Blindness in the Christian world

In our Sunday service we continued discussing the matter of the day before concerning the insight and/or wisdom which people may receive. We also reflected on the reading of some days before (John chapter 8). the last few weeks we have been under attack and had loads of letters telling us we are haters of God, haters of Jesus, damned people, anti-Christ and certainly not Christians but people who shall “burn in hell” for eternally tortured. though we did find it funny one writer directly noticing that we did not believe in hell as a torture place so perhaps this saying would not frighten us or dare us.

Lots of the writers took a very un-Christian attitude against us and we wonder how they would like to convert people if they react such a way as we can see how they start threatening people who have other believes than theirs. Some accusers told us also to read the gospel of John. For us that is just one of the gospels which most clearly gives a good picture about whom Jesus is and about who he is not.

John the Evangelist, Russian icon from first q... — John the Evangelist, Russian icon from first quarter of 18th cen. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In his whole gospel the apostle John focusses on Jesus as the 2nd Adam, the one sent from God and the first-born of the new creation. For the apostle John it was clear that Jesus from Nazareth was the long awaited Messiah. At the beginning of his book he therefore also refers to Jesus as the one who was promised at the beginning of the human world.

Some also referred to the “I am” quote in chapter 8. In it they do think Jesus is telling that he is God, but he is referring to him being the person who is been sent by God, not God himself. Good they take this chapter from John, because in it Jesus speaks about the blindness of people also indicating about the blindness of faith, people bounded to human teaching and not willing to listen to the words of Scripture. For the gospel of John is an ideal gospel to get to know Jesus. Them mentioning it we shall continue to look at what is written in it.

Unlike the other gospel writers, John does not set out to give an account of all that Jesus did. Matthew, Mark and Luke had already done that. Instead he selects seven episodes from the ministry of Jesus that in his view show beyond doubt that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God. He narrates the events of those seven occasions in great detail…

He tells us where they happened, the time of day, the people who were present, what Jesus said, the reaction of the crowds, even the feelings of the apostles at the time. It is the nearest we can get to a documentary. Looking over the shoulder of John, we come into the presence of Jesus, and see the Son of God at work in our world – a wonderful example of love and compassion.

Joh 8:12 ESV Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Jesus is the sent one from above, by the heavenly Father, the Only One God:

Joh 8:16 ESV Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me.

Joh 8:18 ESV I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me.”

Joh 8:24-32 ESV I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.” (25) So they said to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “Just what I have been telling you from the beginning. (26) I have much to say about you and much to judge, but he who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.” (27) They did not understand that he had been speaking to them about the Father. (28) So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. (29) And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.” (30) As he was saying these things, many believed in him. (31) So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, (32) and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

We should come to understand that Jesus gets his words from his heavenly Father. He does not presents his own words, which he would do when he would be God. In Christ Jesus we do find the Most High Elohim working. Jesus came from above, being placed in the womb of the young girl Miriam (Mary). In case he would not have been placed by god he could not call unto God as his heavenly Father like now. Without God he (Jesus) would perhaps not be here but certainly could not do the same things and could not have so much wisdom from God like he has now. Though it is up to the world to come to see what God gave and why this man from Nazareth should be lifted up and be praised for who he is is and for what he has done.

Joh 5:17 ESV But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”

Joh 3:12-21 ESV If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? (13) No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. (14) And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, (15) that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. (16) “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (17) For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. (18) Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. (19) And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. (20) For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. (21) But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

In the works Jesus did we should come to see his heavenly calling. But we also should come to hear what Jesus said on many occasions when he did such incredible things, we call miracles. You see nothing is of authority of Jesus. In case he was or is God it would be his own authority and his own wish and than he would always have done his own wish, though Jesus clearly says not his will but the will of God has to be done.

Mat 6:10 ESV Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Mat 26:42 ESV Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.”

Joh 4:34 ESV Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.

Joh 6:40 ESV For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

Joh 7:16-18 ESV So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. (17) If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. (18) The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood.

Joh 8:49-50 ESV (40) Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. (50) Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge.

Joh 8:54-55 ESV Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ (55) But you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word.

Joh 14:9-17 ESV Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? (10) Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. (11) Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves. (12) “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. (13) Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. (14) If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. (15) “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. (16) And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, (17) even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

Joh 14:23-24 ESV Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. (24) Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.

Joh 14:27-30 ESV Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. (28) You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. (29) And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe. (30) I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me,

Clearly here again Jesus let us hear that he and the Father are two different entities of which one (Jehovah) is greater than the other (Jesus), who was first lower than the angels (though God was, is and always shall be the Most High), was tempted (God cannot be tempted) and really died (God cannot die).

Joh 5:17-27 ESV But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” (18) This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. (19) So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. (20) For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. (21) For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. (22) The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, (23) that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. (24) Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. (25) “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. (26) For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. (27) And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.

We do hope those verses may be clear enough of the importance of the sonship of the Nazarene who we should take as the one who died for the sins of many and who is the one who paid the ransom to the Most High Elohim Who accepted this offering.

In John chapter 8 in verses 4-6 Jesus says his time was running out. It was still ‘day’, because he, the light of the world, was still among them. But the night would come, when his work would be ended by the Prince of this world, and temporarily the light would be snuffed out. He refers back to his claim to be the Light of the World. Then he proceeds to bring light into the darkness of the man standing before him. The world had to come to see the sign of the one spoken of in the centuries of other men of God, like the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel, but also priests like Simeon who blessed many and said to the infant’s mother Mary that her son is the one is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign to be opposed. (Luke 2:34)

The method Jesus used to treat the blind one feels uncomfortable to us, but in the First Century saliva was held to have healing properties (see Mark 7:33 and 8:23). In this case Jesus did not use saliva alone. He mixed it with dust to make a paste of mud, which he rubbed over the man’s blind eyes. So now the man was doubly blind – blind from birth, and blinded by the clay. What does clay represent? In the Bible, clay stands for ‘the flesh’. We are all made from dust. We are clay in the hands of God the Potter. The image of Nebuchadnezzar has feet of iron mixed with clay. Dust has no worth. The flesh, the might and pride of man, blinds us to the goodness of God. So the blind man with his clay-covered eyes represents man in his natural state, walking in darkness and unable to recognise the Truth. The blind man represents you and me – but this blind man was going to see!

We can also that there are many blind people and deaf people in this world who do not come to see what is really written in the Holy Scriptures. They are blinded and keep their ears stiff deaf to other teachings than the human doctrine of a tri-une god. Many have been born in a family brought up in a trinitarian faith-group and enjoying the many folkloric feasts. The want to keep those traditional celebrations and enjoy all the rites offered by their community. They do not love to break with those traditions. So we can understand it is not easy to come to hear what is really written in the Bible and to what we should really keep ourselves. Lots of people are also afraid if they would have an other faith not liked by the majority of the community were they are living in. Not many would like to show others what they belief when it is not conform the majority or general thinking.

Verse 7 is illuminating. The man was told to go to the pool of Siloam. The site has been re-identified recently. The traditional small pool at the exit from Hezekiah’s Tunnel was not the one where the blind man washed. The pool in the time of Jesus was a much broader area, further down the hill, with wide steps. We can imagine him with his stick, tapping his way down the busy road, a strange sight with his muddy eyes.

What about the name of the pool? John translates it from the Hebrew. It means ‘sent’. Jesus, John says many times, was sent from God. He is the one who can give us the light of the Truth. The blind man bent down and washed his face. Then he looked up from the water. Brilliant light dazzled his brain. The blue sky, the shapes of trees and stones and people, swift moving birds and hovering butterflies, flooded into his view. The extent of the miracle is amplified because he had never seen before. Normally it takes us weeks or months as babies to programme our brains to recognise and interpret the signals entering our brain. In this case, the re-programming was instantaneous. With a smile on his face, he returned to his familiar begging pitch in much less time than he had taken on the way to Siloam.

In verses 8 and 9 the people who hung around the Temple area thought they recognised him, but then they didn’t. He had the same features, but his eyes were open and clear. Some of them decided he was a different man who just happened to look like him. But he insisted he was the man who was blind.

Joh 9:8-9 ESV The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” (9) Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.”

The situation was so unusual that the bystanders decided the authorities needed to be informed about it. They marched off with the healed man to the Pharisees. John notes, in parenthesis, that Jesus had chosen once again to do this miracle on a Sabbath. The rulers felt they were losing control of the situation. But the blind man’s explanation as to how he found his sight gave some of them an argument to use against Jesus. By making a paste of mud and putting it on the man’s eyes, they said, he had done work on the Sabbath. How pathetic, to ignore the wonderful blessing that Jesus had brought, and instead condemn him on a technicality! Even some of their own number rebelled at such a reaction. How could he not be from God when he had worked an unprecedented miracle?

In verses 18 to 23 the authorities now follow a new line of enquiry.

Joh 9:18-23 ESV 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 (19) and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” (20) His parents answered, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. (21) But how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” (22) (His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.) (23) Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”

Perhaps the blind man had not been blind after all. Perhaps all this time he had been cheating – only pretending to be blind in order to extract sympathy from people. They summon his parents to establish the facts. The parents confirm that indeed he was their son and, yes, he was born blind. They were not, however, prepared to speculate as to how he had been healed. The parents had now supplied the hard evidence they asked for, leaving the rulers facing the fact that Jesus seemed to have worked an amazing miracle.

They try again. The blind man is recalled to the assembly. Perhaps, they suggest, he had lied last time. This time they insist, he must tell the truth. They put him on oath (“give glory to God” is a legal formula – see Joshua 7:19). Jesus could not really be the source of his healing, they say, because Jesus was a sinner. Come on, they insist, tell us what really happened. He says he cannot comment on Jesus being a sinner, but the fact is, he can now see. They press him. Perhaps they can force him into an inconsistency: “Tell us again exactly how he did it!”

The healed man becomes exasperated by their obduracy. With remarkable spirit, but driven by the wonder of his healing, he dares to condemn their blindness. How could a man work such an unprecedented wonder without the power of God?

They pronounce their judgement on him. How dare he teach them, the experts? They deliver the dreaded excommunication. What a warning of the extremes to which we can be driven when we try to justify a position which if abandoned would cause us to lose face! The Pharisees could not afford to lose this contest. So they resorted to the traditional weapons of defeated intellect – abuse, and the use of power to cripple the opposition.

Jesus needed to seek out the healed man and bring him to know the true source of his healing. The blind man had not seen Jesus before, for the obvious reason he was blind when they first met. He had only heard his voice. Now he recognises Jesus as the one who healed him, and he has no hesitation in declaring his faith. He falls at his feet in worship. We must each reach this point too, if we wish to be saved.

In verse 39 Jesus draws the threads together for us.

Joh 9:39 ESV Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.”

He came to bring judgement into the world. It is a judgement we bring upon ourselves by the way we react to him. We cannot sit on the fence about Jesus. If we admit we are in darkness, like the blind man, and walk in faith to the water of baptism, washing away our sins in the one God sent, He has the power to bring light into our lives. But if our vision is obscured by the clay of the flesh with its pride and self-reliance, even though we think we can see, we will remain blind until we die.

How thankful we can be to John, setting down from his days with Jesus such a vivid picture of what it was like to live in the presence of the Son of God and not a god son who would have faked his temptation, his death, his resurrection with an act which could not proof anything, but now having a man of flesh and blood being taken out of the dead, after three days in hell, (what would God have to do there?) we have an example of what can happen to us to, and have something to look forward, in a living hope.

We should condemn nobody, like Jesus did not condemn others. We can only try to let others see what is the truth. Lots of them take on an attitude against the teachings of Jesus, but that perhaps should show to us they are not the real or right followers of Christ, or that they shall still have to travel a long way to come like Christ.

Let us always try to show the Light of the world by following the teachings of the master teacher, rabbi Jeshua. Let us do our best to walk in his footsteps so that we can come to insight and bear light in us as well. We should keep to the words like they are presented to us in the Holy Scriptures and know that even if Jesus testified about himself we should take his testimony to be true, for we are told that Jesus is without sin, so did not tell lies. As such when he said he did not know who would be sitting next to him, he did not know it; Also when he said he did not know when the end of times would come or when he would come back, he did not know it. In case he is God he would have known and would not have told the truth. But we are also told that God does not tell lies, so this should have a bell ringing in many heads. Though we do have to hear it ringing. We do have to see those contradictions in Scriptures, in case it would be one and the same person.
We can stay blind because we do not want to hear that Jesus tells he knows where he came from, and where he is going. Though we do see many judge according to the flesh whilst Jesus judges no one. Even if he would judge one, which he shall do later in time, his judgement shall be true, for we should know that Jesus decides not on his own. At the moment he is also taken up high in heavens to sit at the right hand of God to be a mediator between man and God.

Mat 26:63-64 ESV But Jesus remained silent. And the high priest said to him, “I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.” (64) Jesus said to him, “You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

Many once more do say Jesus answer with say he is the “I Am” but once more Jesus is giving a replay saying he is the person where they are speaking over. Like we would reply “I am” when asked if we are so and so, and when it is right we also would say the same as Jesus, but for sure we shall not be God like he is not God when he says ‘”I am”.

Mar 14:61-62 ESV But he remained silent and made no answer. Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” (62) And Jesus said, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.”

Jesus is the person where Scripture writers tell about, and that is also what we should come to see and believe. We also should come to belief he was resurrected from the dead and taken up by his heavenly Father who sent him and has allowed him now to be a High Pries for God and a mediator sitting at God’s Right Hand.

Act 2:25-36 ESV For David says concerning him, “‘I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken; (26) therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; my flesh also will dwell in hope. (27) For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption. (28) You have made known to me the paths of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’ (29) “Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. (30) Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, (31) he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. (32) This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. (33) Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. (34) For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, “‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, (35) until I make your enemies your footstool.”‘ (36) Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

Heb 6:13-20 ESV For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, (14) saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” (15) And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. (16) For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. (17) So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, (18) so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. (19) We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, (20) where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

1Ti 2:3-6 ESV This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, (4) who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (5) For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, (6) who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.

Please let us remember all this and look up at the light of the world, the one sent by the Only One True God, knowing that it is important to know exactly who is who and Who we do have to serve and worship acceptably. We have grace, whereby we may serve God and please Him, the Most High Adonai, with reverence and awe or godly fear, for no doubt our God is a consuming fire.

Joh 8:12 ESV Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Joh 8:14-17 ESV Jesus answered, “Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. (15) You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. (16) Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. (17) In your Law it is written that the testimony of two people is true.

Heb 12:22-29 ESV But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, (23) and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, (24) and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. (25) See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. (26) At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” (27) This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. (28) Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, (29) for our God is a consuming fire.

Preceding articles:

Those who love Jesus

Wanting to live in Christ’s city

Searching, light, fear and deliverance

Chaff and the shoot out of the stock of Jesse

Hearing words to accept

Fools despise wisdom and instruction

You shall howl in your latter end

At the end of your life

Illuminating our minds and watching out

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Judge Not, It’s For Your Own Sakes (planet.infowars.com)
Every individual of humanity will be judged by the measure that they’ve judged others. Many are going to be shocked, having the misconception that ‘God is unjust!’, when hypocritically all along they were.
Christianity Without Christ (mymorningmeditations.com)
Why is that so many people think my affirmations are antithetical to Christianity? I think it is because Christianity has placed all of its eggs in the belief basket. We all have been trained to think that Christianity is about believing things. Its symbols and artifacts (God, Bible, Jesus, Heaven, etc) must be accepted in a certain way. And when times change and these beliefs are no longer credible, the choices we are left with are either rejection or fundamentalism.