A BIBLE STUDY ABOUT SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS AND WHY IT IS THE GREATEST SICKNESS THERE IS, AND MANY DON’T KNOW THEY HAVE SYMPTOMS

One of my favorite conversations between Jesus and the religious Pharisee in his day is recorded by His disciple John through the Holy Spirit. The Pharisees overheard a conversation Jesus was having with a man who was born physically, and spiritually blind Jesus had already healed physically on a Sabbath. Before we get to my favorite conversation between Jesus and the Pharisee’s lets share what events led up to this conversation.

A man was born blind and Jesus tells us why this man was born blind. The way Jesus healed him was strange to me at first. Not because it was on the Sabbath; he had done that many times. It was because Jesus mixed his saliva and dirt together to make mud to put on his eyes, and the blind man himself would have to wash his eyes off in a pool of water as Jesus instructed him.

John 9:1-6 As Jesus went along, he saw a man blind from birth. (Jesus knowing, he was blind since birth tells us he knows everything about us). His disciples asked him, Rabbi (teacher) who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said, Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. As long as it is day we must do the work of him who sent me Night is coming, when no one can work, While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

Jesus does not mean this man, or his parents have not sinned. Remember everyone is born in their own natural sinful natures and there is no one good (Holy) but God alone. Jesus is teaching us their sins had not caused this man to be born blind, but he was born blind to reveal the powerful work of God, our Father. He was revealing He had planned this very moment in this man’s life for the purpose of making His power known is only seen through His Son. We like His first disciples are sent into the world as He was sent into the world. We teach about Him being the true and only light of mankind that enables us to be physically and spiritually healed so we can see all darkness that can blind us..

After we have received this amazing revelation through what Jesus as already taught us about Himself, he does not stop there. He reveals to us how he healed him, with his own saliva and dirt from the ground, the same ground we came from, and put it on the man’s eyes.

John 9:6 Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud, with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes.

Why the mud I thought to myself? Why would Jesus use his own saliva to make mud from the ground and put it on this man’s eyes. He had touched others and healed them, and we know all He had to do is speak and He would be able to see spiritually and physically all he needed to see crystal clear without any confusion. Have you ever felt like you were in deep spiritual mud you had no power to get out of? I have, and it was most of my life. I was confused, lost, and felt abnormally born, and I felt like everyone else around me was normal. The fact is we are all abnormally born and need a spiritual washing off the natural dirt that we were all born from. This is why he used the mud and put it on his eyes and what he does next symbolizes what each of us have to do.

John 9:7 “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means Sent). So, the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

 Jesus told this man to go and wash off the mud Jesus had put on his eyes. We have to be willing to crucify every piece, the good and the bad, of our natural born dirt within ourselves every single day in order to see clearly. This is the spiritual washing we are asked to do, but it is by the power He gives us. We are sent as this blind man was sent to wash off His mud in the spiritual pool of Siloam. Siloam means sent. He speaks these words to each one of us “Go” I am sending you to wash yourselves clean by all I give you daily so you can spiritually see clearly until I call you home!

Then the division and confusion from the crowd who knew the man begins. It always begins when God reveals any of His miracles. There will always be a division from the crowd because not everyone will know and recognize the truth of who He is. At this point in the recorded story the blind man did not truly know who Jesus was or where Jesus came from spiritually, but the blind man was healed physically.

John 9:8 His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg? Some claimed that he was. Others said, “No, he only looks like him. But he himself insisted, “I am the man.” “How then were your eyes opened?” They demanded. He replied, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So, I went and washed, and then I could see,” Where is this man” they asked him, “I don’t know,” he said.

 I can’t tell you how many times I have felt like this blind man in this conversation who has been healed by Jesus. There is so many who tell me who I am and who I am not, and I have to insist I am the woman Jesus saved by His amazing grace! I am not the beggar you use to see needing to find acceptance and grace. I am not the sinner who yelled and screamed because I needed to be heard. I am a woman who has been healed all ways He can heal by His amazing grace and has been sent by Him to tell others about Him! The difference between this man and me at this point in the story is I know where Jesus is and where He went, and I know where I came from and where I am going, but this man will know what I know now. The people in this story that argued about who the blind man was still was not satisfied with this man’s answers so they took him to the Pharisees so the Pharisees could investigate the blind man's healing.

9:13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath. Therefore, the Pharisees also asked him how he had receive his sight, “He put mud on my eyes,” the man replied, “and I washed and now I see”. Some of the Pharisee 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.

The religious Pharisees had a very strong reputation of false spirits that supported no healing, talking, moving, doing, drinking and eating certain ways and food on the Sabbath and lacked a reputation God desired of being truthful, merciful, healing, forgiving, and understanding everyday and not making the Sabbath any different than every day with harsh rules and traditions they made up and added. All of these true Spirits that were pouring out of Jesus were part of His truth of who God was and still is, and the religious Pharisee at the time did not have. Instead of them drawing near to God, and they thought they could see the truth of God with no ill effects or convictions in their hearts, they drew further away from Him and had Him crucified. God’s truth was and still is given to them and the world is only found in Jesus, His One and Only Son. Many today have the religious spirit of the Pharisee.

Many today still make the Sabbath day more important than any other day. God desires us to reveal His mercy, healing, forgiveness, grace and all His truthful nature through the Holy Spirit of God the Father and His Son has given us to share every single day! The only way Jesus could break them of this wrong religious spirit is heal many on the Sabbath just like he did on any other day making it no greater than any other. When He took His last breath, His Holy Spirit tore the curtain that separated His Holiness from us and made our bodies His temple to live in every single day wherever he sends us. Still today, but greater than then, there are many more religious divisions that separate many from the fullness of His truth.

In the middle of this story, and please read it to get the full story and it’s message of spiritual blindness, the Pharisee integrated the man Jesus had healed and did not believe the man’s truthful answers about him being born blind until they sent for his parents to testify for him about being born blind. His parents and most people had already received in their hearts a fearful spirit for the Jews. The Jewish leaders had already decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. Most Jews loved their religion, their reputation, and relationships they had from their synagogues more than they truly loved a God they could not see.

I can imagine a little of how they felt. They had been taught all their lives about God from their parents, grandparents, friends and synagogue priest who they were through their own eyes and relation to God. They would have to give all that up and walk away from what they had been taught for thousands of years! They would have to give up all the festivals, Sabbath day rules and animal sacrifices. They would have to give up giving a command amount of money instead of living through the heart of God. The would have to live solely by who Jesus was and what Jesus was teaching them through prayer and faith from God receiving all they needed from God. I had to give up what many had taught me from following many others for thousands of years that did follow His Word His early church followed. Many think it is a New way of doing things but truly it is His old and truthful ways coming back!

I was not wholeheartedly sold on the idea of Jesus because I did not see many people like Him that proved Him to be true. Their eyes were blind to who Jesus truly was and many who lived around me had eyes that were blind to His truth too. The parents in this story acknowledged he was their son and born blind, but they did not acknowledge Jesus being the one that healed their son’s blindness, they were too afraid.

I wonder often why so many “Christians” are so scared and fearful to acknowledge Jesus being their only Savior and Lord as their wisdom and daily healer of all they need to be healed from in this lifeless dark world we live in. I have gotten thrown out of religious “Christian” organizations and groups today for acknowledging the truth of Jesus, but unlike some of the Jews, I have no fearful spirit of being thrown out of any group or organization wherever He sends me. He who is in me, his love for me and my love for Him, is much greater than my love for myself and my love for anything or anyone in this world I live in. Through Him and His greatest love I can love Him, myself, others, and things with His truth in the correct measure and in the correct order for all! If someone throws me out or ask me to leave I dust off my feet, pray for them, bless them when I can, and move on to the next place or person He puts on my path or He sends me too. I receive a great blessing of His approval as His good and faithful servant and He handles the opening of their hearts and ears when and where, but I never compromise His truth and stop loving and praying for them.

After the parents were afraid to announce their son was healed by Jesus the Pharisee’s sent for the man a second time but he was not afraid to tell them Jesus was the man who healed them. He even stood up to them with truth and they threw him out!

John 9:30 The man answered, ( the Pharisee’s) “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, but he opened my eyes. (this was very brave to speak to the religious Pharisee this way) We know that God does not listen to sinners, He listens to the godly man who does his will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us! And they threw him out.

Jesus spoke to me through this passage about His power to see our hearts for God. This man claimed he knew God does not answer to sinners but listens to the godly man ( and woman) that does His will. Now I know this man was not a godly man who knew God, how could he, Jesus had not resurrected yet and no one truly knew God personally, not even Jesus’s closest friends, His disciples until they received His Holy Spirit after His resurrection. This man claimed God does not listen to anyone who does not want to do God’s will and by that we all know God knows our hearts and Jesus knew the heart of this man.

Jesus knew the man would go where Jesus told him to go and do everything Jesus told him to do and be a true witness for him without any fear long before the man ever knew. Jesus knew the man’s heart was to please God and so He was healed. Jesus knew this Jew would not put any religion above his relationship with God. The only reputation he had was a beggar always needing something. The power that took His fear away to speak the truth was given through His healing and he was not going to let any other spirit snatch it away!

That is what should be driving out our fear too. If we have been spiritually or physically healed through the power of Jesus we should be letting His powerful love and grace always move us to do and say all He gives us to do and say. Then comes the man’s Spiritual blind healing, and this is the beginning of my favorite conversation Jesus had with the Pharisee’s! We are almost at the meat of the story; thanks for staying tuned in!

John 9:35 Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?

This one statement of Jesus reveals the truth of the parable of him being the One true Shepherd going after His sheep. First we know Jesus knew the man’s heart was living to please God, not himself, humankind, or any earthly pleasures, and the Shepherd’s ears were tuned in to his sheep’s activity. This reveals to me our own relationship and how Jesus reacts to us in our own relationship through His Holy Spirit. I also know through His Holy Spirit He is aware of my heart for Him and He cares about my whereabouts.

Not only was Jesus’s ears tuned in to this man’s whereabouts his eyes were looking for Him because he found him. No body finds something they were not looking for and that goes for God as well as human beings. Then when Jesus found the man he had already physically healed he asked him the most important spiritual question he would ever be asked from the most important, Holy, and Godly Spiritual person who would ever walk the earth, One of the three Parts of God Himself, His Son face to face on earth. He ask us Spiritually.

“Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

This is where God leaves it all up to us. Do we believe who He is by all He has revealed to us, spiritually, physically, emotionally, and intellectually?

He has made everything about Him plainly known because God has made it plain. Since the Creation of the world God’s invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature- have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made so that human beings are without excuse. This means everyone’s ignorance can’t be anyone’s excuse anymore since the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus. (Romans 1:19-20)

One of the last words of Jesus was, “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” This does not hold any meaning after His resurrection because all God’s ways of making Himself known are finished through the work of Jesus by way of His Holy Spirit His Word testifies too. Many people say these words today, but God has taught us through His Holy Spirit no one has any excuse left because all has been given to us so we can clearly see through His eyes He is the First true Son God has made from Himself for man as a perfect man and He is also the Son of God that came from God. How did the man he physically healed from blindness respond to this question from Jesus?

“Who is he, sir? The man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.”

 He did not respond to Jesus the same way the religious people responded to Jesus. The blind man was not prideful, offended, or jealous of Jesus. He wanted to know who the Son of Man was, and he was not ashamed to admit he did not know who He was or not afraid to ask Jesus to tell him.

John 9:37 Jesus said, “You have now seen him,; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.

Can you imagine the blind man that was blind all of his life and then looking into the eyes of Jesus?! Then imagine him hearing with his ears and heart face to face who he was! We mostly hear Him through our hearts but there may be a time we can hear him through His audible voice. He can make his voice known any way He chooses! I am so thankful He has given me His Spiritual heart to hear Him and the soul and mind to perceive Him!

 John 9:38 then the man said, “Lord, I believe, and he worshiped him. Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.

This sounds odd to some people, why would Jesus want anyone that sees become blind? Remember, Jesus speaks in spiritual words. Those who are blind to the world can see His truth and those who think they can see the truth through their own eyes will be blind to His truth. The Pharisee religious people of his day was one of those groups that did not understand and since they followed him all the time in order to trap him in a lie they overheard him talking to the healed blind man.

John 9:40 Some Pharisee who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?

They were mocking Jesus calling themselves physically blind when everyone knew they could see. Then Jesus said something very bold face to face with the Pharisees. They had made God into the image they chose and thought it was the true God they had been worshiping. God had not communicated with any human over 400 years. They had changed his image to suite their own by twisting the meanings of His commands. How did Jesus respond to them? It was bold and stern, but it was not as daring as using the whip at the temple courtyard or the seven woes he had spoken to them another time.

John 9:41 Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.

This is an amazing truth that can change anyone from being spiritually blind to seeing Jesus clearly so they can become blind to the ways of the world and man-made traditions. Many today claim they can see God and claim they know God, just like the Pharisee’s did but they truly don’t because all the ways they worship and get to know Him does not come from Him and their guilt remains. That means the wrath of God still remains against them. IF we are spiritually blind to the world and see only Jesus and who He is by all His truth He reveals to us we will have no condemning guilt that weighs us down. The blind Hebrew Jewish man experienced this within himself and worshiped Jesus and what he believed would be even greater when he resurrected.

I have experienced this myself through my own salvation. I knew the weight of my sinful nature because He lifted off all my guilt and shame I had been caring for years without knowing the full weight of it. He forgave me just like He does everyone, through His gift of repentance I shared with him that came from my heart. I saw the spiritual truth of who He was and the sight of Him I have never walked away from and He will never walk away from me. He will not ever walk away from you as long as you remain in Him and His Word He will remain in you and whatever you ask in His name He will give you. This is for His Father’s glory through the Son.

John 15:7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given to you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

Can you imagine the look on their faces when Jesus told them they were guilty of sin because they claimed they could spiritually see. They were spiritually blind to Him instead of being spiritually blind to this world. I do not think they knew at all what He was talking about because only the spiritually healed eyes can see Jesus and become spiritually blind to the world. Being Spiritually blind to Jesus is the greatest sickness the world can have because the symptoms cause a weight of condemnation guilt and shame no one can see without Him. I pray this has made you see the truth of who He is more clearly and hold on to him tighter than you ever have in these dark times that give you a false sense of light that deceives you like the Pharisees were deceived. I hope we all see Him through His Holy Spirit His Word testifies too the way He wants all of us to see Him!