A Blind Man Healed

“He saw
a man.”

John ix. I.

“I am the Light of the world.”

John ix. 5.

“AND as Jesus passed by, he
-^^ saw a man who was blind
from his birth.”

Now what will happen? For, anb (J^tijer interpretations; remember this blind man Is a test, a touchstone, to bring out what is in Jesus — and to bring out what is in the disciples, too. For every misfortune, every calamity, every sorrow, every deprivation and tragedy of life, is a touchstone for the passerby. The beggar on Dives’ steps was God’s testing of Dives.

For the disciples the blind man was an occasion for rabbinic hair-splitting. “Who did the sin, this man or his parents?” To Jesus the blind man was an occasion for working the works of God “for his healing and saving. Perhaps no passage brings into sharper contrast the mind of Christ, and the average minds of the average disciples. We do not care greatly about the individual, the man. Everything is a ‘^ problem.” Poverty, crime, weakness, old age, sickness, all suffering — these are ‘’ problems.” In their presence we

Matt. XXV.
31-46.

Luke xvi.
19-31.

John ix. 2.

Scientific’’ cruelty.

John ix.
3,4.

“Man ’
problem r’’

Mo 3iom in tfje 3nn

ask our hard little questions about distribution of wealth, heredity, environment, sanitation.

The East Side festers and brawls and “sells a girl for wine.” We plant a “settlement,” and study the question scientifically. In other days, when men still believed in Divine power, the Five Points became intolerable, and Faith said, “Let us plant the Gospel there,” and lo! the old miracles: the captives are unbound, the filthy become clean, and the children’s faces are happy.

There is a scientific and police way of looking at crime and wretchedness, and there is a Christ Jesus way. One sees “crime” — an abstract thing, or problem; the other sees a criminal, a soul lost to God, a life lost to humanity.

Christ’s

way.

I am saying nothing against the detective point of view, the reformanb 0t))tv SnterpretationsJ er’s point of view, except that Christ was neither detective nor reformer. He was humanity’s Priest, Sacrifice and Friend. Our ^’ problems” but touched Him with compassion, and set Him to working the works of God. They set us to breeding bacilh from the agony of dumb animals.

When Jesus announces Himself in some new character it is never an abstract thing, as a mere declaration of fact concerning Himself, but a revelation of something in Himself, which answers to human needs. And in John’s account of Him, there is commonly an illustrative miracle. The Light of the world will give sight to the blind eyes of this man’s body, but He will also give eyes to his soul.

*’ Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? He an-John viii. 3-11.

Revelation

through

deeds.

John ix.
5-7.

John ix.
34-38.

Mo iom in tfje 3nn

Faith is a

living

thing,

John ix.

John ix.
17.

John ix.
38.

The nrst
need.
Luke iv.
18.

swered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him.”

How the faith of that man grew! Mark the stages — first he speaks of Him as ‘* A man that is called Jesus,” then as “a prophet “and then as “the Son of God,” and note the steadfastness with which, against all opposition and persuasion, this young man stood manfully by his convictions. He could not answer the sophistries and dogmatisms with which his simple testimony was met, but he could stand by that testimony at all hazards. That was the simple manliness of him, and his reward was increase of knowledge and faith.

Light is man’s first need. He does not know himself, he does not anb 0ti)tv SnterpretationjS know his state, he does not know God. Man Is bond-servant to much beside sin. Darkness, ignorance, blind traditionalism, dead apathy, race and personal prejudice, these are all fetters.

These Jews illustrate that. They were Abraham’s seed; that, they thought, answered everything. Conceit is a fetter. What a lying boast, ‘’ we have never yet been in bondage to any man,” when politically, they were in bondage to an assortment of despots, working down from Cassar, through Herod and Pilate, to the meanest tax-gatherer. Religiously they were in bondage to a system of traditionalism and of wearisome outward observances — “the yoke that neither we nor our fathers were able to bear.”

To Jesus, the world seemed peopled by slaves. No man was free. Caesar was only the empurpled slave of his ambitions, his fears and

John viii.
33.

Acts XV.
10.

A world of
slaves.

Luke IV.

jSo 3iom in tfje 3nn

John 1. 9.

2 Cor. iv.
6.

John xviii.
38.

his vices. Herod and Pilate were slaves, first to Caesar, and then, each, to a host of personal ambitions, fears and sins. And the pathetic and tragic fact to Him was, that so far from knowing their state they fancied themselves free. It is the pathos and tragedy of the race! All men fancy themselves free and think only Christians are in bondage.

Christ is ‘* the Light of the world.” Perhaps as He uttered those sublime words, all about Him the eight great lamps of the women’s court were paling in the rosy coming of dawn. The worshippers were turning toward the East. But the true Light had risen already. The light of the knowledge of the true character of God was spreading more and more over the face of Jesus Christ.

And it was just when every other light had failed. The primitive anb 0tf)tv SnterpretattoitjS

3S

civilization, in the Euphrates and the Nile valleys, had gone, leaving masses of monstrous and grotesque masonry covered with childishly bombastic inscriptions, which have not enriched the world by one noble thought, or clear idea. Greek civilization had perished in unfathomable moral degradation. Roman civilization had but borrowed from Greece. Jewish civilization had become a mere bigotry. It was time for the Light to shine, time for the Breaker of fetters to come. He came to preach deliverance to the captive, and recovery of sight to the blind.

‘’ I am the Light of the world” — Jesus took the lowest place, but He set His claim above all other claims. Not a light, but the Light. What does He mean by light? He tells us: He means truth. All sin, all prejudice, all narrowness, all blindness, all bigotry, hatred and

Luke iv.
18.

The real

freedom.

John viii.

Matt. X. 37.

John viii.
40.

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iOto loom in tJie 3nn

self-will, all these, In the last analysis, are phases of a monstrous lie.

Truth puts things into right relations. God seems very great, inconceivably good, inconceivably near, perfectly free, when Christ reveals Him to the sons of men. God is perfectly free because He is only minded to do right — His will Is Himself. Affectionate harmony with that will is, therefore, perfect freedom.

Now a test. An unknown man, apparently a Galilean carpenter, said In the temple one day ‘* I am the light of the world.” Presently He was put to death. Nineteen hundred years, and more have passed. What account have they to give of the truth or falsity of that word?

Just this; in the world to-day the light of liberty for the spirit, soul and body of man is brightest where Christ is most known, best obeyed. And the darkest places in the world, anb 0t1)tv Mttxpxttation and the heaviest shackles upon the mind, soul and body of man, are found where Christ is least known, least obeyed.

And this is absolutely true of individuals, as of nations.