Revelation 3:17-18

Rev 3:17-18 (NASB) “you say, "I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing," and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire, that you may become rich, and white garments, that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see.”

In the beginning, at creation, Christ was the one who brought forth light out of darkness. He created light, when there was nothing but darkness at all. Then Jesus came into this world to be “the light of men.” “He is the light of truth, “the true light that gives light to every man.” He came into this world to shine light in the darkness of people’s hearts, but the darkness did not understand it. (John 1:1-9)

The most remarkable story is told of Christ healing a man born blind in John Chapter 9. To understand the setting, of which the healing took place in John 9, we need to look back to the last events in the previous chapter (John 8:33-59.) Jesus had an impassioned discussion with the Pharisees. Jesus angered the religious leaders more that afternoon than at any other time in His ministry. He offered to set them free (8:36) “If the Son shall set you free, you will be free indeed.” They argued back, "we are sons of Abraham we were never in bondage." Jesus told them they were “servants of sin” (34.) Then he implied in (39) that they were not Abraham’s seed because they did not do the works of Abraham. In (42) Jesus suggest God was not their spiritual Father either. But His most pointed words were given in (44) when he tells them strait foreword; “You are of your Father the Devil.” Still the Pharisees put up with Him until (58-59) “Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I AM. “Silence fell upon the vast assembly. The name of God, given to Moses to express the idea of the eternal presence, had been claimed as His own by this Galilean Rabbi. He had announced Himself to be the self-existent One, He who had been promised to Israel, "whose goings forth have been from of old, from the days of eternity." (Desire of Ages, E.G. White, p. 469-470) “Then took they up stones to cast at Him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by” (9:1) “and as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.”

“When the Pharisees drove Christ from them, he went to this poor blind beggar. Some of the ancients make this a figure of the bringing of the gospel to the Gentiles, who sat in darkness, when the Jews had rejected it, and driven it from them.” (Matthew Henry’s Commentary, on John 9:1-7: Sight given to one born blind) Another respected author Ellen G. White in her book The Desire of Ages, places these two events as happening directly one right after the other. Here is a little lesson for us to learn from Jesus in this story. No matter how busy we are, we may feel like we are running for our life to get to the next place, but as we “pass by” someone who is in need, we should take the time to “do good” toward them. And we should never be too busy not to notice long sorrowful faces crying out for someone who cares.

Jesus notices this blind man, and immediately has compassion for him. But his disciples, who noticed Jesus looking at the blind man, they do not offer to bring him to Christ to heal him. Instead they bring up the old argument concerning him. “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that this man was born blind?” According to the Talmud, “There is no death without sin, and there is no suffering without iniquity.” (The Seventh Day Adventist Bible Commentary, Vol. 5, pg. 996, notes on John 9:2 (quoted from: Shabbath 55a, Soncino ed., p. 255)) Also, “A sick man does not recover from his sickness until all his sins are forgiven him” (The Seventh Day Adventist Bible Commentary, Vol. 5, pg. 996, notes on John 9:2 (quoted from: Nedarim 41a, Soncino ed., p. 130)) The Jews taught every sin had a particular punishment, therefore we see Christ’s disciples more interested in theological debate than mercy for the poor blind man.

Jesus said (9:4-7) “I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.” (KJV)

When Jesus said “The night cometh” He wanted to stress to His disciples just how soon His ministry was about to end. “From the Feast of Tabernacles to the Passover the following spring, when Jesus was crucified was about six months. Three years of His ministry was in the past and but half a year remained.” (The Seventh Day Adventist Bible Commentary, Vol. 5, pg. 980, notes on John 7:33) Jesus made the point that now was the most suitable time to heal this man, it would be now or it would possibly never happen. But this day was the Sabbath day, and the Jewish traditions for healing forbid such an anointing. Any unusual anointing was forbidden, in the case of the blind man there was not an emergency. Jesus stood defiant against the Jewish traditions, and the Jews considered this act to be illegal. Yet Jesus was teaching that doing good was a necessary work, because the Sabbath day was a day when only works of necessity should be done.

When Christ made the eye salve he spit on the ground and made clay. He could have cured him with a word, but he chose to do it this way. He spread the clay upon the eyes of the blind man, one observing this act would believe the opposite of healing would take place, it is more likely to cause blindness than to cure blindness by applying clay to his eyes. But often spiritual principles are opposite from human principles, like the spiritual idea for men to need to feel blind before He can give them sight. The Apostle Paul was shown that he had been persecuting Jesus before his conversion. Paul was zealous for God but was spiritually blind and for three days after he met Jesus he remained physically blind, as a reminder of the lesson he needed to learn. Paul had learned this lesson well, he wrote in 1 Cor. 1:27 “God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise.” (KJV) And 1 Cor. 3:18-19 “If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.” (KJV)

The origin of the clay is a noteworthy fact as well. Clay used by Jesus is not any ordinary clay. Clay from the Creator's hand has much more power than ordinary clay; it was Christ who first made man out of clay. Before Jesus had made the first Adam out of clay, but now the Second Adam was using this same material he had created man with to cure the man born blind. An illustration of the ultimate cure of God, curing the eyes of faith, we are born with blind eyes of faith and faith in Jesus bringing us to salvation. The design of the gospel is to open man’s eyes, to see by faith not by sight. The eye salve that Christ is preparing to do this work is not made of His spit but of His blood. And just as the blind man was told to go and wash in the pool of Siloam, we are to be washed by the blood of the Lamb, and “sent” (interpretation of Siloam) to share the blood of Christ to others. The blood that heals us is from the wounds we gave him. From nails on His hands and on his feet, and the lashes we put on His back and upon His chest. We wounded Him also on His head with the crown of thorns, and in His side with a spear. What? You may ask, When did I do those things to Christ? But our eyes that cannot see are like Paul’s eyes on the road to Damascus. Christ may say to us “Why did you persecute me?” To see salvation we need to see with and not just through the eyes.

The Pharisees were so angry at Jesus, so filled with hate they brought this man who had been born blind before their council and questioned him. The objective of the Pharisees was to persuade this man to think that Christ had some how tricked him. The Pharisees had fresh in their minds all Christ had told them and had done against them. Christ had told the Pharisees they were not “Sons of Abraham but sons of the devil” and had heard with their own ears Jesus pronounces himself to be the Eternal I AM. Then immediately after this Jesus anoints this blind man’s eyes, an act forbidden upon the Sabbath day by the Jewish traditions, of which the Pharisees maintained and enforced. In their hardness of heart they refused to see. They would question this former blind man, try to intimidate him, and trying to confuse him, and make him deny Jesus. “The Pharisees were spiritually blind, and were leaders of the blind. The physical blindness that Jesus had healed in the man born blind, was not as dangerous as the moral blindness of those who had evidence piled upon evidence in regard to the divine character of the world's Redeemer, and yet who closed the eyes of their understanding, and refused to see, because they were too self-exalted to be instructed by Christ. They claimed to be learned in the Scriptures, to have spiritual eyesight, yet they made the plainest specifications concerning Christ a different matter from that which the records testified. The light of the world was shining amid the moral darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. The darkness that blinded the minds of the Pharisees was much more deplorable than was the darkness that blinded the eyes of the man who had been born blind. “ (The Signs of the Times, November 6, 1893, paragraph 2 Article Title: Danger of Spiritual Blindness)

As the man born blind was questioned by the Pharisees he “became a witness for Christ. He answered the Pharisees in words that were a cutting rebuke to his questioners. They claimed to be the expositors of Scripture, the religious guides of the nation; and yet here was One performing miracles, and they were confessedly ignorant as to the source of His power, and as to His character and claims. "Why herein is a marvelous thing," said the man, "that ye know not from whence He is, and yet He hath opened mine eyes. Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshiper of God, and doeth His will, him He heareth. Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind. If this Man were not of God, He could do nothing." The man had met his inquisitors on their own ground. His reasoning was unanswerable. The Pharisees were astonished, and they held their peace, --spellbound before his pointed, determined words. For a few moments there was silence. Then the frowning priests and rabbis gathered about them their robes, as though they feared contamination from contact with him; they shook off the dust from their feet, and hurled denunciations against him, --"Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us?" And they excommunicated him from the synagog . . . Jesus heard what had been done; and finding him soon after, He said, "Dost thou believe on the Son of God?" To the Savior’s question, "Dost thou believe on the Son of God?" the blind man replied by asking, "Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him?" And Jesus said, "Thou hast both seen Him, and it is He that talketh with thee." The man cast himself at the Savior’s feet in worship. Not only had his natural sight been restored, but the eyes of his understanding had been opened. Christ had been revealed to his soul, and he received Him as the Sent of God” (Desire of Ages, E.G. White, p. 474, 475)

When Jesus told the Pharisees in John 8:12 “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” He was suggesting to them that they were blind and He could give them sight. After he healed the blind man He said, “"For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind." Christ had come to open the blind eyes, to give light to them that sit in darkness. He had declared Himself to be the light of the world, and the miracle just performed attested to His mission. Some of His hearers, feeling that Christ's words applied to them, inquired, "Are we blind also? "Jesus answered, "If ye were blind, ye should have no sin." If God had made it impossible for you to see the truth, your ignorance would involve no guilt. "But now ye say, We see." You believe yourselves able to see, and reject the means through which alone you could receive sight. To all who realized their need, Christ came with infinite help. But the Pharisees would confess no need; they refused to come to Christ, and hence they were left in blindness,--a blindness for which they were themselves guilty. Jesus said, "Your sin remaineth."” (Desire of Ages, E.G. White, p. 475)

Describe what you think it means to see with and not through the eyes? Compare the blindness of the Pharisees with the man born blind? Why is moral blindness worse than physical blindness?