Or, How to Give Glory to God
Scripture: John 9:24-34
Date: December 23, 2012
Speaker: Sean Higgins
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There is a cost to giving God glory. If you desire to truly worship Him, then you must give up your blindness. While that may sound like an easy choice, a no-brainer decision, receiving sight will be costly, and it will provide opportunity to give witness to the works of God. Most men, turns out, prefer not to see.
Jesus gave sight to a man born blind as part of His larger purpose to “work the works of Him who sent me” (John 9:4). He just happened to pass by this particular man, He just happened to use hand-made mud as part of the eye-opening process, and it just happened to be a Sabbath when all of this occurred. Of course, I just happened to say that all of these pieces of plot “just happened” because God smiles over the subtlety in the stories He writes.
God also enjoys irony in His stories. The irony is thicker than mud that those who have working eyes are a worse sort of blind. The majority of chapter nine relates the reactions to Jesus’ miracle. The healing happened in verses 1-7, then the neighbors were cold (8-12), the religious leaders were upset (13-17), his own parents were fearful (18-23), and now the Pharisees are back because they can’t get anyone to give them the answer they want. None of them appear to be excited for the work of God and it becomes clearer that it’s because they themselves are blind.
The personal testimony of the formerly blind man is powerful. It is simple, clear, and irritating enough. It provides an example for us of how blind men react to the light, and it provides and example of how to give glory to God when you can see. Here are four patterns of give and take between the blind and the seeing.
It was high time for the religious leaders to save the people from all their wrong-headedness.
So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.” He answered, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” (John 9:24–25, ESV)
The neighbors brought the formerly blind man to the Pharisees at first (verse 13). By the time that conversation ended and Jesus was called a prophet, the Pharisees sent out the blind man and called in his parents to confirm that the whole thing was a waste of time; no way was the man born blind. The parents laced up their ballet shoes and curtsied off the stage as quickly as they could to get the attention back on their son. So for the second time [the Jews] called the man who had been blind .
They didn’t have more questions, they had counsel. They said to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.” Again, they were bringing clarity to the situation and that required straightening out the formerly blind man’s story for him.
The command, Give glory to God was not urging the man to go home and get his sitar so that they could start an impromptu praise service. They wanted a confession. They wanted him to admit that he was wrong. This was a verbal subpoena, ordering him to change his testimony before the court of their judgment.
It assumes that the man was not giving glory to God by not telling the truth. It also assumes that he wanted to, or at least should have wanted to. It is an attempt to intimidate the man with their authority, pressuring him by playing on his spiritual sensitivity.
They only give him one way to glorify God: submit to them. That’s not explicitly what they said, but that’s certainly what they meant. We know that this man is a sinner. “We, the ones who know, the responsible ones, the educated ones, the ones who really honor God, we have made our conclusion and you can say whatever you want as long as you agree with us.”
Now it’s one thing for Jesus to cause trouble. He’s God, He’s allowed. But this poor nobody, as nice as it is that he can see, should submit, right? He just needs to be quiet now and everything will be alright, right?
The irony is that their pressure provided an even bigger platform for the man to do what they said, just not the way they meant it. They admonished him to Give glory to God and he would. When the going gets dark, the light shines brighter.
The man answered, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” Here is one of the greatest testimonies in all of God’s Word. If the man had submitted, what would John Newton have done? How would he have ended the first verse in “Amazing Grace”! The man’s reply is brief, bold, and blinding. He gives a simple statement of conviction that refuses to surrender to false scolding.
Here is how he started giving glory to God: He affirmed the facts in the face of pressure to do the opposite. Instead of their pressure causing him to compromise, it strengthened his conviction. His conviction would cost him, and it’s part of the reason that we’re still talking about him today.
The Jews weren’t satisfied so they started to go over the same ground that they already covered two or three times. The man sees through their questions.
They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” (John 9:26–27, ESV)
This is simulation interrogation. They’re not looking for answers. Their charge against Jesus—not keeping the Sabbath, verse 16—depended on the evidence of what He did. Why would they ask, “What did he do to you?” The Jews thought they were throwing rhetorical fastballs when actually they lobbed him a softball.
At this point the man sees something that he probably never saw before: the religious leaders can’t see. He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen.” Explaining the facts again wouldn’t help because they weren’t listening. They already made up their minds not to think.
Then the man asked them a couple questions of his own. It’s possible that he was sincere in the sense that he really thought, perhaps, that the Jews wanted to follow Jesus. It’s possible, but not probable. He sees their motivation even if they don’t. He sees that they are not on the same side. He’s on Jesus’ side, Do you also want to become his disciples? , implying that he already was.
Some questions should be taken behind the shed and mocked. If he wasn’t mocking them, he wouldn’t have started with his statement, You would not listen . If he wasn’t mocking, they wouldn’t have reviled him (verse 28). If he was really asking, the Jews would have taken the teachable moment to pull him under their wings and explain their superiority. They would have no reason to be defensive unless they felt exposed.
The formerly blind man gave glory to God by seeing their motivation and mocking their pretend sight. His sarcasm was right and it would cost him.
The Jews had enough while the man was just getting warmed up.
And they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” (John 9:28–29, ESV)
In other words, “I know you are but what am I?” Or, “Nuh uh!” You are a disciple of [that one]…but we are disciples of Moses , see the difference? They knew that God spoke with Moses face to face and that Moses gave them God’s law. So they knew that they were right. The problem was that they didn’t truly learn from Moses either.
Jesus addressed this back in John 5. He told the Jews, “If you believed in Moses, you would believe in me, for he wrote of me” (John 5:46). Jesus said that Moses would be their judge, not their hope (v.45). The apostle John foreshadowed this for us in chapter one, “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17, ESV). But now they try to bulldoze the formerly blind beggar.
He was amazed.
The man answered, “Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” (John 9:30–33, ESV)
Here is a great example of a personal testimony that applies to the person but that is not about the person. The man isn’t upset that they don’t rejoice with his sight, he’s surprised that they don’t recognize Jesus. The man isn’t mad that they are berating him, he marvels that they are so blind. Why, this is an amazing thing!
He makes two arguments and a conclusion. Verse 31 is the general point. God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him It was established that God hears and acts on behalf of those who honor him, think, for example, of Proverbs 15:29.
The LORD is far from the wicked,
but he hears the prayer of the righteous.
(Proverbs 15:29, ESV)
Verse 32 is the specific point. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind . In the Old Testament, some received sight, but none who were blind from birth.
Verse 33 is the application. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing . The man could have argued for more than he did. He could have pressed the miracle as pointing to Jesus as the Messiah and he would have had passages like Isaiah 42:7 to confirm it. He simply makes the case that Jesus is from God, contradicting the Jews who said “This man is not from God” (v.16).
The point is not that he could see, instead, the fact that he could see pointed to Jesus. That’s important. The man gave his testimony about Jesus. And again, he was amazed that others worked so hard to disregard Jesus, not that they reviled his testimony. His testimony gave glory to God, and it cost him.
The man doesn’t get to respond anymore, he gets rejected.
They answered him, “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” And they cast him out. (John 9:34, ESV)
The question of the disciples in verse 2 becomes the conclusion of the Jews. You were born in utter sin . They apparently don’t realize and/or don’t care that this condemnation corroborates the miracle they denied. They mean that it was his thorough sinfulness that lead to his blindness, otherwise they’d have no reason to talk about when he was born. His blindness from birth proved his sinfulness from birth. Because the man refused to submit, they couldn’t stand to hear him. And you would teach us? Actually, yes, and many others.
They cast him out . This is probably more like the excommunication his parents feared in verse 22 than getting bounced out of the building that day. They rejected him, officially even if unfairly. There was no room for him in the synagogue. He got his sight and it cost him.
There is one more part to this story which we’ll see next week in verses 35-41. It is a response to the rejection, but it isn’t a response by the man, it is a response by Jesus to the rejected man. It is not a part of the man’s witness, but it is part of the works of God, and it does give God glory. It is His consolation.
Jesus is God’s Consolation. Simeon recognized Him as such when Joseph and Mary brought Jesus to the Temple on the eighth day for circumcision (Luke 2:25). Consolation is the reason Jesus came. Consolation is the reason for Christmas. His consolation is also your opportunity to give glory to God this Christmas.
Jesus came to open blind eyes. What the man in John 9 saw with his eyes was not pretty. Before Jesus, things were bad, but he probably had enough to do just dealing with the day to day difficulties of blindness. Now that his eyes were working, it got worse, or at least clearer, how alone he really was. His neighbors, his parents, his community rejected him by order of the authorities. He was perhaps more alone now than ever. And Jesus will find him.
Jesus didn’t come to make things easy, He came to give comfort when it’s hard. He wasn’t born so that things would be pretty, He was born to die because they aren’t.
If we see Him, it is only by amazing grace. When by grace we see Him, when by grace we see the sweetness of the little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay, when by grace we see the humble Lord Jesus nailed on a tree, we must affirm it all. It will cost us, and yet He will be our consolation. That’s why He came.