Text: “A man they call Jesus...told me to go to
Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see” John 9.11
At Maeshowe
on the
It was constructed with great
care. At its heart is a square chamber about sixteen feet high, and sixteen
feet across, lined with huge slabs, the largest weighing over 3 tonnes, Great buttresses hold up the walls. Which is why the inner chamber has been called "A stone age
cathedral". A long entrance passage about 40 feet long leads into the inner
chamber. What the experts have discovered, however, is that the whole building
is facing in a very precise direction. In the depths of the darkest days of
winter, at the winter solstice when the sun comes up at dawn on December 21st. a
beam of light comes down the long passage and into the central chamber. The
dark chamber, is suddenly filled with light. In a
dramatic fashion the light of the sun floods down the passage way and the walls
and ceiling of the ancient chamber are lit up.........flooded with light.
In John 9, we have an account of a blind man
whose darkness was turned to light, whose life was flooded with light, through
the power of Jesus. Jesus healed this man who had been born blind, saying “While I am in the world, I am the light of
the world."
The Lord took some mud and put it on
the man's eyes. "Go," he told him, "wash in the Pool of
Siloam" - So
the man went to the Pool, washed his eyes in its waters, and came home able to
see, for the first time in his life, his life flooded with light.
Now, one of the most important things
about John’s gospel is that miracles are not only powerful events of healing, they are also a sign pointing to something deeper. When
Jesus shared out the bread for the hungry crowd, He spoke of the bread of life.
When he sat with the woman at the well, He spoke of the living waters of life.
When Jesus healed the blind man, so
that he could see, something deeper happens too. The blind man comes to see,
not just his family, not just the faces of his children, the light of the sun,
the blue sky - he comes to see who Jesus is - the light of the world.
Let us think on two things this
morning,
First: the love of Jesus
and Second: that the eyes of the blind man were opened,
and he saw Jesus.............
First,
the love of Jesus..........
Verse 7 puts it very briefly -
Jesus told the man who was
blind to go and wash in the Pool of Siloam, the man did so - and his sight was
restored. What a turbulent few hours now follow for that man. Who is
now, no longer blind, but
a man who sees. In these first few hours he trying to cope with the
massive experience of a world full of light and colour.
While at the same time he is taken to the
"We know this man Jesus
is a sinner," they say to him. "Whether he is a sinner or not, I
don't know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!" So they then
ask him, "What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?" He
answers, "I have told you already and you did not listen
" The leaders then shout at him, "You are this fellow's
disciple! We are disciples of Moses! We know that God spoke to Moses, but as
for this fellow, we don't even know where he comes from." The man answers,
"If this man Jesus were not from God, he could do nothing." At this
point, the discussion came to an abrupt end - and he was thrown out of the
Now it is that we see the love
of Jesus Christ. Jesus had heard what had happened and comes looking for that poor nameless, man, once blind, who can now
see. The gospels show on practically every page the love of Jesus who again and
again seeks the lost, the outcasts, the sinners. We
see Jesus seeking those far beyond the law, far away from religion We see the love of Jesus as He sat speaking to a Samaritan
woman. The Lord Jesus, utterly pure in heart, the sinless One, sitting there at
the wellside speaking with her - speaking life giving words of forgiveness,
and mercy, and life.
Now, Jesus comes looking for
and finds the man who has been rejected by the
In love, Jesus Christ has looked for this man, and he is found............
The love of Jesus Christ, who seeks us, and finds us...........
One of the great themes of the gospel
is the love that Christ has for you and me...........
As the Father has loved me..... so I have loved you, says Jesus..........
This is how we know what love is, Jesus Christ laid down His life for us........ says 1 John
Christ loved us, and gave Himself for us......... says Ephesians.
such is the love that Christ has for you and me...........
that
He came, and He sought, and He found us.........
Second: : that the eyes of the blind man were opened, and he saw
Jesus.............
The man who once was blind - now no longer living in darkness,
his eyes were opened and he saw Jesus, the light of Jesus..............
Darkness and light are the great themes of the last chapter of Luke’s gospel.
The last chapter of Luke tells us that some days
after Jesus was crucified towards evening two disciples were on their way home
from
it was only then Luke tells us, that their eyes were opened and they saw Him.
Were not our hearts burning within us while He talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us ? They said............
their eyes were opened and they saw Jesus.............
You know, sometimes,
we find it difficult to understand what we read in the Bible, sometimes we just
plain don’t understand what we are reading.
The New Testament tells us of a
man like that, an Ethiopian, who was on his way back to
7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his
mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her
shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can
speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for
the transgression of my people he was stricken.
trying to understand them. All of a sudden the apostle Philip, came up alongside the chariot and asked him “Do you understand what you are reading ?” “How can I understand ?” says the Ethiopian. He could not grasp what he was reading. He could see the letters there on the page, but they were dark and mysterious.
Then Philip explains to this Ethiopian man, that the passage he is reading speaks of Jesus Christ and His cross. As Philip spoke about Jesus, like the disciples on the road to Emmaus,
the
heart of the Ethiopian man...... burned
within him as Philip explained the Scriptures
in the light of Jesus Christ.............
the eyes of this Ethiopian man were opened, and he saw Jesus..............
as ours are when we open the Bible and see Jesus spoken of in the Scriptures
and each page is filled with light....
our eyes are opened and we see Jesus............
our
eyes are opened and we see Jesus............
How strange it seems - to go back to the disciples on
the road to Emmaus, that
Jesus had walked with them on their journey, through the darkness
- but their eyes were somehow blind and “They did not recognise
Jesus”. How strange,
but how true - so often Jesus Christ is right there with us, on the journey of our
own lives — but we do not recognise Him. Not at the time, only later. But when we
take a moment to look back over our lives from where we are now - our eyes are
opened and we see Jesus - we can see many
points in life when the Lord Jesus was indeed there
beside us, guiding, guarding and
protecting us - though at the time we did not know it....... When we made our way along life’s journey, along
that difficult, or dangerous path, when there seemed no way forward, He
was there. And if, and if we, you and I are still on that road to-day, still
journeying on, however slowly, let us thank our dearest Lord Jesus. For it is He who has journeyed beside
us, unrecognised.
And when comes that day, when, as the New Testament
proclaims,
our eyes will be opened and we will see Jesus as He is,
yes, we will look back over our
lives, and, though at the time we did not know it,
the Lord Jesus will show us that He was there always there beside us, guiding, guarding and protecting us -
our eyes will be
opened, and we will Jesus, always there........