“A Miracle in Question” (John 9:1-38)

     The Pharisees probed into Jesus' healing of a man born blind to determine whether it is indeed true because they simply couldn't believe it. We'll look into some things they questioned all about it.

     As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “This man didn’t sin, nor did his parents, but that the works of God might be revealed in him. I must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. The night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” When he had said this, he spat on the ground, made mud with the saliva, anointed the blind man’s eyes with the mud, and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means “Sent”). So he went away, washed, and came back seeing. Therefore the neighbors and those who saw that he was blind before said, “Isn’t this he who sat and begged?” Others were saying, “It is he.” Still others were saying, “He looks like him.”He said, “I am he.” They therefore were asking him, “How were your eyes opened?” He answered, “A man called Jesus made mud, anointed my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam and wash.’ So I went away and washed, and I received sight.” Then they asked him, “Where is he?” He said, “I don’t know.” They brought him who had been blind to the Pharisees. It was a Sabbath when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. Again therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he received his sight. He said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, I washed, and I see.” Some therefore of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, because he doesn’t keep the Sabbath.” Others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” So there was division among them. Therefore they asked the blind man again, “What do you say about him, because he opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.” The Jews therefore didn’t believe concerning him, that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of him who had received his sight, and asked them, “Is this your son, whom you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” His parents answered them, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but how he now sees, we don’t know; or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. He is of age. Ask him. He will speak for himself.” His parents said these things because they feared the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that if any man would confess him as Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue. Therefore his parents said, “He is of age. Ask him.” So they called the man who was blind a second time, and said to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.” He therefore answered, “I don’t know if he is a sinner. One thing I do know: that though I was blind, now I see.” They said to him again, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” He answered them, “I told you already, and you didn’t listen. Why do you want to hear it again? You don’t also want to become his disciples, do you?” They insulted him and said, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses. But as for this man, we don’t know where he comes from.” The man answered them, “How amazing! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, he listens to him. Since the world began it has never been heard of that anyone opened the eyes of someone born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” They answered him, “You were altogether born in sins, and do you teach us?” Then they threw him out. Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and finding him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of God?” He answered, “Who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him?” Jesus said to him, “You have both seen him, and it is he who speaks with you.” He said, “Lord, I believe!” and he worshiped him (John 9:1-38).

     1. Jesus' ability to heal

     Again therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he received his sight. He said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, I washed, and I see” (15).

     The Pharisees started with this question. In answer, the man elaborated on the manner, in which, Jesus healed him. But they weren't contented with that answer, so they asked again.

     They said to him again, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” (26-27a).

     The man had probably earlier told the people on the street how he was now able to see.

     Therefore the neighbors and those who saw that he was blind before said, “Isn’t this he who sat and begged?” Others were saying, “It is he.” Still others were saying, “He looks like him.” He said, “I am he.” They therefore were asking him, “How were your eyes opened?” He answered, “A man called Jesus made mud, anointed my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam and wash.’ So I went away and washed, and I received sight.” Then they asked him, “Where is he?” He said, “I don’t know” (8-12).

     So maybe he had grown tired of answering the same question over and over again. Since no plausible answer could satisfy the Pharisees, the man took the liberty of explaining further.

     Since the world began it has never been heard of that anyone opened the eyes of someone born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing” (32-33).

     In this statement that sounded like a lecture, he asserted that what happened to him was unprecedented, at least as far as he knows. It could never happen by any natural means, so it must indeed be a miracle. The power that gave sight to him who was born blind must be from God.

     2. Jesus' moral ground

     Some therefore of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, because he doesn’t keep the Sabbath.” Others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” So there was division among them (16).

     The Pharisees see Jesus as a bad person. He doesn't have to say anything; they already have that conclusion. And whatever they say must be proven right. Thus, they would embellish this prejudice of theirs of Him with twisted interpretations of His actions and incriminating nuances to His words. That's why they always send spies to ask Jesus ridiculous theological questions in hopes of catching Him at His words, either to get Him to contradict Himself and thus prove Him wrong and they right or utter anything that resembles blasphemy which is punishable by death in their religion. That was the objective. They wanted to get rid of this rubble rouser who threatened their relevance and livelihood so that their corrupt brand of Judaism would go on as always. Because they were the highly-respected persons in the first-century Jewish society; and they also earn a lot of money from various religious activities in the Second Temple, which explains the whipping. A remarkable act of kindness was clearly done in healing the man born blind, yet all that the Pharisees saw in it was that Jesus did it on a Sabbath. Therefore, He is, according to them, a bad man because He does not honor the Sabbath. They knew too well how to use the Torah as a potent weapon against a sworn enemy whom they had vowed to torment or kill in the name of the devil they made a vow to. Jesus at many times pointed out the Pharisees’ intention to kill Him, a thing He knew very well as the God-Man but which the latter constantly denied. But they did it anyway in the end. Such hypocrites. And since Jesus was a bad man according to their malicious twist, He, according to them, had no moral ground and therefore no right to do anything religious or godly. Yet the man born blind received sight. They seemed to have forgotten that they themselves perform religious rituals during Sabbath; and so, they basically work in Sabbath too because their profession was religion. If they saw a man drowning in the well, won't they even drop a rope to him and then leave so that he could get himself up or not at all and just ignore him because it was Sabbath? The same here.

     Whether Jesus was a sinner or not, the former blind man didn't know and didn't care. All he knew was that he was now able to see, something which he didn't expect and asked for. Finding himself waking up to the beauty of God's creation and to being a new creation himself is on a whole new different level. It's called grace. No fanfare, weirdly done even, yet highly impactful. Therefore, he became of the opinion that Jesus was not a sinner. Would a depraved sinner be able to pull off that kind of thing? And would God listen to him? he reasoned to the Pharisees who seemed to be the experts on morality. 

     We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, he listens to him (31).

     If I cherished sin in my heart,  

the Lord wouldn’t have listened (Psalms 66:18).

     Yahweh is far from the wicked,  

but he hears the prayer of the righteous (Proverbs 15:29).

     That is why it is a common practice among true believers to confess their sins to God and God alone first before going on talking to Him. That's right; it's nobody else's business to hear, overhear, and eavesdrop on. Sin is a hindrance between God and man, and each believer is a priest before God.

3. Jesus being a prophet 

    Therefore they asked the blind man again, “What do you say about him, because he opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet” (17).

     This is what the former blind man could blurt out of the abundance of his heart. Nobody but a prophet from God could pull off what Jesus did. Clearly, the former blind man didn’t know who Jesus was because, obviously, he couldn’t see His face and Jesus immediately left as soon as He told him to find his way to that blessed pond. All of this process struck him. It all looked and sounded weird and definitely wasn’t convenient, not to him. What was all that about? he may have wondered. Yet he did what Jesus told because he felt there was something positively different in that Man although he also wondered why He chose to talk to him. As soon as he came to his destination, he simply did what was told him and would have just gone back to resign to his original and real condition, but then something amazing happened. To his surprise, almost instantaneously, the sheer nothingness that was all he could "see" all his life, little by little, admitted some confused glimpses of the scenery around him and finally opened up to a high-definition clear vista. Still left in shock, he was still figuring out how doing what at first looked like a silly task enabled him to finally see how blue the sky was, how white the clouds were, how vibrantly green the leaves too, etc. Now he could see with his own eyes the faces of people whose chatters he could only hear before. What is this? To be given sight that he never asked for nor expected totally dumbfounded him. Now questioned by the Pharisees, he could unequivocally tell of his solid opinion about Jesus, that maybe He is a prophet, at least like Elijah or Elisha from what he has heard of.

     4. The fact that the blind man was healed

     The Jews therefore didn’t believe concerning him, that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of him who had received his sight, and asked them, “Is this your son, whom you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” His parents answered them, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but how he now sees, we don’t know; or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. He is of age. Ask him. He will speak for himself.” His parents said these things because they feared the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that if any man would confess him as Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue. Therefore his parents said, “He is of age. Ask him” (18-23).

     The Pharisees now put a doubt whether the blind man was ever healed in the first place when it has been made crystal clear from the beginning. In other words, they didn't believe that the man was ever blind. Maybe he conspired with the rabble rouser to make this all up just to lend credibility to this little person that has been getting on their nerves for some time now. Who does this nomad think He is, breaking up the religious order like that in the way He does His thing? He may not know what He's getting into and who's he trying to run over as He does religion His way. Well, He doesn't have to know; He just won't know what would hit Him. They will be like invisible and anonymous enemies to Him. As if that's true. What they don't know is that Jesus is God the Son, the Son of Man, the Messiah that their nation always enslaved because of disobedience to Yahweh have been hoping for. And as such, Jesus knows everything. And whatever manner He works the works of His Father, it will bring glory to Him.

     And who else would know for sure whether the man was ever blind but the latter's parents? So they called for them. They could do that. That's how they would shake everything up just to prove themselves right and their enemy wrong. Timidly, the parents came up and verified that the man was their son and that he was born blind. They didn't want to get involved further but wanted leave the rest to their son because he's grown. Look, he has grown up so fast and can probably speak for himself now, can't he? They didn't want to draw the ire of the Pharisees for fear of being excommunicated... expelled from the Jewish community. What's the point of being ethnically Jew if you can't practice Judaism? so say they. They didn't want that taken away from them. In questioning the miracle, it was like the Pharisees kept on poking holes in a solid mass in hopes of gradually disintegrating it for as long as they could, because they could.

5. Jesus being from/of God

     Some therefore of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, because he doesn’t keep the Sabbath” (16a).

6.  The blind man's words

     They answered him, “You were altogether born in sins, and do you teach us?” Then they threw him out (34).

     That is why Jesus was on the rescue.

     Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and finding him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of God?” He answered, “Who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him?” Jesus said to him, “You have both seen him, and it is he who speaks with you.” He said, “Lord, I believe!” and he worshiped him (35-38).

by: Marven T. Baldo