The concept of “seeing” has many facets to it. There is the obvious seeing with our eyes whatever our eyes can see. Then there is seeing in the sense of understanding: “Oh, I see now!” There is also the challenge to see when there are other details vying for our attention: “can’t see the forest for the trees.” John 9 is all about seeing on many levels. The chapter begins with Jesus healing a man on the Sabbath that was born blind. What’s interesting is Jesus meets this man’s physical need of seeing before the man ever declares any faith in Christ as the Messiah. It was only after the healing that he declared his faith in Christ. There is an important lesson for the church in this account.

In contrast to the man born blind are the Pharisees that Jesus identifies as spiritually blind. They could see in the natural world just fine, but were blind when it came to spiritual things. In spite of Jesus’ attempts to draw them into spiritual sight, they stayed in their darkness. What was the difference between the Pharisees and the man born blind? The blind man knew he had a physical need that was beyond human help, but he also had been told his whole life he was in that situation because of his sin. When Jesus met the felt need in his life by giving him sight, he was open to seeing Jesus on another level; seeing Jesus in the spiritual realm as the messiah and his savior. The Pharisees stayed in darkness because they refused to recognize any deficiency in their lives. Because they were proud in their righteousness they never saw they had a need of any kind. That pride kept them from seeing Jesus for who He is and the blessings He alone could provide for them. Join us this Sunday as we look into John 9 for a fresh, new way of “Seeing Jesus.”