“Don’t Just Pretend!”

Scripture: John 9:35-41

Did you ever play “Blind Man’s Bluff” when you were a kid? The name is actually “Blind Man’s Buff” – buff means a small push, like a tag. The children’s game is believed to originated in China in the 6th century, and the object of the game wasn’t much different than it is today – the “blind” person tries to tag another child, and then that child become it. The Chinese name for the game literally means “to bid to take the place of”.
The one who is tagged takes the place of the blind one.
Has a rather Christian overtone, doesn’t it. We wander around in our “worldly blindness”, and when we finally put our hands on Christ, we discover that he has been waiting to take our place, and as we get closer and closer to him, we soon discover that he has already done that!

In the case of the blind man from the message last week, he touched Christ when he received the healing. When Jesus gave sight to the man, he took the role of “blindness” away, and the man then took Christ’s place in witnessing to the Pharisees.
Today, we see the man after he was thrown out of the temple. Jesus has heard about the incident (as if he actually had to hear!), and has found him.

Read John 9:35-38

“Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him.”

He had new eyes, and they were working very well! Some would tell us that he only believed because Jesus healed him, and simply wanted to please the one who had accomplished the miracle. But when we read the earlier verses regarding the miracle itself, we discover that the man had never seen Jesus before this most recent encounter. He was still blind when he went to wash the mud off at the Pool of Siloam, and from there he went home, and then to the Pharisees! He had no idea as to who he was talking to! Jesus asks “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”, and the man replies “Tell me who He is so that I may believe in Him.” He proclaims his desire to believe before he even knows Jesus.

Remember last week, when we talked about having “Jesus Eyes”? This man did! He had newly restored physical eyes, made new by the Lord, and his spiritual eyes had become clearer than they have ever been before!

But how about the Pharisees? How was their vision?

Read John 9:39-41

The Pharisees were being more than just rhetorical! They were insulted! The insinuation that they may have been blind, whether actually or metaphorically, implied that they were sinners! How dare he! They? Sinners? Never! Why, they had the clearest spiritual vision of anyone in all of Israel! Blind? Just who did this Jesus think he was? The arrogance!

And so we come to the question for today – who had the true vision? The one who saw the truth of glory, or the ones who pretended to see it? The truth is that the Pharisees, the ones who had studied the scriptures over and over again, were only seeing what they thought was the truth, what they thought was important for their lives.

It was 17 December 1903. From Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville and Wilbur sent their sister a telegram. “Sustained flight for 59 seconds. Hope to be home for Christmas.” She found their successful flight extraordinary news, so she took the telegram to the local Dayton paper. The next day a small headline on a back page read: “Popular bicycle merchants to be home for Christmas.” Sometimes we miss the extraordinary because we are blinded by the ordinary.
—James R. Noland, “Up, up and away,” May 27, 2001, The Church of the Good Shepherd Web Site, goodshepherdva.com.

Seeing only what we want to see is no less debilitating than blindness itself. It keeps us from experiencing the richness of life, it keeps us living within the unexpected, it prevents us from being part of the truly amazing.
The blind man, even in his handicap, had clearer vision than the learned men of Israel. This man allowed Jesus to cover his eyes with mud, and then when he was told to go to Siloam and wash, he never questioned the order. He just did, with his new faith guiding him.
The Pharisees had seen, probably on a daily basis, far more of what Jesus was able to do and heard more of what he had been teaching than anyone else, but since it didn’t match up with what they wanted to believe, they could never see the truth of God in him. They could have been the ones who were the greatest disciples, sharing the glory of God with the masses, and through them, the word would have spread like wildfire. But instead, they chose to believe the lie that they themselves had fabricated, and in doing so, they missed out on the greatest experience of all time.

In a small college town, a tavern frequented by students ran the following ad in the campus paper during the days before Parents' Weekend: “Bring Your Parents in for Lunch Saturday. We'll Pretend We Don't Know You.”
The ad was soon challenged by the college chaplain, who posted a similar, but radically different version on the campus bulletin board. It read: “Bring Your Parents to Chapel Sunday. We'll Pretend We Know You Well.”
-Cited in C. Thomas Hilton, Be My Guest, Sermons On The Lord's Supper (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1991), 89.

Now on a personal note, the college chaplain was just as much in the wrong as the bartender was. Obviously, we should never pretend that we don’t have a habit that we actually do have, But we also must never pretend that we have a faith that we don’t really live. The man who had been blind was probably at the lower end of the social scale and had never really been allowed to live a full life in faith. On the other hand, the Pharisees had every advantage that life could bring, and they, above all, had the opportunity to live out a true and overflowing faithfulness. And who was it that discovered the abundant richness of Christ? That’s right – the one who never ventured into a life of pretense, who saw no advantage in pretending to be righteous, the one who took the step in faith and not in sight, the one who believed with spiritual eyes before he was ever able to see with his earthly ones.

So where are we? The Pharisees were caught up in doing what they believed the law was telling them to do. They saw their “righteous works” as their means to salvation. And they were wrong. They needed to listen to the man who had been blind but who now could see, the one who was uneducated by worldly standards, but who had received the wisdom of the heavens.
Is this where you are, or are you walking on the same path as the man who was healed – the one that Jesus Christ has paved for us?
Are you making your faith in Christ your first priority, or are you still trying to prove to the Lord just how worthy you really are?
Are you studying his Word and praying for his guidance daily? And by the way, are you following that word and guidance?
Have you come to Jesus, right where you are, and told him “Lord, I believe!” Have you confessed your love to Christ for “bidding to take your place” on the cross, and have you “bid to take his place” in witnessing to the world?
Don’t just pretend that you love the Lord, don’t just pretend that you’re a Christian – actually become one, and live as one in faith.