Jesus Heals the Blind

BY Erin Davis

I believe in Jesus with every cell He created in me. I know He’s the only hope for those who are adrift from His love and truth. And yet, when it’s time to share the gospel, sometimes my palms start to sweat.

What if I create more confusion than clarity?
What if I get snagged on questions about the finer points of the gospel message?
What then?

Tucked here in John 9, we find a remarkable story about hope, healing, and the beautiful simplicity of the gospel. At the center of the story is a man born blind. Surely, every time he glanced toward something his eyes could not see, he was reminded of his brokenness and need for a healer. 

When we come face to face with our inability to be holy as God is holy or to “fix” ourselves, we realize our need for a savior. We try to go a day without sinning and fail before our feet hit the floor, once again realizing just how broken we are.

Then the God who healed this man’s eyes lifts ours.

After his miraculous healing, the man is pressed by the religious establishment about his encounter with Jesus. He doesn’t debate the points of the law, or drop a truth bomb, leaving the room in stunned silence. He simply tells his story. Pay attention. It sounds like the chorus of one of the Church’s sweetest anthems.

He answered, “Whether or not he’s a sinner, I don’t know. One thing I do know: I was blind, and now I can see!” (John 9:25).

This man didn’t have Jesus all figured out. He couldn’t explain a God willing to break tradition on the Sabbath He created. He couldn’t reconcile the Pharisees’ perception of God with the reality of his encounter with Jesus, but he did know one thing: “I was blind, and now I can see.” He was preaching the gospel. 

Whatever else the gospel is, it most certainly is this: “I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior.” 

The Pharisees simply could not stand against the undeniable testimony of the man who had been healed. So radical was his transformation that his friends and neighbors declared him a changed man.

Friends, the gospel is not a treasure to be hoarded. The call on each of our lives is to shout it from every rooftop, whisper it in every coffee shop, declare it to every fellow sinner (Matthew 28:16–20). 

When we simply put the story of God’s grace in our own lives on display, we declare, “I was blind. But because of Jesus, now I see.” This is our anthem of hope, and it’s hard to deny hope. We don’t need all the answers; our explanations won’t always woo others to Jesus. But the aroma of Christ Jesus in us will. It’s His healing presence in our own lives that draws the lost and the blind to the One who brings healing.