Jesus heals the Man Born Blind (John 9)
In John 9, Jesus heals on the Sabbath again, provoking the Jewish leadership. John highlights a variety of responses to this miracle, contrasting spiritual and physical blindness. The blind man now sees, but more importantly he has faith.
Review—Jesus heals the Man Born Blind (John 9)
The thesis of John’s gospel is the only way to gain eternal life in the kingdom of heaven is to believe Jesus is the Christ. John chose certain aspects of the ministry of Jesus to highlight certain themes.
- Theme 1: The importance of testimony. Why should we believe what we haven’t seen for ourselves? We believe because of the testimony of those who saw it.
- Theme 2: The only way to receive eternal life is to believe in Jesus. What’s the point of all this testimony? That we believe in Jesus. Why is believing in Jesus so important? Because he’s the only one who can grant us eternal life.
- Theme 3: Those who believe do so because of the activity of the Spirit of God. We don’t manufacture belief. The Spirit gives it to us.
Once again, John explores the way people respond to Jesus. Jesus deliberately uses the idea of physical blindness as a metaphor for spiritual blindness.
Jesus heals the Man Born Blind
- The Jews thought blindness must be a punishment from God for some sin. The fact that this man was born blind confuses them.
- One of the lessons of the Book of Job is that hardship is not necessarily a sign God is unhappy with us.
- We usually don’t know why God asks us to walk a hard path, but this man does (John 9:3).
- The blindness was not a punishment. It was the tool God used to bring this man to saving faith.
- Jesus ties this miracle to the broader idea that he has come to open our eyes to the truths of God.
Jesus heals the Man Born Blind—Reactions
- The man’s neighbors don’t believe what they’re seeing. They are confused, claiming this man must be somebody else who looks like the blind beggar.
- They see with their eyes but they don’t understand what they are seeing.
- The Pharisees refuse to believe the man so they seek to disprove his story by calling his parents.
- The man’s parents are too afraid of the powerful Pharisees to rejoice in their son’s healing.
- Their belief is crushed by the worries of the world. They care too much about what their fellow human beings think and not enough about what God thinks.
- The Pharisees think they understand perfectly. By their rules Jesus breaks the Sabbath, therefore he can’t be a prophet from God.
- The Pharisees pressure the man to denounce Jesus as a fraud but he refuses. He stands on the evidence he has (I was blind, now I see).
- Point 1: We all agree God does not call prophets who don’t believe in Him.
- Point 2: If a prophet believes in God and truly represents Him, God testifies to that prophet through miracles.
- Point 3: No one in the history of the world has healed a person born blind. This healing is something only God could do.
- Conclusion: I am healed. Therefore this man is from God.
- A man who is been blind his whole life who sees and recognizes the truth contrasted with the religious leaders who claim to have the market cornered on truth but don’t recognize the truth that is staring them in the face.
Judgment and Salvation
- John 9:39 functions as a summary statement for this story.
- Jesus brings judgment because God judges people by how they respond to Jesus.
- Jesus also brings salvation. He gives sight to the blind.
- We are blind in that we fail to see and understand the truth.
- Jesus opens our eyes so that we now see and understand the truth.
- The Pharisees think they see, but they are blind.
- The man born blind, now sees and also understands the truth.
Please listen to the podcast for more detail and explanation.
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Series: Gospel of John: Believe and Find Life
Study: Gospel of John Bible Study Resources
Podcast season 25, episode 18