step.
Hebrews 9:27-28 NKJV And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.
Healing is an integral part of Christ’s ministry.
Healing is an important part of our prayer life and it occupies much of our concern in life.We all do what we can to keep, resist, and delay the dying and decaying of our bodies and help them function well. Many people are employed in the healing arts. Hospitals, doctors, and medical schools work in the area of healing. They try to stop, slow down, or alter the process of decay.
There are basically four types of healing.
First of all, there is natural healing when the body rebuilds itself.
God made your body so that it would naturally heal. Your body will throw off an intruder and mend from an injury. Your body fights disease and decay by itself. God has built in us natural immunities and healing properties. All of that is a natural kind of healing, and it takes time.
Second, there is a medical healing.
Doctors and nurses have developed tools, devices, drugs, and techniques to aid people medically, so they heal. These drugs or surgical methods attempt to repair damage. Medical healing depends on the body’s natural ability to respond and restore.
Third, there is psychological healing.
In medicine, it is called psychotherapeutic healing. Mental stress causes many diseases. There are psychosomatic or psychological illnesses. Some years ago, the Mayo Clinic said 80 to 85 percent of all of their patients were ill either in reality or artificially because of mental stress. Stress causes many of the body’s functions to malfunction. Many people become ill because they are under tremendous emotional stress or distress.
The fourth area is divine or miraculous healing.
This kind of healing requires God’s direct involvement. This is a supernatural activity of God where what is wrong is made right and restored to health. This is exactly what Jesus Christ came to do.
Jesus performed many miracles or supernatural healings. It was no problem for Him, it was part of His purpose for coming to this world. He is God.
Luke 4:18 NKJV The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
The very nature of God demands that He is supernatural. God is far above all of His creation. God can alter or disregard the natural course of human law or limitation. After He sets aside the natural course of events to accomplish His desire, life returns to normal. Jesus was able to do many things that set aside natural science and laws of nature.
- Jesus walked on water, turned water into wine, multiplied loaves and fishes.
Although Jesus did this, we do not read of this becoming a normal activity. We never read of Peter continually walking on water, water being turned into wine at every wedding feast, or loaves and fish continually being multiplied. That does not mean that those things could not happen again.
- Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.
Lazarus lived a normal life, but ultimately died. After Jesus raised him from the dead, everything went back to normal.
God’s Word is a book of miracles.
We cannot define God without including the supernatural. Everything God Almighty does is above and beyond what man can do. His love, mercy, grace and acts are great and almighty.
When God acts, it is supernatural.
It is not difficult for God’s Spirit to move across the face of the waters and begin to bring forth life. It was not difficult or challenging for God to speak light, plants, and animal life into existence. At the power of His word, all things came into existence. One moment there was nothing and then these things appeared and thrived. It is not unusual or impossible for God to raise the dead. It is not unusual for God to calm seas or walk on water. That is what a miracle is. God is Almighty and His work is supernatural.
If you believe in God, you must believe in miracles. Miracles happen when God invades human history. Miracles happen throughout the Bible because God is taking action in human history. If you remove miracles from the Bible, you will have to remove God.
Jesus is a worker of miracles, for He is God in flesh.
When Jesus healed this man, it was not a natural process of healing. It was not a medical healing or psychotherapeutic healing. This was a miracle of healing. It was simple divine action upon two blind eyes and instantaneous recreation of functioning eyes. This healing was in no way a natural healing.This man was born blind and his eyes had no power to recover. There was no process to change it. His eyes had never seen. This was a miraculous healing.
Jesus Christ has absolute and total divine miracle power. This was beyond natural recovery or healing processes. It was the creative healing power of Jesus Christ. The man was born blind, but Jesus gave him sight.
What is the result of this miracle on the crowds? It appears that this would have stopped Jesus’ critics. Surely, no one would doubt that this was the Christ. They were locked in unbelief. At the end of chapter 8, He revealed His deity until they picked up stones to kill Him, and then He hid Himself. When He healed the blind man, the crowds had renewed hatred for Jesus.
In John 9, Jesus begins turning from the crowds to prepare those who believe for His departure. This is a critical moment in the gospel of John. Jesus begins to move away from the masses of Israel and the unbelieving people.
John 9 shows us this miracle of healing.
Look at four aspects of this divine healing.
First of all, notice the problem. After Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple through the midst of them, He saw this blind man.
John 9:1 NKJV Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth.
I want to remind you that nothing just happens with God.
Even though Jesus was among a crowd of people who were ready to kill Him, He saw this particular blind man. This is a revelation of God’s sovereign grace and mercy. That blind man could not see Jesus. He would not have known if Jesus had walked by. Sovereign grace and mercy dominates this miracle. This is not a blind man running to Jesus. Jesus saw the man.The Son of Man has come to seek and to save what is lost.
In the Bible, blindness has always been a picture of spiritual darkness. This man was totally at Christ’s mercy. In the same way, the sinner is at the mercy of Jesus Christ. We did not seek Him, but He sought us. That is how grace works.
Jesus was walking through the mob that wanted to stone Him to death, but He was not too busy for the blind man. This is the way Jesus lived. This is an important fact for us today. The Lord is not too busy to help us in our time of need. Even while Jesus was dying on the cross and bearing the sins of the world, He told a dying thief, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.”
John 9:2 NKJV And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
Their rabbis taught that all suffering was a direct result of sinful acts. They assumed that sin made all suffering happen. This man’s blindness had to be a result of personal or parental sin. Some rabbis taught that a child could sin in the womb and pay the penalty all its life. They just made it up because it fit their process of logic that someone had to sin. The disciples’ question dominated Jewish thought.
Here is the problem. If his parents sinned, this was not fair. If it was his sin, why was he born blind?
John 9:3-4 NKJV 3 Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. 4 I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work.
Why was this man blind? Jesus said, “That the works of God should be revealed in him.” He was not blind because of sin. He was a prepared vessel. He was a miracle waiting to happen. He was born blind for one reason. He was born blind so that God’s glory would be seen in this healing.
Jesus said, “I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work.” Some versions say: “We must work.”
What is Jesus saying? Jesus is saying: “We don’t have much time.” His time to work was limited. We only have our lifetime to work and what we do for Christ must be done now. Work while it is day for night is coming.
John 9:5-6 NKJV 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 6 When He had said these things, He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva; and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay.
Jesus was saying we have work to do. He said: “I am the Light of the world as long as I am here.” He was going to touch those sightless eyes and open them to create sight. That blind man was about to behold the light of day and the Light of the world.
In verse 38, Jesus gave more than the light for the eyes, He gave light for the soul. The man who was blind said to Him, “Lord, I believe,” and he fell down and worshiped Jesus. Not only were his blind eyes healed, his spiritual darkness was overcome with the Light of Christ.
Second, what was the purpose? Jesus said, “It was for the glory of God.” Jesus’ works bring glory to God. This moment and Christ’s action was for God’s glory. You need to know that miracles happen to bring glory to God.
John 14:13 NKJV And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
Third, look at the power. How did Jesus do the miracle?
John 9:6 NKJV When He had said these things, He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva; and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay.
Do you think mud healed the blind eyes?
There are all kinds of ideas on what Jesus was doing.
- One commentator said: ‘Jesus wanted to make use of the healing quality of saliva.’
- Another said: ‘It symbolized that man was made from dirt.’
- Somebody else said: ‘He was delaying so the crowd would scatter.’
- Another said: ‘He wanted to give the man’s eyes time to heal.’
- Another said: ‘The man had no eyeballs, so Jesus gave him some.’
Do you want to know why Jesus did it? He wanted to. There was no healing power in the clay, just as there is no healing power in anointing oil. Jesus was giving the man an assignment of faith.
John 9:7 NKJV And He said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent). So he went and washed, and came back seeing.
The man was healed by the power of Jesus Christ. This is a small thing for the Christ. In Genesis, He spoke and the universe came into existence.
Why did Jesus send him to the pool of Siloam? Hezekiah built an aqueduct, a tunnel, so the water from a spring at the Temple could come into the pool of Siloam. In the Old Testament, it was called “Shiloah.” It is called Siloam in the Greek. Shiloah means “Sent.”
From the Temple Mount, the water was sent. The Temple Mount was the place where God’s presence was represented. Siloam represented “that which was sent from God. Jesus is saying go wash in Siloam, the water sent by God that will cleanse your eyes.
John 9:7-12 NKJV 7 And He said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent). So he went and washed, and came back seeing. 8 Therefore the neighbors and those who previously had seen that he was blind said, “Is not this he who sat and begged?” 9 Some said, “This is he.” Others said, “He is like him.” He said, “I am he.” 10 Therefore they said to him, “How were your eyes opened?” 11 He answered and said, “A Man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed, and I received sight.” 12 Then they said to him, “Where is He?” He said, “I do not know.”
Can you imagine their joy that his eyes were opened? “He said go and wash” and the next thing he knew, he received his sight. That is Christ’s healing power.
How did the crowds respond?
Some believed in Jesus and said He is a prophet. Others called Jesus a sinner because He did this on the Sabbath. They told the man he was completely born in sins and cast him out of the Temple. After all of this, Jesus found the man and offered him salvation if he would believe.
