Broadway Christian Church · Columbia, Missouri

Morning Worship · July 12, 2009

Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

Prayer of the Day

God of Grace and of Glory; as we come before you, we ask that you help us to see as Jesus did. He not only saw physically, he saw spiritually. Enlighten our minds and hearts and enlarge our vision of life so we can behold all the wonders of your creation. We ask these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Scripture

John 9:13-30

They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight. He said to them, “He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see.” Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not observe the Sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?” And they were divided. So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened.” He said, “He is a prophet.”

The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” His parents answered, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but we do not know how it is that now he sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”

So for the second time they called the man who had been blind, and they said to him, “Give glory to God! We know that the man is a sinner.” He answered, “I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” Then they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” The man answered, “Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes…”

Message

To See Life as Christ Sees It

Larry Gallamore

Have you ever seen something so clearly, something so miraculous, that you couldn’t deny it? That’s what this biblical story is all about. Jesus heals a man who has been blind from birth. The people around are amazed. How is it that this guy can see? What do we know about this event? The news media must have had a heyday with this one. It calls for an investigation and the religious leaders of the day (Pharisees) take the lead.

No one believes the man can see. They’ve known him for years. He sat on the street corner and begged. Everyone is talking about this healing. The neighbors do not know what to think. They have never seen anything like this before. They are so suspicious. They are wondering if this is the same man. They are so upset! They are trying to find easy and logical ways of explaining it away.

The guy who is overjoyed puts an end to all their speculation when he appears before them and says, “Hi guys! It’s me! Look at me! I am the man born blind. I’m the beggar that sat on the street corner begging!”

His neighbors, his friends, and the Pharisees just can’t understand how this could happen. Instead of rejoicing over the man’s good fortune, they were blind as to what had happened.

Let’s look carefully at this story. Here’s what’s going on. Jesus saw people as being healthy, not sick or having some handicapping condition. When he encountered the blind man, Jesus immediately started to see him whole. He saw a man who was blind but soon would see.

Jesus was always seeing people at their best. He looked at the blind man and began to think of how elated the man would be when he could see. But there is more at stake in this healing than the gift of sight. There is a manifestation of the power and presence of God to change people spiritually. The blind man not only starts to see physically, he starts to see spiritually. 

The neighbors cannot understand what has happened. They try every way in the world to explain it away. Now you know why Jesus often told people when they were healed not to tell anyone. When God heals someone, neighbors, relatives, even some religious people will try to tell them they are not really healed. It’s hard for any of us to admit that something lies outside our range of knowledge.

The neighbors’ whole world was upset. A blind man who used to sit on their street and beg now sees and converses with them. They turned immediately to the authorities for answers. The sad commentary is that neither the Pharisees nor the church had any answers. So they start an interrogation of the blind man who can now see. They bring in his parents. Is this your son, who you say was born blind? The parents say, “Yes, yes, yes! He was born blind. Yes, he can now see. We have no idea how this all happened. You’ll have to ask him.”

How’s that for throwing their son under the bus? The Pharisees can’t wait to talk to the man. They tighten their ranks and present a united front against the man born blind and Jesus. The lines of battle are drawn: the Pharisees on one side and the man born blind and Jesus on the other side. They ask the former blind man all the questions they can think of about Jesus. They are trying to get him to turn on Jesus. The former blind man turns the tables on the Pharisees. He beats them at their own game. They proclaim Jesus a sinner. The former blind man says, “Now come on, guys, God doesn’t listen to sinners. God listened to Jesus and gave him the power to heal me. Secondly, look at me. My eyes are open. I can see. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”

The former blind man could see physically, but he could also see spiritually. He was seeing the good in everyone. He was seeing life in the way Jesus saw life.

Here is what we know. As Jesus was walking along the road one day, he came upon a man born blind. He healed the man and the entire ninth chapter of John is about the public stir that took place. The story shows us how spiritually blind most of us are. No one could believe Jesus healed the man.

Spiritual blindness was of epic proportion during those days, and I shudder to inform you that it is of epic proportion today. Not many among us have 20/20 spiritual sight.

Most of us have known some wonderful saints of God who had enormous spiritual sight. My paternal grandmother was physically blind from the age of thirteen, but she had 20/20 spiritual sight. She saw life as Christ sees life. She raised seven children and cooked on a wood-burning kitchen stove along with providing all the other needs of her husband and children. She was a spiritual giant, a saint. She was incredible.

When I think of her, I think of people like Fanny Crosby who lost her physical eyesight at seven or eight years old. Fanny Crosby learned early in life to see life as Jesus sees life. Listen to what she wrote when she was eight years old:

O what a happy child I am,

Although I cannot see.

I am resolved that in this world,

Contented I will be.

How many blessings I enjoy,

That other people don’t,

To weep and sigh

Because I’m blind,

I cannot and I won’t.

Fanny Crosby lived to be over 90 years old, and that beautiful, rejoicing spirit characterized her all her days. To see physically is wonderful, but to see spiritually is even more wonderful. How do you see?

How incredibly wonderful it is to see life as Jesus sees it. As you read the Bible, you’ll notice that throughout the Bible, the Christian faith is presented in terms of vision. Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” John’s gospel is a running commentary of great souls standing their ground against the pagan degradation of those who have seen something so clearly they cannot deny it.

To see life as Jesus sees it is to see real life. Jesus looked at people, money, friendship, trouble, death, and a host of other important issues in life. In fact, he looked at life in its totality and in every aspect of life he saw life as worth living. Once you have experienced this kind of living and seeing, you will no doubt be able to say with the blind man in our gospel story, “One thing I know that whereas I was blind, now I see.”

This gift of vision was the aim of Jesus’ ministry. Consider Zaccheus the tax collector, the woman of Samaria, Mary Magdalene, and all the rest. They all had seen life in one way before they met Jesus, but after they met Jesus, their spiritual eyes were opened, and they could see life in all its abundance. To see as Jesus sees is to discover all there is in life.

History has proven this again and again. With the eyes of his mind, Galileo saw the planets moving around the sun. Sir Isaac Newton, in the eyes of his imagination, saw universal gravitation and the three laws of motion which dominated the scientific view of the physical universe for 300 years. Such supreme turning points in the history of science represent hours of insight, vision, and extraordinary seeing.

Jesus saw more than any other person who has ever lived. He saw people with leprosy made clean and whole. He saw those in poverty and knew that they could be rich. He saw sinners who could become saints. If anyone ever saw the best in humanity, it was Jesus.

He saw those who were sick becoming whole. And when he saw these healings in his imagination, everyone that he touched was made whole. He saw life as it was, but he also saw life as it could be. If we could only see life as Jesus did.

Nothing makes more difference than the way one sees life. To see life as Nietzsche saw it and as Hitler saw it or to see life as Jesus saw it – what a difference! You are missing out on life if you don’t see life as Jesus sees it.

Let me tell you, it’s not easy to see life as Jesus sees it. It’s not easy to believe that Christ can enable you to see more. We believe that we see all there is to see.

In my youth there came a time on my own Christian journey when I wasn’t seeing much. God was calling me to preach and I said, “God, I don’t see it. How can I go into the ministry if I can’t see clearly what you’ve planned for me?” One of the greatest days in my life came when God in that still, small voice spoke to me and said, “Son, preach what you can see.” That was the way I started. It seemed so little to go on at first because I saw so little, yet now as an older, more mature man, I am glad that I humbly joined the great tradition of the blind man in our story. I can truly say, “Once I was blind, but now I see.”

Surely, I’m speaking to someone’s personal condition here this morning. Don’t shut yourself off from Jesus. The Pharisees were blind and alienated from all source of life. You don’t want to end up like that. Some of the most moving stories in the Christian faith are stories of people like this blind man who trusted God to give him his sight.

Start where you are with what you do see; be true to that, and so go on to see more as this blind man did. In the end, he believed in Jesus and he worshipped him. We will never see and never know unless we risk the experience of Jesus.

So be it. Amen.

Benediction

All Seeing One; open the eyes of our hearts to reveal the world through your eyes. Then, God, we ask that you fix our vision. Give us vision that can see the close-up and personal things right in front of our eyes, and vision that can see ahead in the distance. Then, nearsighted or farsighted, we will see your beauty. Amen.