Eyes Wide Shut
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jeremy_1_10-30-2025_133529: [00:00:00] Welcome to another episode of Rebuilding Faith.
These are 10 minute Bible messages for people with questions and doubts. We began John chapter nine. Watching Jesus heal a blind man. Then we spent a couple weeks watching the fallout, the reaction of the religious leaders as Jesus got into it with them about how he had healed this blind man.
And now today we're gonna close out chapter nine, looking at some concluding thoughts that Jesus is going to provide about everything that we've just witnessed.
This is kind of a summation of all that's in chapter nine and all that. We've already looked at these last few weeks. John nine, verse 35. When Jesus heard what had happened, he found the man and he asked, do you believe in the son of. The man answered. Who is he? Sir? I want to believe in him. You have seen him, Jesus said, and he is speaking to you.
[00:01:00] Yes Lord. I believe the man said and he worshiped Jesus. Now, we often read this as a direct, question of do you believe in me that Jesus immediately is asking this guy, but he's actually tapping into something that was a theme throughout the Old Testament. Jesus is asking this man, do you believe in the concept of the son of man that we have had explained in Jewish writings up to that point?
One notable example of this comes from Daniel chapter seven, verses 1314, say this, as my vision continued that night, I saw someone like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the ancient one and was led into his presence. He was given authority, honor, and sovereignty over all the nations of the world, so that people of every race and nation and language would obey him.
His rule is eternal. It will [00:02:00] never end. His kingdom will never be destroyed. So all these set up this expectation of the son of man. Now, one trait that Jews in that day would've associated with the idea of the son of man. Was extreme righteousness. They would have attributed to anyone who would be the son of man.
In fact, one non-canonical Jewish text says it like this. This is Enoch 71. This is the son of man who is born unto righteousness and righteousness abides over him and the righteousness of the head of days forsakes him. That's a lot of righteousness. Now, this is in contrast to throughout this chapter how the religious leaders keep saying how sinful Jesus is, right?
Like, Jesus can't be the Messiah, can't be anything because Jesus is sinful. [00:03:00] It's the issue they have with the fact that Jesus healed this man, like Jesus can't have done it. He's got sin. So when Jesus is asking this man who used to be blind, you can now see it. He's saying, Hey, do you believe in the son of man?
He's now merging all the ideas of the son of man around him. And then when the man says, yeah, I, I do, Jesus makes it very clear that he is the son of man in direct contrast to many of the things that the religious leaders were saying about him up to this point, verse 39. Then Jesus told him, I entered this world to render judgment, to give sight to the blind and to show those who think they see that they are blind.
Now, some Pharisees who are standing nearby heard him and they asked, are you saying we are blind? If you were blind, you [00:04:00] wouldn't be guilty. Jesus replied, but you remain guilty because you claim. You can see again, this is Jesus with the smack talk, with the beat down of the religious leaders. Obviously, he's not beating them down, but you get the idea he's going toe to toe with them and is indeed calling them out.
Boom. Roasted
jeremy_1_10-30-2025_133529: now, Jesus mentions two things here. He says he came to give sight to the blind, which he has literally done with the person that is standing in front of him, right? That was earlier in this chapter, chapter nine. Jesus literally gave sight to the blind physically, but then he also came as he explains it, to convince other people that they were blind, even though they were convinced they could see, and that is ongoing.
That is something Jesus is going to do throughout the entire gospel, is convincing people, Hey, you think you can see [00:05:00] clearly, but you can't. You are actually blind. Now this is said. To the religious leaders of Jesus' Day, I, I suspect that Jesus would likely want to say this to many of our religious leaders today as well.
In fact, I confess to just imagining Jesus say this, that it would be such a joy to watch Jesus walk into certain Christian environments and certain churches. To say you are blind. Y'all are convinced you can see, but you're actually blind and just to see the reaction, it would be amazing. That's what they're watching Jesus do in this moment.
These leaders who have led them are now being directly called out by Jesus for claiming they can see, but in fact, not being able to see clearly [00:06:00] at all. So how do we know friends, whether this is us two, how do we know whether we are the ones seeing clearly or if we are convinced that we can see something and Jesus would actually tell us, no, you're not seeing as clear as you think my friend Caleb Campbell has said it like this.
In practice, we can often tell when God's words are being twisted by observing whether the hearers are experiencing peace. Union with God and unity with each other, or if they are marked by outrage, anxiety, and divisiveness. I, I love how practical and how simple Caleb makes it here. Would we describe Christians today in our culture as having peace union with God and unity with one another?
Now, maybe in some examples, but probably not the brush, [00:07:00] we're gonna paint a across the board. That's not how we're gonna describe most, if not much of Christianity today. Would we rather say No, our Christians and our culture have outrage and anxiety and divisiveness because maybe this is actually a sign we're not living out the words of Jesus.
See, when we are living these words out, I think there's something that can be seen in that environment. There is something we display, not just through our words, but through our actions. I don't know about you, but I'm always amazed when I hear someone preach a message and the words seem right, but the tone and the posture in which they are given feel wrong.
If you ever had a preacher or seen a preacher yell and scream at you about the goodness of God, [00:08:00] feels a little bit weird, right? We're going, Hey, you seem really angry and a bit judgmental here, but you're telling me about this goodness of God because the words don't line up to what you're seeing, and this is a challenge for all of us.
Jesus, he loves you. You don't know. First thing about love, I am filled with Christ's love.
jeremy_1_10-30-2025_133529: Do the things that we say line up with what people actually see in our lives. And as Jesus is playing with this image of sight, after literally healing someone that could not see, now he's bringing this spiritual metaphor to this religious community, and he's calling out the leaders who may have the right words.
They might have the right verses on their lips, and yet they're missing. The point, and we can miss the point too. [00:09:00] So the goal for you and I is to be a community, to be the kind of Christians that look like Jesus, not just because we say the right things, not just because our doctrines are good and beautiful, although hopefully they are, but because we actually look like Jesus in the way that we carry our beliefs, in the way that we disagree.
With people who are different than us. Then the way that we treat people who are different than us, that's where we determine whether or not we can see. I'll see you next week on Rebuilding Faith.
