Notes on John 9
© David H. Linden Action International Ministries
The sign of healing the man born blind is loaded
with great significance. John does not tell us just when this happened or where in
Of all the passages in John, this is the one that
has in it traces of humor. The formerly blind man, uneducated though he was,
expressed his thoughts in a way far superior to those who sought to intimidate
him. He was articulate and they were dumbfounded. He is a remarkable example of
a man set free by the truth. I look forward to meeting him.
The chapter opens with a question that is wrong in
its assumptions. By the end of the story, I am certain it is one the disciples
never asked again, but others retained it. The story is one of a healing
followed by the great discomfort it generated among those who sought yet again
to withstand its implication that Jesus is the Christ. They were willing to make
a sinner of the holy Son of God. His “sin” was doing a man a great favor on the
Sabbath. The Lord could have arranged to heal him on a different day and did
not. Eventually the unnamed man was rejected not only with disgust, but by
official expulsion from the synagogue. The Apostle John signaled by this that
confessing Christ has consequences. This persecution was not at the political
hands of the Romans, but by the religious hands of fellow Jews. The Lord did
not leave that brother, rejected by his own people, to languish in solitary
suffering. Jesus went and found him, leading to one of the most sublime yet
brief conversations that has ever occurred between Christ and a sinner.
A man blind from birth was healed in an unusual way
and in a location away from Christ. It led to an investigation whether he was
ever really blind at all, then to great pressure on all to declare Jesus a
sinner, to the excommunication of an innocent man, to a revelation of Christ as
the Son of Man, and finally to God’s judgment against the clergy of Israel for
willful blindness.
Sometimes a truth is taught in abstract words, and
sometimes it is played out in events. In this chapter both happen. Children
learn from fascinating stories. This one has a theological script with it, and
it should be told and retold. It shows Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and
that by believing in Him, our blindness is healed, and we have eternal life.
As John 9 continues into
John 10, the Apostle develops a stark contrast between kinds of shepherds. On
one side were the abusive shepherds of
9:1-3 The
Question This simple narrative tells of a blind beggar (v.8)
that Jesus and His disciples were walking past. For the disciples it was not, “Lord,
why not do something for this needy man?” Rather it was more like “how do you explain
this one?” The Lord had compassion; they had curiosity and readiness to blame. Their
question provided two possible answers, both of which were wrong. Jesus denied the
underlying premise. Often our intellectual trouble is with our presuppositions.
Here is one example.
The question had in it the
seeds of error. If the Lord said it was the man who sinned, how could such a
devastating punishment fall on him for some transgression committed before his
birth? If the Lord said it was his parents, how could such a punishment fall on
the innocent baby? Either way, the justice of God would be impugned. Thankfully,
both were wrong! What is clear in this setting is the human tendency to make ignorant
judgments on God. All tragedy is traceable to Adam’s sin as the ultimate cause,
but tragedy is not specifically traceable to individuals, unless God has so informed
us. We are not qualified to make such judgments. The innocent may suffer apart from
a corresponding disobedience traceable to them. Yet we are not innocent of the
sin imputed to us from Adam. Man does not stand before God in purity or innocence.
We do not become sinners by sinning; we were born sinners. Now we are caught in
a general suffering affecting the entire creation (Romans 8:18-25). The world was
part of a perfect creation over which God had placed the first man with the status
of righteous and in a condition of righteousness. Then came the fall. From this
suffering, God has since graciously delivered many to whom He owed no mercy
whatsoever. I am sincere in what I have written here, but please note that I
have already delved into the subject in a way the Lord did not in John 9. We
have other Scriptures that bring us light on this, but John 9 shows our
inability to apply all truths specifically in explaining why certain people
suffer.
The Lord sidestepped replying
to the disciples with a theodicy. (A theodicy is a defense of God from an
accusation of wrong.) The Lord did make a brief tantalizing response, one that
is most encouraging. We should remember that Jesus may have said much more to
his disciples than this, but the apostle was led by the Holy Spirit to report
only v.3 and no more. Christian submission means that we accept the Lord’s
decision of every kind, including short answers. In the providence of God the
man was born blind, and the works of God would be displayed in this man in a
way they would not have been if he were not blind. Some may fret about the
mystery of God’s providence, but the man healed that day in
9:4 Jesus connected God’s work in that man with what He would soon do in giving sight. Jesus’ work was so tied to the disciples’ participation that He said, “We must work” the works of God. Christian service is a form of fellowship with the Lord in His redemptive activity. Note that we work together with God (2 Corinthians 6:1). Though we contribute nothing to any atoning work (which has been accomplished by Christ alone), we are privileged to represent the Lord in His message and to show mercy that comes from His heart and ours. The work of Christ in communicating truth was not isolated from His expression of compassion in John 9. Was there ever a needy suffering person with any disease or affliction that Jesus turned away? Did anyone end up with nothing after coming to Him in hope? None.
9:5 See
the notes at 11:9,10. The Lord indicated that time was limited. It was only “as
long as” He was here that He would directly show Himself to be the Light of the
world. How did He show Himself as the Light on this occasion? By making the man
in darkness able to see. The works of God in John 9 included the removal of
physical and spiritual blindness. John, more than others, wrote of Jesus as the
Light in chapters 1,3,8,9 & 12.
9:6,7 The brevity of this surprises us. There
is no indication of asking the man if he wanted to be healed. God does not need
permission to bless anyone. Some teachers point out that we were made from the
dust of the earth, and the Lord used the mud of the earth, so this is a miracle
of creation! How the Lord healed is not uniform in Scripture, nor how He has
saved different people. He told the
man to go wash, not as a suggestion, not asking if he wanted to. The man obeyed
and came back seeing, but when Jesus was not in the same place.
By translating the Hebrew
name “Siloam” as “Sent”, John provides
a verbal link with the mission of Christ. Jesus was the One sent by the Father. Perhaps that is why
the Lord told the man to wash there. Ever since, that man must have had Siloam
on his mind, and so do we centuries later. Sent
shows that Jesus did not come on His own, but the Father was fully involved. Jesus
was not independent, nor was the Father detached.
9:8–12 The neighbors’ reaction John established quickly that this was the same man and that he had been born blind. The man knew who he was. The simplicity of how it happened hardly fits such a dramatic miracle. People expected a weighty explanation, more than washing off some mud! The man explained it in this way, “I did this and now I see.” There was nothing to add except that “some man they call Jesus” made the mud and sent him to wash. Upon his return he did not know where Jesus was, and of course he had never seen Him! The man was unwavering, and this trait continues in this story. Note that John often reported differences of opinion. (See 7:30,31,40-43.) Was it the same man? Some said Yes, others No. In this simple way, John prepares his readers to expect that in evangelism there will not be a uniform response.
9:13–17 The Sabbath
verdict John does not say why they took the man to the
Pharisees, but the next fact given is that the miracle happened on the Sabbath.
(See the notes of chapter 5 for more on Sabbath healings.) If going to the
Pharisees was to see what they thought of the miracle, the Sabbath issue
overshadowed it. It does not say whether making mud or applying it on the
Sabbath was what they thought was the violation, comparable to carrying one’s
bedroll home, as in 5:10. The questions to the man were not whether He had been
blind but how it was that he had
received his sight. Maybe giving or receiving the gift of sight was not in
itself evil, so the focus changed to what work
preceded it. Maybe mud making was the big crime! Some Pharisees concluded Jesus
was a lawbreaker, and so their conclusion: “This
man is not from God”. The disciples’ question in v.2, and now this
deliberation about Christ, both reveal faulty reasoning. It is important to
think clearly, and that is with a mind guided by the revelation of Scripture.
The distinctly Messianic flavor of this miracle Demons do not open the eyes of the blind
(10:21). Just as in 5:19, the Son was working as His Father worked, doing the
works of God (not Satan) while it is day (9:4). Some vocal Pharisees judged
Jesus a sinner for this Sabbath work, but in this very sign the Bible presents
Him as the Messiah, God’s Anointed One (Isaiah 61:1). Two significant factors are
related to this healing:
1.) The
exclusive role
There are no healings of the blind in
the OT, and none performed by the apostles. In Scripture, Jesus alone gave sight to the blind. [1]
To heighten the significance of this miracle, Jesus’ healings of blindness outnumber
other kinds of healing in the Gospels. This one in John 9 is the only report of
a recipient being born blind. “Never since the world began has it been
heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind,” (v.32).
2.) Messianic
prediction A healing of this kind is a strong indicator
that Jesus is the Christ. This was John’s chief purpose in choosing which signs
to include (20:30,31). God had promised a day when the blind would see (Isaiah
29:18 & 35:5). That day had arrived. According to Matthew 12:18-21, Isaiah
42 is a Messianic prediction. It says:
I am the
LORD; I have called you [Christ] in righteousness; I will take you by the hand
and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the
nations, to open the eyes that are blind,
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. I am the
LORD; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved
idols. (Isaiah 42:6-8)
God was broadcasting the
Messianic office of Jesus by means of this healing. Jesus said, “I am the Light of the World” [2]
(8:12) and then gave light in the form of sight. The I am
of 8:12 was God the Son speaking as God.
Psalm 146:8 says “the LORD opens
the eyes of the blind.” And that is another
way that Jesus showed Himself as Lord.
9:16,17 the minority view The
prevailing view of the Pharisees was that Jesus was a sinner. In their
conscience other Pharisees wondered how He could do such a wonder as this miracle.
Not all were convinced of the majority view of the clergy of
9:18-23 further investigation Those opposed
to Christ as a true prophet of God had a serious problem on their hands. It
would be relieved if it could be established as fact that miracle had occurred.
In v.17 they admitted that Jesus had opened the man’s eyes. Their research
established that a genuine miracle had happened. In the four Gospels, when the facts could not
be challenged, the only recourse left was to give unwelcome miracles an
explanation that prevented any interpretation that Jesus was God’s Son, or
Messiah, or Prophet. God did not want to make it easy to dismiss Christ. The
investigation was very rational: a) Is this your son, b)was he born blind, and
if so, c) how is it that he can see? The parents answered the first two in such
a way that the miracle was no longer in dispute. From this point on the heated
debate was about Christ.
The intimidation that so often surrounds investigation
of truth is here seen plainly. Of course the parents knew how their son could
see. The only viable explanation was their son’s. He knew what had happened,
and he made no secret of it, but for the parents to repeat his testimony would
be to resist the pressure of the authorities. They could escape persecution if
they pretended to be ignorant of how the miracle happened, and so they did. The
apostle did not write that if anyone said Jesus gave the man sight, he would be
put out of the synagogue. Had it said it this way, it would have fit the
context in an obvious way! But here we
see the thinking of John. He said “If anyone should confess Jesus to be the
Christ,” he would be expelled. But that was his real point, and it was the
Pharisees’ real fear: To say Jesus did
it was to admit Who He was. They failed to prove there was no healing, and they
have failed to disprove that Jesus had done it. They had one more strategy.
9:24-34
The Pharisees
do not give up. They tried harder. They could not deny the healing, but with
their hard hearts perhaps they could deny the Healer and turn the people
against Him. The conversation is back to Jesus being a sinner! I think they began in confidence, but they certainly
ended in frustration, bested by an uneducated man whose reasoning was superior
to theirs. I daresay they wished afterwards they had said nothing to him at
all. This was like a mouse and an elephant having a wrestling match, except
that every time the elephant stomped his foot, he missed the mouse and hurt his
foot! See below: Notable Lessons from
this Narrative.
9:24,25 Before
asking their question, the Pharisees supplied the desired reply and added a religious
reason for adopting it. Perhaps they could go home after this miracle of a man
seeing for the first time, with a little diabolical comfort, if at least that
man would agree that Jesus was a sinner! How strange to read a plea to give
glory to God by declaring the Holy One of Israel a sinner! (The demon of Luke
4:34 was a better theologian than the Pharisees of John 9.) In spite of their
eminent position, the man does not adopt their appraisal of Jesus. When asked
earlier, he said Jesus was a prophet. No prophet was sinless other than Christ.
The man does not know enough to say He is the Lord, and makes no commitment
whether He is sinless. He stayed with what He knew. He knew he was blind and
now he could see. Coercing him into a denial of Christ was not working.
9:26,27 They
repeated themselves, but they were desperate. Maybe they hoped for a
discrepancy in his story. Suppose he said, “I ran away from that Jesus after He
put that mud on my eyes without my agreement, and I cried to God to give me
sight and He did.” A different version could give the leaders some escape from
the truth. However, they could no longer deny Jesus had done it; the man was
steadfast, offering them no way to avoid the facts. By this continued
questioning, they allowed the man to have the ear of all again, and he pointed
out their repetition. His account of events did not budge, but their question
provoked his: Why were they so eager to go over this again? The miracle was
loaded with implications. It did show who Jesus was. They had not been Jesus’
disciples, but were they wavering a little in their persistent denial? (This is
late in the span of Jesus’ public ministry.) Did they want to become His
disciples? Obviously, one key element in discipleship is a proper affirmation of
Who Jesus Christ is.
9:28,29 They
did not like any suggestion that this miracle might be a factor in changing
their minds. Miracles do not save, and without the new birth they do not convince
those who prefer not to see. So they reviled the man. Reviling is not a
rational reply, but it is useful cover when a real reply might endanger their
position. But his question to them was returned in the form of an accusation, a
very nice one! They said he was one of Jesus’ disciples, and very soon that
would be true. They also had to be someone’s disciples, and they claimed they
were disciples of Moses. Moses gave the commandments of God which included the
Sabbath. In their minds, Jesus was disobedient to that commandment. As the Lord
Who gave that commandment to Moses on Sinai, if there was anyone on earth who
understood it, it was Christ.
Rejecting truth without a viable alternative to it had
the Pharisees again in difficulty. There was a persistent nagging – even in
their minds – for some closure. It is insufficient to maintain only denials.
Jesus did give this man sight; so then, Who is He? They fall into a very
selective agnosticism. They said what they knew. God had spoken through Moses.
Then they stumbled; they said they did not know where Jesus was from. In my
estimation, that was dishonest; see related notes at 7:41-52.
9:28-33 The simple soul, an uneducated man, saw
the contradiction. Often God had authenticated prophets like Moses and Elijah by
means of miracles. It was a way to make known who those men were. Jesus had
just performed a notable sign that captured much attention, and demanded an
explanation, so then, Who is this man? The
experts said they did not know. This was a way of escape that they would use
again in Matthew 21:24-27. The novice then pointed out how amazing that they (of all people), the knowledgeable ones, the
teachers of the people, did not know! (The Lord used a similar rebuke with
Nicodemus in 3:10.) Rejection of truth is rejection of knowledge; such a course
always replaces truth & knowledge with error & ignorance. The
uneducated man knew more than the ones with much training in the law of God.
He continued, “Yet He opened my eyes!” He could have
added, “So how do you account for that?” This miracle demands more than denial.
At this point the roles are reversed; he is teaching them. Their arguments were
inconsistent; his words were so sound they did not dare to engage him further.
They had promoted the view that Jesus was a sinner. He took up that subject and
refuted their view of Jesus as a sinner. He seemed to know Psalm 34, “The eyes of the LORD are toward the
righteous and his ears toward their cry,” (34:15). Maybe he knew the words
of Psalm 66:16-20 and Proverbs 15:8 & 29, and 28:9. But why would he
mention prayer at all if Jesus had not prayed? John 9 does not mention any
prayer. (The narratives in the Gospels are brief summaries of events and
conversations.) Before he was sent to the Pool of Siloam, possibly Jesus prayed
audibly and the man heard that prayer. Then when he could see, he knew his
sight was an answer to Jesus’ petition. If so, the confident way he argued about
God hearing Jesus makes sense, and Jesus’ real connection with God became clear
to him.
If God has not rejected someone as a sinner, then
certain things must fall into place. Such a person must be a worshipper of God
and obedient to Him. Since Jesus was not in rebellion, God listened to him. For
anyone else this would be a description of salvation. For Jesus, this was the
relationship He had eternally. His prayer, worship and works were accepted. The
man is reasoning very well about Christ from the little he knew, but he sensed
that truth is by nature coherent. Jesus was not a sinner with God listening to
His prayers. Later John quotes the Lord, “Father,
I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me…” (11:41,42).
If Jesus were not of God, He could do nothing. The man’s explanation of Christ
from the little He knew and the much He had experienced, had a soundness the
Pharisees could not withstand. Though cowardly, it was better for them to cut
the conversation short. All they did was lose their arguments and any
fair-minded listeners as well. For v.32 see above, The distinctly Messianic
flavor of this miracle.
9:34 His
“excommunication” was preceded by a judgmental insult. Sinful leaders who
avoided facing issues they themselves had raised, were quick to declare as sinners
the Lord Jesus and the man who defended Him. They knew this man was born blind,
so they gave their answer to the disciples’ question in v.2 – one different
from the Lord’s. They said he was born in sin, which in their view was probably
the cause of his congenital blindness. Thus he was unqualified to teach them, yet
what he said made sense; what they said did not.
They then applied one of the most severe penalties a
human being can face; they cast him out of his people. This is the opposite
of what Christ does with all who come to Him (6:37). The expulsion meant, “You
are not one of us!” And he was not. The
9:35-39 The Lord sought
and found him, a rare thing in the Gospels. Here is the Lord as the Shepherd finding
one lost sheep (Luke 15:4-7). Jesus asked him if he believed in the Son of Man
and the man was eager to hear that it was Jesus. He was already certain that Jesus
had come from God (v.33). His early conclusions from the miracle were good; thereafter
his faith rested on the word of Christ. The Apostle John, very much an
evangelist at heart, was delighted to be able to write the man’s reply, “Who is
He, Sir?” (The Greek noun can be translated either as “Lord” or “sir”.) Jesus’
words, “You have seen him” shows that both physical and spiritual sight entered
that life that day. His heart had been opened. When He asked Jesus Who this Son
of Man was, he was not speaking out of curiosity but waiting for the answer so
he would know Whom to acknowledge as Lord. This is the response the Apostle
John wanted for all of us reading his Gospel: “Tell me that I too may believe
in Him.” Many have been saved just reading this Gospel. Not only did the man say,
“Lord, I believe”; he worshipped. Faith is more than agreement with truth. The revelation
of Christ transformed the eyes of his heart, and he became an example of the
working of God in conversion. God’s “work” brought him to Christ.
9:39-41 The
Shepherd told this newly acquired sheep Who He was (the Son of Man) and why He
had come. He came so the blind (like him) might see, a mission of compassion
and salvation. On the other hand, Jesus had been so thoroughly rejected by the
false shepherds of
Some overheard Him. The blind man admitted how little
he knew. In contrast, the Pharisees were arrogantly certain that Jesus was a
sinner, and they fortified each other in their mutual rejection (5:44) or they deferred
dishonestly to the majority view (see 12:42,43). In self-confidence, shunning much
evidence in Scripture (5:38-40), they prided themselves that “We see” and locked
themselves into blindness. Guilt remained because sin remained (8:21-24).
Willful blindness made them prefer the darkness (3:19-21), so they came under
judgment for rejecting the One Who came not to condemn but to save (3:17) and
make the blind to see.
Notable Lessons from this
Narrative:
The
Setting: Here in advance of the
discourse in the Upper Room is an example of the persecution to come (16:1-4). Perhaps
it is fair to call the casting out of
this man the first NT excommunication! However, expulsion from one flock for
Christ’s sake meant he was brought in as one of Christ’s sheep (10:14-16).
Methods: We observe that false shepherds in John 9
employed:
An
attempt to settle propositional questions with intimidation (vv.24,28,29).
Coercion
from authorities, as teachers of the law of God abused their legitimate role (vv.24-34).
Invoking
the Name of God, with overtones of religious loyalty (v.24).
Community
and family pressure (vv.22,23).
In
other words, the pressure was intellectual, psychological, authoritarian,
social and religious. It ended, after failure to persuade him, in overt excommunication.
Corollaries: There are timeless lessons
in this narrative:
Discipleship
is impossible without doctrine. To say Who Christ is requires theological
propositions (vv.17, 22,35-38)
The
Pharisees deny much but affirm little in this chapter.
False
argument may be made from the Word of God – in this case concerning the Sabbath
(v.16).
In
spite of the clarity of the OT Scriptures, willful blindness failed to recognize
the Messiah in their presence, doing astounding Messianic ministry, predicted in
detail in God’s word.
There
is a passion to search for reasons to deny truth (vv.18,19).
The
Lord’s children were not left to suffer alone; His own have the comfort and
presence of Christ (vv.35-39).
An
uneducated man who had never read a book, testified effectively. He was careful
to affirm only what he knew. No one is ever asked to do more.
It
is not un-Christian to refute bad arguments.
2 Corinthians 10:3-6. The Lord often refuted error.
The
man did not reply with recrimination.
This
occasion is only one example, but it proved in time to be typical. We should expect reviling, ridicule and rejection.
[1] The unusual situation with Saul of
Tarsus in Acts 9 does not change this observation. Saul received his sight when
Ananias came to him. The blindness was temporary, brought on by the vision of
Christ the Lord on the Road to
[2] He used a similar expression in 9:5, but not as ἐγώ εἰμι (ego eimi) i.e., “I am”, as in 8:12.