Reflection on John 9

John 9 told the story of Jesus' healing of a man who was born blind. The previous chapter told us, the Lord slipped away from the temple grounds to avoid the infuriated Jews who tried to stone Him. But He didn't go into hiding. He was looking for every opportunity to serve people and His Father. "As He went along, He saw a man blind from birth." He immediately recognized the opportunity given to Him by His Father to serve. It seemed that His disciples saw this man before and even knew him a little bit, at least knew how long he had been blind. They noticed their Lord set His eyes on this man closely and carefully, their curiosity preoccupied them. They voiced out, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" 

The disciples obviously thought that all personal suffering was the result of personal sin, like people still assume now. But the Scripture never says so. Scripture does teach us sin brings personal suffering. Scripture also teaches us suffering can be caused by reasons we may not understand when we are still on earth. We all need to keep in mind that suffering ultimately is a part of God's exalted purposes and is always within His perfect, sovereign plan. When we encounter our own or other's suffering, we need to keep our focus on God's will. But we often lose our focus; the one thing that easily gets our focus is to dig out the reason behind suffering, like the disciples did. Our Lord never loses His focus. He always keeps focus on His Father's will and the work His Father calls Him to finish. He explained that this man's blindness was not caused by sin, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in" this blind man's life. Jesus brought back His disciples’ focus on "the work of God" in the man's life because He would do the work in this man's life. He would act in divine power to carry out God's work in the blind man's life. His Father had assigned the job to Him, and only to Him since none else can do it. Jesus said, "As long as it is day, we must do the work of Him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world." His Father sent Him to be "the light of the world" to restore people's sight physically and spiritually. This is one part of His job assignment. His mind was always absorbed in His Father's purpose for Him and He always knew what to do to please His Father.

Usually, Jesus healed by a mere word. This time Jesus would give sight to the man who never saw light in a different way. Jesus "spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man's eyes." Then He commanded the man, "Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam." There is no point to argue on the healing power of mud mixed with saliva. What Jesus did was not restoration of sight but creating sight. Jesus created sight for the man who never had it. It was not a simple healing.

The man didn't know who Jesus was. He didn't see Jesus yet. He likely was one of many beggars who would sit at the temple gates hoping worshippers would be generous. He was more lonely and isolated than others because he was blind and was born blind. Everyone associated his blindness with his sin or his parents' sin. He was on the lowest rank even among beggars. This poor man felt Jesus' powerful empathy and compassion. He responded to Jesus' kindness with trust and obedience. He "went and washed, and came home seeing." He could not even imagine what seeing was, until Jesus walked up to him and touched him. What had he done to deserve this? He didn't pursue Jesus or call out for His help. Instead, Jesus came to him and gave him sight. This story illustrates Jesus gives believers spiritual sight. Our spiritual need moves Jesus just as powerfully and personally as He was moved by the blind man.

The healing of the blind man mystified his neighbors. And probably his looking drastically changed too. Before, he was depressed, an object of pity, a symbol of being cursed, begging for help. Not anymore! His old neighbors asked, "Isn't this the same man who used to sit and beg?" He told them, "I am the man." They demanded, "How then were your eyes opened?" He replied, "The man they call Jesus did it." They asked him, "Where is this man?" He said, "I don't know." The man simply told the truth. He didn't see Jesus with his new sight yet. He probably also wanted to find out where Jesus was and to see Him.

As the formerly blind man was brought to Pharisees because he was healed on the Sabbath day which was considered breaking the law, the Pharisees asked him how he had received his sight. The man told them that Jesus put mud on his eyes, he washed and now he could see. Obviously a great miracle had happened. No one could deny the former blind man's testimony. But as soon as some of the Pharisees heard that Jesus made mud on the Sabbath, they ignored the supernatural power behind the miracle, immediately accused Jesus of breaking the Sabbath. Still others paid attention to what the sign pointed, the creation of sight in one born blind was a work only God can do. They concluded, "How can a sinner do such miraculous signs?"  The Pharisees' opinions were widely divided. They couldn't agree with each other. Finally, they turned again to the blind man, asked him, "What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened." The man's spiritual discernment was already molding while the Pharisees went to pitiful lengths to embarrass him and suppress the truth. He boldly replied with what he knew about Jesus at that point, "He is a prophet." 

This piece of plain truth was not something the Pharisees wanted to accept. They felt that they had to prove the miracle was a deception, a thing that never happened. So they summoned the man's parents and asked, "Is this your son? Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?" We should give them their credit since they asked reasonable questions only if their intentions were finding the facts. We might expect the man's parents must be overjoyed by their son's transformation that they couldn't wait to tell all the details about what happened. Instead, they acted out of fear of being put out of synagogue by the Pharisees. They didn't defend for their son. They left him to stand alone for himself. They told the religious authorities, "We know he is our son, 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." This pair of parents separated themselves from their son when they felt they could put themselves in danger if they gave Jesus the rightful credit. They passed to their son the responsibility of declaring truth about Jesus. Whom did they fear the most, God or man?

The Pharisees didn't get the answer they welcomed. They summoned the man who had been blind back again. They ordered him to swear to God to tell truth, only truth, nothing else, by saying to him "Give glory to God."  It seemed the Pharisees wanted truth. Not really, since they already made their false conclusion by their judgment on Jesus, "We know this man is a sinner." 

Facing the cross-examination, and the Pharisees' wrong judgment, the man didn't change his testimony. He grew bolder. He stood by the plain truth of what he knew. He didn't argue. He did tell. 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." Do we, as believers, also have something to tell others that we were once blind to spiritual truth but now we see?

The fact was clear. But the Pharisees didn't want to see. Refusing to see the fact made them blind. They attempted to change the man's story. They demanded him to tell his story over again. The man was irritated at their unbelief of his story. He refused to tell again since he already spoke the truth as before God. He challenged the religious leaders in daring irony, "Why do you want to hear again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?" The man indicated that he wanted to be "his disciple" already. The Pharisees hurled insults at him and said, "You are this fellow's disciple! We are disciples of Moses! We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don't even know where he comes from." As the Pharisees tried to bolster their arguments using Moses' law, the man's spiritual insight became increasingly clear. He was even able to grasp the truth part in the Pharisees' insults towards him. The Pharisees unintentionally helped the formerly blind man to think deeply about Jesus' origin and the source of His power. He saw his new sight as God's sign and approval of Jesus. He leaped forward in his thinking to state a sound argument, "You don't know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. ... If this man were not from God, he could do nothing." 

While the formerly blind man's spiritual sight was getting better, the Pharisees' sank deeper in their spiritual darkness. God's wisdom was hidden from the prejudiced "wise and learned" Pharisees who professed to have sight and didn't know they were actually blind.

The real blind, the Pharisees could not manage to argue with the man who told truth only. They verbally abused him by saying, "You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us." They implied the man's blindness was a curse from God. But they didn't follow their implication to conclude that the man's recovered sight was a blessing from God. They totally lost the argument. In their rage and frustration, they throw the man out of synagogue. The man was excluded from the worshipping community by the Pharisees.

When Jesus heard that the man was thrown out of the religious congregation, He went to find him, to offer him a position in the true congregation among God's people. Jesus asked the man, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" The Lord used the name "Son of Man" to identify Himself with the human beings He came to save, and refer to Messiah who was promised in the Scripture. The man seemed to understand Jesus' reference, but he had an honest question to ask, "Who is he, sir? Tell me so that I may believe in him." Jesus looked directly into the man's newly opened eyes, gave him direct, unmistakable revelation of who He is by saying, "You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you." Suddenly the man came to realization that he was looking into the eyes of the Messiah, the Son of God. Instantly the man's action showed the reality of his faith. The man said, "Lord, I believe," and he worshipped Him. Believing in Jesus is all about worship of Him. He began by calling Jesus "a man" when he got his sight, then he called Jesus "a prophet" when he was challenged, now he worshipped Jesus as the Son of Man, the Lord.

When the man bowed down to worship Jesus, there was no mention that people standing around followed his action. They probably heard Jesus' conversation with the man and saw what Jesus had done for him. They had good ears and eyes. But they chose not to believe. Jesus said to those onlookers, "For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind." Those who admit their need and recognize the authority of Jesus receive His light, which brings more and more spiritual knowledge and insight. Those who hold on to their pride and reject Jesus close their eyes to the truth, become even more spiritually blind.

Some Pharisees heard Jesus and asked, "What? Are we blind too?" They refused to acknowledge their own need for God's light..They refused to be taught. In their prideful ignorance, they rejected God's own great light in His Son. They stood guilty before the Lord. Jesus warned them, "If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains." The Lord made clear our great need for His light which enables us to embrace God's salvation from His judgment.