SEVEN Series Minicast: Jesus Sees the People We Overlook

This this man with a disability is like Jesus saw him.

Yeah.

He was looking for him.

And again, the those of us in our society who who have disabilities, who who maybe can't contribute in the same way that that um a typical adult can.

It's very easy for us to like turn our eye away, to to look past them, to not see them.

Um and again, as a father of a child with special needs, like I am so encouraged by the way that Jesus loved this man, that he saw him and he sought him out.

Hi Michael, how are you, my friend?

I am wonderful, Jake.

How are you?

I'm doing well.

I'm doing well.

I had Mexican for lunch with our good friend Joe Mesh today.

Hey.

And it was great.

I'm so glad to hear.

What did you eat?

I had some kind of chicken with pineapple in it.

Ooh.

It's good.

I forget what's called Tori chicken.

Tori chicken.

Chori chicken.

Yeah.

Gigi's on 4th Street.

Oh, yeah.

Okay.

I uh some congregants.

Um, just recently, I I I ran into them out in the wild and and we got to talk and I said, Yeah, we just we were on our way to uh I forget where we were going, but uh one of the Mexican restaurants in town, and they're like, you should go to Gigi's instead.

It's the best one in town.

She's she's great.

So we didn't, but they didn't highly recommend it.

This episode is not sponsored by GG's, but it could be.

Hey Gigi's Gigi's hit us up.

We'll mention you every time for free chicken and bread.

Free chicken and pineapple.

That's right.

For the for just me and Jake.

Just us.

Nobody else.

This is going off the rails already.

We're in chapter nine of John today in our seven series.

Yeah.

Uh so um you love this passage.

We've talked about it a couple times, you know, and uh, so we wanted to kind of unpack this with you today.

Tell us, you know, as we're as we're going into this chapter, what is happening here?

Give us a breakdown of what is going on in John chapter nine today.

Yes.

So uh Jesus and his disciples are are walking around, and Jesus notices this man who is blind, and uh he he stops and he talks with them.

The disciples ask about the source of his blindness, and Jesus kind of redirects them away from their uh misconceptions of of what could be the cause of this and points uh to glory for the Lord.

Like all this, this the reason this man is blind is to so that God's glory can be shown in his in his life.

And so, of course, he he spits in some mud, wipes it on the man's eyes, tells him to go and wash in this pool, and he's healed.

He, you know, this man who was blind from birth um is healed, and so he comes back, and that creates just a whole bunch of chaos.

The the Pharisees and people are like asking who healed you, and um he's he's like, I don't know, this guy Jesus, and he I was blind and and I'm not anymore.

And then they didn't believe him, like they didn't believe that he was the blind guy because this was uh in fact, the the the young man makes the claim that no one has ever, who was blind from birth, has ever regained his sight.

Yeah, um, he makes that claim, so that makes this that much more crazy, right?

That's probably why they didn't believe him, because this has never been done before.

Um, and so he he in fact they go and find the dude's parents and they're like, Is this your son?

It's this whole like courtroom drama in the middle of John chapter nine, um, all trying to find out.

And then the parents are kind of afraid to say too much because they uh don't want to get thrown out of the synagogue because there was the fear of like people, the Pharisees were kind of trying to suppress Jesus and his ministry at this time amongst the people.

And so they're like not wanting to say too much, but so they're like turning, but kind of like throwing their son under the bus, saying he's our son, but he he's old enough to talk for himself.

Go go ask him.

Yeah.

And and the man doubles down.

He says, Man, I don't know how he did it.

I don't know where this man came from.

All I know is I once was blind, but now I see, um, which is a phrase that we have stolen so many times in different worship songs or or sermons or phrases or you know, what have you.

It's one of the most well-known lines in all of scripture.

Um and eventually, you know, all this stuff happens and and they kind of go through again this like courtroom drama, and uh the man returns to Jesus, and Jesus kind of starts talking to him and asking him um, like what happened and all this stuff.

And um, Jesus reframes the whole happening of the whole chapter.

All of that mess and drama and chaos, Jesus reframes it to um not to take away from the man's healing, but rather to show the kind of the purpose, what Jesus had in mind by healing, using this miracle that he performed, not just to bless the man and change his life, but to change eternity.

And so he starts talking about how some of us are spiritually blind and and how we Jesus came to bring light.

He claims himself as the light of the world.

So he he's bringing light to the world, to those who were spiritually blind, to make those who were blind be able to see, but also those who think they can see to show them how blind they truly are.

And he he creates this interesting dichotomy between this man being born physically blind, not his choice to no fault of his own.

And Jesus contrasts that with these people who are almost choosing to be, and almost are they are, they're choosing to be spiritually blind.

Yeah.

Um, and so it's this really interesting way that you know Jesus always has this knack of turn taking something that happens in the natural, a supernatural phenomenon, or even just an everyday circumstance and showing these spiritual truths through it.

Um so it's one of my it's one of my favorite chapters for for many, many reasons um that I'm sure we'll we'll kind of talk about here in a minute.

But yeah, that's kind of the the overview of the passage.

Yeah, well let's let's get into that though.

Like what what do you love about this so much?

Like, why do you love this passage?

Yeah, so obviously the the truth of spiritual blindness, um, we were we that's all been us.

We all all of us were blind.

Um and not not even necessarily I mean, yes, we are born into sin.

We can't help that, but Paul makes it very clear that we all have actively chosen to sin and create caused ourselves to be spiritually blind.

And so that that is something that resonates very much with me as someone who was lost in my sin and drowning.

And Jesus saved me.

He he he called me out of darkness into his glorious light.

And I I love that.

But even on a on a deeper, on both a deeper and a more surface level, uh I love this passage because of what it has to say about people with disabilities.

Sure.

Um not and some some of our viewers may know this, um, but a lot of you may not.

But my son, Fisher, my my eldest, he has a developmental disability.

He was born with was something called coffin cirrus syndrome.

It's a very, very rare genetic mutation.

And it basically causes nothing in his body to work how it's supposed to.

Everything is kind of in slow motion.

And so, you know, he just so we just celebrated his fifth birthday uh on the 15th of August.

And he, you know, a lot of five-year-olds are gearing up to go to kindergarten.

He um he's not quite ready for that yet.

He, you know, he he's nonverbal currently.

We're believing that God is going to uh create speech within him.

We pray over his mouth every single night that the Lord will will begin to give him speech.

Um, but you know, he's nonverbal, he's very small for his age, he has low muscle tone.

Um you know, there's just a lot of things that come with it.

And uh he he has um like he's had kidney problems and different, you know, we're all we're always checking with different specialists to make sure all of his body systems are working correctly.

And so I say all that to say um he he was born.

This was not something he developed.

This was not a result of a medication that somebody took or a vaccine or anything like this, it this was programmed into his DNA from the moment of conception.

Yeah.

And it's very easy for parents with children that have special needs, that have disabilities, to be to find it as a burden.

Um, to because it it can be.

I mean, it's financially draining, it's emotionally draining, it's physically draining.

You know, he didn't walk till he was three, carrying around a three-year-old, you know, um, everywhere we go.

Like that's that's a lot.

Um, and so I I understand that it can be very, very draining.

And and especially if you don't have the light of Jesus in your life, it it can be overwhelming.

Yeah.

And so when I read this passage and I see a man who was born with a disability, and Jesus himself says, This was not his parents' fault, this was not his fault.

He was created this way on purpose, so that the glory of God can be displayed in his life.

That has been an anchor for us throughout this whole journey to know that, like, my son is not an accident.

He was not some random roll of the dice.

Like, God programmed him exactly to be the way that he is, so that his life can bring glory to the Lord.

And we have seen that just in his five years of life.

We have seen so many times where God has done something in through him in other people's lives, a conversations with family about God's sovereignty and and his power and his goodness and um even the miracle, the like his life even existing being a miracle, and then seeing these milestones that doctors weren't even sure if he would ever be ever be able to get to.

And now he's you know, doing all these wonderful things.

And it's just it's it has been my life's joy to see God glorified through this little boy.

And so this this passage has a very, very special place in our heart because it it it dignifies those people that a lot of times society wants to undignify, right?

It it gives this purpose.

Uh, we we we think a lot of times people with disabilities are are less than, or we need to look on them with pity.

Um, and we need to care for them and we need to provide for them, and we need to love them and let them know that they have a place in our society.

But like that dignity comes from God.

Yeah, Jesus Himself says, like, I did this when God created the world through me.

I programmed this man to be blind so that glory can be shown in his life.

And that's all day long.

But that is that's that's a really big part of why this passage is so special to me.

Yeah.

So I I love that connection for you, especially like being able to teach on this passage, getting to have this conversation today, and even just like the fact that there are opportunities that we can see throughout the gospels, throughout God's word to help make sense of the mess of this world, you know, because man, like I love Fisher so much.

He he is he is perfectly Fisher.

Like the amount of things in the the couple of years that I've known you that that God has shown up in your guys' family and in in Fisher's story, and even just like the the relational connections with people that he has made, like you didn't know if that was gonna be his story when you guys moved here, you know.

I I like I remember when you guys moved here, he wasn't walking, and now he now he's running, you know, he was crawling up my stairs the other night, you know.

And like the the the reality of of framing things that maybe um for a lot of people wouldn't be optimal, you know, the things that maybe some of us might wish were different for the purpose of glorifying God is incredible.

It's incredible.

And that that shows a spiritual maturity that can only be learned through following Jesus with your whole heart and having an understanding like there there is purpose for this, and God is God has already been glorified so much, yes, and the ways that He will continue to be are incredible.

I I I love that framing and that you could that you can pull that out of this, you know.

Now, what I also love and is that you guys are very obviously followers of Jesus because you don't do what this guy's parents do and basically run away from the situation, you know what I mean?

This man was found begging, right?

So yeah, he had no familial, I mean, seemingly from what from the passage, no familial support.

They were not supporting him financially.

He he clearly had grown old enough.

I mean, they say he's old enough to speak for himself, but also he's he is identified as a man who is begging.

There probably weren't children out there begging, right?

So this is a man who who has gone his whole life overwhelmed by hardship, who has had to to sit there on his own begging just just to survive.

Um, no financial support, no familial support, no, no nothing from at least that we can tell from his parents, which is tough.

Yeah.

Really tough.

Um but yeah, I'm sorry, I cut you off of what you were saying, but you No, I think I finished my thoughts, so you're good.

So yeah, so this guy, man, he he's he's there.

I love can we talk about the mud for a second?

Um, I heard somebody say once that the book of John is a when we when we study scripture, uh, when we're when we prepare for lessons, we oftentimes will read commentaries, right?

So this is somebody taking the the scriptures and just like m drawing connections to other passages or giving their own thoughts on the scripture to help explain different things.

Um I've heard it said that the book of John is a commentary on Genesis.

Yeah.

And there's so because there's there's so many things that align with it, right?

Like Genesis 1.1, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

John 1-1, in the beginning was the word.

Um, and so there's like a lot of these parallels.

And so it's it's it's interesting to me.

Um, the Bible talks about how Adam was formed, uh Genesis talks about how Adam was formed from the dust of the earth.

And so Jesus to heal this man goes back to the dust of the earth.

Yeah, but adds adds he he didn't Jesus didn't say be healed, he spits in the dirt, he he he takes the the dust that's already there and then adds something from his mouth to the dust of the earth, and then you know heals this man.

And so there's there's parallels that can be drawn all over, which I think is so so interesting.

Um but so I'm gonna ask you why why the mud?

W why why?

Why what do you think?

Yeah, so number one, I think um this man couldn't see, and he won I think Jesus in his total knowledge, um, knowing that he would have to go through this process of talking with his parents, being interviewed by the Pharisees twice, you know, going through all of this.

He needed some he needed this man to go and go do something so that he could reveal him to he could reveal himself in his vision to him later.

So he wanted that he wanted this man to know, I'm healing you, but also you have to go through this before you can see my face.

So, like almost I I feel like he wanted him to go through this process of of he was healed and then needed to go, needed to by faith take action, and also by faith uh proclaim what Jesus had done for him to even potentially still remain, because he probably knew that that people were being thrown out of the synagogue, just like his parents knew.

Sure, they're being thrown in the synagogue if if they were preaching Jesus.

But I wonder if Jesus wanted to like wanted to show him like it doesn't matter if you are a social outcast because of your disability, or if you become a social outcast because of me, I'm here with you and I'm I'm going I'm going to heal you.

And so take those steps of faith to trust me, yeah, to still proclaim me, no matter what that means.

Um, because he was he was willing to stay a social outcast to proclaim that and just say, like, hey, it doesn't matter who you guys say this guy is, I know what he did for me.

Yeah, and you can have that too.

He even says, Do you want it?

Why are you asking me these questions?

Do you want to be his disciples too?

Like he says, I'm a dis I'm he's proclaiming that he is a disciple without ever having seen Jesus' face, yeah, and so I think whether it's for us or whether it's for him, it's probably for both.

I think the the reason why Jesus did the mud was because he needed to go wash it off and not be in his presence when the healing actually happened, you know, but it but to still know that the source came from Jesus and that just had to bolster his faith, you know, to help him see like no matter where I go in life, no matter how uh isolated I might feel, Jesus is still with me, you know, and I'm gonna I'm gonna hold on to that forever.

Um I also think there's like a some symbology here.

Yeah, the the dust thing is interesting.

Uh, this is a little gross, but I I I just think it's interesting.

Um Jesus calls himself the living water not long before this.

Yes, and if we are made from the dust, he spits into the dust, which is kind of like living water, putting water into like putting the living water from Jesus into what formed us to give life, you know, to to heal what sin has broken.

Um, and even though he sin wasn't what caused him to be made like this, but we still live in a fallen world.

We live in a fallen world where where disease and things happen.

Absolutely.

Um, so I think there's lots of stuff going on there with them.

Yeah.

Do you do you have an answer?

I I don't.

Um I I I I so I I've had this Bible since I was 17 years old.

It was a gift uh upon graduation from high school.

And I I love reading it because over the years, you know, over I don't want to say how many years, um, but over the years, uh I I go back to it and I I'll I'll go through stints and I'll I'll mark it up, I'll write in it, I'll circle it.

I'll and I love going back and seeing like what I what I wrote.

And so I've no, I've no I didn't date this, so I have no idea how long ago this is.

I don't have any memory of writing this, but um, I kind of bracketed that sec session and I said something said, um, is this God's sense of humor?

Um was this like Jesus like I don't know, playing around a little bit?

Like, like, like when he puts it, like he gives the dude a wet willy to make him hear.

You know what I mean?

Like, yeah, like it he didn't have to do these things.

Like, like he could just say you're healed, right?

There I I think of the the centurion who had the the servant who was ill, and Jesus said, like, uh, let me go to him, and he's like, No, Lord, like I understand authority, just say the word and and he'll be healed.

Like, so we have evidence, documented evidence of that happening, right?

Like, Jesus doesn't have to be near, he doesn't have to touch, he can just say it and it's done.

Um, and so for him to choose to do this isn't it's it's just it's interesting.

And I've always wondered, like, is this just him like like kind of just having fun with it?

Like like John says um in his gospel that like he supposes that all the the world could not contain the books if we wrote down everything Jesus did.

So maybe this was even a little, I mean, I don't say mundane in a negative sense, but maybe like a little mundane.

So he's just like, let's mix things up today.

Like, what are we gonna do with this guy?

He could have healed 50 blind people, sure, you know, and but wanted wanted this particular story to be recorded and special.

And it's like, okay, which which blind person do we write it right about?

You know, how about the guy that he like spit and made mud?

You know, that like it could be as simple as that.

So and I think I think you make a really interesting uh point, or you at least you you what you just said made me think of something.

Um, the fact that we don't know this guy's name.

Yeah.

This is just the man who was blind, um which I think isn't is very intentional.

John, just like we said, John chose to exclude a lot of miracles that Jesus performed.

And so we need to take note of that which he included, right?

Right.

And he included this story on purpose, but leaves out a very drastic detail, and that is the man's name.

And I think, I think a a possibility of that, which he does actually for most of the miracles that he describes, he does not include the names of the person who receives the miracle outside of Lazarus.

Lazarus is the only like by name um person that he mentions.

I think it could be because um he wanted us to be able to see ourselves in in that person.

Any of us, all of us are blind.

Yeah, right.

We are all born into sin.

Sin has clouded our our sight.

We cannot spiritually see.

We are all spiritually blind if not for Christ's intervention.

Um and so yeah, I don't know, that's just an interesting, interesting thing.

Whatever you said just made me made me think of that.

Um but yeah, I I love this passage, man.

Um and not not to to uh belabor anything, but uh one of my favorite bits is that um this man going back to the idea of disability and God's sovereignty, this this man with a disability is like jesus saw him.

Yeah.

He was looking for him.

And again, the those of us in our society who who have disabilities, who who maybe can't contribute in the same way that that um a typical uh adult can, it's very easy for us to like turn our eye away, to, to look past them, to not see them.

Um and again, as a father of a child with special needs, like I am so encouraged by the way that Jesus loved this man, that he saw him and he sought him out.

And um, you know, we throw around the word inclusivity a lot in our culture, and yeah, it can have different meanings, but Jesus like he he sought this guy out and included him in the story of the gospel.

Right.

And um that is so special to me to know that like God sees my son, God sees people that that have disabilities that that that may not be able to do all the things that that the average person can do, but he still loves them and sees them and has um g gives them value um just because of who they are and that that he he is their children and he created them with a purpose and I love that.

Yes, love that.

No matter how he created you, you he created to be a part of his body.

Yes.

And and the body has many functions and has many different parts.

And who who is the hand to say to the foot, I don't need you.

Yeah, you know, that yeah, that we all are created special uh to be a part of his body and to to fulfill different purposes and to glorify him.

And so whether it's in a typical body or a not typical body, um, we're still here to work together to to glorify God and are all loved by him.

So, Michael, thank you so much for your time, brother.

Thank you for having me.

Thank you for inviting me.

I I like I said I love this passage.

I was so excited to get to to to have this opportunity.

So thank you so much.

I appreciate you.

Love you, brother.