What mighty praise, O God,
….belongs to you in Zion.
We will fulfill our vows to you,
….for you answer our prayers. Psalm 65:1-2a NLT

John 9:35-41 (<<click here to read the passage)

As I cleaned my glasses last night, I heard a snap. Believe me, it wasn’t a good sound. They have a special tension hinge at the temple which allows them to bend to some degree without breaking. Well, the temple didn’t break, but the special hinge did.

Having worn glasses since the 5th grade, I looked at them and thought, “I can fix these – no problem.” All I had to do was to take the screw out and replace the broken temple with one from a matching pair of glasses that I had.

I unscrewed screw A, then unscrewed screw B, and when I went to put the spare temple on…the screw wouldn’t go through! I couldn’t get the holes to line up! The tension hinge kept it pulled up in the temple and with nothing more than a simple screwdriver, I was beat!

I may have been half-blind, but I could see that fixing my glasses would take more skill and experience than I had!

Looking at this portion of Scripture, we see a man who had been physically blind from birth. Then Jesus touched him and because of his obedience, his sight was restored! He had 20/20 vision physically but spiritually he wasn’t quite there yet. Interestingly enough he was pretty close. He knew that it wasn’t just a fluke that he’d been healed. He knew that whoever had healed him had a connection with God. He just didn’t know who He was.

Read again his last statement to the Pharisees.

“We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but he is ready to hear those who…do his will… If this man were not from God, he couldn’t have done it.” v31,33 NLT

Now Jesus comes to him once more and asks, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” v35 You can see his eagerness to go that one step more.

“Who is he, sir? I want to believe in him.”
You have seen him,” Jesus said, “and he is speaking to you!”
“Yes, Lord, I believe!” the man said. And he worshiped Jesus. v36-38 NLT

Much as I was with broken glasses, if we cannot acknowledge our own blindness – and in this case, we are talking of spiritual blindness – thinking we can “see”, in truth, we are blind.

I can’t imagine this formerly blind man had much education. But he knew far more than the spiritually elite who looked down upon him. Because he remained open and recognized how sin had truly blinded him, Jesus was able to give him spiritual understanding and insight.

The Pharisees, on the other hand, were shocked that Jesus thought they were spiritually blind. Jesus once more tried to get it through their thick heads that at this point it was only blindness (stubbornness and stupidity) that could excuse their behavior. But they were beyond that. They knew what was what. They had no excuse. Jesus could do nothing to help them because they had become complacent, self-satisfied, and blind. *

They said to Him, “Are we also blind?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind [to spiritual things], you would have no sin [and would not be blamed for your unbelief]; but since you claim to have [spiritual] sight, [you have no excuse so] your sin and guilt remain. v40-41 AMP

Lord Jesus, once more I plead…open our eyes that we, too, may truly see! Amen!

*Life Application Study Bible New Living Translation

July 20th, 2021, Tues, 7:50 pm