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John

John 9

By Doug Ford
A Man Born Blind Receives Sight;
The Pharisees Excommunicate the Healed Man;
True Vision and True Blindness

Chapter Introduction:

This chapter is connected to chapter 8 in that Jesus repeats that He is The Light of the world and displays that in a blind man’s life.  In chapter 8, he was in the court of women in the temple.  This was where the large lamps were lit daily during the Feast of Booths.  The light from these lamps was renown, supposedly lighting all the city.  Yet, these lights would go out.  Jesus said:

I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”

    1. NKJV: John 8:37; 1982, Thomas Nelson

John 9:1-2

Jesus appears to be leaving the temple when He came on a man born blind.  This man had no means of life or income and so lived from the charity of the people.  He was likely at the gate or along the road of the temple where many people would pass. 

Jewish teachers believed and taught that suffering and afflictions like this were due to sin.  It might be that person’s sin or the sin of the parents.  These things were taught so as to avoid making God responsible for suffering.  Because his blindness was from birth, they even taught that a person could sin in the womb, prior to birth. 

Therefore, suffering was an indication that the sufferer or their family had sinned or acted wickedly.  They believed innocent people didn’t suffer in spite of the book of Job.

Note that the disciples seemed to display no compassion or mercy toward this man. A blind beggar wasn't something unusual.  This man was probably someone they had passed many times as they made their way to and from the temple.  He was a blind beggar, what could they do?  It seems they barely recognized him as a human.

John 9:3-5

Jesus corrected the traditional teaching.  The suffering wasn’t due to specific sin by the man or his parents.  Jesus said this man was born blind that the works of God should be revealed in him.  It was God’s plan to reveal His power through this man.  It appears that he was born blind for this moment in time.  This is a kind of Romans 8:28 thought:

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

    1. NKJV: Romans 8:28; 1982, Thomas Nelson

The night is coming.  No one worked at night.  The work was done in the light of day.  Jesus employed this picture and again said that He was that light of the world.  He would be about the work of the One who sent Him as long as He was in the world.

From a spiritual standpoint, we are all born blind.  Our natural condition is spiritual blindness.  And our natural condition is fallen and sinful, inclined away from God.  We might see ourselves in this man: blind, in the dark and having no ability to comprehend the light, completely at the mercy of God, unable to change our state.

John 9:6-7

In general, spit was thought to be gross and disgusting.  Yet, it was also thought to be an agent of healing.  This was particularly true in pagan circles, so this would exist among popular thought.  There were some who thought spit had magical properties. 

Why did Jesus spit?  It wasn’t to display the magical properties of His spit.  It may have only been to provide the moisture to make clay.  Then we have to ask why He made clay?  We have to at least consider the idea that clay in the hands of Jesus was the beginning of man.  However, the clay wasn’t going to heal the man.  It was Jesus who would heal.  The clay was a substance that could be seen and felt, from which faith was built.  However, Jesus didn’t ask this man to have faith.  Jesus could have simply healed this man with a word.  Instead, we see Jesus do His work and then call on the man to respond to it.  This man had to believe.  He had to trust Jesus enough to go to the pool of Siloam.  Every time Jesus healed someone, it was different.  In every healing He displays His sovereignty? 

When you think of the word anointed you don't think of being anointed with mud made from spit.  For anyone else, this might seem gross, and maybe it was for those nearby.  But this man couldn’t see the spit or mud.  He only felt the anointing of Jesus. 

Siloam means “sent.”  This is the only specific New Testament reference to this pool.  It was a reservoir to collect water from the channels on the west side of the Kidron.  Hezekiah had a tunnel dug to direct water to the pool (Isaiah 7:3; 8:6; 36:2; Neh 3:15).  The pool was both water supply but also for baptizing converts to Judaism.  This pool provided the sacred water for the water ceremony of the feast of tabernacles. 

Here stood this man who had never known light, who had no concept of sight.  He was to go wash in the pool of Siloam.  He went, as sent, washed and came back with eyesight.  What was the first thing he saw?  His reflection in the pool?  The water?  Imagine this man seeing skies and trees and people for the first time.  He went from darkness to light.  The Light of the world and Living Water brought light and sight to this man.

John 9:8-9

This kind of miracle was unheard of.  The blind had been previously healed, but no one that was blind from birth.  This was seen as impossible.  The man was a fixture in the area.  He was always there, seen by all who would pass by.  Suddenly, people began to see him with his sight.  How could this be?  They were sure he was the one they used to see.

The man had to be blind for years and become known by all those people, so that his testimony might go far and wide through the people.

It was so bizarre to them, some decided it wasn’t the same guy.  He just looked like him.  The formerly blind man cleared it all up by identifying himself.  It’s interesting that he uses the same statement John shows us repeatedly, “I am.”

John 9:10-16

This man wasn’t quite sure how this healing happened.  He followed the directions of this man called Jesus.  The people wanted to know where this Jesus was.  The man didn’t know, after all, he had not seen him. 

This was a big event and needed to be brought to the attention of the religious authorities.  The people presented this man to the Pharisees.  Verse 13 is fascinating: the formerly blind was brought to the blind Pharisees.  We are then given a little more information.  Jesus had done this on the Sabbath.  Healing on the Sabbath was forbidden unless there was threat to life.  Then, they could only stabilize a person, stop the bleeding or whatever was required to get them to the next day where they could be cared for properly.  The Pharisees would likely see several violations of the Sabbath in this action.

Local elders of the synagogue usually investigated such matters.  They would make judgments about Sabbath violations and the bigger issue of the identity of Jesus.  The Pharisees had taken over these responsibilities, making themselves the ultimate judges over the people. 

The Pharisees again asked the man how he received his sight.  The evaluation of some was that this couldn’t be from God because the Sabbath was violated in performing the miracle.  Others struggled with understanding how a man that wasn’t from God could do such a healing.  Was this sin or a miraculous sin?  The law cautioned the people to not be led astray by signs and wonders alone. 

“If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods’—which you have not known—‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice; you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him. But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken in order to turn you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of bondage, to entice you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall put away the evil from your midst.

    1. NKJV: Deuteronomy 13:1-5; 1982, Thomas Nelson

We have the same New Testament warning.

For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. 25 See, I have told you beforehand.

    1. NKJV: Matthew 24:24-25; 1982, Thomas Nelson

When John the Baptist was in prison, he sent a couple of disciples to ask Jesus if He was the coming one or were they to look for another?  Jesus sent a reply, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see:  The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.”  These were the works of Jesus when he walked the earth.

Night was coming.  He is the light of the world and that was considered the day.  When He was crucified, it got very dark and night had arrived.  The light of the world left for a while but he left us a comforter in the Holy Spirit.  Jesus is still with us, He's alive and coming back.  Until then, we are to let our light shine in this dark age.

4Sing praise to the Lord, you saints of His,

And give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name.

5For His anger is but for a moment,

His favor is for life;

Weeping may endure for a night,

But joy comes in the morning.

NKJV: Psalm 30:4-5; 1982, Thomas Nelson

The division among the Pharisees prompted them to ask the man that opened his eyes.  There was no waffle or debate.  He stated that this man was a prophet.  He was closer to the truth than anyone there; a prophet, yes, but so much more.  The Pharisees were kept from the truth by their religious pride.  If they acknowledged Jesus as a holy man, then they would naturally need to submit to Him.  But, they did not trust anyone with their belief.  They trusted in themselves.

They struggled to believe this man had really been born blind and then healed.  They called his parents in to testify.  They confirmed that, yes indeed, this was their son and he was certainly born blind.  They could not account for his healing and would not speculate.  They deferred to their son, after all, he was a grown man.  They were distancing themselves from the fray for fear of the Pharisees.  They didn’t want to be excommunicated from their synagogue.

The Pharisee cross examinations were known to be extensive, but fair and without prejudice.  Yet, in this case, they had already established that anyone acknowledging Jesus would be put out of synagogue.  The synagogue was not just for religious practice, but it was a connection to community.  Expulsion was the one of the worst forms of punishment.  It was a loss of connection to friends and family.

If the Pharisees cared a wit about this man, they would be rejoicing with him.  But they cared only about their authority and their laws.  As far as they were concerned, healing or no healing, if Jesus broke the Sabbath, it was proof he wasn't from God.  The work of God didn't fit the mold of these religious leaders. 

John 9:24-25

John’s readers would remember the man from chapter five.  He had been a paralytic but was healed by Jesus.  In fear of the Pharisees, the man found Jesus in the temple and identified Him to these Jews.  The man shows no humility, thankfulness or commitment to Jesus.

This formerly blind man is the contrast.  The Pharisees called the man again and commanded him to give God the glory.  This sounds reasonable to us, but in reality, might have been a kind of oath calling for the man to be truthful.  They claimed to know that that Jesus was a sinner.  They wanted the man to say the same. 

It should have been embarrassing to the Pharisees when the man acknowledges that he couldn’t know if Jesus was a sinner.  They couldn’t know His heart either.  The man stuck with what he did know.  He had been blind.  “Now I see.”

John 9:26-29

They go back to the beginning, reframing the same questions, as though to catch him in a lie.  The man is solid on the truth, unwilling to change his story for them.  He accused them of not listening as Jesus did as they questioned Him. 

Asking them if they wanted to hear about Jesus again because they wanted to also become his disciples crossed the line of their patience.  The “also” seems to indicate he was aware Jesus had followers and may imply he would be one of those disciples.  They reviled the man, verbally abusing him.

Teachers spoke of students of scripture as disciples of Moses.  For the Pharisees this was a matter of pride.  Jesus called them on this in 5:45 indicating that true disciples of Moses would recognize Him.  This man wouldn’t have been aware of that, though.  They declare their position as being with Moses to whom God spoke.  As for Jesus, they declared they didn’t know where he was from. 

They don’t know who He is or where He is from.  They have failed to investigate this.  They only know the work He did and when He did it was an offense to them. 

In John 7 they said they wouldn’t know where the messiah came from.  Now they say he can’t be the messiah because they don’t know where he came from.

John 9:30-34

These judges were supposed to be investigating.  They had already rendered a judgment.  Yet, they claimed to have no idea where this healer was from, even though He opened this man’s eyes.  The formerly blind man finds this to be a marvel.  Part of his marvel might well be at their unwillingness to celebrate his healing.  Instead, they make it out to be something evil.

The man goes on to offer his opinion to these men.  He concluded that the man who healed him had to be from God, otherwise He could do nothing.  The Lord hears those who worship Him.  This seemed obvious to him since no one had ever heard of a man blind from birth being healed.

The spiritual insight of this formerly blind man causes the Pharisees to bristle.  They dismiss him and his counsel, resorting to the previous stance that the man’s blindness was evidence that he was born in sin.  They cast the man out of the synagogue.  He had the audacity to speak truth and spiritual wisdom to these men. 

We don’t know if this was an excommunication or they just kicked him out for the moment.

John 9:35-38

Jesus heard this man was kicked out of the synagogue and He went to the man and asked Him if he believed.  Remember, he doesn’t know this is the man who healed him.  He’s not seen him.  The man is willing to believe.  He just needs to know who his Lord is. 

Note the irony in Jesus telling the man that he had “seen” Him.  This was Jesus saying, “You’re looking at Him and He’s talking to you!”

He responds appropriately.  He declared his faith and trust in Jesus.  Then he worshiped the Lord.  He’s the only one we’ve seen responding the right way.  His life went from that of an utterly blind man with no hope to a man of sight.  Likewise, he spiritually went from being utterly blind to finding the Light of the world.

John 9:39-41

Jesus came into the world for Judgment.  This is a legal decision.  It is actively causing men to choose.  Would they follow light or darkness? 

The healing of physical blindness was one of the attributes expected from the Messiah by Isaiah (Is 42:7).  He speaks of this as a spiritual truth also.  Those realizing they were blind had the opportunity to see.  However, those who believe they see had no opportunity to see any better.

I remember the first time I got glasses.  I thought I could see fine, until one day I realized I was squinting and having problems.  Once I came to the knowledge of my weakness, it provided the opportunity to see better.  Who could forget the first time the optometrist put that lens in front of your eyes and suddenly you could once again see clearly.  Had I ignored my failing eyesight and stubbornly went on in ignorance, I would become more fixed in the dark.

The Pharisees question wasn’t about physical blindness.  They knew they could see.  They present themselves as those born with perfect spiritual sight and incapable of being blind.  However, Jesus said if one were blind to spiritual things, they would have no sin; as if to say a lack of knowledge of God prevented one from being accountable for breaking the law.  Yet, they did have knowledge of God.  So, their blindness and willingness to remain in the dark was without excuse.  They remained in their sins.

This is like saying, they knew there was a spiritual optometrist, but they proudly said they didn’t need him.  They could see fine.  They stood in the dark and declared it light, while The Light that gave life was right before them. 

So, we see this established contrast.

  • The formerly blind, could see.  He came to Jesus and believed.  He worshiped.  He had been in the dark and came to the light.
  • The Pharisees were not blind.  They could see clearly, yet, they were blind spiritually.  They loved darkness instead of light.  Their deeds were evil.  They remained in the dark, while calling it light.

©2005, 2009, 2013, 2023 Doug Ford