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Today's Little Lift
by Jim Bullington
“He is of age; ask him.” Some things just sound better coming from the horse's mouth. But, then again some people are so blinded by personal agendas that they will not believe truth even when the horse speaks. This was the case with the Jews who confronted the man who had been born blind and whose eyes were miraculously opened by Jesus Christ. Consider these men who refused the truth due to their own self-willed blindness; they typify those of us who have willed it such that we can never come to a knowledge of the truth; we reject the free offer of justification that issues timelessly from God's throne.
“But the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind and received his sight, until they called the parents of him who had received his sight. And they asked them, saying, 'Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?' His parents answered them and said, 'We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but by what means he now sees we do not know, or who opened his eyes we do not know. He is of age; ask him. He will speak for himself.' His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had agreed already that if anyone confessed that He was Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue. Therefore his parents said, 'He is of age; ask him.'” (John 9.18-23).
But the Jews did not believe! They had just spoken to the man who had been blind. They had just heard the story directly from the horse's mouth. There was nothing more to tell. Yet, they sought a way to discredit his story. Why did they do this? Simply because the story they heard contradicted their own inferences which they had derived from the scriptures. In their way of thinking, anything that falsified their biblical hermeneutics was itself false! Some things might have been wrong, but there was no way they could be wrong! Such spiritual arrogance is always damning! Why? Because it flies in the face of the most basic teaching of Jesus; the first step of being a disciple demands that we deny ourselves and follow Him. To deny oneself is to repudiate our own ability to see and rely entirely upon the truth that issues from realms unseen. Even when that truth goes contrary to what seems right to us ─ especially when that truth goes contrary to what we think ─ we must deny ourselves and accept that truth!
The force of the miracle is what I would like for us to grasp just here. The fact of the miracle was undeniable. By the force of the miracle, I mean precisely what the fact of the miracle proved. The disbelieving Jews understood the concept of implication; of this there can be no doubt! However, they were entirely unwilling to apply implication EXCEPT when it served their purposes. They knew that the admission of the miracle was tantamount to admitting that Jesus was the Christ. That is why they could not let the story rest; they had to keep looking for a loophole. That is why they asked the man's parents, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind?” For years this man had begged a living on the basis of his blindness, but now that he could see, those who passed by him on a daily basis were willing to take the leap that he was never blind at all!
The man's parents were not free to speak all that they knew; they were under threat of being put out of the synagogue! However, the one who recorded this story recognized the force of the miracle. A reader might ask, “Why did his parents not just answer their questions? Why would they say, 'He is of age; ask him?'” Here is the answer: To admit the miracle was to admit that Jesus was the Christ! Spiritual blindness is a self willed disease which can only be cured by true self denial!
Questions:
1. Why did the Jews not believe the man? What tangible evidence existed that would have indicated that his story was untrue?
2. Why was it important to the Jews that they prove his story to be untrue?
3. Why did the man's parents defer to their son when they were asked how his sight was granted? What was the force of the miracle as they understood it?
4. Briefly state the relationship of the miracles which Jesus performed with His claims that He was the Son of God and the promised Messiah?
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