"A blind beggar!" What an expression of helplessness and need! What a picture of the real condition of the Jewish nation, and of every unregenerate soul! Let us turn aside for a few moments and gaze upon this singularly striking picture or, to speak more correctly, this most interesting piece of living history, this scene from real life.
The study of the 9th chapter of John suggests two very important questions; namely, 1) What has Jesus done for me? 2) What is Jesus to me? These questions are very distinct and closely connected. We shall find them both forcibly illustrated in the glowing narrative of "The Blind Beggar."
At the close of the 8th chapter we find the Lord Jesus making His escape from the rude violence of the Jews whose wrath was raised to the highest pitch by His pointed and powerful testimony. "Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. Then took they up stones to cast at Him: but Jesus hid Himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by." Such was the return which the blessed Savior met for all His grace and truth. But no amount of rudeness and violence could interrupt Him in His unwearied course of service. The stream of goodness flowed on unhindered by all man's wickedness. If it could not find a channel in one place, it found it in another. If it failed of an issue here, it sought it there. The precious grace in the heart of Jesus must find an object somewhere. Eternal blessings on His name!
"And as Jesus passed by, He saw a man which was blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. I must work the works of Him that sent Me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work." Thus it was with this blessed Workman. He pursued His path of service unhindered by all the enmity and opposition of the human heart. "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." Yes, and that light should shine despite all man's efforts to put it out. The stones of the Jews could not hinder the divine Workman from working the works of God, and these works were to be made manifest in the case of any poor blind beggar who crossed His path in this dark and sinful world. How blessed to know that the most glorious, the most characteristic work of God is displayed in the salvation of lost, guilty, hell deserving sinners!
"When He had thus spoken, He spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing."
Reader, note this carefully. There is more involved in this mysterious act of Christ than we might at first sight imagine. The most likely way in the world to blind one who has his eyesight would be to put clay upon his eyes; but here the Lord Jesus opens the blind eyes of the beggar by that very means. What do we see in this? Just the deep and precious mystery of the Person and work of Christ Himself, as He says at the end of this profound chapter: "For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind." v. 39.
This is indeed solemn! "For judgment I am come into this world." How is this? Did He not come to seek and to save that which was lost? So He Himself tells us again and again. Why then speak of "judgment"? The meaning is simply this: the object of His mission was salvation; the moral effect of His life was judgment. He judged no one, and yet He judged everyone. The life of Christ down here was the most powerful test that ever was applied to man. Hence He could say, "If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin; but now they have no cloak for their sin.... If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both Me and My Father." John 15:22-2422If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin. 23He that hateth me hateth my Father also. 24If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father. (John 15:22‑24).
It is well to see this effect of the character and life of Christ down here. He was the light of the world, and this light acted in a double way. It convicted and converted. It judged and it saved. Furthermore, it dazzled by its heavenly brightness all those who thought they saw, while at the same time it lightened all those who really felt their moral and spiritual blindness. He came not to judge, but to save; and yet when come, He judged every man, and put every man to the test. He was different from all around Him, as light in the midst of darkness; and yet He saved all who accepted the judgment and took their true place.
The same thing is observable when we contemplate the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. "The preaching of the cross is to them that perish, foolishness; but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God." "We preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God." 1 Cor. 1:18, 23, 2418For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. (1 Corinthians 1:18)
23But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; 24But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. (1 Corinthians 1:23‑24). Looked at from a human point of view, the cross presented a spectacle of weakness and foolishness. But looked at from a divine point of view, it was the exhibition of power and wisdom. The "Jew," looking at the cross through the hazy medium of traditionary religion, stumbled over it; the "Greek," looking at it from the fancied heights of philosophy, despised it as a contemptible thing. But the faith of a poor sinner, looking at the cross from the depths of conscious guilt and ruin, found in it a divine answer to every question, a divine supply for every need. The death of Christ, like His life, judged every man; and yet it saves all those who accept the judgment and take their true place.
Now it is very interesting to find the germ of all this in our Lord's dealings with the blind beggar. He put clay on his eyes and sent him to the pool of Siloam. This was "Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God." It was the application of the doctrine of Christ by the Spirit through the Word. Thus it must ever be. If a man who thinks he can see, looks at that doctrine, it will blind him. If a man who is blind has that doctrine applied to his heart by the power of the Holy Spirit through the Word, it will open his eyes and fill him with divine light.
But let us trace the history of this blind beggar. No sooner were his eyes opened than he became an object of interest to all around. "The neighbors therefore, and they which before had seen him that he was blind, said, Is not this he that sat and begged? Some said, This is he: others said, He is like him: but he said, I am he." The change was manifest to all. He might have lived and died in beggary and blindness, unheeded, unnoticed; but he had been brought into personal contact with the Son of God, and that contact had produced a mighty change which could not fail to attract the attention of all around. Thus it must ever be. It is impossible for anyone to have to do with Christ and not experience something which cannot be hidden from those who are looking on. Personal contact with Christ is a divine reality. There is life and power in the very touch of Jesus. One believing look at the Savior of sinners—the Quickener of the dead—produces the most astonishing results.
We are more and more impressed, each day and each year of our existence, that the great object of preaching and writing—of oral or written ministry—is to bring the soul and Christ together. Till this is done, there is positively nothing done. Sermons may be preached and volumes may be written, but unless the soul of the sinner or the soul of the saint is brought into actual, living, and life-giving contact with the Son of God, there is no real, tangible, permanent result reached. The blind man in our chapter might have gone on all his days in his helpless and needy condition, even though surrounded by all the appliances of the Jewish system. Nothing was of any value to him save the name of Jesus. "None but Jesus can do helpless sinners good."
But then I must be brought into vital connection with that divine and all-powerful name in order to partake of the good. I may go on forever, saying, "None but Jesus" and be nothing better. The devils know that none but Jesus can do helpless sinners good, but it avails them nothing; and men may know, or profess to know, the same thing, and they may mistake the profession for the reality, and so deceive themselves and perish eternally. There must be a living link connecting the soul with Christ in order to lift the soul out of its condition of spiritual blindness and poverty; and not only so, but the power of this living union must be maintained and habitually realized in order to keep up in the soul the freshness and fruitfulness of the divine life. "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him; rooted and built up in Him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving." Col. 2:6, 76As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: 7Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. (Colossians 2:6‑7).
Here we have the two grand and essential points; namely, first, receiving Christ, and second, walking in Him. The first meets all the need of the sinner; the second perfectly answers all the demands of the saint. Many there are who seem to receive Christ, and yet do not walk with Him. This is the secret of most of the meagerness and poverty which one meets among professing Christians. There is not the habitual walking in Christ. Other things intervene. We get occupied with the mere machinery of religiousness, with meetings, with ministry, with men and things. It may even happen that we allow our work, our very service, to come in between our souls and Christ. All these things which surely are right enough in their right place, may through Satan's craft and our lack of vigilance, actually displace Christ in our souls, and super induce barrenness and lifeless formality.
0 beloved Christian reader, let us seek to walk in abiding communion with Jesus! May we keep Him ever before our souls in all His fullness and preciousness. Then shall our testimony be clear, decided, and unmistakable. Our path shall be as the shining light which shineth more and more unto the perfect day. May it be thus with all the people of God in this day of shallow profession!