By Pastor Greg
Tiger Woods was invited to attend
a Blind Golfers convention. When he
asked them how they were able to play and know what direction to hit the ball,
they explained that their caddy would stand down the fairway with a bell, and
the golfer would hit the ball in the direction
of the sound. Incredulous, Tiger asked
how well it worked. One blind golfer was
so confident that he bet Tiger Woods $10,000 that he could beat him in a round
of golf. “Okay,” replied Tiger, “What time
do we tee off?” “10:30 tonight,” replied the blind man.
I’ll give you a moment to make the
connection here.
We have a tendency to judge a
person’s usefulness based upon what is on the outside. We look at credentials and accomplishments
long before we look at a person’s heart.
Take, for instance, the man mentioned in John 9. He was blind, not deaf. So as people commented about his blindness
and his sin, this man heard every word. I
wonder how often he had heard these things?
How often did he overhear his parents talking about how useless he would
be? When did he start to believe this? That is why I believe Jesus did much more
than restore his sight. Actually, this beggar demonstrated an ability to
perceive things far greater than those around him. He had a far deeper understanding of
spiritual things than most of the people who walked past him.
(John 9:8-13) 8 Therefore
the neighbors, and those who previously saw him as a beggar, were saying, “Is not this the one who used to sit and
beg?” 9 Others were
saying, “This is he,” still others were saying, “No, but he is like him.” He
kept saying, “I am the one.” 10 So
they were saying to him, “How then were your eyes opened?” 11 He answered, “The man who
is called Jesus made clay, and anointed my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam
and wash’; so I went away and washed, and I received sight.” 12 They said to him, “Where
is He?” He said, “I do not know.” 13 They
brought to the Pharisees the man who was formerly blind. 14 Now
it was a Sabbath on the day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. 15 Then the Pharisees also
were asking him again how he received his sight. And he said to them, “He
applied clay to my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” 16 Therefore some of the
Pharisees were saying, “This man is not from God,
because He does not keep the Sabbath.” But others were saying, “How can a man
who is a sinner perform such signs?” And there was a division among them. 17 So they said to the blind
man again, “What do you say about Him, since He opened your eyes?” And he said,
“He is a prophet.” 18 The
Jews then did not believe it of him, that he had been blind and had received
sight, until they called the parents of the very one who had received his
sight, 19 and questioned them, saying, “Is this your son, who
you say was born blind? Then how does he now see?” 20 His
parents answered them and said, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; 21 but
how he now sees, we do not know; or who opened his eyes, we do not know. Ask
him; he is of age, he will speak for himself.” 22 His parents
said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed
that if anyone confessed Him to be Christ, he was to be put out of the
synagogue. 23 For this reason
his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.” 24 So a second time
they called the man who had been blind, and said to him, “Give glory to God; we
know that this man is a sinner.” 25 He then answered, “Whether
He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” 26 So
they said to him, “What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes?” 27 He
answered them, “I told you already and
you did not listen; why do you want to hear it again? You do not want to become
His disciples too, do you?” 28 They reviled him and said, “You
are His disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. 29 We know
that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where He is
from.” 30 The man answered and said to them, “Well, here is an
amazing thing, that you do not know where He is from, and yet He opened my
eyes. 31 We know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone
is God-fearing and does His will, He hears him. 32 Since the
beginning of time it has never been heard
that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. 33 If this
man were not from God, He could do nothing.” 34 They answered
him, “You were born entirely in sins, and are you teaching us?” So they put him
out.[1]
I’ll be honest, part of me wants
to feel sorry for this man. It seems
like he is the only one who can actually
see. Most of the people coming and going
that day were more blind than he ever
was. I mean, look at what some of his
neighbors say. “This isn’t the same man. It just looks
like him”. Seriously? I mean
we’re not talking about confusing Mark Wahlberg with Matt Damon here. This man only
walked to the other side of town and washed his face (although, I have seen
some boys who do look drastically different after a bath). The only possibility is that his blindness
caused some facial disfiguration. But
even that argument is full of holes. He
stood there and repeatedly said, “I am the one”
(verse 9). The facts were there. A man born blind was healed by Jesus. Logic would say that there must be something
special about this Jesus fellow. Yet
many refused to believe. They stood
there with their eyes tightly closed.
This man, however, makes the connection.
Speaking in defense of Jesus, he observes, “If this man were not from God, He could do
nothing.”
That’s a rather astute observation
coming from a beggar – a man who didn’t seem to have any ability, who
supposedly could not contribute to society in any way. Funny, they call him the sinner, yet the
“sinner” is able to connect Isaiah 29:18 with Jesus (“On that day the deaf will hear words of a book,
and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see” [2]). It makes you wonder who is the more blind; the person born that way or the
person who refuses to open their eyes.
By the way, did you happen to
notice where Jesus was during all of this?
He must have slipped away because even this formerly blind man did not know where He was (verse 12). Doesn’t that seem a bit odd to you, to make
this poor handicapped man face this mob on his own? It would, I suppose,
if this person were actually disabled. I think Jesus knew this man’s heart and used this healing as an opportunity
to restore some dignity. Thrust before
the Pharisees, this man soon learned just how capable he truly was.
I think Jesus does this to us from
time to time. Every now and then, Jesus
thrusts us into a situation that is WAY out of our comfort zone. We feel incapable, and yet before long we
begin to realize that we are not all that handicapped after all. Although others have been saying that we will
never amount to anything, the Lord doesn’t see things that way. He knows our heart. He knows us better than we know
ourselves. He knows we can do great
things for the Kingdom. He is just
looking for an opportunity to open our eyes so we can see this as well.
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