What if our biggest blind spots have nothing to do with our eyes?

In John 9, Jesus gives sight to a man born blind. The disciples ask whose sin caused his condition. The Pharisees question the healing. As the man comes to recognize who Jesus is, others resist what the miracle reveals.

In “Come and See Miracles,” Part 7 of our journey through the Gospel of John, we explore Jesus’ response to suffering, the temptation to assign blame, and how our assumptions can get in the way of belief.

Beginning with a personal journey through eye disease and surgeries, this message connects physical sight with our need for spiritual light. Jesus invites us to trust Him, respond to His words, and bring His light into our families, workplaces, and communities.

Scripture: John 9

For reflection: Where might your assumptions be keeping you from seeing Jesus more clearly?

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OC Church of Christ

Dr. Gregg Marutzky:

One or two?

Two.

One or two?

Two or one?

One.

How many of you know what I'm talking about?

No.

The eye exam

You go to the optometrist, you go to the ophthalmologist, they give you one lens

and they say, "Is it this, number one?

Or which is better, number two?

Which is better, number one or number two?"

Both.

I have had so many, many eye exams in my life.

Many of you, uh, may not know that, uh, I got an eye disease when I was about 30.

Had 20/20 vision before that, and at 30, uh, I was starting to lose

my sight, and I couldn't see, and I thought I just needed some new glasses.

Cathy's uncle was a optometrist, so I went to him and he said, "Greg, I think there's

something a little more seriously wrong.

You're gonna have to go to an ophthalmologist.

That's an MD that deals with eyes."

And that started my journey for about 20 years of going to specialists, and

I had a, uh, transplant in my left eye.

So if you don't want me to see, me to see you, sit on this side

of the auditorium, all right?

But, uh, I had a transplant that failed.

And, uh, so I've kept this eye as a spare tire my, uh, whole life.

It's not black.

Uh, I can see light in it.

I can see some things, but, uh, uh, I know what it's like, like to be in darkness.

I know what it's like to be in darkness spiritually.

I know what it's like to be in darkness even physically.

When I've come out of surgery at times on my eyes and been able to see, that's

one of the most euphoric feelings.

Tears come to your eyes that … And you're so hopeful

that everything's gonna be better.

And it's gotten better.

I have gotten by.

I remember sitting on the edge of our bed in, uh, Boulder at just,

uh, about 30, and just crying, thinking, "I'm gonna go blind.

I'm not gonna be able to drive.

I'm not gonna be able to preach.

I'm not gonna be able to read."

And here I am at my ripe, mature age, and I can still see.

Amen.

So I get to preach today, amen.

Amen.

Thank you.

Rejoice with me.

Amen.

Rejoice with those who droi- rejoice.

But I get to talk about Jesus is the light, and that's very personal to

me because light means sight for me.

Light means sight.

Darkness cannot drive out the darkness, only light can do that.

Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that, Martin Luther King.

1 John 1:5, "The light shines in the darkness, and the

darkness has not overcome it."

Praise the Lord.

28, "For it is you who light my lamp.

The Lord my God lights the darkness."

"In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness

must be present," unfortunately.

"Weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning," Psalms 30:5.

Maybe you know, have to know the darkness before you can

really appreciate the light.

We have to start viewing not just the good stuff as a miracle, but also the

bad stuff that gets you to the miracle.

We have to start viewing not just the good stuff.

No one is as capable of gratitude as the one who has emerged from the

darkness of the kingdom of night.

Harold Kushner, who wrote Bad Things Happen to Good People, says, "God

is the light shining in the midst of darkness, but to deny that there is

darkness in the world would be wrong.

But we need to reassure ourselves that we do not have to be afraid

of the darkness, because darkness will always yield to light."

Can I get an amen?

Though my soul may be set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light.

I have loved the stars that fondly remind me of the light is coming

Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all the darkness around us.

Today, we're talking about come and see the miracles.

Not many people believe in miracles anymore.

We need to believe in miracles, right?

We need to believe that God can do amazing things in our lives,

and that he will do amazing things for each of us individually.

When you start not believing that God will do supernatural, amazing,

impossible, unbelievable, unseen things for you, you start to lose your faith.

And so today, we're gonna talk about one, uh, very amazing

miracle in John Chapter nine.

The whole story's just about this, the whole chapter.

And I wanna remind you of Raymond Brown's commentary if you wanna

get that for your quiet times.

Jesus said in John nine in verse five, "While I am in the world,

I am the light of the world."

And then in Matthew it says, "We're the light of the world."

So Jesus is gone from the world, so where is light coming from now?

Good people Coming from us.

Be the light.

Be the light.

Be the light for your family.

Be the light for your work.

Be your light for your community.

Be the light for your marriage.

Be the light for your children.

Be the light for the church.

Be the light for the preacher this morning, all right?

Amen.

Be the light.

That's right.

I'm the light.

Okay?

That may be our motto after this sermon.

I'm the light.

Can't you see it?

You must be blind.

We're gonna talk about, this is a great chapter, uh, light defeats darkness.

Praise God for that.

Sometimes I doubt.

Sometimes I think the darkness is just overcoming us.

Sometimes I get discouraged, especially when people I love leave the faith.

Yeah.

Breaks my heart, and I think the darkness is winning.

But then I read my Bible and I'm reminded that, no, light defeats darkness.

It always has to yield.

There's a great poem I, I read about a candle in a closet.

Who cares?

I don't hang out in closets, do you?

But it was so magnificent how it just described how all the

darkness has to flee just out of the little cracks in the doors.

It's gotta go, 'cause the candle brightens up the closet.

Light defeats darkness.

We're seeing a miracle today as we read in mar- in John chapter

nine, a man born blind healed.

And then we're gonna see that, uh, darkness hates light.

How come things are so tough sometimes for us as Christians?

Why do some people just oppose us?

Why sometimes does it just seem hard to be good?

I mean, why aren't people cheering me on to be good?

Yeah.

Yeah, I wanna be good.

You wanna be good.

We all wanna be good.

Let's be good.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But you only get those cheers here at church, right?

Out in the world, they applaud darkness.

They put…

The viral ones are the dark ones, right?

We need to see and realize darkness hates light.

And we're gonna start off with the Pharisees refuse to accept the

miracle, and the blame question.

And then lastly, we'll see a little bit about how light reveals truth.

How this blind man, his first sight was so exciting for him.

So wanna remind you the theme of the Book of John, don't ever lose context.

All right?

Don't get so myopic you look at the, the specific and don't

keep in view the big picture.

If you lose the big picture of life, you can get discouraged and down.

So the big picture of the Book of John is believe.

Believe.

You gotta hold onto this stuff.

You gotta have this stuff deep in your soul.

You can't be casual about this.

This is what your foundation of life is, that you believe there's light in

the world, that there's good in the world, and that you wanna be good.

And you believe that Jesus Christ was the good one- Amen … the light,

the best one, the one and only.

Amen?

Amen.

Gotta be careful.

I'm gonna lose my voice.

Got a little cold, you know?

Comes on this time, the weather changes.

It's a personal problem.

Don't worry about it.

Maybe pray about it for me.

Amen.

We've seen almost all the signs already in the Book of John.

We've seen the sign of water to wine, the healing of the nobleman's son,

the healing of the paralytic, and the feeding of the 5,000, and, and then

Jesus and Peter walking on water.

And today we get to see the sight re- s- the blind receiving sight.

And then the last miracle is the resurrection from the dead.

Praise God for that one.

We would have no hope without that one.

But Jesus today, we're gonna see He's a miracle worker.

And I thought that Marcel was gonna steal my thunder.

He's using my verse.

I'm like, "Hush!"

But he didn't.

He just mentioned it.

It's good to tie the communion into the sermon.

Thank you so much for that, Marcel.

Just being a little open there for a minute.

All right?

But you avoided it.

You didn't steal my thunder.

That's right.

But there's two riddles in this p- in this chapter.

A- And you know, for years as a young Christian, I just read by this stuff.

If I didn't understand it, I just go to the stuff I did understand, and it

built up my faith, and I didn't worry about the stuff I didn't understand.

And then sometime along, somewhere along the l- line, somewhere I just

decide, "I need to figure it all out."

Yeah.

And so in John Chapter 9, this verse, "As long as it is day, we

must do the works of Him who sent me.

Night is coming when no one can work."

Now, we don't relate that much to this because we have lights.

We have electricity.

We can work at night.

In fact, I'm more of a night owl than I am a early morning kinda guy.

I've had to become more of a early morning kinda guy 'cause you guys like

to have breakfast with me, all right?

So I gotta get up.

Gotta get up early, gotta get up real early, have my quiet time and meet you.

But I'm a late night guy.

I, I, I f- probably for about 20, 25 years, I stayed up till 2:00.

I only needed about four or five hours of sleep most of my life.

That probably wasn't…

I'm probably not gonna live to 100, but I didn't really want to anyway because

they're not, they don't, you don't get more attractive with time, all right?

But what this means is you need to do good while you have the chance.

Amen.

I prayed about this, I thought about this.

I really believe I got enlightened.

This means when it's day and you can work, and at night when you can

sleep, you need to do what you're supposed to do at the right time.

You need to do good when you have the chance to do good.

Amen.

You need to make the right choices.

Those of us that are older, we look back at our lives and we see

where we made the right choices and where we made the wrong choices.

And sometimes we get on our soapbox and we preach to you that

are younger, "Don't do that!"

You know?

And you go, "You did."

Yeah, and I regret it.

And it was stupid, and it's gonna lead you down the dark path, not the light path

I don't remember the movie, whether you should eat the red pill or the blue pill.

Matrix.

Matrix.

I know it's Matrix, but I don't know which one's the right one.

Right?

I just know darkness and light.

Do good while you have the chance.

Darkness is dangerous, my mama said.

And don't be messing with my mama.

She's still alive, sweet little thing.

I'll, I'll sick one of my older brothers on her, on you, if you mess with my mama.

I am a preacher, I can't mess with you.

All right?

But Mama said nothing good happens after midnight.

Wow.

You get home.

Yeah.

You need to get home by midnight.

Nothing good happens after midnight.

And then when a sweet little person says something real strong, you're

like, "Wow, where'd that come from?"

And obviously I've remembered it all these years, but that's what Jesus is saying.

Nothing good comes after midnight

What have we seen so far in the Gospel of John?

Let's keep our context.

John chapter five, he healed the man at the pool of Siloam, the paralytic, and

he asked him, "Do you wanna get well?"

You know, in counseling they teach you don't, don't go somewhere

your clients don't wanna go.

If they don't want help, stop taking their money.

Tell them to, to come back l- later.

Only help those that wanna be helped.

That's right.

You can't help people that don't wanna change.

You cannot help people that don't wanna be helped.

That's right.

And some of us parents need to realize that.

That's right.

We have wanted to help our kids, and they haven't wanted our help.

L- what does Jesus say?

Let them live.

Let them learn the hard way on some things.

That's right.

And the world will teach you, and will teach you the hard way.

So Jesus asked this question, "Do you wanna get well?"

And when you wanna get well, nothing can stop you.

Yeah.

Nothing can stop you.

And He healed him.

And then the feeding of fi- the 5,000 from two loaves and, or, or five loaves and

two fishes, just that everybody's hungry.

And the question is, do you guys wanna leave too, or do you want to

consume my body and drink my blood?

We just did in communion.

The symbol of Jesus' body and blood, we just consumed it.

And He says, basically, in that whole chapter it's about

are you gonna be committed?

Are you gonna be consumed with Me and consume Me, and be consumed with my

mission, or do you just wanna be pagan?

That's what He's saying in John chapter 6.

In John chapter 7, Jesus' brothers are goading Him.

He says, "Hey, you need to go up and, and, and, and go to the fe- festival, and you

need to get, get famous, be an influencer.

You need to go viral."

And Jesus says, "My time hasn't come yet."

And then it's so interesting, then He goes, but in secret.

That secret motif-

His brothers are hopeless, and he's given hope to the world.

The adulterous woman, I loved Kyle's sermon last week.

I loved that passage.

She was heartbroken.

She was looking for love, and she found it in Jesus Christ.

And today, we see a fellow blind.

And, you know, blind people need a little help

And he j- they, they can, they can do amazing things now.

They can speak into their, their computer, and it can type it out, and they can hear.

They can use their other senses, and they can hear your emails,

and there's so many programs.

There's so many good things.

I ha- one of my mentors at Abilene Christian, Charles Seibert,

he's died now of cancer, but he had m- macular de-generation.

He couldn't drive.

He couldn't type.

He couldn't, couldn't hardly see.

He needed help, and so we as students would, would help him.

We'd take him home.

We'd guide him to class.

We'd, we'd tell him…

We'd read him the things that would come in the mail.

And Je- and Jesus heals this man that needs help.

And I don't know about you, but help, I need somebody.

Help, not just anybody.

Help, I need someone.

See, can you tell I grew up in the '60s?

Yeah.

Oh, I love the Beatles.

If you don't love the Beatles- … I mean, something's wrong

We're talking about a full life versus an empty life.

Let's read together beginning in John 9:1.

"As He went along, He saw a man blind from birth."

Blind from birth.

Blind from birth

At least I got a C for 30 years, clearly

It hurts kids that are born with illness.

As a chaplain in the NICU, in the pediatric ICU, I've seen a lot of this.

His disciples ask him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his

parents, that he was born blind?"

Parents will beat themselves up, blaming themselves for everything

wrong with their kids' lives.

Don't we, parents?

We take responsibility.

We love our kids.

We love you, children, and we'll beat ourselves up, and we'll feel

like we're the ones to blame.

And you need to hear this, Mom and Dad.

You're not to blame

"Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened that the

works of God might be displayed in him."

He doesn't even answer the question of whose fault it is.

I think it's Satan's fault.

I've studied my Bible enough that good comes from God and evil comes from Satan.

Amen.

Blessings come from God, and illness and sickness and death comes from Satan.

But he says, "But God will work in the blindness."

Yeah.

God will work

And he'll make bad good and tragedy triumph

But this happened that the works of God might be displayed in him.

As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent us.

Don't play the blame game.

This man, the child, the child is not to blame.

And, and kids are born with stuff, prone to alcoholism, prone to drug addiction,

prone to things, prone to mental illness.

Nobody to blame.

Oh, I'd like to hit something sometimes, you know?

Over evil, over bad.

I hit my pillow.

I gotta buy new pillows every once in a while.

My therapist told me to hit my pillow, scream in my pillow.

It's good for you, especially men, that primal scream

I'm amplified, so I can't do it.

All right?

I've already been loud enough already.

As long as it is day, we must do good.

Bad things happen and there's no one to blame.

There's the unexplainable, the unknowable, but God cares.

Don't do the blame game, Mom, Dad, brother, sister, children.

Verse 10, he says, "How then were your eyes opened?"

they ask.

He replied, "The man they call Jesus…"

He- Jesus has already healed him.

We've skipped that part of the story.

You know that part.

"The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes.

He told me to go to Siloam and wash.

So I went and washed, and then I could see."

"Where is this man?"

they ask him.

Oh, I don't know.

"Who is this man?"

I don't know.

I was blind when I was talking to him.

All right?

They brought to Jesus the man who had been born blind.

Now, the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened

the man's eye was a Sabbath.

Light is for sight.

Truth is seen though only by faith.

Light can help you see and see the beautiful and see the colors and

see the magnificence, see the glory.

But light can also blind you

Watch me closely sometimes when I walk out of the building.

I'll either put sunglasses on or I'll close this eye that doesn't work

'cause it's really sensitive to light

And the light blinds me in this eye

Lot goes on with people.

Lots goes on with me you don't know about.

Sometimes I share with you.

We gotta be sensitive to people.

You know who's not sensitive to me?

McDonald's workers.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

As I'll get up there to the counter, and I'll look up and to the menu,

and it's just the wrong distance for my eyesight, and I can't read it.

And they ask you, "What do you want?

What do you want?"

"People behind you, sir.

What would you like?"

"Oh, just get me a Big Mac."

And I shouldn't get a Big Mac.

I'm looking for salad.

I'm looking for something healthy, but I can't see it

I love those restaurants that have the little paper menus so I

can see them and I can read them.

Light is for sight.

Truth is seen, though, through the eyes of faith.

Jesus was called the light.

He was called by this man the prophet, by this man a healer.

Miracles happen when we believe.

Verse 15, skipping ahead a little further, "There the- therefore the Pharisees also

asked him how he had received his sight.

'He put mud on my eyes.'"

Now, if you were not desperate to be able to see, would you let

someone put mud on your eyes?

You know what they do in eye surgery?

You don't wanna know.

They don't tell you before you go into surgery.

Because if they told you, you're like, "For four hours you're gonna

prop my eye open with metal and shine a bright light in there and cut on

it, and you have to be so precise?"

You're like, "There's no way."

I woke up at the end of one of the surgeries, and that light was so blinding.

I started screaming and crying, "Shut it off.

Shut it off."

"We can't, sir.

We're almost done."

"Shut it off."

And I can get real loud if you haven't noticed

We needed a little bit better anes- anesthesiologist that day

Put mud in my eyes, and I wash, and now I see."

Some of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, for

he does not keep the Sabbath."

But others asked, "How can a sinner perform such signs?"

So they were divided.

Then they turned again to the blind man, "What have you to say about him?

It was your eyes that were opened."

And the man replied, "He is a prophet."

He's a prophet.

You only see what you wanna see, and sometimes you see only what you wanna see.

It's called confirmation bias.

Sometimes we even come to church that way.

We only hear what we wanna hear, and we don't hear what is said.

We've gotta let God speak to us.

Jesus was either liar, Lord, or lunatic.

There's a great book out with that title

Hearing for the man was healing.

Before he could ever see, he obeyed Jesus.

Hearing brought his healing, 'cause he went and washed and obeyed.

Sometimes the only way to see is to close your eyes

If I close my eyes, I can focus.

If I keep my eyes open, my head's all over the place.

My mind is always running.

So I gotta go somewhere quiet, and I have to close my eyes,

and then I start seeing more.

I keep i- I start imagining, I start dreaming

Sometimes that's the only way to see, is to close your eyes.

And God will show us the unbelievable.

The, he w- 'cause he wants our lives to be overflowing.

Verse 18, "They still did not believe."

Oh, those religious people

Sometimes we as preachers, we assume you believe.

We don't have to persuade, we don't have to convince, we don't

have to inspire, 'cause you came.

That doesn't mean you believe.

Right.

'Cause these religious people did not believe, 'cause they

already had confirmation bias.

They still did not believe that he, this man had been blind and

had received his sight until they sent for the man's parents.

"Is this your son?"

they asked.

"Is this the one that you say was born blind?

How is it that he can see?"

"We know it's our son," the parents answered, "and we know that he was

born blind, but now he can see.

Now…

Or who, who opened his eyes, we don't know.

Ask him.

He's of age, and he will speak for himself."

This is a heartbreaking moment.

Mom and Dad, stand up for your son.

Stand up for him.

Stand with him.

He was blind all these years, and people have made you feel

guilty and made him feel guilty.

That you were bad parents, you're sinful parents, and that's why he was born blind.

And they've made him feel like a sinner.

So this is your moment.

As a family, stand with your son and say, "He was blind and now he can see.

He was healed by God."

And they missed their moment.

And you don't get these moments.

They don't come again.

There's a time to do what's right.

There's a time when it's light, when you need to do good,

and then the darkness comes

Parents missed their moments.

They blew it big time here.

Ah.

And we as such enlightened people think, "Oh, I would've stood up for my son."

Yeah.

Careful, careful, careful.

We see what we wanna see.

Our eyes at times deceive us.

We need to see through the eyes of faith

You know what I've accepted in my life?

It's better for this eye to be blind

It makes me humble

I drive a little slower 'cause I have a restricted license.

I gotta have a mirror on this side.

And I don't go that, to that lane very quickly.

I turn on my blinker, I slow down, I start edging over just

in case I'm missing somebody.

I'm always adjusting that mirror too.

Can I see everybody?

And every once in a while I'll miss somebody, and I'll almost run

them off the road, and they honk and they give me a Hollywood hello

And I just say, "Sorry I'm sorry."

Sometimes it's better to be blind.

Makes you accept help

Jesus says at the end of this chapter in John 9:41, "If you were blind,

you would not be guilty of sin.

But now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains."

You Christians you need a crutch

You Christians, you just believe stuff by faith.

You're so naive.

You're so gullible

No, we believe because of Jesus.

It's not blind belief.

But a lot of stuff we just accept, we don't see

Oh, we have these incredible telescopes.

But we can't see out there very far.

We can't see hardly any of the universe, though we think we're so amazing.

You know?

The darkness brings blinders to us, doesn't it?

Verse 30

The man answered, "Now that's remarkable."

This is the Pharisees investigating him some more.

They've brought him back, and they've asked him what happened,

and he says, "It's remarkable.

You don't know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes?

We know that God doesn't listen to sinners."

This guy has gotten so profound and spiritual all of a sudden.

Why?

'Cause he's been listening.

"He listens to the godly person who does his will."

This is one thing this blind man has learned from his blindness.

God listens to those who do his will.

"Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind.

If this man were not from God, he could do nothing."

So they replied, "You are steeped in sin from birth.

How dare you lecture us?"

They threw him out.

And then Jesus gets to put a face to the name, and Jesus makes a judgment.

We all have blind spots.

You've seen this diagram in some, you know, uh, driver training class.

Maybe one that you took to get your license.

Maybe one you took to get out of a ticket.

Just saying.

I learn a lot from these classes

. In fact, I sort of like taking them 'cause I need the refresher, you know?

And I love this diagram about all my blind spots back there,

maybe because I can't see as well.

This man didn't have any more blind spots about Jesus.

He says, "He's a prophet.

He healed me.

Whether he's a sinner or not, I don't know."

Verse 31, "We know that God listens to sinners."

And then verse 38, he says, "I believe."

That's the point of John, "I believe," and he worshiped him.

And so the question for us today is simply this: Can we see?

Can we see through the eyes of faith?

Can we see what God wants us to see, or are we still blind?

Jesus said, "For judgment I come into the world."

So I gotta end on sort of a, a strong, a serious note.

I like ending my sermons making you feel good, and you're

cheering, and oh, that was good.

Thank you, Greg.

And almost every sermon that's short, you feel that way

So let's wrap this up.

Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this, "The blind will see,

and those who see will become blind."

And he says, "What?"

They say, "What?

Are we blind too?"

And Jesus said, "If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin.

But now that you claim that you can see, your guilt remains."

This is the other riddle right there.

If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin.

But now that you claim to see, what are they seeing?

What are they admitting to?

They can see in darkness because he's the light of the world.

If they've been able to see, then that means they can see in darkness.

But if they would have acknowledged they could not see, and they need to be

able to see, and they need Jesus to see, then they would not be guilty of sin.

But now that you claim you can see in the darkness, your guilt remains.

So Jesus is the light of the world.

Follow his voice, 'cause hearing is healing.

Jesus is the light of the world, and sometimes just close your eyes, 'cause

it's better-- you're better off blind.

Your eyes can deceive you, 'cause we need to look beyond ourselves for truth.

The world tells you over and over, and it's telling all you college

students right now in college.

I know what those professors said.

I've had a lot of them, all right?

They're telling you the answer's within you.

You got all the answers.

You got all the answers.

And I think you're amazing.

I'm not trying to put you down, but I know you don't have all the answers.

I don't know-- I know you don't have that many answers, 'cause

I'm your professor, all right?

If you'll take my class, all right?

We all need to go to God for our answers.

Amen.

Amen.

And then lastly, see the unseen.

That's the good stuff.

That's the good stuff.

God will show us the unbelievable, the unexplainable, the

unknowable, the unseeable.

Why?

Because Jesus is the light.

And oh, oh, how we love and need light.

God bless you, Church.