Introduction
This account of Jesus giving sight to a man blind from birth shows that the religious authorities had learned nothing since condemning the crowd and temple guards earlier at the Feast of Tabernacles. On that occasion, they resorted to arrogant posturing and accusation when their plan to use the temple guards failed to capture Jesus.
1. Arrogant posturing and accusation
Towards the temple guards:
48 "Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? 49 No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law—there is a curse on them."
(John 7)
(Comment: What is the most important? To know the Law, or believe in one displaying the God who gave it?)
2. Ignorantly showing their own ignorance
52 "Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee."
(Comment: Look into it, and what do we find? The prophet Jonah came out of Galilee.[1])
Now, in the case of an undeniable miracle of Jesus restoring sight to a blind man, when the Pharisees were left with no justifiable pathway for denying the miracle, their method to discount the blind man’s testimony was to fall into their same arrogant, and ignorant posturing and accusation,
28 Then they hurled insults at him and said, "You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses!
"You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!"
And they threw him out.
Were they not also steeped in sin at birth? These elites considered not, and consequently controlled others by denigration, fear and force.
The practice of any religion, including the religion we create for ourself, surfaces similar judgemental behaviour in every person who has not faced their own flawed humanity, e.g., every religious adherent practicing rituals they believe have potential spiritual power for them; every archbishop, bishop, priest, pastor, elder, imam, cult leader, group leader, ministry leader, social leader, congregational participant etc. Fickle, dismissive judgement is the common story of religions that continue today. Religion in any cloak easily becomes the hiding place of moral failure and simultaneously a weapon of corrupted pride dragging a long trail of justified personal attacks behind it, sometimes materialising in military force.
These forces were present driving the desire of the religious authorities to kill Jesus so such an extent that their objective to destroy him became widely known and blanketed the Feast of Tabernacles with fear of demonstrating any association or sympathy with him.
A miracle in motion
1 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth.
Jesus was often in motion from the time he began his ministry. Miracles happened when he was on the move carrying out the mission given to him by his Father[2].
The disability
In this incident, as Jesus walks along a road with his disciples, he sees this man blind from birth. His disciples are more interested in defining the causative boundary of judgement impinging on this man’s physical state rather than questioning if Jesus could heal him, as they had watched him do previously for many. Their instant focus is judgemental, "Who is responsible for this affliction? Who needs to be held responsible?" Who sinned causing this tragedy? This is the average response of viewers of evening news reports on national TV. I have to catch myself often flipping into similar instant judgements of prime suspects in sensational news reports. John no doubt listened in to the concerns of his fellow-disciples about the man born blind.
2 "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"
Engrained self-righteousness instantly and automatically looks for judgement rather than opportunities for grace.
Instant judgement is usually found to be nonsensical when given a second thought. The disciples’ nonsensical question in essence was, "Where is the causative sin for this blindness from birth? Is it in the child born blind or in his parents?" It does not take much thought to realise that any hint of an embryo being capable of committing a sin that warranted punishment by God is nonsensical, let alone punishment due to a parent’s previous sin inflicting the embryo for life with such an isolating condition. Nevertheless, the disciples asked the question impulsively seeking to identify the sinner who caused the blindness from birth.
"Judgemental searchlights" seeking a target always point away from those holding them, in order to divert light being shone on their own sins. Consider how frequently you catch yourself doing the same. Visual inputs stream endlessly to our brains when awake. The moment we leave our residence to go to work or shopping, the visual inputs of people within sight come like a flood. Some instantly grab my attention, such as a person with an obvious, visible handicap. My unguarded mind immediately jumps in with its interpretation of the multiple visual inputs. Suddenly I wake up to the fact that I have made a quick assessment of each person against my subconscious databank of past cause-and-effect emotional, intellectual and physical experiences that predispose my instant uniformed and wild assumptions or conclusions about the person to arise. In short, those assessments often have uninformed cause-and-effect judgements attached to them with no prior knowledge of the person.
Jesus elevated the explanation for the man’s handicap above the disciples’ limited "cause-and-effect" thinking to an infinitely higher cause-and-effect.
3 "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him".
The cause for the man’s handicap came from God, and not from his family, to fulfill the purpose of God to demonstrate his works. How much affliction do we encounter in society, or among friends, that has this higher purpose as its cause? What about any current personal affliction in your family or social network? How is it effecting those in its gambit of relationships? Consider how it may be fulfilling a higher purpose before casting judgement.
The higher purpose
Afflictions make possible the works of God to be displayed in multiple ways. They present opportunity for any disciple of Jesus associated with the afflicted person to work. These works of God go beyond the affliction itself. They also are seen in the growth of tested faith in those associated with the suffering before the healing occurs (and after). Only the few who walk with the Spirit of God can spot this possibility and seek to discern from the Spirit the way God wants his works to be displayed through them or someone else. How does God want to display his works in the specific persons who currently interface with the afflicted? Whose faith in him is he wanting to expand? What spiritual gift is he wanting to strengthen to use in the situation, (e.g., encouragement, discernment, counsel etc.)? Whose faith does he want to strengthen to claim for the sufferer physical, mental, emotional, relational or spiritual healing? Can you see the higher purpose?
What is definite and clear for each disciple of Jesus is the focus he placed on the time available to them to carry out work for God’s rule:
4 As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.
Jesus did not see the works of God commissioned to be done solely by him. He saw the disciples that he was training to be with him also doing those works, i.e., "…we must do the works … The night is coming for each disciple of Jesus when they will no longer be able to work. We do not control when the night will come for us, but it will come. Time is limited." That certainty sharpens the daily focus of every "would be" disciple of Jesus wanting to engage in his works. Jesus said that relatively few would choose that focus.
Jesus immediately concluded this initial correction of the disciples’ misplaced judgements with an all-encompassing and definitive statement,
5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world."
In other words,
"This man may have been born blind, but don’t focus on that limitation. Look at me and the work the Father is about to do through me as the light of the world for this long-suffering blind man. This is the work of God that the Father has chosen for you to do also as lights to the world, just as he chose me to do his works".
The miracle
John then saw a new miracle on his journey with Jesus. He kept his record simple for maximum effect.
…I am the Light of the world. 6 After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes.
7 "Go," he told him, "wash in the Pool of Siloam" (this word means "Sent"). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
The blind man: 1) went, 2) washed, 3) came home seeing. Three actions. John gives no more details. He doesn’t add any that would take the focus off Jesus demonstrating through the healed blind man that he was the Light of the world.
The power of the miracle was in the action of Jesus, his faith-testing command to the man, and the man’s unquestioning obedience.
Post-miracle interactions
The neighbours
8 His neighbours and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, "Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?" 9 Some claimed that he was.
Others said, "No, he only looks like him."
Eye witness accounts are never uniform and are often contradictory on key matters. Every legal trial specialist knows that well. This is a classic example. Sound law court processes are established for the jury and trial judge to sift out inaccurate and unqualified witnesses in order to arrive at the truth. Who is this now-seeing man? How reliable is his input?
The man
When the debate is about a person’s identity, significant weight must be given to the testimony of the person in question. Defence lawyers time the introduction of a crucial witnesses to bring the most influence to bear in defining the certain innocent identity of their charged client. Similarly, the healed blind man forcefully inserted himself into the debate to assert his true identity rather than leave it to a variety of opinions.
But he himself insisted[3], "I am the man!"
With the man’s identity clarified, the mystified neighbours switched to wanting more explanation of this astounding miracle.
10 "How then were your eyes opened?" they asked.
11 He replied, "The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see."
The healed man gives a simple description of what happened leading up to the miracle. He speaks somewhat impartially about Jesus simply identifying him as "the man they call Jesus". Who is "they"? Had he heard the gossip about Jesus among strangers at the annual event and whispers of fear in the crowds warning not to be seen endorsing the man Jesus in any way? The policing Pharisees certainly would have arrested anyone calling Jesus any more than a man.
12 "Where is this man?" they asked him.
"I don’t know," he said.
He had apparently not gone looking. He was possibly as perplexed as his neighbours but had not gone looking for Jesus. He would have been personally overwhelmed. How would you absorb a miracle like that? There would be no thinking space left to be wondering where your healer had gone.
Imagine the rapid processing in his mind seeking to connect the reality now coming through his combined physical senses …
"I have never seen what things look like. Now a voice has a face, and it changes shape around its mouth and eyes to match its familiar sound. Astounding!
I can see shapes I could only feel before, and colour is amazing! I want to see more!
I have no idea where the man is who put mud on my eyes. Keeping in touch with his movements is not my focus right now. My sight is too overwhelming and thrilling".
The neighbours were not satisfied. They wanted more explanation. The next most logical place to get answers was the religious experts. They hoped the study of the experts may have some answers.
13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind.
The Pharisees
Framework of operation
John’s opening comment about the interaction between the Pharisees and the man who had been blind has a sense of déjà vu to it. He prefaces the subsequent interaction with the Pharisees with the qualifying comment,
14 Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath.
John had been here before in his journey with Jesus. When on the Sabbath, Jesus healed the invalid, who had not walked for 38 years, the Pharisees showed no compassion to the invalid. They were quick to discount the miraculous healing as a work of God, because it was the result of Sabbath work. The lifelong physical trial of the invalid was of no consequence to them. Their driving motivation was their public control as guardians of the Laws of Moses. After that healing on the Sabbath, they began their attack on Jesus seeking to gather evidence to kill him, which had continued unabated up to the Festival of Tabernacles. Their response to this new healing was totally predictable. They instantly probed if any Sabbath work had been done to enable the miracle.
15 Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. "He put mud on my eyes," the man replied, "and I washed, and now I see."
16 Some of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath."
These quick-to-judge Pharisees could be seen as the one-dimensional, one-directional hardliners of the group. They were not servants ministering with compassion but rigid, hasty judges administering a rule book. From their one-dimensional framework of self-importance, they were blind to the grace of God being extended to alleviate a life-time of suffering. The rule book was quick and easy to apply from cold hearts.
"This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath."
Other Pharisees in the group, however, had sufficient life balance to be able to entertain a viable question,
"How can a sinner perform such signs?" So they were divided.
How could a sinner heal the sight of a person blind from birth? The answer to this question could not reside in a human domain of reality. The healed man was more advanced than these self-promoted religious experts in recognising that the dimension of his healing was beyond our familiar human domain of physical reality. He had already moved to a super-natural framework of reality for his personal explanation.
The blind man
Framework of understanding
Interrogation 1
17 Then they turned again to the blind man, "What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened."
The man replied, "He is a prophet."
In Jewish history and their scriptures, the Holy Spirit resided on prophets, priests and kings to be supernatural channels of God’s grace acting in the nation. The healed man knew this and had concluded that Jesus was not confined to physical dimensions and had to possess supernatural power. While he had moved to a supernatural framework of understanding in which the prophets operated, the Pharisees remained stuck in their physical world of unbelief not prepared to let go of their legal authority. Their method to control investigation of the truth to their satisfaction was interrogation of physical facts for as long as needed to detect and define any violations of their laws. Stuck in this physical framework of religious authority, they were ego-driven, power-hungry, insecure analyticals.
18 They still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man’s parents. 19 "Is this your son?" they asked. "Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?"
The man’s physical explanation of gaining sight was insufficient for them. His parents would certainly confirm the presence and extent of any birth defects they had to manage in raising him. Nevertheless, how did the Pharisees expect that his parents would have any idea how a blind son could suddenly and miraculously see? They were clutching for anything that would discount this act of Jesus being miraculous, because it would thwart their objective to kill him, if it became widely known. The Pharisees had to discredit the healing swiftly. They were anti-ophthalmologists!
20 "We know he is our son," the parents answered, "and we know he was born blind. 21 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."
They quickly flicked the focus of the Pharisees back to their son. John adds his interpretation of their reason for doing so. Fear!
22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who already had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. 23 That was why his parents said, "He is of age[4]; ask him."
The Pharisees had certainly been effective in their campaign to prevent the popularity of Jesus spreading using fear of rejection and isolation.
Interrogation 2
24 A second time they summoned the man who had been blind.
They began by placing a religious straight-jacket on the man as a ground rule for their meeting. It was comprised of: 1) a sound spiritual principle, joined with 2) a false claim.
-
"Give glory to God by telling the truth," they said.
-
"We know this man is a sinner."
The now-seeing man had no concern about the first component of their ground rule. The second he dismissed as a fabricated claim and turned it into a challenge.
25 He replied, "Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!"
No one could take that reality from him – no academic, opthalmological or theological argument could stand against it without sounding foolish. They had to find a flaw in his claim to discredit his belief that he was healed the moment he washed in the Pool of Siloam. So they questioned again.
26 Then they asked him, "What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?"
Where zero faith confronts the miraculous, it only has analytical argument to fall back on. It has to search for conflicting facts and then discredit the witness. Therefore, the healed man went on the offensive now aware that he held all the cards in this interrogation game.
27 He answered, "I have told you already and you did not listen.
The healed blind man gave a forceful assessment of the Pharisees behaviour and switched to their method of interrogation of not waiting for an answer before attacking their motivation rhetorically. He now adopted a dominant stance with them.
Why do you want to hear it again?
Do you want to become his disciples too?[5]
The healed man, possibly with a tone of sarcasm, used a grammatical construction that signalled the expectation of a negative answer, e.g., "You don’t wish to become his disciples also do you?" (In no way did they!) His comment hit at the heart of what drove the Pharisees’ aggression towards Jesus and his followers, i.e.,
- refusal to surrender full control of their choices to Jesus, who consistently put this either/or choice before his listeners at all levels of society, and still does;
- refusal to let go of pride and admit one’s need of forgiveness and cleansing from sin (this would be an inconceivable ‘coming out’ for these supposed examples of religious virtue and knowledge.)
The power of these two drivers under the Pharisees questioning of the blind man was instantly apparent in their excessive, uncontrolled, self-justifying reaction:
28 Then they hurled insults at him and said, "You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! 29 We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from."
They became instant revilers spuing scorn upon the blind man to silence and humiliate him. They mocked the man for becoming a disciple of an unknown stranger and placarded their pedigree in contrast by boasting to be disciples of Moses. Disciple of Jesus or Moses? Disciple of Jesus or another guru? Disciple of Jesus or your own belief system? Ruled by Jesus or your pride? Jesus is the decision point for every person, that will never go away.
The man did not cower to their attack because his healing was dramatic, authentic and undeniable to him. He was living his miracle. He knew its source had to be divine. He turned the attack on their flawed boast.
30 The man answered, "Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes!"
We could add, "You are in hypocritical denial of what you have studied about the works of God." The healed man now added how he had been taught God works, which he would have learned from their prior teaching:
31 We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. 32 Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing."
Yes, nothing!
34 To this they replied, "You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!" And they threw him out.
When pride-constructed, physically-based belief systems encounter any definitive spiritual cause and its effects, they have nowhere to go except to aggressive closures, e.g., slander, isolation, imprisonment, and death. The history of the spiritual followers of Jesus is full of martyrs, who have set aside their social standing and comforts to be made an outcast.
The care of Jesus
John does not end his record of the healing of the blind man at the crisis point of him being cast out of the synagogue. He had experienced and witnessed multiple expressions of the compassion of Jesus early in journeying with him. He had listened to Jesus consistently focus his message to individuals and groups on his gift of eternal life. Accordingly, John chose to complete his record of this dramatic physical miracle with a pericope of Jesus looking for the man, in order to ignite a trusting relationship with him.
35 Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?"
36 "Who is he, sir?" the man asked. "Tell me so that I may believe in him."
37 Jesus said, "You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you."
38 Then the man said, "Lord, I believe," and he worshipped him.
This is a touching pericope showing the care of Jesus for the healed man, who had chosen, under the pressure of interrogation, to take the stance of a disciple of Jesus by putting his social acceptance at risk to defend the authentic character of Jesus. John does not say where Jesus found him but indicates that Jesus made a concerted effort to do so when told of the Pharisees’ judgemental actions against him.
It is instructive how Jesus related to the rejected healed man. He did not take an empathetic approach to sooth the man’s hurt. He took a faith path to restoration.
…he said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?"
Jesus demonstrated the stance his disciple should take to restore the hurting, confused and rejected in our society. Seek to guide them to hope-filled belief found only in Jesus. The greatest obstacle to a belief in Jesus that can restore purpose in life is ignorance.
36 "Who is he, sir?" the man asked. "Tell me so that I may believe in him."
The blind man was a classic example of being sought out by Jesus, yet potentially being ignorant of him nearby. This is true for many today.
Jesus initiated deliberate contact with the man. He was destined to be used by Jesus as an example and confirmation that he is the light of the world. The miracle of healing the blind man’s sight was seen by the disciples, his neighbours and then the Pharisees.
Jesus more than touched him. He put mud on the man’s eyes using his own spittle. Contact with the man could not have been closer touching the most critical part of his disabled body. Yet the man still did not comprehend the full identity of Jesus. He did not see him. He reasoned that he must be a prophet from God but had not comprehended his full identity as the Son of Man.
Jesus wanted to do more that bring physical sight to the man to enable his eyes to process physical light. His aim was to bring the light of his spirit to the man to enlighten his dead spirit to process life. The man, although healed physically, was still blind spiritually. Jesus was near him but not seen by him. The healed man still needed to see the full identity of Jesus, in order to believe in him and receive the sight that sees God and his workings. That is true for every person.
Many brush by Jesus today and still do not see him clearly. Childhood boredom with drab religious rituals continue to mask the identity of the Jesus of history and the eternal love that he offers. When he is not seen, he cannot give sight and his all-embracing, renewing life of love.
36 "Who is he, sir?" the man asked. "Tell me so that I may believe in him."
Jesus the Son of Man and Son of God had been in full view and up close reaching out to the healed man. Yet he remained unknown and unseen by the man. Now was the time to reveal his identity to him. Now the man was ready to believe the impossible. The Creator of all had come looking for him and was standing before him. Staggering!
37 Jesus said, "You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you."
This would no doubt have been a seminal moment for the man, a moment that stunned, a moment far greater than mere disability relief and beyond both expectation and comprehension. Imagine right now having the Creator of the Universe standing before you offering his love and free gift of an eternal life with him in a way that he opens your eyes to see Him. He has come looking for you. What would you do?
38 Then the man said, "Lord, I believe," and he worshipped him.
The lesson
For the man
The man immediately adopted a worshipping spirit of full belief, which has the ability to discern the boundary between spiritual and physical reality, truth and deception.
39 Jesus said, "For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind."
He knew, when he declared his trust in Jesus as the Son of Man, that he had suddenly been ushered by Jesus into both physical and spiritual sight. He could see all that was around him physically and now the identity of the Son of Man spiritually. His spirit leaped into life. He saw the heart of Jesus, who reached out to heal him, and the hearts of the Pharisees, who threw him out of the synagogue with a burst of religious anger and defensiveness. Suddenly, he could see that he had gained spiritual sight, and they had become blind. They could not see the undeniable miraculous work of God by Jesus in the healing of his physical sight. The healed man could see that the stated purpose of Jesus coming into the world was now happening, and he was privileged to be included in it.
39 Jesus said, "For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind."
Losing sight of spiritual realities operating now that will extend forever is possibly the greatest of all human tragedies. It is critical for each person to ask, "Have I lost sight?" This is so critical that we should not leave the assessment with ourselves but also shared with a wise person in our circle of acquaintances, who claims to see Jesus.
For the Pharisees
40 Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, "What? Are we blind too?"
41 Jesus said, "If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.
Jesus completed his explanation of the cause of the man being blind from birth with a warning to every religious person feeling secure in their self-developed or borrowed religion.
…now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.
Our proud-full efforts of being a good person, family member, community member, or even church member can never remove our sin and future judgement by Jesus as the Son of Man. We may engage in work and social activities that build a reputation of someone who sees, but remain in the blindness of hidden guilt. The moment we claim that we can see how to live our life honourably according to our ‘religion’, and how others should, our guilt remains. Our ‘religion’ can never remove it. Only Jesus can declare us as "Not guilty" the moment he forgives our sin, when we place our trust in him for having personally paid the full penalty for it by remaining on the Roman Cross until completed. "It is finished!"
Every person needs his declaration of "forgiven" over their entire life, both the hidden and the seen, not just parts. Then his light enlightens our spiritual sight forever. Every person needs Jesus! The man was born blind from birth for this message to continue to give spiritual sight to those who hear it today. Do you see?
I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.
(John 8:12)
Today the site, at latitude 32° 44′ 30" N and longitude 35° 19′ 30" E in the Galilee, is a small set of ruins on a hilltop near the Arab village of Mashhad five kilometres north of Nazareth and one kilometre from Kafr Kanna. The supposed tomb of Jonah is still pointed out by locals. ↩︎
He was in motion after healing a paralytic when he called Matthew to leave his work and follow (Matthew 9:9). Shortly after, he moved on to resurrect the synagogue leader’s daughter and on the way healed a woman with an issue of blood (9:18-26). Later leaving Jericho he healed two blind men who called out to him as he passed by (20:30-34). Post-resurrection he did the same on a lakeside beach miraculously filling a fishing net with a school of fish, and in the case of chatting with two men leaving their time in Jerusalem as they walked along the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-34). ↩︎
John uses εἶπεν (eipen) which occurs over 1,000 times in the NT, often in the case where the authority of the speaker and importance of his words is emphasized, e.g., it is often used to introduce the teachings and sayings of Jesus. Its use here by John seeks to convey the assertiveness and clarity of the blind man’s interjection in the comments of the public. ↩︎
ἡλικία ((hay-lik-ee’-ah) meaning maturity in years, which was obvious from his statement to be blind 38 years ↩︎
μὴ καὶ ὑμεῖς θέλετε αὐτοῦ μαθηταὶ γενέσθαι? You don’t wish to become his disciples also do you?" ↩︎