Sunday 30th June
Read John 9:35-41
“Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’
36 ‘Who is he, sir?’ the man asked. ‘Tell me so that I may believe in him.’
37 Jesus said, ‘You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.’
38 Then the man said, ‘Lord, I believe,’ and he worshipped him.
39 Jesus said, ‘For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.’
40 Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, ‘What? Are we blind too?’
41 Jesus said, ‘If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.” (NIVUK)
Jesus’ reflections on the nature of sin and the state of man are worthy of more than brief consideration. The Pharisees, perhaps intentionally on Jesus’ part, overhear this conversation and offer to the formerly blind man and are incredulous at the assumption underlying it. It goes against everything they think they know about the nature of sin and judgment. They start with the assumption that sin can be managed and dealt with. It is transactional. The consequences in the lives of those who continue to sin and don’t deal with it appropriately at the temple are revealed in the health and blessing they enjoy. Jesus’ statement contradicts such simplistic transactional approaches to sin.
Herman Ridderbos, in his excellent commentary, points out what Jesus is saying clearly, “…the state in which a person exists in this world is certainly one of sin. But it is not sin that cuts a person off from what Jesus wants to give; it is the illusion that one can manage without Jesus as the light of the world. That is why the sin ‘remains’. If it does not become an object of forgiveness, it remains the object of judgment. It is not sin as such; it is the repudiation of grace that makes a person a lost being.”.
Jesus claims that rejecting the grace He offers is the fatal flaw everyone must answer for on the last day. It makes one want to cling to that grace even tighter.
