I Once Was Blind by Janet Swaby
John 9
Have you ever heard of Fanny Crosby? I hadn’t until recently. She lived back in the 1800’s and was an American mission worker, poet and composer. She wrote more than 8,000 hymns and gospel songs. In fact, she wrote so many that she ended up writing some of them under pseudonyms because publishers didn’t want to have hymnals with just one composer in them! I found 14 hymns in our hymnal under the name of Fanny Crosby – and I may have missed some. In fact, every hymn we’ll sing today was written by her with the exception of the response to the benediction. What makes this accomplishment even more astounding is that she was born totally blind. We’ll return to Fanny’s story at the end of the sermon. In the meantime, let’s take a look at another blind person – the one in John 9. This’ll be the story of Jesus healing a man who was blind from birth.
As [Jesus] walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. 4 We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 6 When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes, 7 saying to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see. 8 The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some were saying, “It is he.” Others were saying, “No, but it is someone like him.” He kept saying, “I am he.” 10 But they kept asking him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” 11 He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ Then I went and washed and received my sight.” 12 They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.” (John 9:1-12)
Notice that the disciples didn’t say, “Jesus, can you heal this poor guy?” It appears that they were looking for a theological discussion. And they didn’t ask Jesus why the guy was blind – IF it was BECAUSE someone had sinned. They just assumed that his blindness was punishment from God for someone’s sin. Asking if the guy was born blind because HE had sinned was ridiculous – could he have sinned while still in the womb??? (And the poor guy was probably right there listening to this discussion!) But it was a common assumption in Old Testament times that everything bad that happened to a person was God’s punishment for their sin. If you think back to the book of Job – one of the oldest books of the Bible – his so-called friends just assumed that Job must have been a terrible sinner because God heaped all those tragedies on him. In fact, when Benjamin Franklin invented the lightning rod in 1752, some people thought it was a terrible invention because it would interfere with God punishing the wicked by sending down lightning bolts to destroy them. Some churches wouldn’t even put lightning rods on their steeples!
However, Jesus often challenges our assumptions. And he told the disciples that the man’s blindness wasn’t the result of anyone’s sin – that he was born blind “so that God’s works might be revealed in him.” What did Jesus mean by that?
Let’s go back to the Old Testament – the book of Isaiah – chapter 35 — where the prophet, who preached 700 years before the birth of Jesus, talks about the time of the Messiah. He wrote:
5Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf shall be opened;
6 then the lame shall leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy…. (Isaiah 35:5-6a)
Psalm 146:8 says that The Lord opens the eyes of the blind. And that was written 1000 years before the birth of Jesus!
By healing the blind man, Jesus was fulfilling prophecies made in Scripture written 700-1000 years earlier! The Jewish rabbis had been studying these scriptures for many centuries. When they saw someone who was healing the blind, deaf and lame, they should have recognized Him. Everyone should have been running around saying, “This is the guy! This is the Messiah!!!”
When we talk with others about our faith, if we’re just having a theological discussion, they can say, “I don’t agree.” But, if we tell them how it’s affected us personally – what knowing Christ has done to improve our lives – there isn’t really anything they can say against it. Our personal experience is OURS! I have a friend who’s an atheist, but she once told me, “I envy you your faith.” I keep hoping that someday she’ll find it for herself.
Let’s go back to Fanny Crosby, our blind hymn writer. Unfortunately, Jesus didn’t heal her blindness. But someone once asked her if she was angry at God because of her blindness. Her answer: “No, because when I get to heaven, the first face I’ll see will be that of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.” May our faith be as strong as hers! Amen.