Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1065
“Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind.” John 9:32.
THAT was quite true—there was no instance recorded in Scripture or in profane history at the time when this man spoke, of any person who was born blind having obtained his sight. I believe it was in the year 1728 that the celebrated Dr. Cheselden, of St. Thomas’s Hospital, for the first time in the world’s history achieved the marvel of giving sight to a man who had been blind from his youth up. And since then the operation of couching the eyes has been several times successfully performed upon persons who were born blind.
This man was, however, quite correct in the statement that then, and in his day, neither by skillful surgery nor even by miracle had birth-blindness been healed. There was no doubt this man was a great student in the matter of blindness—it touched so nearly his own consciousness since he himself dwelt beneath its perpetual shadow. He was the one man in the city who understood the subject thoroughly. But, alas, by all his researches he found no ground for hope. Having learned the whole history of blindness and its cure, this man had come to the assured conviction that none ever had been healed who were in his plight—a mournful conclusion, indeed, for him.
Our Lord Jesus did for him what never had been done before for any man. This pleasing fact seems to me to be full of consolation to any persons here present who labor under the idea that theirs is a most peculiar and hopeless case. It probably is not so solitary and special a case as you think, but even if we grant your supposition, there is no room for despair since Jesus delights to open up new paths of Grace. Our Lord is inventive in love! He devises new modes of mercy! It is His joy to find out and relieve those whose miserable condition has baffled all other help. His mercy is not bound by precedents. He preserves a freshness and originality of love.
If you can find no instance in which a person like yourself has ever been saved you should not, therefore, conclude that you must necessarily be lost. Rather, you should believe in Him who does great wonders, yes, and marvels unsearchable in the way of Divine Grace! He does as He wills, and His will is love. Have hope that inasmuch as He sees in you a singular sinner, He will make of you a singular trophy of His power to pardon and to bless. It was so with this man’s eyes—if never eyes that had been born blind were opened before, Jesus Christ would do it—and the greater would be the glory brought to His name by the miracle.
Jesus does not need showing the way—He loves to strike out paths for Himself and the greater the room for His mercy the better He likes the road. I purpose this morning gathering instruction from the particular expression which the healed man here used. May the Holy Spirit make the meditation truly profitable to us. And, first, I shall ask you to observe the peculiarity of his case—he was a man born blind. Then, secondly, the specialties of his cure shall occupy a little of our attention. And, thirdly, we shall make a few remarks upon the singular condition of the healed man from the moment that his eyes were opened.
I. First, then, THE PECULIARITY OF HIS CASE. It was not an instance of need of light—that might both speedily and easily have been remedied. There was light enough all around him, but the poor creature had no eyes. Now, there are millions of persons in the world who have little or no light. Darkness covers the earth and gross darkness the people. It is the Church’s business to spread light on all sides and for this work she is well qualified. We ought not to suffer any person to perish for lack of knowing the Gospel. We cannot give men eyes, but we can give them light. God has placed among us His golden candlesticks and expressly said, “You are the lights of the world.”
Now, I believe that there are some persons who have eyes who, nevertheless, see but little for need of light. They are children of God but they walk in darkness and see no light. God has given to them the spiritual faculty of sight, but as
yet they are down in the mines, in the region of night and death shade. They are imprisoned in Doubting Castle where only a few feeble rays struggle into their dungeon. They walk like men in a mist, seeing and yet not seeing. They hear doctrines preached which are not the pure Truth of God, the winnowed corn of the Covenant and, while their eyes are blinded with chaff and dust, they themselves are bewildered and lost in a maze.
Too many in this murky light weave for themselves theories of doubt and fear which increase the gloom. Their tears defile the windows of their soul. They are like men who hang up blinds and shutters to keep out the sun. They cannot see, though Grace has given them eyes. May it be yours and mine by explanation and example, by teaching with the language of the lips and the louder language of our lives, to scatter light on all sides—that those who dwell in spiritual midnight may rejoice, because for them light has sprung up!