That which is so wonderful in John 9 is that it gives us the history of the passage of a soul from beggary and darkness into being a worshipper of the Son of God. The man passes from this extreme of misery, blindness, and beggary too (for Scripture says, " Is not this he that sat and begged?") into being a worshipper, and that is one of the highest aspects of blessing any soul can know. This will be the occupation of the redeemed in heaven. It means such deliverance from self that you are delighting in an object outside yourself, and you are more than satisfied; that is worship. It is more than the knowledge of the forgiveness of sins, though I do not want to limit the blessing of being able to walk about in this world with the blessed sense of sins forgiven. " I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake." (1 John 2:1212I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. (1 John 2:12).) It is not to treat lightly such a word as that, that I speak of something further; but I want you to understand that that is not where God stops. You must know forgiveness first; but that is not the end. God's thought of blessing for you is that you may be found a worshipper for evermore in His presence. " The Father seeketh such to worship Him." (John 4:2323But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. (John 4:23).) ' I cannot go into all the details of this chapter; but I must notice a few things. One striking characteristic in this blind man was that he went straight ahead. He never turned to the right or to the left; the moment his eyes were opened he went straight on. And the soul that goes straight on, finds Jews, and synagogue, and parents against him; still he goes on. He is not ashamed to confess his ignorance either. " I know not," he says; but he goes on till we find him outside the synagogue in the presence of God.
But there is something more wonderful than this, which you will find in verses 58 and 59 of the preceding chapter, John 8. Jehovah, the One who had watched over Israel in all their manifold ways, was there in their midst, and they knew Him not. The leaders in Israel, in the beginning of the chapter, bring into the presence of Jehovah a poor sinner in her sins, and raise the question of what should be done to her. " Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned." (v. 5.) They raise the question about stoning a sinner; but what comes out in the end of the chapter is not the stoning of the sinner, but the stoning of the Savior. (v. 59.) As glory after glory shone out about Him, their hatred rose more and more, till " they took up stones to cast at Him." What a story it tells! Light was there. Into a world of utter darkness He came, bringing light. Think of the darkness that could be felt, and think of the Lord of glory coming down into this world. What a brilliant light was there displayed! " I am the light of the world," (Chap. 8:12.) Does He claim too much for Himself when He claims to be the light of the world? Can you say, "Lord, Thou art my light, and outside Thy presence my estimate of everything is false "? What a moment when we learn that whatever reckonings we have arrived at, if made outside His presence, are utterly wrong!
Think of the grace and tenderness of that blessed Savior when He was in this world, and how He uttered that solemn word of warning-" I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." What a proposition! what words of grace were those! Those wards of grace uttered in that day are as true in this day as when He uttered them. There is the light of life to-day as surely as in that day. It was in Christ then, and it is in Christ now. But before ever you can follow the Savior, you must come into His presence; and to come into His presence is to come into the light; and to come into the light means to be uncovered, and to arrive at what God thinks about you. Love and everything you can need are there; but light is there too, and you must be found out. The human religiousness of these Pharisees could not go there-the man with a reputation to keep up will refuse the light of the Savior's presence—and they took up stones to cast at him. Religious man has done worse than that; the cross was the end. To stone Him was only one of the blossoms of the same plant, if I may so say. Here is the expression of the same hatred. They would not have the light because it exposed them; and they would not have the love, for they hated Him. But you will always see that the more man's hatred rises up, the more God's grace rises far above it, and He passed out of their midst to go on for their blessing. His hour was not yet come, so He hid Himself. He turned away from all the violence and hatred found in the heart of man-that heart all the time covered over with religiousness, and ceremony, and sacrifice. How terrible in the eyes of Him who read what was under! Every thought of the heart was as open to Him as the stones they would have hurled at His Person.
But notice: "And as Jesus passed by, He saw a man which was blind from his birth." This first verse is one of the most wonderful in the chapter; for it tells what Christ was. Was He so occupied with His own things, or with the hatred and violence of those who had been trying to stone Him, that He had no time to think about the necessities of men and women? No; the eyes of Jesus " saw a man which was blind from his birth." He had time to think la poor, desolate, blind beggar. All the violence of Israel could not turn Him aside from doing the work He had come to do, nor disturb that blessed, tranquil spirit. He was unruffled, and He had infinite love and grace. He knew what was coming; He walked in the light of that eternity before Him. He knew what His grace and power could do, and He was only looking for occasions on which to lavish them; He saw a needy man. Who can tell what the heart of the Savior felt? Those occupied in ceremonial observances might pass the beggar by, wrapped up in their observances; but the Savior "felt about him as none other could. He must have stopped and observed the man. Think of how He observes and watches! There is not a soul that has a longing, a want, a desire, that Jesus does not see. He has been rejected here; but He is the same in those realms of light as He was when down here. Jesus knows, Jesus sees, and more, fie feels. Our poor hearts are so narrow and cramped, so distracted by the things through which we are passing; but His, never.
Divine perfection is in all He does, and if there is one soul who has a need, Christ in heaven sees you, knows you, and will relieve you-and He alone can do it. He did it by His word in that day, and He does it by His word in this day.
Then the disciples asked Him, " Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? " The Lord chewed that no special sin had called forth governmental dealing on God's part. It does not mean that they were not sinners; but here was an occasion on which " the works of God " could be manifested-a platform on which He could put forth what the sovereign grace and goodness of God were. He came from heaven, not to rest here. Earlier in this gospel He says, My Father worketh hitherto, and d work." He knew, when here, labor and weariness; for,(as has often been said). " love could not rest where sorrow was, and light could not rest where sin was." There was the One, who from eternity had been the delight of heaven, a Man down here in this world, wearied in it, walking up and down in the midst of necessity. What does He say? "I must work." What a word for those who are one with Christ forever-" I must work... the night cometh, when no man can work." You that are forever blest, you that have received from God all that He can give you, the hour is coming when you must lay down service forever, toil behind you forever; " the night commeth, when up man can work." You never will find a weary soul to say a word to in heaven; no sorrowful, hearts and downcast eyes will be there. But now you have a priceless opportunity; you can carry forth into this sad world tidings of life and liberty. Christ knew what that judgment was which was soon, coming, and He knew what the light of heaven was. He knew the woe there will be when the great white throne is set. Believer, ask God to open your eyes upon what eternity is, and you will find that the little things of life will drop down into their proper place; you see them in the light of eternity. Christ measured everything in the light of God's eternity. Think of the value of a soul. If work is before you, you never will work; but if Christ is before you, work must follow. It is the love of Christ which constraineth us.
Knowing all these precious words, knowing that heaven is open and Christ is waiting to receive every soul that goes to Him, I am amazed that we are not more whole-hearted, earnest and devoted.
The One who could call worlds into existence at the bidding of His word, had time to address Himself to the necessity of this poor beggar. His hands anointed his eyes with the clay. Hands that were soon going to be nailed to the tree, hands that are pierced now-what were they doing? They were anointing eyes that had never been opened on anything here. Oh, what a glorious Savior! You must be more blind than this poor man was, if you cannot see any glory in the Son of God occupying Himself with the necessities of a poor beggar. He was never more glorious than at that moment. You may say there was glory on the Mount of Transfiguration; but is there not a glory here that surpasses it—a moral glory? The Savior and sinner together here.
First He anointed him, and then He spoke. Do you think that poor man ever heard a voice like that before? Is there any voice like the voice of Jesus? It was the first time His voice broke on the ear of that beggar. Can you say" I heard the voice of Jesus say, Come unto Me and rest; Lay down, thou weary one, lay down, Thy head upon My breast "?
Then other voices, which attracted you before the voice of Jesus was heard, lose their charm. When you hear that voice you will say, " I never heard anything like that before;" and all you will say after will be, " Cause me to hear Thy voice." If you will only take the place of being a listener for the voice of Jesus, your eternal salvation is secure. God wants you to listen to the voice of Jesus.
You may say you are not a poor, blind beggar; you are rich, and can have all you want. Friend, if your soul is not saved, if you do not know Jesus, you are nothing but a poor, blind beggar; you are in want, and you use your money to supply your wants. You say to the world, " I want your pleasures, I want your amusements, and I will give you money for them." There are rich as well as poor beggars in this world, and the fact of your going to the world shows you have not Christ; you have not joy in heaven. It must be one of two things; you are going in for the fashion of this world, which passeth away, or else it is Christ and His joys. I have no doubt we shall see that once blind man in heaven, and should we then ask him, he would tell us that the first moment the voice of Jesus fell on his ear, it was life and blessing. Those hands touched him. There is nothing so tender as the touch of Jesus. The Psalmist could say, " Day and night Thy hand was heavy upon me." That was God dealing with him; but then came the grace.
Notice the extreme simplicity of it all. " He went his way, therefore, and washed, and came seeing." Satan tries to deprive souls of the simplicity of the Gospel. It is divinely simple; the only question is, Do you want a blessing? The difficulty is not With the word of God, but with souls; their inclinations are wrong, If the inclination is after these things, if there is a want of them, it is all simple; but if the inclination is after the world, all is wrong. I ask you this one question, Is there any inclination after Christ in your soul? Do you want Him? Would you like to come in contact with Him? Here it was just one statement on the Savior's part—" Go and wash " and one action on the sinner's part. The blind man did not say, " What is the use of washing?" He did not reason about it; the Savior spoke, and he acted, that was all. It was a beautiful example of the obedience of faith. The obedience of faith is faith's obedience—the obedience rendered by faith. That word spoken by Jesus went right down into the very depths of his soul. He acted only on the word of the Lord; it was the ground of his faith. Is not that simple? If you take Christ at His word, your soul will be brought into blessing; and you will never get it in any other way. What are you staking your soul on? The hour of your dissolution may come; you will want something sure and settled then. Will hymns do? No; not to rest on, beautiful though they are as channels to let off the joys of the heart. It is the word of Christ you must have.
Take Christ at His word, and you will get blessing.
It is beautiful the way the man said, " I am he; 'I am the man that was born blind; I am the man who sat and begged;" but there was an end to all that. We never find he carried on any begging after. Of course he could see to work. But begging was in the past; he was not a beggar in the present. How simply he described his cure! But he did not yet know who had done it, or where He was to be found. He had to say, " I know not." It was a great loss to the man not to know this. He had received the blessing, but he did not know the Benefactor. How often one sees souls saved by the work of Christ, and not consciously knowing the Person of Christ! Men will look around and every way, but they do not look up. Now if your eyes are opened you will delight to look up. Scripture says, " The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." (Prov. 4:1818But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. (Proverbs 4:18).) What is your past? A perfect redemption wrought for your sins. What is your present? A perfect Savior at God's right hand. And what is your future? You are going to " perfect day." Oh, who would not belong to Christ?
Then comes out the enmity of the Pharisees and the alarm of the parents. What a picture of the heart of man! Nothing so hinders, blights and withers up everything in the soul, as the fear and bondage of man in religious things. They were afraid of being put out of the synagogue. Inwardly they must have known who had effected the cure; but they were afraid to confess it. Who could know better than they how blind their son had been from his birth? Many a time must that mother have wept, and the father have groaned, over that little child born blind; and then, after long years, when his eyes were opened, were they not going to own the claims of the Benefactor? Oh, this deadly power of the fear of man! " How can ye believe, which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from God only?" (John 5:4444How can ye believe, which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from God only? (John 5:44).) You are afraid of what your friends will say; but they will not stand for you in the day of judgment; you will be alone then. No, you must go on; you must come to Christ, and go on straight after Him. The man, as it were, says, " I cannot be anything but what I am; my Savior has made me what I am, and I must own Him." He was not cast out of the synagogue until he had borne a beautiful testimony (vv. 30-33), delivered a wonderful farewell address. He spoke with the authority of a man who knew the Scriptures. "If this man were not of God"—that was his point, and they cast him out upon that. There was nothing else for him. He had said, as it were, " I cannot be anything but what I am; He has made me what I am, and I owe everything to Him." He was a bright ray of light in the midst of Israel, and his testimony was what Jesus had done for him. " And they cast him out," but it brought him into the company of the Son of God.
" Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He had found him" -that shows how He went on to search after this man-" and when he had found him," the same voice spoke again. The only words the man had heard Him say before were, " Go, wash in the pool of Siloam." The next were, " Dost thou believe on the Son of God?" and then, " Thou past both seen Him, and it is He that talketh with thee." Where would you rather have been, inside with the Pharisees, with a religious status, or outside with the Son of God? They were so near, so alone together, the poor sinner whose eyes had been opened, and the Savior who had done it. What was the man's answer? " Lord, I believe. And he worshipped Him." He had found an Object on which his heart could rest forever: and what was the only thing he could do? Worship. Have you ever reached such a state? Do you know that there is such a thing to be known in this world as being at the feet of Jesus, and not being able to ask for anything, but only delighting yourself in the sense of what He is, your heart finding its only relief in bowing down at His blessed feet, and saying, " Thou art worthy"? His worthiness so filling your soul that you lose the sense of yourself altogether; for you are swallowed up and engulphed in the love, glory, grace, and goodness of Christ.
May God in His mercy bless His word, and make Christ precious to you, for His name's sake.