Why Don’t You Ask Him?

Devotional

Day 1: Mud on Blind Eyes, Sight for Closed Hearts

When Jesus smeared mud on a blind man’s eyes, religious leaders fixated on Sabbath rules instead of celebrating divine power. Their obsession with external rituals blinded them to God’s work in their midst. Like them, we often prioritize traditions over transformative encounters with Christ. The miracle exposed their hollow religiosity—a warning to all who substitute checklists for surrendered hearts. True sight begins when we let Jesus disrupt our comfortable routines. [08:13]

“He answered, ‘Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.’” (John 9:25, ESV)

Reflection: What religious routines have you elevated over relationship with Christ? How might Jesus be inviting you to trade ritual for raw encounter?

Day 2: When Rules Outshine Miracles

The Pharisees interrogated a healed man about technicalities while ignoring his restored vision. Their man-made Sabbath restrictions—no spitting, no toenail trimming—distorted God’s gift of rest into bondage. Legalism still suffocates joy when we care more about appearing righteous than being made whole. Every man-made rule we defend over Christ’s transforming work reveals our own spiritual blindness. [07:03]

“So some of the Pharisees said, ‘This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.’ But others said, ‘How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?’” (John 9:16, ESV)

Reflection: Where have you judged others’ spiritual experiences by your own standards? What miracle might you be missing while policing boundaries?

Day 3: Parents Who Feared Men More Than God

The healed man’s parents denied knowing how he gained sight, fearing expulsion from their religious community. Their cowardice mirrors our silence when social approval matters more than testifying to God’s work. Like them, we often choose safety over solidarity with Christ’s transformative power—even when it means abandoning those closest to us. [20:00]

“His parents answered, ‘We know he is our son, and that he was born blind. But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself.’” (John 9:20-21, ESV)

Reflection: When has fear of others’ opinions kept you from celebrating God’s work? Who needs your courageous affirmation of their spiritual journey?

Day 4: From Beggar to Bold Witness

The once-blind man’s simple testimony—“I was blind, now I see”—infuriated sophisticated critics. His unpolished truth exposed their empty intellectualism. Authentic encounters with Christ need no theological garnish. When we stop defending God and start declaring what He’s done, even our simplest stories become weapons against unbelief. [12:21]

“They replied, ‘You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?’ And they cast him out.” (John 9:34, ESV)

Reflection: What part of your story feels too ordinary to share? How might God use raw honesty to dismantle others’ pretenses?

Day 5: Trading Formality for Fire

Religious leaders preferred maintaining traditions over marveling at a beggar’s transformed life. Formalism dies when confronted with living testimonies. Like clay on blind eyes, Christ still disrupts our complacency—scratching at soul-blindness until we admit our need. True sight comes not through perfect observance, but through surrender to the One who makes mud and miracles. [16:00]

“Jesus said, ‘For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.’” (John 9:39, ESV)

Reflection: What areas of your faith have become performance rather than passion? Where do you need Christ to interrupt your routines with holy disruption?

Sermon Summary

John 9 makes plain that sin has robbed men and women of spiritual vision. The man born blind stands as a picture of every person unable to rectify his own condition and needing Jesus to recreate the faculty sin has destroyed. Jesus opens the man’s eyes, and the transformation sets the cat among the pigeons in the community. The neighbors cannot quite settle whether this is the same man who used to sit and beg, and the man can only tell the simple truth: “The man they call Jesus” made mud, sent him to Siloam, and now he can see.

The Pharisees receive the man not with joy, but with interrogation. Religious formalism sits in the driving seat at first, concerned with externals and blind to the inner significance of what God has done. The Sabbath becomes their smoke screen. Jesus has made mud on the Sabbath, and that is enough for them to try to discredit him, because their rules have become more important than the mercy of God standing in front of them.

Religious formalism cannot cope with transformed lives. Conversion exposes the formalist’s own need to be turned the right way up. The Pharisees hide behind regulations because the opened eyes of the beggar confront them with the possibility that their orthodoxy is only skin deep. The man’s testimony is wonderfully plain: “One thing I do know, I was blind, but now I see.” The formalist cannot answer that, so he insults, intimidates, and throws the man out.

The parents show a different danger: fear. The leaders summon them, and they admit only what cannot be denied. He is their son, and he was born blind. But when the question comes to Jesus, they pass the buck: “Ask him. He is of age.” Fear of being put out of the synagogue keeps them from standing with their boy and from rejoicing openly in the grace of Christ.

Formalism and fear both keep people at a distance from the great good news. The religious person with a little list of acceptable behavior still cannot answer for the jealous heart, the dirty mind, or the dishonest tongue. The frightened parent or friend may refuse to acknowledge Christ because doing so would mean admitting that the same miracle is needed in him. Jesus alone gives forgiveness, peace, hope, grace, and freedom. The man who once was blind now sees, and that is the testimony formalism cannot silence.

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Key Takeaways

1. Formalism cannot cope with conversion. Religious formalism depends on keeping control of the externals, but conversion is a living contradiction to that control. A changed life says that the real issue is not whether a person has maintained the list, but whether Jesus has opened blind eyes. The presence of someone turned right way up exposes the formalist’s upside-down condition. [09:07]
2. Rules can become a smoke screen. The Sabbath controversy shows how a good command of God can be buried under man-made regulations. The Pharisees used their rules to avoid the miracle and to avoid the claims of Christ. A list of acceptable behavior can become a hiding place from the deeper judgment of God’s law and the deeper mercy of God’s grace. [11:10]
3. Testimony may be wonderfully plain. The healed man does not answer every accusation or solve every theological dispute. His witness rests on the undeniable mercy of Christ: “I was blind, but now I see.” Faith often speaks with that kind of holy simplicity, not because it is shallow, but because grace has made one fact impossible to deny. [12:09]
4. Fear keeps joy at arm’s length. The parents know enough to acknowledge the miracle, but fear keeps them from standing with their son. Reputation, status, and the threat of exclusion can make a person strangely quiet in the presence of obvious mercy. Fear does not merely silence words; it can keep a soul from entering the joy that Christ has brought near. [19:50]
5. Jesus does what religion cannot. A golden rule, a religious upbringing, and decent forms cannot cleanse the jealous heart, the dirty mind, or the dishonest life. If formal religion were enough, the cross would be unnecessary. Grace begins where self-justification ends, in the finished work of Jesus rather than the doing of the stuff.

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Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[01:08] - Blind From Birth
[01:49] - A Miracle Disturbs the Neighborhood
[02:44] - Brought Before the Pharisees
[05:17] - Formalism, Fear, and Faith
[06:34] - The Sabbath Smoke Screen
[09:07] - Formalism Fears Transformed Lives
[12:09] - “I Was Blind, But Now I See”
[13:26] - Intellectual Pride and Intimidation
[15:12] - The Danger of Religious Externals
[17:16] - The Parents and Their Fear
[20:43] - When a Child Finds Christ
[22:19] - Do Not Let Fear Keep You From Jesus

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

John 9:1-41
“As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, 'Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?' Jesus answered, 'It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.' Having said these things, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud and said to him, 'Go, wash in the pool of Siloam' (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing. The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, 'Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?' Some said, 'It is he.' Others said, 'No, but he is like him.' He kept saying, 'I am the man.' So they said to him, 'Then how were your eyes opened?' He answered, 'The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, "Go to Siloam and wash." So I went and washed and received my sight.' They said to him, 'Where is he?' He said, 'I do not know.' They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, 'He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.' Some of the Pharisees said, 'This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.' But others said, 'How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?' And there was a division among them. So they said again to the blind man, 'What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?' He said, 'He is a prophet.' The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight and asked them, 'Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?' His parents answered, 'We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind. But how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.' (His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.) Therefore his parents said, 'He is of age; ask him.' So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, 'Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.' He answered, 'Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.' They said to him, 'What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?' He answered them, 'I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?' And they reviled him, saying, 'You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.' The man answered, 'Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.' They answered him, 'You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?' And they cast him out. Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, 'Do you believe in the Son of Man?' He answered, 'And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?' Jesus said to him, 'You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.' He said, 'Lord, I believe,' and he worshiped him. Jesus said, 'For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.' Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, 'Are we also blind?' Jesus said to them, 'If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, "We see," your guilt remains.'” [00:01:08]

Observation questions

What different reactions appear in John 9 after the man receives his sight—among the neighbors, the Pharisees, and the parents?
What details does the healed man repeat about what Jesus did for him, and how simple is his testimony? [12:09]
What issue do the Pharisees seize on when they question the miracle, and how does the Sabbath become the center of their complaint? [06:34]
What do the parents clearly admit, and what part of the story do they refuse to speak about for themselves? [19:50]

Interpretation questions

John 9 presents the man born blind as more than one individual case. In what way does his blindness picture the spiritual condition of every person apart from Christ? [00:53]
The Pharisees are deeply concerned with religious externals, yet they miss the mercy of God standing in front of them. How can a person appear serious about religion and still remain spiritually blind? [05:35]
The healed man says, “One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” Why is that kind of plain testimony so difficult for hardened unbelief or religious pride to answer? [12:09]
The parents fear being put out of the synagogue. What does this show about the power of social cost, reputation, and exclusion in keeping people from openly identifying with Jesus? [20:43]

Application questions

Where is the temptation strongest to hide behind externals—church attendance, moral habits, family background, or a respectable image—while avoiding the deeper question of whether Jesus has truly changed the heart? [16:16]
Has there been a time when another person’s clear conversion or changed life made personal need harder to ignore? What reaction did that stir up—joy, discomfort, defensiveness, or something else? [09:07]
What “smoke screen” of personal rules or self-justifying habits is most tempting to use instead of facing sin honestly before God? [11:10]
The healed man’s witness is very plain: “I was blind, but now I see.” If asked to speak about what Christ has done, what would a simple and honest testimony sound like right now? [12:09]
Where does fear of other people still make open faith difficult—in the family, at work, among friends, or in some social circle that feels costly to disturb? [22:19]
If someone close—perhaps a child, parent, spouse, or friend—openly confessed Christ, would the first response be rejoicing, suspicion, embarrassment, or silence? What might that response reveal about the heart? [20:43]
Jesus alone gives forgiveness, peace, hope, grace, and freedom. What would it look like this week to stop leaning on “doing the stuff” and instead rest more plainly in what Jesus has already done? [21:25]

Sermon Clips

Because if you have a little list of whatever it is that makes you acceptable to God, and it's easy for us to come up with this list. Well, I always go by the golden rule and do unto others as you would do to yourself. And that's my credo and that's my good. Well, that's fine. But what about your jealous heart? What about your dirty mind? What about your dishonesty? How does this little golden rule deal with these things? Of course, it doesn't. [00:16:16]

Do you have peace with God? Do you have the assurance of the forgiveness of your sins? Do you rest in the reality of your hope that one day you will see Jesus and be made like him? I wager that you don't you actually can't because the religious formalist is relying on their capacity to continue maintaining the externals without the radical internal transformation which gives significance to the form and structures of religious life. [00:15:29]

Religious formalism cannot face the fact of the dramatic impact that Jesus makes when he takes a person and turns them upside down which is actually to turn them the right way up. Why? Because the religious formalist then recognizes that he or she is upside down and therefore needs as much to be turned the right way up as this individual. And not wanting to face the challenge of that, they hide behind the smoke screen of their ability to maintain all of the externals in terms of the religious experience. [00:09:20]

You see, if religious formalism was enough to get a man or a woman to heaven, then there would be no need for Jesus to die upon the cross, would there? If doing it ourselves is sufficient, then there would be no need for this amazing grace. [00:16:49]

Now we need to be very clear that the Bible makes plain to us that sin has robbed us of spiritual vision and that in this respect we too are like this man in John nine blind from birth. Like this man we are unable to rectify our condition. And like him, each of us is in need of Jesus to recreate in us the faculty which sin has destroyed. [00:00:53]

If we acknowledge that what has happened to Junior is true, then that means it needs to happen to us as well. And that may be too high a hill to climb. So I say to you, do not allow formalism to keep you from Jesus. And do not allow fear of your peer group to keep you from Jesus. [00:21:50]

While failing to keep the law of God, which they know themselves incapable of keeping, they create a convenient smoke screen by adding their own little rules and regulations. So that as long as they keep their list of what is acceptable, the fact that they are still confronted by the challenge of God's law does not really concern them. [00:11:13]

And there can be nothing more challenging, nothing more embarrassing to the religious formalist than the presence of someone who comes and shares with them that they have found Jesus to be their savior, to be the one who has opened their eyes, to be the one who has turned them from darkness into marvelous light. [00:11:42]

Now, I'm sure that some of you can identify very quickly with this. You became a Christian. You may have become a Christian just recently. You came and acknowledged that you were blind and that you that you had things completely wrong. That you were lost and that Jesus came seeking to save the lost. and you ask Jesus to save you and to be the shepherd of your soul. And what you've discovered now is that religious formalism has no place for that kind of radical change. [00:10:11]

But if they had truly understood what had happened, if they had truly come to understand who this Jesus was, then they would have taken their stand with their boy. But as it was, they didn't take their stand with the boy because they couldn't take their stand with the boy, presumably because they had not come to trust in Jesus. So the Pharisees are distanced from this great good news by their formalism and the parents are distanced from this great good news by their fear. [00:20:10]

And then they discovered that it wasn't in the doing of the stuff, but it was in what had been done by Jesus that there was faith and there was grace and there was forgiveness and there was freedom. [00:21:25]

This Sabbath question was enough for them to be divided amongst themselves. Verse 16, some of the Pharisees said, "He's not from God, for he doesn't keep the Sabbath." What they meant by that was, "He doesn't keep the Sabbath our way." Of course, Jesus kept the Sabbath. He kept the law in its perfection. Jesus was sinless. [00:08:20]

If you go to the religious formalist, whether it is your pastor or your priest or your rabbi or your next-door neighbor or perhaps your mom and dad or your brother or whoever it might be and tell them about this amazing change, if they are religious formalists, they probably will not give you a wonderful response or they may give you some kind of superficial pacifying reaction, but they will not enter into your joy. They can't because you see religious formalists do what these folks had done. [00:10:40]

And instead of these individuals rejoicing in the man's story, instead of them saying, "We've been hoping for a chance to meet you, the word is out in the community that you could see, and we're so glad that you've chosen uh to come along and meet with us." No, there is none of that at all. Instead, they react in such a way as to challenge what he's saying, looking for ways to discredit him and at the same time to incriminate Jesus. [00:06:01]

There's no indication on the part of these folks that they examine the evidence that they had any interest in the evidence at all. Their interest was to deny the miracle and to discredit Jesus. [00:09:59]

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