Born Blind and Then Healed

INTRO

We have now talked about two “I am” statements: “I am the bread of life” (John 6:35,48) and “I am the light of the world (John 8:12). Jesus was emphasizing, based on Exodus 3:14, that God is “I AM WHO I AM.” Jesus was saying, “I am, as well.” In John 8:12, Jesus told the adulterous woman that she could no longer continue in sin and live in darkness. Because He is the light of the world, He could take her down the path of light. In John 9 are four different descriptions or themes of Jesus and a massive theme of healing.

TEACHING

John 9:1–5: In verse 11, Wiersbe points out the use of the title “a man called Jesus.”¹Jesus saw a blind man as He walked by (v. 1). We pass by people every day, who need to be seen with compassion. Jesus had compassion for the man and we are called to do the same (Philippians 2:4). The disciples asked Jesus if the man or his parents had sinned to cause his blindness (v. 2). The disciples did not see the man as a suffering person but as a theological debate. One of the underlying themes is that both the disciples and Jesus saw the man, but Jesus’ response to the blind man was totally different from His disciples (Job 4:7–8). In verse 3, Jesus responded that neither he nor his parents were guilty, but that his sufferings came about so God’s works would be seen in him (John 5:36). Verse 4 talks about the idea of “night coming,” and I’ll get into that a little more in chapters 10—11. Jesus emphasizes again that He is “the light of the world” (v. 5).

John 9:6–7: Jesus spit on the ground to make mud and spread the mud on the man’s eyes (v. 6). Nelson’s Commentary explains that “mixing clay and saliva was a common practice used for eye infections.”²What Jesus was doing would not have been seen as completely radical. What Jesus was doing would not have been seen as completely radical. Wiersbe suggests that the clay was used “as a picture of the incarnation. God made the first man out of the dust, and God sent His Son as a real Man.”³Wiersbe suggests that the clay (our humanity) caused irritation (the sinfulness), which needed irrigation (the living water) to clean it out, leading to identification.⁴This makes sense to me, because in this process, I can see who I am as a child of God. In verse 7, Jesus tells the man, “Go, . . .wash in the pool of Siloam.” Pool of Siloam means “Sent.” So the man obeyed, went to wash (irrigate) his eyes, and returned with the ability to see.

John 9:8–12: The people who had known the blind man as a beggar were astonished at what they saw. They kept asking if he was the same man, and he kept saying he was (vv. 8–9). They asked him how his eyes had been opened (v. 10), and he told them about “the man called Jesus” who restored his sight (v. 11). The people asked where Jesus was, and the man didn’t know (v. 12).

John 9:13–23: In these verses, Jesus is going to be known as “a prophet.”⁵Since Jesus had healed the man on the Sabbath (v. 14), the man’s neighbors brought him to the Pharisees (v. 13). The Pharisees questioned what had happened (v. 15), especially since it was on the Sabbath. But they “did not realize that Jesus was offering the people something greater than the Sabbath––the true spiritual rest that comes from God (Matthew 11:28–30).”⁶The man told them what Jesus had done, but some of the Pharisees said Jesus couldn’t be from God since He didn’t keep the Sabbath, while others questioned how a sinful man could do such signs or miracles (v. 16). This created a division between the religious leaders. The Pharisees asked the man what he thought about Jesus, and he responded that Jesus was “a prophet” (v. 17).

The Jews still didn’t believe the man, so they asked the man’s parents if their son had been born blind and how he had been healed (v. 19). His parents identified the man as their son but had no knowledge of how he had been healed. They told the Pharisees the man would speak for himself because they were afraid the Pharisees might ban them from the synagogue if they identified Jesus as the Messiah (vv. 20–23). I’ve witnessed in the Amish community that if anyone starts to read the Bible and/or study it in a group, confessing Jesus as Savior, he or she is banned from the community. The parents of this healed man were so afraid they could be banned that they wouldn’t respond. Nelson’s Commentary outlines three levels of excommunication in the first century: a 30-day excommunication when the excommunicated had to stay six feet away from everyone; an indefinite period of excommunication when the excommunicated could not attend worship or fellowship; or “absolute expulsion forever” during which no one can even do business with them.7

John 9:24–34: In these verses, Jesus is referred to as “a Man of God.”8 The Pharisees asked the man again about what happened and claimed that Jesus was a sinner (v. 24). The man responded, “I was blind, and now I can see!” (v. 25). They asked for details, and the man responded that they hadn’t listened to him (v. 26). He asked them if they wanted to become Jesus’ disciples, too (v. 27). They ridiculed the man as one of Jesus’ disciples, but they claimed to be Moses’s disciples and they didn’t know where Jesus had come from (vv. 28–29). The man responded that they didn’t know where Jesus had come from, yet Jesus had healed his eyes (v. 30). The man explained that no one had ever been able to see before who had been born blind, so Jesus had to have come from God (vv. 31–33). The Pharisees became so angry with his response that they threw him out (v. 34).

John 9:35–41: Wiersbe points out the final title in John 9 is “the Son of God.”9 When Jesus heard what happened to the man, “He found him and asked, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’” (v. 35). The man asked who the Son of Man was. Jesus responded, “You have seen Him; in fact, He is the One speaking with you” (vv. 36–37). Think about this - this was the first time the man could see Jesus. Salvation took place in the man’s life, and it began with physical healing (v. 36). Jesus said that He had come into the world for judgment - which was aimed at the religious (v. 37) - to let the blind see and those who do see to become blind. When some of the Pharisees heard this, they asked if they were blind (v. 40). Jesus said, “If you were blind, you wouldn’t have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see’ - your sin remains.” That means that their eyes were not on Jesus but could only see the religious. Their hearts had been hardened and their eyes closed.

CLOSING

To close, I want to talk about healing. The religious community had never seen anything like Jesus giving sight to the man born blind. Therefore, they pushed back against it. That’s the same thing we do in the church today - we push back against the things that make us uncomfortable. Nelson’s Commentary shares these characteristics of Jesus’ healing miracles:

• Jesus’ healing miracles revealed His divine power.
• He healed people from all walks of life—the rich, the poor, and the untouchables.
• He didn’t heal everyone.
• He dealt with the emotional symptoms as well as the spiritual.
• He showed patience, compassion, and courage with those who were ill.
• He healed using the power of God, and nothing else.
• Sometimes there was a parallel between the sickness and the spiritual need.
• Sometimes He linked healing with faith and forgiveness.
• He knew that not all sickness was a sign of God’s judgment but was to bring God glory.
• He didn’t allow religious traditions to get in the way.
• He had the power to heal in any situation.
• That power to heal was given to His followers.
• Jesus’ followers are not exempt from sickness.
• Eventually, there will be no sickness and no death (Revelation 21:4).

7 Nelson’s Commentary, p. 1337.

8 Wiersbe, p. 325.

9 Wiersbe, p. 326.