A Blind Man Sees

“He answered and said, Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him?  And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen Him, and it is He that talketh with thee.  And he said, Lord, I believe.  And he worshipped Him.”  John 9:36-38

This account in John 9:1-38 is one of my favorite passages in all of the New Testament because it shows the power of God, the love and mercy of Jesus, the humility of a young man, and a rebuke of those who were against Jesus and His teaching.  The young man in the account was born blind.  Jesus’ disciples asked Jesus as to the cause of the man’s blindness.  The Jews of that day believed that bad things happen to “bad” people and vice versa.  Was it his sins or his parents’ sins that caused him to be born blind, they asked.  Jesus told them that it was neither.  Instead this was a situation in which God’s glory would be shown.  This man was born blind because bad things happen to “good” people through no fault of their own.  It is one of the results of living in a sin-cursed world.

With the young blind man standing in front of Him, Jesus spat on the ground and made an ointment with the wet soil which He applied to the young man’s eyes.  Jesus then told him to go and wash the ointment off in the pool of Siloam, which he did.  When he returned, he could see clearly what he had never been able to see before.  Imagine his joy.  The neighbors weren’t sure that it was the one whom they had known to be blind until he identified himself.  I imagine that receiving his sight changed his appearance from a helpless and pitiful human to a man with a huge smile and a positive outlook on life.  It could be also that because he was blind, they had ignored him all of his life.  Of course, they wanted to know how his sight was given to him.  He relayed the event to them exactly as it happened, giving Jesus the credit for the miracle.  Just think of all the sites that he could only have imagined from descriptions that people had given him.  He was probably like the queen of Sheba who was astounded at the enormous wealth and grandeur of Solomon’s kingdom and told him that “the half was not told me” (I Kings 10:7).

Those who had gathered around this young man decided that he must go before the Pharisees and tell them what happened.  There are two schools of thought as to their motive.  Those who were followers of Jesus, or at least not opposed to Him, wanted to prove to the Pharisees that Jesus was a Man of miracles and only wanted to do good things for the people.  However, others who were opposed to Jesus only wanted to encourage the Pharisees to continue to harass Him.  This was the Sabbath so they believed that had due cause to accuse Him of breaking the law.

Upon arrival at the court, the young man answered their questions just as he had answered to the people.  The Pharisees were divided:  some said that this Man is not of God because He doesn’t keep the Sabbath, but others wondered how a Man that is a sinner can do such miracles?  After arguing, they came to the conclusion that the young man had never been blind, so they called in his parents, who verified that he was indeed born blind, but how he could now see, they did not know.  His Mom and Dad were afraid of the religious leaders because they had the power to forbid them from entering the temple if they gave any indication at all that they were admirers of Jesus.  The Pharisees continued to badger the young man.  He became exasperated from their endless questioning and told them that Jesus must be of God for otherwise He could do nothing.  By this time the Pharisees had heard enough and threw him out, but Jesus found him and asked him if he believed on the Son of God.  The young man knew that Jesus was from God, but didn’t realize that He was the Son of God until Jesus identified Himself.  The young man then believed on Jesus and worshipped Him.

One important point of this account to remember is that just because other people, even those who claim to be “religious”, do not accept us as believers in Christ, that doesn’t change the fact that we are brothers and sisters of the King of glory.  Because these religious leaders refused to believe that Jesus had healed the young man and/or that Jesus was sent from God, they accused the young man of lying.  That’s what folks who refuse to believe the truth do–they assume it is a lie so they don’t have to be held accountable.  One’s failure to believe the truth doesn’t negate the truth.