Have you ever seen one of those videos where an individual is either blind or hearing impaired and they receive an operation or medical device which “heals” them? The colorblind man puts on a special pair of glasses and sees color for the first time, or a sweet baby gets glasses and sees his mom for the first time.
Click on the image and see for yourself how marvelous this is!
Yet even in this remarkable medical age, where humanity can be helped to see, or hear, or walk, it remains a gift from God.
When Jesus healed people, it was not with a medical degree and under the bright lights of a surgical theater. He put on His Creator gloves and spoke, He spit into dirt and rubbed mud on blind eyes, He touched and people were healed.
Opening the eyes of the blind was a specific work of the Messiah: The eyes of the blind shall be opened. (Isaiah 35:5), writes David Guzik. In our passage this week, John 9, Jesus comes to a congenitally blind man, seeks him out, and heals him on the Sabbath. Healing eyes is completely in the scope of God’s power and from Genesis to John, this had never been done until Jesus gave light to the blind.
Since healing blind eyes is the work of the Lord, Yahweh, Jehovah, it shows that Jesus is God:
The Lord opens the eyes of the blind. (Psalm 146:8) (David Guzik)
The now seeing man was questioned, instead of celebrated. His unique miracle was questioned, his parents were questioned, and their morality was questioned. In this scrutiny, the man’s eyes were also opened to the hypocrisy of the religious leaders and he tells them, “One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see.” He doesn’t know much about Jesus, but he does know what Jesus had done in his life and this was not something that those questioning could debunk. He responds with sarcasm when asked to give his testimony again saying, “I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples too?”
When his own religious organization kicked him out, he was found by Jesus and became part of the family of God. Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He had found him, He said to him, “Do you believe in the Son of God?” He answered and said, “Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?” And Jesus said to him, “You have both seen Him and it is He who is talking with you. ” Then he said, “Lord, I believe!” And he worshiped Him (John 9:35-38).
By Jesus stripes we are healed, when we confess with our mouth that He is Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead, we are saved. We no longer have to conform to the world and its religious mandates because we are part of the family of God and instead live under a new law which tells us to, “Love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and mind; and love our neighbors as ourselves.” We will not be kicked out of the family of God. His work on the cross and through His resurrection, eternally seals us as His own.
Jesus still works miracles today as millions have had the eyes of their hearts healed and salvation received. Have you seen the Lord?