Wednesday in the Word...John 9:13-17...Davy's Star

In 6th grade, I wrote a play called "Davy's Star."  It was a play performed by the elementary students of the Arenac Eastern Public School located in Twining, Michigan.  I wrote it; directed it; and starred in it as Davy, and I had only one line which was at the very end.  The line was "I can hear!"  I wonder if I got the inspiration for this play from the Bible account of the man born blind that I would have heard in a church Sunday School class.

We left off with the now seeing man being asked where this man named Jesus was who created mud, put it on his eyes, and told him to wash it off in the Pool of Siloam.  His answer was, "I do not know."  So let's go a little deeper into the account in chapter 9 of John and verses 13 through 17 this morning. 

v.13 - They brought to the Pharisees 

the man who was formerly blind.

The "they" referred to here are the neighbors of the once blind man.  They had seen him on the corner as a beggar for so many years.  They brought him before the authorities, the Pharisees.  Surely they will know how to interpret what has happened here.  The religious authorities were also the agents used to classify people as "clean" or "unclean."  An example is when Jesus told the 10 lepers who were healed to go show themselves to the priests to be declared clean so that they could go back to their families, regular community life, and entrance into the temple areas.

v.14 - Now it was a Sabbath on the day 

when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes.

Jesus did it again, healing on the Sabbath.  He "worked" to make the clay and He "worked" to heal the man's sight.  Jesus obviously violated the man-made rules the scribes and Pharisees had created to keep the Sabbath.  This has been the focal point over the chapters of the Gospels because Jesus has been showing acts of mercy but obviously on the wrong day of the week.  Ironically, this is all that the Pharisees will "see."  They are blind to the fact that the once blind man can now see.  

Sometimes I need to take a step back and see what I am not seeing.  I am so zeroed in on something minute and I can't see the whole picture.  I see the flaw in the glass but I don't see what the glass allows me to see beyond it.  

v.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."

This was the wrong thing to say in front of a bunch of strict Sabbath keeping Pharisees.  All they heard was "work, work, work."  Jesus worked when He made the clay.  Jesus worked when He applied the clay.  The once blind man worked when he washed it off.

I have to say that the once blind man kept true with his account.  Even in front of these very influential religious leaders, he did not alter what happened.  The event had such an impact that even though the ones standing before him could probably be swayed with a little "tweaking" of a few words, he did not.  

v.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.

When Jesus does these miraculous acts of mercy it usually ends with a division among the people.  Some are in all out rebellion; some are questioning; and some are willing to follow Him a little further.  This is happening among the religious authorities.  Some are "writing off" Jesus because it was done on the Sabbath.  They go to the extreme that Jesus could be "nothing of" God because of this infraction.  Others are looking at the miracle and questioning how could a sinner, someone "nothing of" God, do such an act of mercy.  We saw the division back in chapter 7 and verse 43,

So a division occurred in the crowd because of Him.

v.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."

Did they just admit that Jesus did open the once blind man's eyes?  It looks like it and now they are asking the once blind man to give his evaluation to their division.  They were asking the once blind man if Jesus was "not of God" or "of God."  How will he respond?  What is his current evaluation of this man named Jesus who did this to him?

The once blind man simply calls Jesus "a prophet," one who is "of God."  This is what the crowds will cry out at Jesus triumphal entry into Jerusalem on the foal of a donkey in Matthew 21:11, which reads,

And the crowds were saying,

"This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee."

Moses spoken of the ultimate prophet who was to come in Deuteronomy chapter 18 and verse 15, which reads,

The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him.

The Apostles in the book of Acts used this passage and went on to say in Acts chapter 3 and verse 23,

And it will be that every soul that does not heed that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.

I believe what this once blind man is saying is that his evaluation of who Jesus is, is the Messiah.  Jesus is the ultimate prophet who has come, raised up by God from among the people of Israel.  This is even a bolder claim to make in front of the religious leaders than that these things were done on the Sabbath.   

How will they respond?  How will the crowd respond?  Who will be pulled into this account to give some more verification?  All these questions will be answered in next week's installment of "Wednesdays in the Word" which will come to you, Lord willing, from Machias, Maine.  

One last question before we part, 

"How bold are you about Jesus?"  

If you were asked point blank, "Who do you think Jesus is?" what would be your answer?  Would you "tweak it" a little because of the audience you are around or would you remember the ever present "audience of One" who is there also?  This man is bold even though he has never physically seen Jesus but has felt His touch.  Sounds like us waiting for that face to face in heaven.  Let us pray.

"Heavenly Father, we pray that more spiritual eyes would be opened by You to proclaim that You are the Messiah, our Savior.  We pray that we who have had our eyes opened by You might be bold today with our proclamation of who You are.  Even though it will bring division among those who hear, may we have an awesome fear of You to drown out the fear of man.  Amen."

Pastor Adam