Blindness and Sight – Part 2

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MW Editor’s Note: This is part 2 of insights into blindness and sight. If you have not, go back and catch part 1 before reading part 2.

Jesus heals a man who was born blind in John 9:1-41.  This was in Jerusalem late in Jesus’ ministry at a time when Jesus was confronting the hypocrisy of the Jewish religious leaders.  Jesus’ disciples brought the man to Jesus.  The disciples asked Jesus, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”  Jesus said, “Neither…”  Jesus said it was so the work of God could be displayed in his life.  Jesus spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes.  Then he told the man to go “wash in the Pool of Siloam.”  So, the man washed and he came home seeing (John 9:7).  Note that even after the man went to the Pool of Siloam, he had not yet seen Jesus.  In this case I believe Jesus wanted the blind man’s healing to have some public visibility in order to expose the contradictions and hypocrisy of the Pharisees.  Sometimes, even if we want to avoid it, God may want what we are going through to be visible to others. 

You never know how your life may have some spiritual impact. 

In John 9:8-12, it tells about the reactions of neighbors and other people who had seen the blind man begging before.  Some people said he was the same man and was healed, but others didn’t believe he was the same man, even though the man himself told them he was the man!  The man knew that the one who had put mud in his eyes was called Jesus, but he didn’t seem to know much about Jesus.  Also, when people asked him where this Jesus was, he didn’t know.  Then, people who knew of this took the man who had been healed to the Pharisees. 

John 9:14 says that it was on a Sabbath that Jesus put mud on this man’s eyes.  So, Jesus used this to confront the Pharisees and expose their corruption and unbelief.  So, the Pharisees questioned the man.  It says the Pharisees also asked him, “How he had received his sight. ‘He put mud on my eyes,’ the man replied, ‘and I washed, and now I see.’”  The corrupt, misguided reaction of the Pharisees is evident in that when they heard the man’s testimony, their reaction was not to acknowledge the healing, but it was to accuse Jesus.  Verse 16 says, “Some of the Pharisees said, ‘This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.’ “ So, the man realized this was contradictory.  If he were a sinner, how could he do a miraculous sign?  The man told the Pharisees he was a prophet.  There were some who did not believe the man had been healed.  Then the Pharisees sent for his parents.  The parents said that he was their son and that he was born blind.  It is not clear if the man’s parents believed in Jesus or not.  The parents also said that he was of age, so their son could speak for himself.  This suggests the man was a young man, but an adult. 

The Jewish leaders again questioned the man.  The Jewish leaders again said that Jesus was a sinner.  The man said he didn’t know if Jesus was a sinner, but he knew he had been healed.  Then they claimed to be disciples of Moses, not of Jesus.  They also said they didn’t know where Jesus came from (v 29).  The man’s answer is powerful in showing the contradictions of the Jewish leader’s thinking.  John 9:30-33 has the man’s reply, “The man answered, ‘Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does his will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.’ “ The Jewish leaders reacted to this wrongly, saying,’You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!’ And they threw him out.”  So, the Jewish leaders were stuck in a wrong way of thinking that said that the reason someone was born blind was because of the sin of their parents.  Thus, this man was put out of the synagogue.  In this account, the formerly blind man began apparently not knowing about Jesus.  He seems to go through a journey to faith through the experience.   

Only after all this happened did Jesus speak to the man (v37) about being “the Son of Man.”  The man apparently had some time to deal with the whole thing and probably heard from others about Jesus.  So, in verse 38 he tells Jesus, “Lord, I believe.”  Then Jesus’ response (verse 39) is profound.  “Jesus said, ’For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.’ ” Jesus exposed the spiritual blindness of the Jewish leaders who claimed to be spiritual guides to the “spiritually blind” common people.  But the average Jew knew better than they did what was true.  So, the person that the Pharisees and Jewish leaders threw out of the synagogue as being “steeped in sin” was actually the one who came to the light from God’s perspective.  Jesus judged very differently from the phony spiritual leaders of the Jews of the time.  Jesus very effectively exposed the corruption and unbelief of the Jewish religious leaders, even without being present for much of it.  This helped the people understand better who to follow and who to believe.  We must also learn to discern whom to follow, with Scripture as our guide.

Sight to Blind

Jesus said the blind would see and those who see would become blind. This is literally what happened in the life of Saul of Tarsus, who became Paul the Apostle. Saul was a Pharisee, so he likely would have thought that a blind man was blind due to sin, as the Pharisees in John 9 thought. He thought that he had to oppose the early Christians spreading the gospel about Christ. He was working to get Christians arrested. But Saul’s thinking was totally unraveled and rewoven by his encounter with the risen Jesus.  Saul’s case is very different from the man born blind. Saul was on his way to Damascus to arrest Christians (see Acts 9:1-19) when the risen Jesus appeared to him.  But the experience of speaking with Jesus left him blind. So, in this case, Jesus made a seeing man blind. He was totally blind for three days, until the Christian man Ananias laid hands on him.  So, Saul experienced spiritual blindness, then physical blindness with spiritual sight, then physical sight once again.  It shows how God can change any life and use it for his glory.  But it was also a reminder to Paul, as an Apostle, to have an attitude of humility about himself before God.

MW Editor’s note: Are you spiritually blind?  Can you see what Jesus sees, or are you constantly contradicting his very words to you? Part of spiritual formation is humbly asking God to search your heart, to reveal blind spots so that the light of his presence can be seen. This is often best accomplished by walking with your mentor.

Warrior On!