Epaggelia

Key Text: John 9:1-41 

Why the disciples asked the question about the origin of sin, or why the man was born blind, is indicative of one certainty.  The man’s blindness was obvious and must have shown itself from some kind of deformity. His blindness was not because of any sin he or his parents committed. But for God to be glorified, He had planned for this meeting of Jesus. However, for ourselves, it is comforting to know that our frailties, illnesses or injuries are not necessarily directly linked to our sin (although sometimes they can be), but rather they are often put upon us because of the consequences of sin’s existence in the world from the beginning.

Jesus recognizes the fact of undeserved suffering, Job 1:8, 13-20. Mat. 7:25. Bad things happen to good people, but will good people gain God’s strength for His glory in bad circumstances? God is waiting to see if we make the right choice in our suffering. God does allow Satan to throw terrible tragedies into our life, for apparently no fault of our own. Will we choose to reach out to God for His strength and wisdom to carry us through trials, or will we choose to negate God’s love and ability to help us in our tragedies?  We often face this choice, and it relies on our faith to determine whethor Jesus is light or not.

Jesus is the light of the world, Jn. 1:6-9. Giving enlightenment to a person who didn’t have the physical means to see, is beyond amazing! It’s obviously a lesson to us all, that without Jesus, we cannot hope to see the Kingdom of God, we simply do not have the ability. Our sight of and understanding of truth, rests upon His grace and power to help us see it, Eph. 1:18. God says through  Isaiah 60:1, Arise, shine; for the light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.  See 1^st Jn 1:6-7.The pool of Siloam is in the S.E. corner of old Jerusalem. It derives it’s water from the Gihon spring (2Kg. 20:6, 20), which King Hezekiah (701BC) strategically situated for the city to have a secure water supply. It did become a ‘sacred place’ before the days of Jesus and according to rabbinic tradition it was used during the Feast of Tabernacles (Booths) to draw water from and into a golden vase, then it was carried in procession to the Temple, a reference to this is in John 7:38. Perhaps it’s name is derived from Genesis 49:10 (tribute, right, allegiance) where Messianic hope is spoken of as “Shiloh”, and repeated in Isaiah 8:6. The Judaic Royalty of Kingship lay in this prophecy, and perhaps Jesus was using this place as helping Him give His disciples and this man, insight into the type of King and Kingdom he desired to bring into the world. Lk. 17:20-21.“How can a man that is a sinner do such things?” 9:16, 10:19-21. The Pharisees were the strongest party in the Sanhedrin. They quickly moved to suppress ideas of deity in Jesus and make opposition to the public’s view of Jesus. But obviously, enemies of Jesus were divided among themselves as to what exactly happened on this occasion. Before and after this event, we can see the Jewish rulers were beginning to feel division amongst themselves, John 7:43, 10:19. Perhaps this is the origin of Joseph of Arimathea giving Nicodemus (Jn. 3:1-2) support in the burial of Jesus.  The argument within the Sanhedrin was explosive because the truth was too obvious to refute, and it’s consequences were disastrous for Phariseeism. The man who was healed had won over people to Jesus, because of the way God uses truth in our lives, see 1^st Cor. 3:19-21. But not even Joseph of Arimathea was bold enough to follow Jesus openly, Jn. 19:38, so who could criticize the Parents in the way they pointed to their son for confirmation of the truth?  Spiritual blindness is a far worse problem than physical blindness. Jesus brings this to the Pharisee’s attention in v39-41.