Mensa Otabil - God Sees You (11/03/2025)
Welcome to a brand new week and to a new study as we look at the life of Jesus Christ and an encounter He had with a blind man. This week, we’ll focus on John chapter 9, starting with the first two verses.
Now, as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth, and His disciples asked Him, saying, «Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?» Now, Jesus used this encounter with this visually impaired person, a blind man, to teach about spiritual blindness and the need for us to open up to God and to His grace. This miracle is a lesson in action; Jesus is using the miracle to teach a lesson.
There are a few things we want to start with as we observe these two verses from John chapter 9. The first thing I want you to note is the phrase «Jesus passed by.» It seems like a very casual statement, as if Jesus is just going on His way. When you read it, it would appear that Jesus doesn’t know what He’s doing, but everything about Jesus was intentional and purposeful. Although it may seem like a little stroll as He’s moving, the passage doesn’t tell us where He’s moving from or where He’s moving to. He seems to be moving, but there is purpose in this movement. So, that’s the first point: even when we think what He’s doing has no purpose, there is intention behind it.
The second thing I want you to note is that Jesus saw him. In many of the miracles of Jesus, people reach out to Him, but in this particular miracle, the blind person doesn’t reach out to Jesus. Jesus is the one who initiates the recognition; He notices the man is blind. The man is not calling for help; he’s not praying for help, but Jesus sees him. There are a couple of lessons we can learn from this. Many times, we teach that until we ask God for help, He doesn’t help us, and that is the general rule, but there are exceptions. There are times when God helps us even when we’re not looking for help. There are times when we pray and pray incorrectly, and still, God answers. There are times we don’t pray at all, and God still reaches out to us.
So, Jesus saw him; He took the initiative, moving by and seeing him. The question the disciples asked is significant: «Who sinned?» The disciples also saw the blind man, and somehow they knew the man had been blind from birth-probably he was a well-known blind man. The question they asked the Lord Jesus is, «Whose problem is it? Is it the man himself or his parents?» You know, Jewish society believed that when people got into trouble, it was because they had sinned or God was punishing them. Most of us believe that too-that when something is wrong in someone’s life, it must be their fault. That is how Job’s friends thought about Job’s life, and they asked Jesus the obvious question: «Whose fault is it?»
Many times, when people get into trouble, instead of helping them, we want to find out whose fault it is. We seek to discover the cause, thinking that finding out who caused it will solve the problem. How is knowing whether his father or mother caused the blindness going to heal the man? It won’t help him. Jesus doesn’t get into that, and we’ll find out tomorrow how Jesus responded to this question.
It is interesting that many times we try to find blame for people’s situations. Understand that sometimes people go through hardship not because they’ve done anything wrong, but simply because something has gone wrong in their lives, and it’s not their fault or their parents' fault; it’s just something wrong.
That’s what we learn from Jesus in these opening verses of John chapter 9. Let’s pray. Say with me: «Heavenly Father, I know You take notice of me. Thank You that You do not pass me by. In Jesus' name, Amen and Amen.»