Love sees. Love listens. Love remembers.
And when we live in the love of God, we begin to pay attention to people the way God pays attention to us.
In telling the story of the blind man, John shares how Jesus looks with the eyes of His heart.
Each of the characters or groups of people in the story saw in a different way.
When the disciples looked at this blind-beggar, they saw an interesting theological conundrum—who sinned that he was born blind?
But they did not see him with the eyes of the heart. Their seeing did not move them.
When the blind man's neighbors looked at him, they saw a nuisance , an eye-sore of suffering & poverty that they learned to overlook.
But they did not see him with the eyes of the heart.
They too were unmoved.
When the Pharisees looked at him, they saw a violated Sabbath, a threat to their know-it-all spiritual authority.
They saw with dry, arrogant eyes—no tears, no softening. They did not simply fail to see, they refused to see.
They tightly shut the eyes of the heart & would not open them.
Spiritual blindness is not just ignorance.
Jesus said to the Pharisees,“If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.”
Eyes that cannot see might be healed, but eyes that will not see cannot be helped.
God himself will not force them open.
When Jesus looked at the blind man, Jesus saw an opportunity to do the work of God.
He saw a child of God who needed to be delivered from blindness.
He saw & was moved.
John 9 // True Blindness
Walking down the street, Jesus saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked, “Rabbi, who sinned: this man or his parents, causing him to be born blind?”
Jesus said, “You’re asking the wrong question. You’re looking for someone to blame. There is no such cause-effect here. Look instead for what God can do. We need to be energetically at work for the One who sent me here, working while the sun shines. When night falls, the workday is over. For as long as I am in the world, there is plenty of light. I am the world’s Light.”
He said this & then spit in the dust, made a clay paste with the saliva, rubbed the paste on the blind man’s eyes, & said, “Go, wash at the Pool of Siloam” The man went & washed—& saw.
Soon the town was buzzing.
His relatives & those who year after year had seen him as a blind man begging were saying, “Why, isn’t this the man we knew, who sat here & begged?”
But others objected, “It’s not the same man at all. It just looks like him.”
The blind man said, “It’s me, the very one.”
They said, “How did your eyes get opened?”
“A man named Jesus made a paste & rubbed it on my eyes & told me, ‘Go to Siloam & wash.’ I did what he said. When I washed, I saw.”
They marched the man to the Pharisees. This day when Jesus made the paste & healed his blindness was the Sabbath.
The Pharisees grilled him again on how he had come to see. He said, “He put a clay paste on my eyes, & I washed, & now I see.”
Some of the Pharisees said, “Obviously, this man can’t be from God. He doesn’t keep the Sabbath.”
” There was a split in their ranks.
The blind man replied, “I know nothing about that one way or the other. But I know one thing for sure: I was blind . . . I now see.”
They said, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”
“I’ve told you over & over and you haven’t listened. Why do you want to hear it again? Are you so eager to become his disciples? ....this is amazing! You claim to know nothing about Him, but the fact is, He opened my eyes! It’s well known that God isn’t at the beck & call of sinners, but listens carefully to anyone who lives in reverence & does His will. That someone opened the eyes of a man born blind has never been heard of—ever. If this man didn’t come from God, He wouldn’t be able to do anything.”
The Pharisees said, “You’re nothing but dirt! How dare you take that tone with us!” Then they threw him out in the street.
Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, & went & found him. He asked him, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
The man said, “Point him out to me, sir, so that I can believe in Him.”
Jesus said, “You’re looking right at Him. Don’t you recognize my voice?”
“Master, I believe,” the man said, & worshiped him.
Jesus then said, “I came into the world to bring everything into the clear light of day, making all the distinctions clear, so that those who have never seen will see, & those who have made a great pretense of seeing will be exposed as blind.”
Some Pharisees overheard him & said, “Does that mean you’re calling us blind?”
Jesus said, “If you were really blind, you would be blameless, but since you claim to see everything so well, you’re accountable for every fault & failure.”
