“This one thing I know”, said the man born blind but now healed — “that once I was blind, and now I see.” (John 9:25) In the history of the world no one born blind had ever received sight. But after washing the clay from his eyes as instructed by Jesus, the man had then seen clearly.
What he didn’t know was the name of the man who had mixed saliva with clay, anointed his sightless eyes, and told him to wash them in the pool of Siloam. The result was not a restoration of failed eyesight but a creative miracle.
His neighbours doubted his identity and the Pharisees mocked him; but the man spoke of one thing and one thing only — that although he had been born blind, he could now see!
The one thing you know when you first become a Christian is that your encounter with the Lord has changed your life! How is not important, just that it has, and that your life is no longer the same. You have been born again; made new on the inside!
Your family and friends may be mystified at the way you’ve changed. Your outlook has altered. Your desires are different. You see through new eyes. Now they don’t understand you. No surprise there — you are a new person, moving in the opposite direction.
Like the man born blind, your eyes are now open to a world that’s coloured by your conversion. Some question whether this “new thing” will last, but you know that it will. You are the person they know, but different — they can see it in your eyes. You are a new creation in Christ; old things have passed away, and all things have become new! (2 Corinthians 5:17)
The blind man’s story started with his miracle, but it didn’t end there. After rejecting his miracle-testimony, the religious rulers rejected him! But Jesus heard what had happened, sought him, found him, and asked, “Do you believe in the son of Man?”
Seeing Jesus for the first time and not knowing who He was, the man asked, “Who is he Lord, so that I may believe in him?” Jesus then identified Himself, saying, “You have seen him, and it is he who is talking with you.” Before, the man had heard an unknown voice; now he saw the Saviour clearly. Falling down at His feet, he exclaimed, “Lord, I believe!”
Had Jesus sought him out to comfort him? I think not. The man had a mother and a father who must have been overjoyed at the miracle their son had received. Jesus sought him out because after witnessing boldly of his new eyes by telling everyone that asked the “one thing” he knew, he was ready to believe in Jesus.
When we are converted, we focus on our spiritual experience – what the Lord has done for us. We testify to all who will listen. But our preoccupation with the “one thing” we know can prevent us from seeing the reason for the miracle — Christ’s purpose in saving us! There’s more to the Christian life than the “one thing” we know.
However, if we see the miracle as no more than a compassionate act, we miss the message. The man-made separation of chapters eight and nine interrupts the flow of the story and so obscures the meaning. Chapter eight ends with Jesus leaving the temple — “going through the midst (of those who wished to stone Him) and so passed by.” Chapter nine begins with “And as Jesus passed by…” There’s continuity! In the act of passing by, his disciples saw a man who was blind from birth.
One questioned: “Master, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (How could he have sinned before he was born?) Suddenly, an opportunity for a “sign” miracle presented itself, a miracle that would illustrate the terrible blindness of the Jews and at the same time show the Lord’s willingness to open their eyes to the truth — if they saw the significance of the sign!
Jesus knew that the man born blind was the next “sign” miracle. He answered, “Neither this man or his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.” Jesus then spoke of ‘daylight’ opportunities that would end with the coming of darkness, and identified himself as “the Light of the World.” His hearers had a limited opportunity to walk in that light. Jesus said this to introduce the miracle he was about to perform — a sign-miracle illustration of his words.
When he first saw the blind man, Jesus contrasted the natural elements of darkness and light. Later, after the Pharisees rejected the “sign” miracle, he would speak of spiritual blindness and sight. “For judgement I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind.”
The blind man pictured those who had never seen the Light. The Pharisees claimed that they could see, even though they rejected the Light of the World. Angrily, they asked, “Are we blind also?”
“If you were blind,” Jesus replied, “you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see.’ So, your sin remains.” (John 9:41) Those who saw him as the Christ had spiritual vision; those who did not were spiritually blind.
This unprecedented miracle had a lasting effect. When many said, “He has a demon and is mad…” others countered, “These are not the words of one who has a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?” (John 10:21)
Never forget the “one thing” that you first knew in the beginning — your testimony! It spoke to others of the change in your life! There were many things you did not know, but what you did know was that Jesus had ‘opened your eyes’ to the truth.
Have your eyes been opened to the truth that Jesus is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life” and that there is no other way to God but through the Cross, on which he died for your sins?
“Without the Way there is no going; without the truth there is no knowing; without the Life there is no living.”