The Unbelievers’ Examination of Jesus’ Miracle in John 9 by Eric Lyons, M.Min.

http://apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=10&article=5146

The Unbelievers’ Examination of Jesus’ Miracle in John 9

by	Eric Lyons, M.Min.

Christians believe that Jesus worked miracles for two primary reasons: (1) a supernatural Creator exists (see Lyons and Butt, 2014), Who is capable of working supernatural miracles in accordance with His will, and (2) the Bible is the inspired Word of God (see Butt and Lyons, 2015), which testifies to the miracles of Christ. Of significance is the fact that the Bible does not record the miracles of Christ in a flippant, feel-good, hocus-pocus type of manner. On the contrary, the accounts of Jesus’ miracles are consistently characterized with reason and restraint. At times, there was great investigation that took place—even by Jesus’ enemies—in hopes of discrediting Him.

Consider, for example, the occasion on which Jesus gave sight to a man born blind (John 9:7). After receiving his sight, neighbors and others examined him, inquiring how he was now able to see. Later he was brought to the Pharisees, and they scrutinized him. They questioned him about the One who caused him to see, and then argued among themselves about the character of Jesus. They called for the parents of the man who was blind, and questioned them about their son’s blindness. Then they called upon the man born blind again, and a second time questioned him about how Jesus opened his eyes. Finally, when they realized the man would not cave in to their intimidating interrogation and say some negative thing about Jesus, “they cast him out” (9:34). They rejected him, and the One Who made him well. Yet, they were unable to deny the miracle that Jesus performed. It was known by countless witnesses that this man was born blind, but, after coming in contact with Jesus, his eyes were opened.

The entire case of Jesus healing the blind man in John 9 was scrutinized thoroughly by Jesus’ enemies, yet even they had to admit that Jesus caused the man to see (John 9:16,17,24,26). It was a fact, accepted, not by credulous youths, but by hardened, veteran enemies of Christ. Considering that positive testimony from hostile witnesses is the weightiest kind of testimony in a court of law, such reactions from Jesus’ enemies are extremely noteworthy in any discussion on the miracles of Christ.

REFERENCES

Butt, Kyle and Eric Lyons (2015), “3 Good Reasons to Believe the Bible is from God,” Apologetics Press, http://apologeticspress.org/apPubPage.aspx?pub=1&issue=1180.

Lyons, Eric and Kyle Butt (2014), “7 Reasons to Believe in God,” Apologetics Press,http://apologeticspress.org/apPubPage.aspx?pub=1&issue=1175&article=2452.