Dear Ones,

“Believing is Seeing”      Please read John 9:1-38

Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said unto him, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”  He answered and said, “Who is he sir?” the man asked.  “Tell me so that I may believe in him.”

Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”

Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.

Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”

Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?”

Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.

 “Seeing is believing,” do you believe that does that sense to you?  In a world filled with outlandish promises and crushing disappointments it seems more likely for a person to respond, “I won’t believe it, until I see it.”

I was at the circus museum where they had a theremin.  It was an instrument used in early horror films and it made sound from your hand passing over the paddles.  There was a man there who saw it.  But he said, "that’s impossible," he couldn't believe that you could make sound like that.  “Seeing is believing,” doesn’t always hold true, even when you see something you simply can’t believe it. 

There was a group of people we find in the Scriptures with a similar problem. The Pharisees were eyewitnesses to many of the miracles that Jesus performed, but even though they saw, they did not believe.

How does this happen?  One sees and doesn’t believe and one believes and sees?

If we look at the text in we learn some things about how this unfolds.

Giving spiritual sight is God’s work. 

The passage opens with these words: “As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth.  In a physical sense the blind man has no ability to give himself sight.

His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’  Neither this man nor his parents so that the works of God might be displayed in him.” 

Toward the end of our lesson we read that when Jesus heard that they [the leaders of the synagogue] had thrown him out, he found him.  Jesus seeks him out.  In Luke Jesus himself tells us; “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”  Just as the man had no physical ability to give himself sight.  He likewise does not have the ability to give himself spiritual sight.  Spiritual sight depends on God’s power to offer divine and sovereign grace.  It is God’s grace; undeserved, unmerited favor.  Paul in Ephesians tells us; “For it is by grace you are saved…and this is not of yourselves, it is a gift of God.”

Then Jesus asks him question, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”  Something else is involved.  Belief is a necessary component to salvation.  Do you believe?  The man answers; “Who is he sir?  Tell me so that I may believe in him.  Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”    Then the man said, “Lord, I believe.”  Faith. 

You know your faith is the necessary complement to the sovereignty of God.  Even though Christians are elected, predestined; chosen before the foundation of the world was ever laid Paul reminds us in Romans “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”   Luther put it this way by grace alone through faith alone.

And finally “he worshiped him.”  To worship Christ is to experience transformation.  It is not enough to receive and believe you must worship.  II Corinthians gives us this, “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”  

We see the man receive his spiritual sight.   What a glorious thing to have all the world of God and Christ and all the glorious truth opened up that blind mind.  He could see the inner revelation of God with his spirit and he enjoys the external revelation of God, the beauty of the earth with his eyes, full sight.  Praise God.

Blessings and love,

Pastor Dottie