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GREATER AND GREATER

John 9

BEFORE we leave this very wonderful chapter, we would do well to read it again, this time straight through from start to finish. If we do read it like this with care and attention, we will see the loveliest progression in the blind man’s idea of Jesus. It goes through three stages, each one higher than the last.

(1) He began by calling Jesus a man. ‘A man called Jesus opened my eyes’ (cf. verse 11). He began by thinking of Jesus as a wonderful man. He had never met anyone who could do the kind of things Jesus did; and he began by thinking of Jesus as a uniquely gifted man.

We do well sometimes to think of the sheer magnificence and greatness of Jesus. In any gallery of the world’s heroes, he must find a place. In any anthology of the loveliest lives ever lived, his would have to be included. In any collection of the world’s greatest literature, his parables would have to be listed. In Julius Caesar, Shakespeare makes Mark Antony say of Brutus:

His life was gentle, and the elements

So mix’d in him that Nature might stand up

And say to all the world, ‘This was a man!’

Whatever else is in doubt, there is never any doubt that Jesus was a truly great man.

(2) He went on to call Jesus a prophet. When asked his opinion of Jesus in view of the fact that he had given him his sight, his answer was: ‘He is a prophet’ (verse 17). Now a prophet is someone who brings God’s message to men and women. ‘Surely the Lord God does nothing,’ said Amos, ‘without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets’ (Amos 3:7). A prophet is someone who lives close to God and has penetrated into his inner councils. When we read the wisdom of the words of Jesus, we are bound to say: ‘This is a prophet!’ Whatever else may be in doubt, this is true – if people followed the teachings of Jesus, all personal, all social, all national and all international problems would be solved. If ever anyone had the right to be called a prophet, Jesus had.

(3) Finally the blind man came to confess that Jesus was the Son of God. He came to see that human categories were not adequate to describe him. Napoleon was once in a company in which a number of clever sceptics were discussing Jesus. They dismissed him as a very great man and nothing more. ‘Gentlemen,’ said Napoleon, ‘I know men, and Jesus Christ was more than a man.’

If Jesus Christ is a man

And only a man – I say

That of all mankind I cleave to him

And to him will I cleave alway.

If Jesus Christ is a god–

And the only God – I swear

I will follow him through heaven and hell,

The earth, the sea, and the air!

It is a tremendous thing about Jesus that the more we know him, the greater he becomes. The trouble with human relationships is that often the better we know people, the more we know their weaknesses and their failings; but the more we know Jesus, the greater the wonder becomes; and that will be true, not only in time, but also in eternity.