The Man Born Blind (15)

The healed man was cast out, excommunicated. This act had major consequences—no more association with family, not able to come up to the temple or synagogues anymore. Literally, a person’s life was over. The reason was because this man pointed the Pharisees to the truth. The undeniable facts of the divine power of Jesus of Nazareth had once again become the stumbling blocks. They could not handle the simplicity, clarity, and mercy of the lesson from this healed man.

Now this casting out with its consequences will be the new reality of this man. The unjust action that was taken and for which he must now suffer lies upon him. Notice how this is a lesson also for today. How many are not suffering unjust actions in business, school, church, and family life? These are laid on us. This man does not stand a chance to go against the influential position of the Pharisees, but the omnipresence of the Lord is an attribute by which the Lord also will glorify Himself in the lives of His suffering people. Maybe it seems as if no one hears, no one understands, but I may point those suffering ones to the omnipresence of the Lord. The Lord stands up for those who truly suffer unjustly; those who have been shut down by them who are in authority over them have a Helper in the strife. This man is not in it for himself; it is because of God’s work in him. This has made him the subject of the intense hatred of the enemies of the truth.

The text points to a hearing Jesus. What a description revealed here in the Bible of the Man of Sorrows acquainted with grief—He hears! What value does this hold for you and me? These words reveal the Mediator of the Covenant during His time here below paying attention to what was said around Him. The human nature of the Lord Jesus was necessary to suffer the wrath of God since the human nature had sinned. Now the human nature of Christ is presented in such a way that there is something being revealed of His manner of operation to deliver the needy—He listens! So often the listening ear is such a help already to one under heavy burdens. Here the Saviour is revealed as a listening Saviour. No, the blind man does not go to Him but the burdens of the blind man are heard by the Lord Jesus, and He is going to come to the suffering healed man.

Did you read that correctly? The suffering healed man. Not just a suffering man, a healed man who is suffering! Church of God, your healing is in your regeneration. Then the work of God in its essence is laid in the heart. Nothing will have to be added to that work; it is a perfect work. Yet, the Bible reveals the healed man has a way of strife, a way of suffering. How can that suffering be solved? Do you know of a healing, a beginning, when the Lord’s power was revealed? Do you know when sin was broken, when there came confession of guilt unto God and to men that you have sinned? Do you now walk over the earth suffering? Are you suffering from the consequences of unjust dealings for Christ’s sake—suffering under the consequences of sin? Not sinning as previously, but after the great change that came in your life, you still encounter the dregs of sin. Are you suffering because you cannot perceive Him before or behind, afraid one day to perish by the hand of Saul? Maybe there are proof points in your life where you were given steadfastness to remain standing amid strong temptation to fall. Here the Bible reveals that the Lord Jesus hears the suffering healed man.

Christ hears about the healed man’s casting out. In this casting out lies His own pathway. “Wherefore in all things it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.” His Church will have to press in His footsteps. Yet, in those footsteps He went before them. He knows of that pathway. Oh, healed suffering ones, your way is not strange to Him whom the Father has sent to suffer outside the camp, but in His suffering there was a depth so deep, indescribably deep—a depth due to the sin of all the elect and because of the inflexible justice of God. He went into that depth! “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” Never was there a point so dark, so deep in time as that point, but that suffering had a meritorious purpose so “that we might be accepted of God and never be forsaken of Him” as the Form for the Administration of the Lord’s Supper states. That is the place He took because from the stillness of eternity He heard them who were cast out of fellowship and communion with a Triune God. He as Covenant Head answered the command of the will of the Father to deliver the elect sinners, and His reply was “Lo, I come…” There lays your foundation, healed ones! Jesus is going to give instruction about it: “Dost thou believe on the Son of God?”

(To be continued)

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