Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2955
“One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see.” John 9:25.
DID it ever strike you how wonderfully calm and collected our Lord must have been at this time? He had been preaching in the Temple, talking to a multitude of Jews. They grew furious with Him—a number of stones which were used in repairing the temple were lying about on the floor and they took up those stones to cast at Him. He, by some means, forced a passage and escaped out of the midst of them—and when He came to the gate of the Temple with His disciples—who seem to have followed Him in the lane which He was able to make through the throng of His foes—He saw this blind man and, as if there had been no bloodthirsty foes at His heels, He stopped! He stopped as calmly as if an attentive audience had been waiting upon His lips—to look at the blind man. The disciples stopped, too, but they paused to ask questions.
How like ourselves! We are always ready to talk. How unlike the Master! He was always ready to act. The disciples wanted to know how the man came to be blind, but the Master meant to deliver the man from his blindness. We are very apt to be entering into speculative theories about the origin of sin or the cause of certain strange Providences, but Christ is always for seeking out, not the cause, but the remedy—not the reason of the disease, but the way by which the disease can be cured! The blind man is brought to Him. Christ asks him no questions, but, spitting upon the dust, He stoops down and works the dust into mortar. And when He has done this, taking it up in His hands, He applies it to what Bishop Hall calls the eye-holes of the man (for there were no eyes there), and plasters them up so that the spectators look on and see a man with clay upon his eyes. “Go,” said Christ “to the pool of Siloam and wash.” Some kind friends led the man who was only too glad to go! Unlike Naaman, who made an objection to wash in Jordan and be clean, the blind man was glad enough to avail himself of the Divine remedy. He went. He washed the clay from his eyes and he received his sight—a blessing he had never known before! With what rapture he gazed upon the trees! With what delight he lifted up his face to the blue sky! With what pleasure he beheld the costly, stately fabric of the Temple and, I think, afterwards, with what interest and pleasure he would look into the face of Jesus—the Man who had given him his sight!
It is not my objective to expound this miracle, tonight, but well it sets forth, in sacred emblem, the state of human nature. Man is blind. Father Adam put out our eyes. We cannot see spiritual things. We have not the spiritual optic— that has gone—gone forever. We are born without it—born blind! Christ comes into this world and His Gospel is despicable in men’s esteem even as spittle—the thought of it disgusts most men. Gentility turns on its heel and says it will have nothing to do with it. And pomp and glory all say that it is a contemptible and base thing! Christ puts the Gospel on the blind eyes—a Gospel which, like clay, seems as if it would make men more blind than before—but it is through “the foolishness of preaching” that Christ saves them that believe! The Holy Spirit is like Siloam’s pool. We go to Him, or rather He comes to us—the convictions of sin produced by the Gospel are washed away by the cleansing influences of the Divine Comforter and, behold—we who were once so blind that we could see no beauty in Divine things and no excellence in the crown jewels of God, begin to see things in a clear and Heavenly light—and rejoice exceedingly before the Lord!
The man no sooner sees than he is brought before adversaries and our text is a part of his testimony in defense of the “Prophet” who had worked the miracle upon him, whom, not as yet did he understand to be the Messiah.
“One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see.” Although the parables would furnish us an admirable topic, we prefer to keep to this verse and linger upon the various reflections it suggests. I. We have before us, in these words, AN UNANSWERABLE ARGUMENT.
Every now and then you and I are called into a little debate. Persons do not take things for granted in this age and it is quite as well that they should not. There have been ages in which any impostor could lead the public by the nose. Men would believe anything and any crazy maniac, man or woman, who might stand up and pretend to be the Messiah, would be sure to have some followers! I think this age, with all its faults, is not so credulous as that which has gone by. There is a great deal of questioning. You know that there is some questioning where there should not be any. Men who stand high in official positions and who ought long ago to have had their faith established, or to have renounced their position, have ventured to question the very things they have sworn to defend! There is questioning everywhere, but to my mind it seems, Brothers and Sisters, that we need not be afraid. If the Gospel of God is true, it can stand any quantity of questioning. I am more afraid of the deadness and lethargy of the public mind about religion than any sort of enquiry or controversy about it. As silver tried in the furnace is purified seven times, so is the Word of God—and the more it is put into the furnace, the more it will be purified—and the more beauteously the pure ore of Revelation will glitter in the sight of the faithful! Never be afraid of a debate. Never go into it unless you are well armed and if you do go into it, mind that you take with you the weapon I am giving you tonight. Though you may be unarmed in every other respect, if you know how to wield this, you may, through Grace, come off more than a conqueror! The argument which this man used was this, “Whereas I was blind, now I see.”