God Glorifies Himself
Jesus heals a man who was born blind. This man experiences the touch of God in his life and God is glorified as He displays his power in his life.
Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind
1As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
3“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. 4As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
6Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. 7“Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
8His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?” 9Some claimed that he was.
Others said, “No, he only looks like him.”
But he himself insisted, “I am the man.”10“How then were your eyes opened?” they demanded.
11He replied, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.”
12“Where is this man?” they asked him.
“I don’t know,” he said.
The disciples open up a conversation with Jesus by asking a simple question. According to their culture, for this man to be born blind either he or is parents must have sinned. This was a culturally accepted understanding and therefore the question seemed common enough.
However Jesus corrects the disciples and their culturally accepted norm, neither this mans sin nor the sin of his parents is the reason for his blindness. The reason for the blindness is so that God’s glory can be displayed in his life.
God wants to show people how awesome he is by healing this man from his blindness. This kind of miracle had not even been heard of yet. A man, blind form birth, receiving his eyesight. God was showing off, catching the attention of the people of this earth. By glorifying Himself like this God reveals to us part of who He is.
The purpose of this mans blindness up until that point was so that God could show us the following things:
1) God is a healer
Disease and deformity have no control over Him. Should He desire He is able to heal people from the disease that troubles their life, from the deformity that plagues them. We see so often in the new testament how God chose to heal people. The lepers were healed and people were bought back from the dead. Sometimes God chooses not to heal us. However that does not mean that He is not a healer. It simply means that God has chosen not to heal. That brings us to our next point.
2) God has a plan.
This man was blind so that God’s glory can be displayed. The reason he was born blind was because God planned it like that. He wanted this man to experience the glory of God in such a way that the people around him would stand up and take notice. Before he met Jesus, this man and others who knew him may not have understood why he was blind. They may have questioned God’s existence or they may have blamed his blindness on the sin of his parents. Either way they probably didn’t come to the conclusion that he was born blind to glorify God.
3) God’s plan is not predictable.
God is so great, so powerful, and so mighty that our understanding of who God is could never bring us to a point of being able to predict God’s actions. This is simply because we could never really completely understand every aspect of God. Just because we didn’t predict God’s action towards something in our lives, or we don’t understand God’s plan, does not mean that God is not at work and that he has no plan or purpose for our lives.
Getting Practical
Therefore the next time something happens to you or someone you know that you don’t understand, remember the man who was born blind. Remember that God’s plan, although it may not always make sense, is still at work in your life and the life of others.
God is glorified when His plan works it’s way through our lives. Like this man, God was glorified when He healed him of his blindness. The man’s life was blessed and enriched because God chose to heal him, and that was God’s plan for this mans life! Blessing and enrichment.
