LESSON VIII.—SUNDAY, AUGUST 19, 1900.
By Editor
1 "And as He passed by, He saw a man blind from his birth. 2 And His disciples asked Him, saying, Rabbi, who did sin, 3 this man, or his parents, that he should be born blind? Jesus answered, Neither did this man sin, nor his parents; but that 4 the works of God should be made manifest in him. We must work the works of Him that sent Me, while it is day; the night 5 cometh, when no man can work. When I am in the world, 6 am the light of the world. When He had thus spoken, He spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and anointed 7 his eyes with the clay, and said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam (which is by interpretation, Sent). He went away 8 therefore, and washed, and came seeing. The neighbors therefore, and they which saw him aforetime, that he was a 9 beggar, said, Is not this he that sat and begged? Others said, It is he; others said, No, but he is like him. He said, I am he. 10 They said therefore unto him, How then were thine eyes 11 opened? He answered, The man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and said unto me, Go to Siloam, and wash; so I went away and washed, and I received sight. 12 And they said unto him, Where is He? He saith, I know not. 13 "They bring to the Pharisees him that aforetime was blind. 14 Now it was the Sabbath on the day when Jesus made the clay, 15 and opened his eyes. Again therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he received his sight. And he said unto them, He put clay upon mine eyes, and I washed, and do see. 16 Some therefore of the Pharisees said, This Man is not from God, because He keepeth not the Sabbath. But others said, How can a man that is a sinner do such signs? And there 17 was a division among them. They say therefore unto the blind man again, What sayest thou of Him, in that He opened thine eyes? And he said, He is a prophet." Golden Text: "One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see." John 9:25. (1) As Jesus passed by, whom did He see? V. 1. (2) What question did His disciples ask? V. 2. Note 1. (3) What answer did Jesus make concerning the man and his parents? Why was the man born blind? V. 3. (4) What did Jesus say concerning working? V. 4. (5) What did He declare Himself to be? For how long a time? V. 5. Note 2. (6) When He had thus spoken, what did Jesus do? V. 6. (7) What did He tell the man to do? What was the result? V. 7. Note 3. (8) What question did the man's neighbors raise? V. 8. (9) What did others say? What did the man say? V. 9. (10) Then what did the people want to know? V. 10. (11) What answer was given? V. 11. (12) What question naturally followed? What reply did the man give as to Jesus' whereabouts? V. 12. (13) To whom was the man then taken? V. 13. (14) On what day was the miracle performed? V. 14. (15) What question was asked by the Pharisees? What answer did they receive? V. 15. (16) What did some other Pharisees declare? What did others say? What did this cause? V. 16. Note 4. (17) What query did they put again to the man who had been blind? What answer did he give? V. 17. Note 5. 1. Who did sin?—The Jews held that sickness, affliction, and poverty were direct punishments for sins committed. On the other hand, they taught that riches and freedom from affliction were marks of God's special favor, and indicated that the possessor had an upright character. They were right and wrong. It is true that all ills are results of sin, and that God's favor is sometimes accompanied with riches, and often with freedom from diseases. But there is no fixed and unalterable rule whereby man can judge the character of the individual by these outward signs. Here is where the Jews were wrong; and their attitude made the rich and those in authority self-righteous and critical, while the poor and the sick lived under a depressing, double burden. They failed to see in affliction one of God's means of teaching lessons that could not otherwise be taught—a means to lead the soul to Him for rest and relief. For a commentary on this point read the thirty-seventh psalm, especially verses 9-20, 34-40. 2. I am the light of the world.—This is the central, spiritual truth of the lesson. As the sun is the light of the day, and the ordained physical source of life to the world, so Christ is the light of men in the spiritual realm, their life, their all. And behind everything else, He is the great Source of all things. The day of sunlight is given in which men may work. Christ's day was His period of life on earth, more especially His public ministry. In a wider sense the day is the whole time of salvation, from Adam to the time of Christ's second coming; in the special phase of the wider sense it is the Gospel dispensation, our own age. In an individual sense it is our opportunity to work when we are lightened by the Daylight. The ever-present now is the day of salvation. 3. The miracle.—It is not averred that there was any virtue in the clay, tho some say there is healing property in both saliva and clay. And for the healing of the eyes, in this instance, there could have been no virtue in the water of the pool. The means used were simply to help the man's faith, for he had heard little of Jesus, and seen nothing. How gracious the Lord was! But He has always been so, helping men to learn to believe His word. There were two steps taken: First, the Lord did something to give the man confidence; then, second, He told the man to do something, thus giving him the opportunity to exercise the faith already awakened. Now these things were written for our admonition. They are to us what the clay and the saliva were to the man—means to inspire hope and confidence. And they are promises of physical healing, as well as spiritual. And the fountain,—by interpretation it is "Sent." O, it must be the Sent One, the Fountain of Life! With Him is healing full and free from every ill, whether of flesh or spirit. Go, wash in this Fountain, sinner. It will make you clean. It will wash away the blindness, and you will come seeing. 4. He keepeth not the Sabbath.—Jesus did not break the Sabbath, but their burdensome regulations concerning it. It was farthest from His purpose to do away with the Sabbath, or the divine law commanding its observance. He Himself had given this law, basing the observance of the seventh day upon the immutable fact of creation. It was and is the sign of God's creative power—power to create a world or create a new man in Christ Jesus, to redeem from sin. It was God's rest; it is now and ever the sign of the soul's rest from its own works—sin. But the Pharisees had their self-made standards, and judged the Creator of the world by them. 5. He is a prophet.—Afterward Jesus met the man, revealed Himself fully, and a greater light came to him. Read the rest of the chapter. The Light was shining for the Pharisees, but they were full of darkness—chaos was there—and so there was nothing to reflect the light, there was no light in them. But their sin remained. Why? Verses 39-41.