The Man Born Blind (14)

The man born blind has received his sight by the wonderful work of the Lord Jesus. Perhaps many wonderful works in today’s world are described to attain a wonderful life. How many of us are not hoping for a wonderful life? Many homeless people or financially unstable people are hoping to win the lottery so they can have a wonderful life. Many can describe their hopes for a wonderful life although they do not own the reality. That wonderful life would be a life of peace, prosperity, and love. We live in days when every politician is campaigning that better days are ahead. The Bible is honest. It does not blindfold the multitudes with a false hope or a false perception of life and its struggles. The Bible reveals how the Lord guides His people in their strife because of the wonder in their life. This guidance is revealed in the experience! Notice that in the strife of this healed man, he is led to a firmer knowledge and witness of the true peace, divine prosperity, and eternal love in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The wonders in the Bible are lights to examine our own life. The wonder of the healed man shows our great need. You and I need our eyes opened. We need a wonder to take place. With all our hopes for a wonderful life, the truth is that outside of the wonder of true conversion they will find no fulfillment because the truth is, “the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” The Lord will give in His people’s life a dependence upon Him.

We wrote last time how this man was confirmed by the Pharisees of his portion by grace: “Thou art his disciple.” We said then that this confirmation was not the saving grace of Christ Himself. In the life of a true child of God, the Lord is going to direct their strife to be about the Person of the Mediator. Because to know Him according to John 17:3 is “life eternal.”

The healed man testifies to these Pharisees how credible the divinity of the Lord Jesus is. He proves it to them that never was a man healed to receive his sight like in his case: “Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was blind.” Notice in this testimony that the healed man is convinced the Person of the Mediator is God. “If this man were not of God, He could do nothing.” The Bible clearly shows that before Christ reveals Himself in His Person that this man is convinced who Christ is. For him Christ is God; it is clear in this man’s life because of the great wonder. Yet because of this wonder he is going to be cast out.

See here then, striving Church, the wonders of God’s power may be clear, but the knowledge of the Person may still be missing. The wonder of His power is not the Person. The Bible reveals that this man needs to be cast out with the wonders of God’s power to receive a firmer knowledge and witness in which his soul will be comforted by Christ in His Person. The Bible traces the pathway of the riddles these people encounter. Instead of receiving a wonderful life, they encounter a fierce strife because of the wonder, but God has His enemies in His hands to guide all His people in the pathway to great comfort.

To be cast out was not a minor inconvenience. The opinions vary, but most commentators described this to be an awful punishment. With the evidence of God’s power, he must bear a heavy punishment. Notice that the punishment is unjust! The Bible is clear that the excommunication in the church must function for the healing of souls due to straying in sin and not repenting from their sins. Here the punishment is unjust because the blind man receives it out of malice for the truth’s sake. The Pharisees declare a judgment, “Thou wast altogether born in sins.” With this they seek to qualify the healed man to be cast out and they pronounce this judgment on him. For him it becomes reality, “And they cast him out.” Now he is not allowed in the synagogue, and no one may employ him. His life in Israel is over! He must suffer in a deep, unjust way. It is the last step the Jews can take to rid the evidence of Messiah’s power in their synagogue by casting out the clear proof of His divine power. For the healed man this is the point it had to come to for the Lord Jesus to come back to him.

The strife of God’s people so often can obscure the purpose, but here the Bible is clear; this man is cast out to be visited as an outcast. As an outcast he will receive firmer knowledge and clearer witness of the wonder that God in Christ—and all His benefits—is his portion. Here, also, the Lord shows that His people will have to follow in His footsteps. The persecutions will never be completely spared for those whose life is a testimony of God’s power. However, it is also clear proof that the Lord knows and will come to find and confirm His people in their faith. Blessed people!

(To be continued)

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