When the blind man’s friends heard that his sight had been restored, they became curious about the circumstances surrounding his miraculous transformation (9:8-10). In a very simple way the healed blind man said, “A Man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed, and I received sight” (9:11). His friends demanded to know the whereabouts of this Healer, but the blind man did not know so they took him to the Pharisees (9:12-13). Of course the Pharisees were not happy about this man being healed because it was the Sabbath (9:14) and John has already written about an earlier confrontation Jesus had had with the Pharisees regarding healing on the Sabbath (see John 5:1-16). The Pharisees loved their man-made rules and traditions more than they loved God or people. In their frustration, the Pharisees made the healed man recount the story of how he had been made to see and concluded that any man who healed on the Sabbath could not be from God (9:15-16a). However, some division arose amongst the people – some said that a sinner could not perform this type of miracle, while others refused to believe in Jesus as the Son of God (9:16b). In the midst of the division, the Pharisees turned to the blind man again and asked, “What do you say about Him because He opened your eyes?” (9:17a) and the healed man responded, “He is a prophet” (9:17b).
The Pharisees rejected the blind man’s claims and even questioned if he had really been blind, so they found his parents and asked, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” (9:18-19). Since the parents feared acknowledging that Jesus was the Christ they said, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but by what means he now sees we do not know, or who opened his eyes we do not know. He is of age; ask him. He will speak for himself” (9:20-23). When the religious leaders did not get the answers they were looking for from the parents, they wanted the former blind man to acknowledge that this healing took place by God and not by this Man, Jesus, whom they called a sinner (9:24). Obviously frustrated with the relentless questioning, the blind man says, “Whether He is a sinner or not I do not know. One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see” (9:25). The Pharisees continued bothering this man and even began accusing him saying, “You are His disciple, but we are Moses’ disciples. We know that God spoke to Moses; as for this fellow, we do not know where He is from” (9:26-29). Again, the healed man responded in frustration to their accusations saying, “Why, this is a marvelous thing, that you do not know where He is from; yet He has opened my eyes! Now we know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does His will, He hears him. Since the world began it has been unheard of that anyone opened the eyes of one who was born blind. If this Man were not from God, He could do nothing” (9:30-33). The religious leaders did not know how to react to the former blind man’s words, so they simply withdrew from him and had no further communication with him (9:34).
Jesus heard about this man’s encounter with the Pharisees, so He found the man and asked, “Do you believe in the Son of God?” (9:35) and the man answered saying, “Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?” (9:36) The former blind man was still not sure if Jesus was only a prophet or the Son of God, but Jesus revealed His true identity to this man declaring, “You have both seen Him and it is He who is talking with you” (9:37). The man who had been healed of his blindness immediately responded to knowing Jesus’ true identity by saying, “Lord, I believe!” and then he worshiped Him (9:38). This is a wonderful account of a man’s simple faith bringing Him into a relationship with Jesus Christ! After the man had proclaimed his faith in Jesus as the Son of God, Jesus reminded him of why he had come into the world, “For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see [non-believers] may see [be saved], and that those who see [the prideful righteous] may be made blind [be judged]” (9:39). Some think that this statement contradicts Jesus’ declaration in John 3:17 where He says that He has not come to “condemn the world”; however, those who have rejected the truth have brought judgment upon themselves, being blinded by their own unbelief. When Jesus spoke to the man of this judgment, some of the Pharisees were nearby and asked if they were blind also (9:40). Jesus responded to them saying, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see.’ Therefore your sin remains” (9:41). In other words, the truth had been revealed to the Pharisees, but they chose to remain blind to their sin and trusted their righteous works to bring salvation. Because of their misguided faith, they would remain in their sins and eventually face God’s judgment (Revelation 20:11-15). Forgiveness of sin is given through faith in Jesus’ substitutionary death on the cross, not through the righteous works of individuals (Ephesians 2:8-8; Titus 3:5). Which do you trust?
Dear God, I cannot do enough good things to earn Your favor, so I believe in Your Son, Jesus Christ, who was sent to provide the forgiveness I desperately need.
