John 9:39-41 (NRSVCE)
39 Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.” 40 Some of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him, “Surely we are not blind, are we?” 41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.”
In the Old Testament, GOD Elohim started His work in Genesis giving light in the darkness. (Genesis 1:3) In the same way, GOD also took His first step, HE gave Jesus as light to the world commencing the New Testament. John 1:9 says, “The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.” And so Jesus Christ initial mission here on earth was to give sight to the blind, giving himself, the True Light. (Luke 4:18).
But this work of GOD can only be done first by the proclamation of His Word. When GOD said, “Let there be light”; and there was light, the recipient is the formless earth covered with darkness. In the New Testament, the recipients of the Word are persons filled with sinfulness. We can observe that it is easier for GOD to let the formless earth to receive the light, than to people who are spiritually blind to accept the Word in Jesus Christ time and sadly, still happening now in our time.
There is an important succession of events to be observed here. It is not the light that was received. In fact, light is the product of what has been received. Word of GOD had been received that created light. John 1:1-5 explained this very clear, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”
This means that, without the Word proclaimed, there will be no light, no moon, no sun, no birds, nothing would be there without GOD’s utterance of it. Those are created after the formless earth received the Word. Us, being the recipient of the Word, would also have those gifts. Visible and invisible rewards would surely be in us. This is how GOD do in Jesus time. In the New Testament, when Jesus quoted Isaiah in Luke 4:18, the Scripture says,
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,”
We should notice that, before recovery of sight to the blind, bringing the good news comes first. The utterance of Good News, which is the Word of GOD comes first. If the ‘formless earth that is covered with darkness’ which is ‘us’ will not believe and accept the Good News, then there will be no light created for us. Therefore without the Word of GOD, we will still be covered with darkness, for there’s no light in us. And how can we see if what we have is none but darkness? Jesus in Matthew 6:23 says, “... but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
But wait! There’s more darkness than that great darkness. For those people who already heard the Word, which means that they already see the light, they are so foolish to prefer darkness than light, they live and continue to sin and reject the teaching of Jesus Christ, they are doomed. It is like rejecting the only medicine that can cure your sickness! It says in John 3:17-21,
17 “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. 20 For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. 21 But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”
Faith in Jesus Christ is our only cure for spiritual blindness. He is the light that darkness cannot extinguish. We have to realize that our naked eyes lead us to sin, the need for spiritual eyes that Jesus have can see GOD face to face. He can see what GOD the Father is doing and Jesus is the only one that can bring us to that dimension of spirituality. GOD is always working, and Jesus sees that, and how wonderful it is that we can see that too.
Let us hope in what Isaiah said in 29:18,
“On that day the deaf shall hear
the words of a scroll,
and out of their gloom and darkness
the eyes of the blind shall see. “
Let our hopes be in Jesus Christ, the True Light, our AMEN to all our prayers. Anything is possible for those who have true faith in Him.
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