It’s commonly recognized that the average humane being has five senses: smell, taste, touch, sound, and sight. We use these senses to interact with the world around us. Typically, we pay little to no attention to the five senses. Many of us take them for granted because we were born with them and can’t really imagine what it would be like without them. But what if I asked you to try? What if I said you had to pick one of the five senses to go without? Which one would you pick?
After hosting 5 college boys at our house this last week, I think I could make pretty good argument why a person would choose to give up their sense of smell. But I don’t know, without the sense of smell you would miss out on the smell of cookies coming out of the oven or the smell of freshly cut grass. How about the sense of taste? If you couldn’t taste food, it might help you to drop some lbs, but that means you wouldn’t be able to taste bacon. I am all for losing weight, but at what costs, people!?! How about the sense of touch? On the one hand it would be cool never to feel physical pain, but on the other hand it would be nice to know sooner rather than later that your foot was on fire. It doesn’t really sound like there is a good option here, but I think most people would agree that out of the five sense, one of these three would be the one they would choose if they had to give one of them up.
The last two sense are almost in a category of their own. I think I would give up all of the first three senses before I gave up the sense of sound. That is not to say all sounds are pleasant, but no sound is so bad that you would give up hearing the sound of birds chirping, waves crashing, or children laughing. It would be difficult to live without the sense of sound, but I think most people would rather give up their sense of sound before they gave up their sense of sight. Again, that is not to say there are things we wish we had never seen, but nothing is so horrific that you would give up your sense of sight. With the sense of sight, you are able to avoid danger, find food, and seek shelter. In so many ways, the sense of sight allows you to make sense of the world around you. It is of course possible to live without the sense of sight. Over 3 million Americans do it every day. But if given the option as to which sense you had to give up, I am going to guess the sense of sight would be your last choice.
In our gospel lesson for today we meet a man who wasn’t given a choice. John writes, “1 As he (that is Jesus) went along, he saw a man blind from birth.” With these words John describes for us another battlefield upon which our Savior fought while on His way to the cross. Today, we are going to see our Savior at war with blindness. As we review the battle, we are going to see our Savior employ three tactics in the war against blindness. To make them easier to remember I am going to refer to the three tactics as: trial, testing, and testimony.
The first tactic our Savior makes us of in the war with blindness is trial. We have already made mention of the man who was blind from birth. How long he had been that we cannot know for certain. In verse 8 we learn he is old enough to beg, “8 His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?” Further in verse 20 we learn that he is young enough to have living parents, “We know he is our son,” the parents answered, “and we know he was born blind.” Finally, in verse 21 his parents tell us he is of age (older than 13), “Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself.” If I were to guess, I would guess the man had been blind for about 20 years. That’s a long trial to endure. Even more so when consider the kind of stigma that was attached to blindness.
Listen to what the disciples say when they see the blind man. “2 Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” It was a commonly held belief that trials, such as the one this blind man was suffering, were a result of a specific sin. It is a belief that many of us still hold. I remember when hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. Many people said it was God punishing a city so saturated with sin. I am waiting to see if people are going to say the same thing about the coronavirus. We often suspect that where there is a sever trial there must also be a sever sin. It is true, sometimes trials are the result of specific sin: the alcoholic may pickle their liver, the drug abuser may fry their brain, and the adulterer may contract a disease, but that is not always the case.
Sometimes the trial a person endures serves an entirely different purpose. Like it did for the blind man. Jesus tells His disciples, “3 Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” The man was not enduring a trial because of a specific sin. He was enduring a trial because God had plans for him.
It is very possible that God allows trials to come into your life for the same reason; It is very possible that they have come because God has plans for you. It is so easy to allow your life to become a blur of activity. Between work, family, and social activities life can get so busy that you lose sight of what’s important. Sometimes the only thing that can help us see clearly is a trial.
The blind man’s trial made him especially receptive to Jesus. So much so that he was willing to allow Jesus to put mud on his eyes and, upon Jesus’ instruction, groped his way to the pool of Siloam. There the blind man’s trial was taken away. John tells us “7 the man went and washed, and came home seeing.” Understandably a seeing blind man caused quite the stir among the neighbors. “How did this happen?” they demanded. “The man they call Jesus did it”, he responded. The seeing blind man was understandably thrilled to tell the story, but not everyone was thrilled to hear it.
The seeing blind man was brought before the pharisees for questioning. As the seeing blind man stand before the pharisees, we see Jesus second tactic being employed. The seeing blind man is tested. John tells us the seeing blind man tells the pharisees that Jesus caused his eyes to see. “16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others asked, “How can a sinner do such miraculous signs?” So they were divided. 17 Finally they turned again to the blind man, “What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened.” Now, everyone knew how the pharisees felt about Jesus. They had made it known that anyone who acknowledged Jesus as the Christ would be put out of the synagogue. The seeing blind man knew the pharisees wanted him to speak against Jesus and the pressure to do so was intense. (When pressed by the pharisees, the seeing blind man’s own parents cracked under pressure.) Again, and again they ask the seeing blind man to tell them who he thought Jesus was. And over the course of their interrogations something remarkable happens. First the seeing blind man tells the pharisees that “17 He (Jesus) is a prophet”. Then after further testing he tells the pharisees, “25 Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!” Then after further testing that included threats and insults, the seeing blind man tells the pharisees, “31 We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does his will. 32 Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” Did you notice the progression of the seeing blind man’s confession? When tested, his confession became more and more clear. It was as if the testing crystalized his confession!
Have you ever noticed that testing does the same thing for you? Just as the seeing blind man was tested by pharisees, so also you are tested by a humanities professor, a cynical coworker, or a curious neighbor. They want to know who you say Jesus is. They want you to explain to them the mysteries of God. Have you ever noticed what this type of testing forces you to do? In order to answer their questions, you have to first wrestle with the question for yourself. You have to go beyond Jesus loves me this I know, and this is all I want to know. You have to think about what you believe, why you believe it, and how you are going to defend that belief. It is one thing to know a truth, it’s another to own it. Testing often forces you to own a truth.
The pharisees were not interested in owning a truth. In response to the seeing blind man’s crystalized confession they had him thrown out of the synagogue. The time had come for Jesus to use His third tactic in the war with blindness. It was time for the seeing blind man to hear Jesus’ testimony. John tells us when Jesus heard that the pharisees had thrown the seeing blind man out, Jesus found him and said, “35 Do you believe in the Son of Man?” -Do you believe in the promise of God to send you a savior from your sins? 36 “Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.” -I want to believe that God will send me a savior from sin. “37 Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.” – look at me and you will see what your sinful condition had made you too blind to see, look at me, Jesus said, and you will see your promised Savior from sin. “38 Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.” The testimony of Jesus contained both an invitation and the power to believe. For the first time in his life the seeing blind man could see.
In the war with blindness, Jesus uses these same tactics for you. In the Old Testament we hear God promise to send a savior from sin. In the New Testament Jesus shows us through the miracles he performed and the prophecies He fulfilled that He is our savior from sin. These testaments contain both an invitation and the power to believe. It is because of the testimony of Jesus, our promised savior from sin that we can see.
I think it is fair to say, if given a choice out of all your five senses, the last sense you would choose to give up is your sense of sight. I hope you feel the same way about your spiritual sight. I mean, I hope that you never take your sense of sight for granted, but more importantly I hope you never take your spiritual sight for granted. Today we saw Jesus employ three tactics as He fought the war with blindness. He made use of a temporary trial to prepare a man for sight. He made use of a time of testing so that the man would be able to focus. Finally, He made use of a testimony concerning Son of Man so that the man could at last see his promised Savior from sin. Jesus went through a great deal of effort to make sure that the man in our gospel lesson could see. I hope you can see that Jesus employs the same tactics and goes through the same efforts for you. I pray you never take that for granted. By the grace of God your Savior Jesus went to war with blindness so that you could see. Amen