My third-grade year, our school performed the operetta Pinocchio. Students could audition for parts, and of course, additional parts were created so as many as possible could participate. I, along with two or three other girls, were sunbeams. We sang a song with a little dance, as I recall. When I pondered Jesus’ words that the blind man’s circumstances had the purpose of displaying God’s work in his life, I wondered if God calls us all to be sunbeams. Light dancing on a river or through a window as sunlight across the floor, God’s warmth and light traveling from heaven to earth along a sunbeam. 
That pretty much describes how God wants us to function. John wove his opening truth through his entire gospel account.
“In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it … The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world” (John 1:4-5, 9).
Some Bible versions translate “overcome” as “comprehend.” The Greek has a broader meaning:
The darkness [does] not admit or receive the light.1
“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 15:35).
Read John 9:1-3.
- Jesus encountered a man born blind.
- In keeping with Jewish tradition, the disciples wondered if sin had caused his blindness.
- Jesus reminded them trials aren’t always a consequence of our or others’ sin.
- In this case, the man experienced hardship to show God’s work in his life.
- Imagine that—he lived into adulthood not realizing his struggle had a different and better outcome.
*How do we react and live in circumstances we can’t see beyond?
*Why does God choose to use trials to display his work in our lives?
*What is our role in such situations?
Read John 9:4-5.
- Jesus called his disciples to join him in the Father’s work.
- The light shines in the day.
- Jesus proclaimed he is the light of the world.
“I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth” (Isaiah 49:6).
- In saying the night would come, we don’t know if Jesus referred to the night of his crucifixion or a future time when after the thousand years, Satan will be released for a short time to deceive the nations (Revelation 20:7-8).
“From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ (which means ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’)” (Matthew 27:45-46).
- As Jesus took our sin upon him to pay the death penalty for sin, his Father turned away.
“This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. … ‘because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, you will not let your holy one see decay.’ … Seeing what was to come, he [David] spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay” (Acts 2:23-24, 27).
“(What does ‘he ascended’ mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.)” (Ephesians 4:9)
*What is the significance that Jesus died a physical death?
*What is the significance that the Father forsake the Son while he hung on the cross?
Read John 9:6-12.
- Jesus created mud with his saliva and covered the man’s eyes, then instructed him to wash at Siloam.
- After washing the mud off his eyes, the man could see.
- Those in the community disagreed about who they saw walking away from the pool.
- The healed man testified he was the same man who had begged his whole life.
- They demanded an explanation.
- He told them his story. No fancy words or testimony. Simply what he heard, experienced, and saw.
- Jesus used the distraction to once again disappear for at least a few moments.
- Perhaps respite before the next scene with the Pharisees.
*When have we experienced God’s hand at work and sought an earthly explanation?
*When have you seen an ebb and flow in your walk with Jesus—from close encounter to restoration to silence or reflection to facing opposition?
*What can we learn from Jesus’ path through these scenes?
- Shadows dim and hide sunbeams. In darkness no light shines.
“It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two” (Luke 23:44-45).
- Jesus’ death and resurrection made a way for light to shine, grace to live in his light.
- “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it” (Ephesians 4:7).
“In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deed and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).
- The point of this whole passage: God’s glory.
- Who knew we would read as much about God’s glory in John’s account as in Ezekiel?!
- Spiros Zodhiates Th.D., The Complete Word Study Dictionary New Testament (AMG Publishers, 1992), 834.