John Chapter Nine
A Man Blind from Birth
9:1 As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
The theological debate of “cause and effect” has been around since nearly the beginning of time. It is often believed that a person’s malady is the direct result of a sin against God (or some pagan god or goddess, depending on culture, beliefs, etc.) Even though the fallen state of man is responsible for pain, suffering, and all disease due to the introduction of sin shortly after creation, the Bible does not teach that sickness or any other form of physical condition is the result of a specific sin (see Considerations below regarding “Generational Curses”). However, we also must remember that God is sovereign and can punish or allow some form of malady or affliction if He desired, as with the blindness in this man.
John does not offer any details as to when or where Jesus was at this time. Most connect this event to the encounter with the Jewish leadership in chapter eight, which would place this near the Temple. John also does not include any information as to how the disciples knew this man was born blind.
9:3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 6 Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud 7 and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.
Jesus told His disciples that this man’s blindness was not the result of anyone’s sin, but that God chose to demonstrate His power of healing through him.[1] Jesus then tells them that together they must “work the works of him who sent me” while it is day, as night is coming (when He will no longer be with them), but while He is there, He is the light of the world. Jesus is telling His disciples that ‘class’ is in session. He only has a short period of time to teach them what they need to do after He is gone. Even though Jesus is always the “Light of the World,” He is noting that while He is there with them, He will provide everything (all the resources they need to learn and to continue His work after He is gone) before the darkness (His departure) comes.
Similar to the healings reported in Mark 7:31-37 and 8:22-26, Jesus uses saliva in the healing process.[2] Jesus spit on the ground and rubbed the crude salve on the man’s eyes. He then told the man to go and wash in the pool of Siloam. John adds that the pool’s name means ‘Sent’, which seems applicable to this event as Jesus sends the man there to be healed. The man returns after washing in the pool and is able to see. Jesus used a number of different approaches in His healing, perhaps the lesson to understand is that the technique is not important, but recognizing the true power and authority of Jesus is the primary lesson. Healing comes from the Healer, not as a result of procedure or technique.
9:8 The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” 10 So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” 11 He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.” 12 They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”
The local people recognized the man and questioned, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” Seeing that he is able to see, the locals didn’t know how to respond. Some agreed and said, “It is he,” while others said it wasn’t him, but that he just looked like the beggar. Meanwhile, the man seeing and hearing the people bicker over his identity, is trying to tell them that he is indeed the man that used to be blind and beg. They ask him how was this done? He said that a man named Jesus made mud and rubbed his eyes with the mud and to go to the pool of Siloam and wash. He did that and his sight was restored. They then ask, “Where is he?” The man honestly replied, “I don’t know.”
9:13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. 14 Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. 15 So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” 16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them. 17 So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.”
The people brought the man to the Pharisees. John injects that this event occurred on a Sabbath. The Pharisees question the man about how his sight was restored. Some of the Pharisees conclude that Jesus was not from God as He does not keep the Sabbath.[3] But some of the other Pharisees noted, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” They were divided as to how to interpret the evidence, so they turn to the man that was healed and ask who he thought healed him. The man said he believed Jesus to be a prophet.
9:18 The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight 19 and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” 20 His parents answered, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. 21 But how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” 22 (His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.) 23 Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”
Unwilling to accept that this man was healed, they ask his parents and they identify the man as their son and that he was indeed born blind. They then ask his parents how he received his sight, and not knowing they suggest that they ask their son as he was of age (not a reference to a specific age, but old enough to answer those questions) and can speak for himself. John notes that they were nervous and feared answering their questions, they apparently knew about Jesus and His reputation among the Jewish leadership and did not want to be ostracized from the synagogue. So, they simply told the Jews to ask their son.
9:24 So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.” 25 He answered, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” 26 They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” 27 He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” 28 And they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. 29 We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” 30 The man answered, “Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. 32 Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” 34 They answered him, “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” And they cast him out.
These men for the second time approach the man that was healed and told him to, “Give glory to God,” in other words, stop testifying that this miracle was done by a man and tell the truth. They continue by saying they know that this man is a sinner. An interesting proposition since they will later confess they don’t know where He comes from. The man tells them that he does not know if He is a sinner or not, but what he does know is that he was once blind but now was able to see. They ask the man again how did He perform the miracle? The man, undoubtedly getting tired of the harassment, tells them that he already told them and they would not listen. He rightfully asks them why do you want to hear about the event again. Perhaps sarcastically, he asked them if they wanted to be one of His disciples. Taking that as an insult, they tell the man that he might be one of Jesus’ disciples, but they are disciples of Moses. For they know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this man who did the healing, they did not know where He came from.
The man recognized their hypocrisy, and said, “Why, this is an amazing thing!,” as they don’t know where Jesus comes from but yet He opened his eyes. Using their own hypothesis and reasoning, he says that they know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does His will, God listens to them. He then notes that no one that was blind from birth ever had their eyes opened to see. If this man were not from God, He could do nothing. His reasoning frustrates the Jews and they refuse to listen any longer, saying that he was born in “utter sin,” embracing the idea, like what the disciples thought earlier (see verses 1-2), that this man’s blindness was the result of some sin, so they sent him away. Their self-righteous arrogance blinded them from ’seeing’ the truth.
9:35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” 36 He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” 37 Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” 38 He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. 39 Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” 40 Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” 41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.
Jesus approaches the healed man and asks him if he believed in the Son of Man. The man not knowing who Jesus was talking about asked, “Who is He?” He wanted to learn so that he could believe. Jesus tells him that He is the Son of Man. The man responded saying, “Lord, I believe,” and worshiped Him (Greek ‘prosekynēsen’,[4] show respect, fall prostrate before, literally means to kiss toward someone). Jesus said to him, that He came into this world to provide judgment, that those who were blind can now see (those that understood that they could never obtain righteousness on their own without God’s help) and those that are wicked remain condemned (those that had sight become blind). The Pharisees, who seem to be always eavesdropping, ask, “Are we also blind?” Jesus tells them that if they were truly blind, they would not be guilty, but when they say that they can see, their guilt remains.
We began with a blind man who was healed so that he saw, both physically and spiritually. We end with religious rulers who were terribly, tragically blind, yet who thought they could see. In the presence of Christ, in the presence of the Light, in the presence of the revelation of God, they said they had no sin.
Some of the most dogmatic people today are the atheists and the cultists. They say they see, but they are blind. They reject the Lord Jesus Christ, and so their sin remains. Although they are not walking around with a white walking stick, they are blind.[5]
Considerations
There are some that believe that God disciplines using generational curses, where God punishes subsequent generations for serious acts of disobedience. The idea is based on misunderstanding verses like Exodus 20:5, "You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me." The last half of this verse is typically the source of the misinterpretation, it is not a pronouncement of some form of generational curse, especially since Moses later in Deuteronomy will clearly state that each person will die for their own sin. It is a warning about continued disobedient behavior.
This oft-repeated theme speaks of God’s determination to punish successive generations for committing the same sins they learned from their parents. In other words, God will not say, “I won’t punish this generation for what they are doing to break my covenant because, after all, they merely learned it from their parents who did it too.” Instead, God will indeed punish generation after generation (“to the third and fourth generation”) if they keep doing the same sorts of sins that prior generations did. If the children continue to do the sins their parents did, they will receive the same punishments as their parents.[6]
The Bible clearly states that everyone is responsible for their own sin. For example, in Deuteronomy 24:16 we read: “Fathers shall not be put to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers. Each one shall be put to death for his own sin." Parents are not to be punished for the sin of their children, nor are the children to be punished for the sin of their parents (as cited in 2 Kings 14:6; 2 Chronicles 25:4 and indirectly applied in Jeremiah 31:29-30 and Ezekiel 18:20). This concept should not to be confused with the judgments or punishment from God due to sin directed against Him (for example, see Deuteronomy 5:9; 13:12-15; Joshua 7:24-25; Judges 21:5-10; 2 Samuel 21:1-9). The use of the statement in Deuteronomy 24:16, that each person shall be put to death for their own sin, may sound like an extreme example to convey this point. However, while not offered necessarily as a threat, the truth remains, death came into this world as the result of sin (see Genesis 2:17 3:6-7; Romans 5:12; 1 Corinthians 15:21-22). The apostle Paul would likely quickly remind us that, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)
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[1] See Considerations under Matthew 20:1-16 regarding "The Sovereignty of God."
[2] See commentary under Mark 7:31-37.
[3] See commentary and Considerations under Matthew 12:1-8 regarding the Sabbath.
[4] Strong’s Greek 4352.
[5] McGee, J. V. (1991). Thru the Bible commentary: The Gospels (John 1-10) (electronic ed., Vol. 38, p. 162). Thomas Nelson.
[6] Stuart, D. K. (2006). Exodus (Vol. 2, p. 454). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.