Phil Mills, MD
Three Opthamologic Cases in a “Double Blind” Study
1. Congenital Blindness
Chief Complaint and History of Present Illness
“Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth” (John 9:1).
It was the Sabbath and a blind man sat in the courtyard of the temple. He had come to church that morning to find Jesus and be healed. Diagnostic Signs and Symptoms But as Jesus passed by the blind man could not see Him and did not know that Jesus was near. His one chance of healing—and he is unaware because all the people around him who should be able to help him were blind as well.
2. Acquired (Spiritual) Blindness
Jesus had been preaching in the temple and His message had not been well received. When He finished His sermon the church members “took up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by” (John 8:59).
Jesus passes by and the multitudes don’t know it and were not aware of their blindness. They did not see Jesus when He was close to them.
Diagnostic Signs and Symptoms of Acquired Blindness
Those with acquired blindness are unable to see blessings all around. They cannot recognize or detect Christ’s presence. This blindness makes it impossible to see the good in righteousness or the harm in evil.
Clinical Description
Isaiah and Jeremiah give the clinical description:
“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20).
“For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh” (Jerimiah 17:6).
The NET translates the passage, “They will be like a shrub in the desert. They will not experience good things even when they happen. It will be as though they were growing in the desert, in a salt land where no one can live.”
The story of the healing of the unnamed blind man, is an encouragement. He knew he was blind and went to find Jesus at church. He found Him and left seeing.
The story of the worshipers is a warning. They went to church feeling they could see. But they didn’t find Jesus and never learned they were blind. How many people visit our church hoping to see Jesus, needing to see Jesus? How many people have been lonely, frustrated, unhappy, wondering ‘where is Jesus’? How many of these people have left church, still wondering? Never comprehending that Jesus passed by!
“He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us” (Acts 26:26, 27).
What a picture is in this verse. The blind are reaching out for Christ. They can’t see Him! All the while He is not far from any one of them. He is near us today! He is passing by us today. Whether we see Him or not, He is close enough to touch! He is not playing a game of keep away or Marco Polo. He is not trying to hide. He is trying to be found!
“Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth.”
This verse tells us of a blind man that couldn’t see Jesus, but it tells about a Jesus Who could see the blind man! It tells us of a blind man who didn’t know how to find Jesus—even in a church – but it tells us of a Jesus Who knew how to find a blind man lost among the crowd attending church! It tells about a blind man that couldn’t go near to Jesus, but it tells about a Jesus Who went near the blind man!
Leaving the seeing multitudes willing to be blind, Jesus went to a blind man who wanted to see.
This man had never seen anything in his life! He couldn’t imagine a color. He didn’t know the simplest things about the world around him. He was uneducated. He was poor. He was a social outcast regarded as a sinner, under the judgment of God. There were so many things he didn’t know. But there was one thing he did know—he was blind!
3. (Spiritual) Peripheral Vision Deficits
The disciples saw Jesus looking at this blind man, so they looked at him too. But how different their look was from Jesus’ look. Instead of a look with sympathy and compassion, they gave him only a brief contemptuous glance.
Though the blind man couldn’t see their look, he could hear the scorn in their voices as they asked Jesus, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:2).
Diagnostic Signs and Symptoms
The disciples had a third visual defect: tunnel vision. They were unable to see a need. The man’s blindness awakened their curiosity instead of their sympathy. They saw his suffering, not as a misfortune, but as punishment.
The disciple’s belief was not too much different from the Hindu concept of karma.
Of course, there was a grain of truth to the disciples’ belief. Suffering often is the consequence of our own actions. We do reap what we sow. But even when we have brought on our own suffering, Jesus will still save, for He saves the undeserving.
“Fools, because of their transgression … were afflicted. Their soul abhorred all manner of food, and they drew near to the gates of death. Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses” (Psalm 107:17-19).
Yet there is also much suffering that is not self-inflicted. “Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him” (John 9:3).
Jesus takes the question they shouldn’t have asked and uses it to explain what they should have asked. They should have asked, “What can we do so God’s name is glorified in this man?”
“Double Blind” Study
Jesus then gave an enacted parable. Spitting on the ground He made some mud and put it over the man’s eyes making the man doubly blind, first congenitally, then acquired since the dirt of this world now also covered his eyes.
Etiology
This is the cause of restricted spiritual vision—the world before our eyes! The temporal values of the world before us blind us to the eternal realities of life.
Clinical Description
Those looking through the dirt of this world can see nothing but dirt in those around. The disciples had this type of blindness. They saw only the dirt of this blind man, he must be a sinner or his parents must be sinners. Their restricted vision made them blind to the potential he had in Christ.
The Treatment
Jesus then gives the solution for this type of blindness. “He said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent). So he went and washed, and came back seeing” (John 9:7).
When dirt covers our eyes, everyone else appears dirty. Before we can see, the world must be washed off our eyes. To see others in a different way our eyes must be cleansed from its pollution.
The pool of Sent represented Jesus the Sent of God Who alone can break the spell of the world from our eyes. It represents the Scripture which was sent from God to cleanse us (Ps 119:9; Eph 5:26).
It represents true Christians who are sent, as was Jesus, to seek and to save that which was lost! We are not only called to wash the saints’ feet, but to wash the eyes of the blind as we set before their eyes the truths of God.
When the man washed He could see.
In some cases the first face a blind person saw was Jesus, but not this man. The first view he saw was the pool and curious bystanders who went with him to see what would happen. He was thrilled with his sight. Views that others simply took for granted were new to him. Looking at a sparrow was a thrill. He hadn’t imagined the world to be as beautiful as it was! Light was so much superior to darkness.
But now the formerly blind man had a great fear. Would he recognize Jesus if he saw Him? Would he know the face of his Savior so he could thank Him?
He returns to the temple to find Jesus, his healer, but Jesus was no longer there. He had to be introduced to every person, even his parents. He recognized their voices, but did not know their faces.
New Creatures
When we go from blind to sighted our face changes.
Although he couldn’t recognize the faces of others, they almost could not recognize him. “The neighbors and those who previously had seen that he was blind said, ‘Is not this he who sat and begged?’” (John 9:8).
No longer blankly staring, his face glowed and some were not sure it was the same man.
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Cor 5:17).
“Some said, ‘This is he.’ Others said, ‘He is like him’” (John 9:9).
He noticed something he had never been able to notice before—the stares of others looking at him. They didn’t know him. In the past they had hurried by the spot he begged trying to avoid him.
He heard their remarks and had a simple answer, “I am he” (John 9:9).
Amazed, they asked him, “How were your eyes opened?” (John 9:10).
So he gave his testimony, “A Man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed, and I received sight” (John 9:11).
His testimony began with a Man called Jesus. This Man had done something for him and asked him to do something for himself. And he did what Jesus ask him to do.
A miracle happens when we do what Jesus says!
The testimony of the beggar holds the secret, do what Jesus asks you to do. “Whatsoever He sayeth unto you, do it!” (John 2:5).
The beggar’s testimony touched the hearts of those who heard. “Then they said to him, ‘Where is He?’” (John 9:12)
They wanted to see Jesus too.
This man’s answer gives us the secret of soul winning success. It doesn’t take years of training in a theological institution. It takes simple trust in Jesus and obedience to His Word.
When we do what Jesus tells us to do we are changed. Others will recognize this change and ask us how we became so different. We become soul winners as we share our testimony with others of the blessings we have received when Jesus passed by and changed our lives. This is true medical missionary work.
This is how our lives can attract others to Jesus.
“Our confession of His faithfulness is Heaven’s chosen agency for revealing Christ to the world” (MH 100)
<< | Table of Contents | >>