Healing the Blind Man
or
Blind Man Receives Sight
John 9:1-17
International Sunday School Lesson
April 29, 2012
Commentary
By
Jed Greenough
Do you live your life out in creeds? I believe we all do or at least should and if you spend much time in God’s word I believe that at just the right moment He impresses those creeds upon you by speaking to you from His word. As Christians that means we are to share those realizations with our brothers and sisters.
There have been two creeds that God has impressed upon me more than any others. The first is that we have a duty to each other. I have responsibility for you and you have responsibility for your brother and so on down the line.
That responsibility for you one day might be to let a fellow Christian know that they are straying from God’s path. It might be that because your gift is encouragement you are to lift someone up at a crucial moment. It could be that you have the ability to give monetary support. Perhaps you need to teach and you haven’t been but act to rectify the situation. All these things and more are done because of our responsibility for each other.
For me that responsibility is in this weekly sharing with you. The goal being that by ripple effect I can create a positive influence in the church. This brings me to the second creed which is to impress upon you our need to throw out the “me” mentality that pervades our sermons, songs, programs, classes and prayers and turn back to glorifying God. I know there are those among you that do this and God bless you, but I know that there are many more that need to look with new eyes and listen with ears that hear.
When you examine your pet project in the church and when you look at what are social classes instead of truly Biblical ones you will be turning onto the track. When you start hearing the we’s and I’s and the pride in your speaking moments and when you turn it to the He’s and Him’s meaning God and His will and His praises then you will have returned to what He intended.
Last week when we read about Jesus and the Samaritan woman visiting at the well we were given the message of worshiping the Father in spirit and truth. This giving God the glory is one of those ways we do this. We forget this at times just as the Jewish people did by taking the spirit of God’s law and twisting it into something that it wasn’t.
Today’s scripture is an example of this with regard to the Sabbath. God gave them the command to honor the Sabbath by not working but resting. They took it and shaped it like a potter does a new creation into something unrecognizable. In today’s scripture the Pharisees looked for wrong in a good that was done because it was done on the Sabbath. This is not the spirit and truth that God intended and they show that they are not the potter but the clay and the clay can no more make a pot then a pot can drink from itself.
Jesus demonstrates this potter’s touch by turning some clay into sight. He did it on the Sabbath because healing was the thing do to at that time. It did not matter what day it was. This is the spirit of God, the truth of God. And it was demonstrated to bring glory back to the Father which was the intention in the beginning.
Are you ready to search out all the ways that God has demonstrated in the scriptures that the true way, the right way is to first and always give Him the glory? Can your pride accept that God could make a man blind for years just for this day with Jesus to show that?
The Pharisees demonstrated in the latter verses of this chapter that they could no longer do that or were not willing to do that. We read that they excommunicated people who acknowledged Jesus and it appears they did it to the man that Jesus healed.
God’s intent was that man worship and glorify Him but they took away the only means that people knew how to do that. The complete opposite of what God intended.
Let’s use the words of Jesus from verse 4. As long as we have a day to do it in lets you and I do the work of He who chose us, “and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve His God and Father—to Him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.” Revelation 1:6
For Discussion:
1. Discuss opinion as to why Jesus didn’t just heal the man instead of going through the process that He did.
2. Discuss what people think now and have thought in the past about God using us in ways such as He did by making this man blind for His glory.
3. Other incidents during Sabbath: Matthew 12:1-14, Mark 1:21-28, Luke 13:10-17, Luke 14:1-6 and John 5:1-15.
4. Read today’s verse 16. Are we ever guilty of such sweeping statements? Of course! Discuss.
5. Discuss in general terms people that may be known who have been afflicted in some manner that have turned from God.
6. Discuss people that may be known who though afflicted have given God more glory.
7. Discuss how God uses affliction such as blindness in our life to give us “sight”.
8. As I write this Fall has only just begun and as you read this Spring has barely sprung. Do you need an upcoming lesson before it is posted? Let me know!
Upcoming Adult Sunday School Class Commentaries
5-6-12: The Bread of Life John 6:22-35
5-13-12: The Good Shepherd John 10:7-18
5-20-12: The Resurrection and the Life John 11:17-27 or John 11:17-27, 41-44
5-27-12: The Way, the Truth, and the Life John 14:1-14
Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved
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