Lesson 12: The Seeing & The Blind

Opening Questions:

1. What contributed to the spiritual blindness found in this chapter?
2. How does the sign of Jesus restoring the sight of blind man increase your faith?
3. What questions do you have from the text?

Several times in chapter 8 Jesus promised freedom to those who would truly believe in Him:

• Vs. 12: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
• Vss. 31-32:    “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 
• Vs. 51: “Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”

Chapter 9 provides a narrative demonstrating the promises He made in chapter 8. Those who believe in Him would find freedom, while those who refused would remain in darkness and death. Truly He would say, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (vs. 5).

The Sign (vss. 1-7)

Upon seeing a man who was blind from birth, Jesus’ disciples made one of the judgments Jesus had warned about (see 8.15). Their question about who’s sin caused the man’s blindness reflected the thinking of the rabbis. So, Rabbi Ammi was quoted, “There is no death without sin, and there is no suffering without iniquity.” But Jesus corrected them, revealing that this man’s affliction only served as an opportunity for the work of God to be done.

The way most of our English versions translate vss. 3-4 might leave the impression that God caused suffering so that His grace could be manifest. However, it’s important to remember that punctuation was absent in the original Greek manuscripts. Thus, an alternate translation would be: “Neither this man sinned nor his parents. But so that the works of God may be revealed in him it is necessary for us to work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no-one is able to work” (Colin G. Kruse). Regardless of translation, Jesus’ point remains the same: He is the light of the world, and this would furnish an opportunity to demonstrate what that means!

The idea of “sent” is significant in this passage. After anointing the man’s eyes with mud (vs. 6) Jesus sent the man to the pool of Siloam, which means “sent” (vs. 7). But in vs. 4 Jesus sated that “We must work the works of him who sent me.” The point is that this wondrous miracle wasn’t effected by the mud or the water of the pool, but by the One sent by the Father.

Jesus would use saliva in other acts of healing (see Mark 7.38.23), but on this occasion attention was drawn to His making mud with the saliva (vs. 6). Vs. 14 shows why this is significant: “Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes.” Pharisaic tradition would have regarded Jesus’ actions as kneading, and thus a violation of their Sabbath traditions. And as we will see, their love of their traditions would contribute to their spiritual blindness.

Responses To The Sign (vss. 8-34)

Most of the chapter is concerned with the responses to the work of Jesus. The man’s neighbors, his parents and the Pharisees are all considered, and tragically none of them truly see what Jesus had done!

The neighbors (vss. 8-12) were nothing more than curious. Some were unwilling to acknowledge that a great deed had been done while others were skeptical (vss. 8-9). Others were curious to know “how” this man was made to see, but they were not motivated enough to find Jesus (vss. 10-12). Interestingly, their opinions about the man were just as divided as their opinions about Jesus (see John 7.25-27,40-44). And rather than going to the source, Jesus, for answers, they took the man to the Pharisees.

The Pharisees (vss. 13-18,24-34) could have changed their perception of Jesus, after all “never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind” (vs. 32). Since Jesus went against their religious traditions they concluded that He could not be from God (vs. 16). They ignored the obvious and insisted that Jesus was a sinner (vss. 24-25). For them, being disciples of Moses was enough (vss. 28-29) so they ignored the facts of what Jesus actually did! Their ridicule and casting out of the man (vs. 34) reflected the same bad theology we noted in vs. 2. The man must have been born in sin, so who was he to teach them anything? Just as Israel had once rejected the waters of Siloam (Shiloah, Isaiah 8.6), they were now rejecting the One sent by God (vs. 16).

Of all people, the man’s parents (vss. 19-23) should have rejoiced and sought Jesus to praise Him. Yet, when asked how this great deed occurred, their constant refrain was “he is of age; ask him” (vss. 21, 23). Rather than put their faith in Jesus, they gave way to fear (vs. 22).

The Seeing & The Blind (vss. 35-41)

However, there was one person who did come to see Jesus for who He is: the man who had been born blind. While he immediately regained his sight (vs. 7), his understanding of who Jesus is grew throughout the chapter:

• “the man called Jesus” (vs. 11)
• “He is a prophet” (vs. 17)
•  must be from God (vs. 33)
• Confessed Jesus as the “Son of Man” and worshipped Him (vss. 35-38; note John 1.51;3.13).

This man. who was blind at the beginning of the story, but who had “the works of God… displayed in him” (vs. 3) now fully beheld Jesus as the “light of the world” (vss. 5,39; John 8.12). By contrast, the Pharisees remained lost (vss. 39-41). Their misplaced pride in their status as Abraham’s descendants (John 8.33) and disciples of Moses (John 9.28-29) had caused them to reject the One whom God had sent (vs. 4). They may have claimed to see, but they were in fact blind… and therefore lost (John 3.19-20).

Textual Notes:

• Vs. 1: according to vs. 21 this man was “of age”, thus 13 or older. The fact that this man’s parents felt it necessary to say this may indicate that the man was still very young.
• Vs. 7: “Water for the Pool of Siloam was channelled through Hezekiah’s tunnel from the Gihon spring. The Pool of Siloam was the source of the water used in the water-pouring ceremonies during the Feast of Tabernacles” (Kruse).
• Vs. 16: they wrongly applied Deut. 13.1-5 to Jesus.
• Vs. 17: OT prophets, particularly Elijah and Elisha, were known for the signs and wonders they performed.
• Vs. 22: see John 12.42; 16.2.
• Vs. 24: note Joshua 7.19-20. Acknowledging the truth about sin would acknowledge the glory of God.
• Vs. 28: see John 5.45-46; 6.32; 7.19-23.
• Vs. 30: one of the signs of the Messianic age was to be the restoring of sign (Isaiah 29.18; 35.5; 42.7).
• Vs. 31: “‘The Jews’ had rightly insisted that God spoke to Moses; the man born blind pointed out that God listens to Jesus! That God listened to Jesus was evident from the fact that he granted him the power to give sight to one who was congenitally blind” (Kruse).
• Vs. 38: “That he ‘worshipped’ him shows he identified Jesus as the glorious Son of Man of Daniel 7:13–14. The man born blind had been blessed with spiritual as well as physical sight” (Kruse).
• Vs. 41: see Proverbs 26.12.