Recovery Of Sight

by John Kerr, Barrhead, Scotland | Category: The Lord's Miracles | Apr 1992

Which of your senses do you think contributes most to your quality of life? Touch, taste, sight, smell or hearing; aren't they all so important and also intricate?

Sight is very complex. No optical system of men can fully match the human eye in which each component operates in perfect harmony. Marvel of creation! Sadly, poor vision and blindness are a blight on the human race. This wonderful organ designed, created and maintained by God in millions of reproductions, often falls victim to disease, one of the effects on the human race of the sin of our first parents.

So if God really is the Master Workman behind such a creation, it would be a reasonable expectation that should He ever visit our planet, even for a short time, He would help the blind, either to demonstrate that He was a God with some compassion or, better still, to demonstrate that He truly was the Designer, Creator and Maintainer. Repair work on a few damaged models would be a good starting point. He should be able, at the very least' to do the same quality of work again - and with the same tools or lack of them, as the case may be. If His word was the original means of creation let His word suffice again:

if He used clay before, let Him use clay again: if His fingers produced miracle results before, let a touch do it again. Further, the expectation to the Jews was even more pressing; their Scriptures had declared "The LORD openeth the eyes of the blind" (Ps. 146:8). And through Isaiah the prophet there were given other references although probably veiled (Is. 42: Is. 61).

It is not surprising that when God was manifested in the flesh angels and men rejoiced. The Lord from heaven grew into manhood and at the age of about thirty entered His public ministry. The testing time had come, at least as far as men were concerned. How glad we are to read in the gospels that early on in those days of public ministry the message sent to confirm the faith of John the Baptist in prison contained these words; "The blind receive their sight", for "In that hour on many that were blind he bestowed sight" (Luke 7:21-22). Later on a mountain by the sea of Galilee, multitudes came "having with them the lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others... and He healed them: In so much that the multitude wondered when they saw ... the blind seeing: and they glorified the God of Israel" (Mat. 15:30-31). Towards the end of the Lord's public ministry we read, "the blind ... came to Him in the temple: and He healed them" (Mat. 21:14). There can be no doubt therefore about the fact that miracles of restoring sight to the blind took place in profusion and in public. But how did He perform those miracles? Let us look at a few recorded examples.

The story in John 9 is replete with detail and is perhaps best summed up in the blind man's own account. "The man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and said unto me, Go to Siloam, and wash: so I went away and washed, and I received sight" (9:11). This man was born blind, a fact confirmed by the parents:

"We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind" (9:20).

R.A. Torrey writes:

It is worthy of remark, that, from the foundation of the world, no person born blind had been restored to sight, even by surgical operation, till about the year 1728; when the celebrated Dr. Cheselden, by couching the eyes of a young man fourteen years of age, restored them to perfect vision. This was the effect of well-directed surgery that performed by Christ was wholly a miracle, effected by the power of God. The simple means employed could have had no effect in this case and were merely employed as symbols.

In the creation story we read that man was formed out of the dust of the ground (Gen. 2:7), and the symbolic act of using clay in this miracle must be of some significance.

Another example of restoring sight is recorded by three gospel writers. Taking Matthew's account we read, "Jesus, being moved with compassion, touched their eyes; and straightway they received their sight, and followed Him" (Mat. 20:34). The hand of God had been at work before and this symbolic act of touching the eyes must also be of some significance.

What spiritual truths emerge from such miracles? There are none so blind as those who will not see, and the Lord Jesus uses blindness as a metaphor to describe the spiritually dead. Referring to the leaders of Israel, the Pharisees, He said that they were "blind guides", adding "And if the blind guide the blind, both shall fall into a pit" (Mat. 15:14). Being confronted with the naturally blind, the Lord often used the opportunity to speak about the spiritually blind.

Other important topical issues are also raised by these miracles. For example, is illness a result of sin? The disciples raised this point in the case of the blind man described in John 9. Their question sought to establish a connection between the man's suffering and a definite act of sin, either the parents' or the man's. The Lord asserted that in this case no such connection existed and His words remain a warning against the spirit of judging other men's lives, attributing misfortunes and sorrows to the result of individual sin or divine displeasure. This does not mean that sin never produces sad results, but simply warns us to be careful about passing judgement on matters that might best be left with God.

Christ came to remove spiritual blindness. "When I am in the world, I am the Light of the world" and proof, if proof were needed, can certainly be found in the restoration of sight to the blind. It is as if Christ was saying that since He could do it physically He could also do it spiritually. The blind man of John 9 had passed from a state of physical blindness by receiving the faculty of sight. He then passed from a state of spiritual blindness by receiving the power to recognize and believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God. By contrast, the Pharisees who claimed to have the key of knowledge, felt no need of the truer Light who had come into the world to lighten every man (John 1:9). That true Light judged no man and yet by it every man was judged.

Another important issue arising from the miracle of John 9 is the question of accountability for sin. Ellicott' in his Bible Commentary, comments about the Pharisees:

If they were among those which see not they would be conscious of the blindness, and would seek for spiritual light. They would ask who is He, Lord, that we may believe on Him? and would not ask in vain. In that case their present rejection of Him would arise from ignorance willing to be overcome, and this ignorance, not being wilful, would not be sin.

It seems that this matter can be extended to include committed sin, for the Lord says elsewhere, "If I had not come and spoken unto them they had not had sin: but now they have no excuse for their sin" (John 15:22). While sin is obviously sin, accountability depends on revealed truth, or the willingness to accept revealed truth. How else can the Lord's words be understood? There are degrees of sin, "He that delivered Me unto thee hath greater sin" (John 19:11); there are degrees of judgement; "It will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgement" (Luke 10:14 NKJV); there are degrees of accountability, "To him therefore that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not' to him it is sin" (James

4:17).

We cannot do justice to these miracles in the matter of blindness without mentioning the faith of the men cui~ In the record of the two who were healed in Matthew 9 the Lord said, "According to your faith be it done unto you", and in the case of Bartimaeus in Mark 10. He said, "Thy faith hath made thee whole". These men, with many others, are an example and challenge to our own faith.

Ye have not because...

If you had been living when Christ was on earth

And had met the Saviour kind,

What would you have asked Him to do for you

Supposing you were stone blind?

The child considered and then replied

"I expect" that without a doubt

"I'd have asked for a dog with collar and chain

To lead me daily about".

And how often thus in our faithless prayers

We acknowledge with shamed surprise

We have only asked for a dog and chain

When we might have had opened eyes.

In the New Testament letters the metaphor of blindness is applied to (a)

Israel, (b) unbelieving Gentiles and (c) disciples in churches of God. It is relatively easy to accept that Israel as a nation are blind (see Rom. 11:25) and that unbelieving Gentiles are blind in their understanding through ignorance (see Eph. 4:18 AV), but it is more difficult to accept that those in churches of God can be blind. The whole church in Laodicea was divinely assessed as being blind (Rev. 3:17) and in need of eye salve (v.18). Disciples who lacked the virtues of 2 Peter chapter 1 are described as "blind, seeing only what is near" (v.9). It is very sad to realize that there are many naturally blind, but it is even sadder to find that some are spiritually blind. May we be like those mentioned in Malachi: "Your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, The LORD be magnified" (Mal. 1:5).

John Kerr, Barrhead, Scotland | Apr 1992
The Lord's Miracles