John 9 - Life Application Bible Commentary (NT)

JESUS HEALS THE MAN BORN BLIND / 9:1-12 / 148

Thus far, Jesus has explained his identity in many ways to his listeners. Often he would use a physical object, person, or setting to depict a certain spiritual aspect of his life and purpose. For example:

• While sitting by Jacob’s well and talking to the Samaritan woman, Jesus explained that he could give her “living water” (4:10 NKJV).
• After feeding over 5,000 people with two small loaves of bread, Jesus explained that he was “the bread of life” (6:35 NKJV).
• At the Feast of Tabernacles, where a symbolic act took place commemorating the time when Moses struck the rock in the wilderness and it brought forth water for the parched Israelites, Jesus told all the people, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink” (7:37 NKJV).
• Again at the Feast of Tabernacles, another symbolic act took place commemorating the pillar of fire that guided the Israelites on their wilderness journey. Jesus told all the people, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life” (8:12 NKJV).

All of Jesus’ miracles also pointed to who he was. John follows Jesus’ discourse about being “the light of the world” (8:12; 9:5) with the account of Jesus restoring sight to a man born blind. This story illustrates the spiritual truth of Christ being the Light of the World. As the blind beggar comes to “see” that Jesus is the Messiah, so Jesus offers us spiritual sight to enable us to see him as our Savior and Lord. We too are born spiritually blind and need the gift of sight that only the Light of the World can provide. The Light of the World becomes our light when we put our faith in Jesus Christ.

9:1 Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth.NKJV In ancient cultures, as in many modern cultures, blind people had no choice but to be beggars. This man probably was very poor and was begging along the roadside, thus Jesus saw him as he passed by. Because Jesus did the “seeing” and the disciples did the “asking” the implication is that perhaps Jesus pointed out the man to the disciples. Jesus may have spoken to the blind man. The wording of the following question seems to imply that the group was standing directly in front of the blind man.

A CURIOSITY

We have a tendency not to “see” those who are disabled or to treat them in ways that emphasize or trivialize their disadvantage. For instance, blind people are often treated as if they can’t hear either, which is exactly what the disciples did on this occasion.

People appreciate being genuinely cared for, but resent being treated as a “case,” “problem,” or “curiosity.” When dealing with people who are suffering or disabled, we must try to empathize with them. We should always strive to treat others in the way we would want to be treated, were our situations reversed (see Matthew 7:12).

9:2-3 “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”NRSV The disciples believed, based at least partly on Old Testament texts like Exodus 34:7, that a disability such as blindness was a punishment for sin. Many people around the world believe that suffering results from sin. People tend to believe that displeasing God leads to punishment; therefore, they assume that whenever a person seems to be undergoing punishment, there is reason to suspect wrongdoing. This assumption, for example, drove Job’s friends to treat him with heavy-handed judgment.

But if suffering always indicates sin, what do we say about babies born with deformities or handicaps? If this man was born blind, who sinned, the man (who must have somehow sinned in the womb) or his parents?

WHY THE HURT?

In Jewish culture, many believed that all calamities and suffering resulted from sin. But this man suffered so that God could be glorified. We live in a fallen world where good behavior is not always rewarded and bad behavior not always punished; therefore, innocent people sometimes suffer. If God removed suffering whenever we asked, we would follow him for comfort and convenience, not out of love and devotion. Regardless of the reasons for our suffering, Jesus has the power to help us deal with it. When we suffer from a disease, tragedy, or disability, we should not ask, Why did this happen to me? or What did I do wrong? Instead, we should ask God to give us strength for the trial and a clearer perspective on what is happening.

The disciples were thinking about what caused the blindness. Jesus shifted their attention away from the cause to the purpose. Jesus demonstrated God’s power by healing the man. Instead of worrying about the cause of our problems, we should instead find out how God could use our problem to demonstrate his power. Jesus explained that the man’s blindness had nothing to do with his sin or his parents’ sin: “But this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.”NIV These words do not mean that God heartlessly inflicted blindness on this man at birth, but simply that he allowed nature to run its course so that the victim would ultimately bring glory to God through the reception of both physical and spiritual sight (see 9:30-38).

GOD MAY USE OUR SUFFERING

How can God be at work in a desperate situation? There may be times when we have done everything possible to solve a problem. After we have explored the options, exhausted our resources, probed our motives, asked for advice, and done what was suggested, we may have found that nothing seems to have changed. We may have persisted in prayer and asked others to pray for us, and yet perceive no answer. The truth is, the solution, resolution, or answer may not ever come in this life. But it is also true that regardless of our difficulty and whether or not our burden is removed, God is still at work.

• God may use our experience to help advise and encourage others who pass through the same trials.
• God may use our suffering to break through the hardness of another person and bring about change in them.
• God may use our unresolved need to motivate others to keep searching for a solution from which others will benefit.
• God may use our endurance in suffering rather than the suffering itself to be an encouraging example to other believers.

9:4-5 “We must do the work of him who sent me.”NIV This verse is also translated, “We must work the works of him who sent me” (NRSV), and some early manuscripts end the sentence in the plural, “us.” Evidently, Jesus was speaking of himself and his disciples as coworkers. He wanted them to learn from him because they would continue his work as his sent ones (see 20:21). Jesus included the disciples in this work (although they actually did nothing for this blind man) because they would be the ones doing the work of God on earth after his resurrection and ascension. What a privilege to be called Christ’s coworkers (see 1 Corinthians 3:9; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 6:1). We must never doubt our role or significance.

“As long as it is day.”NIV While Christ was in the world, light was in the world; it was “day.” The “day” was the time allotted for Jesus to do his work on earth. However, “night is coming, when no one can work.”NIV The night would come, that is, Jesus would soon die, and would no longer be in the world in physical form. The coming of the night speaks of the shortness of time Jesus had left to fulfill his purpose on earth.

TODAY

Jesus’ words held a note of urgency. It may be “day” now, but it won’t always be so. We must not put off until tomorrow what God wants us to do now. Today is the day. If God presents an opportunity and also provides the strength, skill, or other resources to do it, we ought to respond immediately. The night is coming soon enough; then our day of opportunity will end. What have you done today with eternity in mind?

“I am the light of the world.”NIV The healing of the blind man affirmed Jesus’ identity as the Messiah, for the Old Testament predicted that the Messiah would come to heal the blind (Isaiah 29:18; 35:5; 42:7).

9:6-7 He spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes.NRSV Why would Jesus perform this miracle in such a strange way? This is not typical of the way Jesus performed miracles, according to John. But Mark records two incidents of miraculous healing where Jesus used his saliva —to cure a deaf and dumb man in Decapolis and to heal a blind man in Bethsaida (Mark 7:33; 8:23). John’s account, however, provides the only record of Jesus spitting on the ground and forming clay from it.

From antiquity, spit or saliva was thought to have medicinal power. But the Jews were suspicious of anyone who used saliva in healing because it was associated with magical arts. It is worth noting, however, that the role of Jesus’ saliva in the healing was primarily in making the mud. As has been pointed out before (see section on 2:6-8), Jesus did not use random objects without a specific purpose.

First, Jesus used the clay to help develop the man’s faith (he had to do as Jesus said, which was to go and wash in a certain pool). Second, Jesus kneaded the mud with his hands in order to make the clay to put on the man’s eyes. This constituted “work” on a Sabbath day and would upset the Pharisees. Jesus had much to teach them about God and his Sabbath.

“Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent).NRSV Siloam is a Greek translation of the Hebrew name Shiloah, meaning “sent.” The pool of Siloam had been built by King Hezekiah. His workers had built an underground tunnel from the Spring of Gihon in the Kidron Valley outside of Jerusalem. This tunnel channeled the water into the pool of Siloam inside the city walls. Located in the southeast corner of the city, the tunnel and pool were originally built to help Jerusalem’s inhabitants survive in times of seige. If the city were ever surrounded by enemy armies, the people inside could always get fresh water without having to leave the city (2 Kings 20:20; 2 Chronicles 32:30). These waters may symbolize the work that Jesus, the sent one, had come to do. They provided the deliverance and healing sent by God, illustrating the full deliverance from sin that Jesus provided for us.

9:8-12 These verses record the various reactions of the blind man’s neighbors to his healing. Some thought he looked like the one who used to sit and beg. Others positively identified him as the same man. Still others objected that this only looked like that blind man. In response, the healed man insisted, “I am the man.”NIV Finally realizing that the person who once was blind had received his sight, they asked, “How then were your eyes opened?”NIV The formerly blind man testified to the healing power of Jesus by recounting the story of how he had been healed.

Of course, the crowd wanted to track down this healer (perhaps they assumed it was Jesus), so they asked, “Where is this man?”NIV But the man had been blind when Jesus sent him to the pool of Siloam; therefore, he didn’t know where Jesus had gone afterward. From this point on, the formerly blind man began to see more clearly who Jesus was, while the Pharisees became more spiritually blind. While sin did not cause the man to be born blind, sin did cause the Pharisees’ blindness.

RELIGIOUS LEADERS QUESTION THE BLIND MAN / 9:13-34 / 149

Because the people discovered both a miracle and a mystery surrounding the healing of the blind man, they took him to what they considered the most dependable place for exploring such matters. The Pharisees quickly concluded that whatever else the healer might be, he certainly wasn’t from God, for otherwise he would not work on the Sabbath. In their quest for “truth,” these Pharisees tried a number of explanations to invalidate the miracle: (1) perhaps the blind man had not been blind from birth or had not been totally blind; (2) perhaps God did this miracle directly (but they would recognize no human agent).

When the formerly blind man pointed out the obvious answers that they had been so studiously avoiding, they responded by viciously berating him and expelling him from their presence.

The astonishing fact of the man’s newly given vision eluded this group as if they were blind. Later Jesus pointed this out as their problem, over their strenuous objections.

9:13-15 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind.NIV Why did they bring him to the Pharisees? The local synagogue was the equivalent of small-claims court. If formal charges had been made, the case would have gone to the Sanhedrin, the high court. But verse 14 also provides a possible answer: the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath.NIV The people had realized that Jesus had performed another miracle on the Sabbath and that the Pharisees would want to know about this event. This miracle was news because it was very unusual (9:32). Healing, along with many other actions defined as work, was strictly controlled on the Sabbath. Healing was only to occur in cases of life and death, for which the blind man did not qualify because he had been living with his blindness since birth.

The Pharisees wanted to know how this man had received his sight, and the man explained it in the simplest of terms. Because the man was still blind during the interview with Jesus, he really didn’t know who Jesus was. He could only exclaim, I washed, and now I see.NIV But no one cheers and congratulates the man on his healing, instead they condemn the healer.

9:16-17 “This man is not from God, for he does not observe the sabbath.”NRSV The Jewish Sabbath, Saturday, was the weekly holy day of rest. The Pharisees had made a long list of specific do’s and don’ts regarding the Sabbath in an attempt to explain and put into practice what the Scriptures meant when they prohibited work on the Sabbath. Kneading the clay, anointing his eyes, and healing the man (whose life was not in danger) were all considered work and therefore were forbidden. Jesus may have purposely made the clay in order to emphasize his teaching about the Sabbath —that it is right to care for others’ needs even if it involves working on a day of rest. But because Jesus broke their petty rules, they immediately decided he was not from God.

But some other Pharisees questioned this condemnation: “How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?”NRSV There is no indication that these men were inclined to believe in Jesus; more likely, they were protecting themselves from the charge of obvious bias. Thus, there was a division among them.NKJV While the Pharisees conducted investigations and debated about Jesus, people were being healed and lives were being changed. The Pharisees’ skepticism was not based on insufficient evidence, but on jealousy of Jesus’ popularity and his influence on the people.

CLEARER VISION

Our personal description of Jesus to others makes an impact. John encourages all of us whose eyes, hearts, and minds have been opened by Christ to speak out for the Lord. This lesson is for us because the formerly blind man’s vision of Jesus got clearer and clearer as he reflected on what had happened and listened to the accusers frantically trying to discredit what he knew to be undeniably true. At first his description of Jesus wasn’t accurate, but it was heartfelt. He said what he understood. New believers often bring that quality of freshness and earnestness to their statements about Jesus. How quickly we forget the wonder of being able to see spiritually for the first time!

We can testify to the fact that we were once blind to our own separation from God, blind to our need, blind to God’s influence in our lives, and blinded by the world around us. We may not be able to explain in detail how Jesus has done what he has done in our lives, but we can say with conviction: Once I was blind; now I can see!

What do you say about Him because He opened your eyes?NKJV The staunchest Pharisees attacked the healed man with a renewed attempt to break down his testimony. But this newly sighted beggar responded with even more praise for his healer than he had offered previously —he called Jesus a prophet. The man was searching for a category in which to place the one who healed him. At first (9:11) the healer was just a man. But under questioning a new title came to mind: “prophet.”

9:18-21 The Pharisees still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight,NIV so they called in the man’s parents in the hope that they would refute their own son’s testimony. Failure to reach quick agreement on the case meant they needed to review the “facts.” They asked the parents if this man was really their son, and if he was really born blind. The Pharisees were exasperated: “How is it that now he can see?”NIV they asked, although we may wonder what they expected the parents to answer.

They knew their son, and they knew his previous condition, but how he could see, they didn’t know. Instead of giving praise for their son’s healer, they responded, “Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.”NRSV The parents did not deny their son’s story, but neither did they support his claim as their son had done.

9:22-23 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews, for already the Jews had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Christ would be put out of the synagogue.NIV The Greek expression for be put out of the synagogue (aposynagogos genetai) literally means “become de-synagogued” —similar to the idea of excommunication. The expression is unique to John’s Gospel (used here and in 12:42; 16:2).

Jewish regulations stipulated two kinds of excommunication: one that would last for thirty days until the offender could be reconciled, and one that was a permanent “ban” accompanied by a curse. Because the synagogue controlled every aspect of life (civic, recreational, legal, and religious), an individual cut off from the synagogue would suffer severe isolation. Many Jews in John’s day had been “de-synagogued” because they had confessed Jesus to be the Christ. (Jesus predicted this ——see16:2.) In Jesus’ day, there was also a kind of informal prohibition against any Jew who would confess Jesus to be the Christ.

But why would such a harsh punishment be given people who followed this Jesus, whom the Pharisees had proclaimed as a fake Messiah? Up to this point, Jesus had been accepted by many as “the Prophet . . . [and] they intended to come and make him king by force” (6:14-15 NIV). He had done miracles that could not be ignored or explained away. Many thought he was “the Christ” (7:26 NIV). The Pharisees were facing a politically dangerous situation. If the crowds were to take Jesus by force and make him king, Rome would respond quickly and forcefully to suppress such a revolt. Roman intervention would cause incredible troubles for the Jews. So the religious leaders decided on the harsh punishment of being put out of the synagogue for anyone who dared believe in Jesus.

9:24-25 A second time they summoned the man who had been blind.NIV Not content with their cross-examination of the healed man, the Pharisees called him in a second time with a command, “Give glory to God!”NRSV This means “admit the truth” (see Joshua 7:19; Jeremiah 13:16). The Pharisees tried to make the man confess his wrong in proclaiming Jesus as a prophet and to make him agree with them that Jesus was a sinner.

LOOKING FOR A LOOPHOLE

In reviewing the facts of the case, the Pharisees had no intention of believing or following the one who had performed the healing. They wanted to disqualify Jesus. They avoided the truth in their quest for a loophole.

Occasionally we will meet people who only want to argue and debate the merits and claims of Jesus without ever deciding to follow him. They mask their rejection under a thin cover of inquiry. Perhaps, like the Pharisees, they have too much to lose. Prestige, power, and personal independence are hard to give up. It is easier to keep the argument on intellectual grounds than to face our spiritual and moral shortcomings. Sometimes, people have worked hard to get to their comfortable place in life and are unwilling to consider change. We must help them see that Christ gives both the power and the desire to change.

But the healed man would not give in; he would not say whether or not Jesus was a sinner. What he would say was what he had experienced: “One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see”NKJV So many Christians, having been blind and then received spiritual sight, have testified the same! Believers don’t need to know all the answers before they can share Christ with others. All they must know is how Jesus changed their lives. Each of us is our own expert on that topic! We should tell people what Jesus did for us, and trust God to help our words draw others to him.

9:26-27 “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”NIV The Pharisees relentlessly asked who did the healing and how it happened. Perhaps they hoped the man would contradict his earlier story so they could accuse him.

“I have told you already and you did not listen. . . . Do you want to become his disciples, too?”NIV This brings out the irony of the situation. The religious leaders were making such extensive inquiry about Jesus’ identity that it would appear they wanted to follow him —when actually they had no intention of becoming his disciples.

The religious leaders were unable to throttle the healed beggar’s willingness to testify for Jesus. In fact, the more the Pharisees questioned this man who had received his sight, the stronger and clearer he became about Jesus. Their blind obstinacy helped his clarity. See how his vision cleared:

• At first, the man recognized his healer as “the man called Jesus” (9:11 NRSV).
• Then he knew Jesus was “a prophet” (9:17).
• Then he saw Jesus as one who was “from God” and had performed a miracle never done before (9:32-33).
• Then finally, when confronted by Jesus, he believed that Jesus is the “Son of Man” (the Messiah), worthy of worship (9:35-38).

9:28-29 “We are disciples of Moses!”NIV While the Pharisees questioned the man, they persistently defended their adherence to Moses (they were confident that God had spoken to Moses). But Jesus had already told them that if they really knew Moses and understood his writings, they would know the Messiah, for Moses wrote of him (5:45-47).

“But as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.”NIV The word fellow here is derogatory —as if Jesus were just another person with no credentials. It is ironic that the Pharisees claimed not to know where Jesus was from, for that was one item they believed would be true about the Messiah: “No one will know where he is from” (7:27 NIV). They refused to accept Jesus’ words or believe that the signs he did validated his claims. They chose to reject him.

9:30-31 This reasoning (and probably their insults too) astonished the healed man, so he tried to explain to them that the act of giving him sight proved that Jesus was a man whom God listened to: “We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will.”NRSV There are many Scriptures that support this man’s statement:

• “For what is the hope of the godless . . . ? Will God hear their cry . . ?” (Job 27:8-9 NRSV)
• “There they cry out, but he does not answer, because of the pride of evildoers. Surely God does not hear an empty cry, nor does the Almighty regard it.” (Job 35:12-13 NRSV)
• “The LORD is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous.” (Proverbs 15:29 NRSV)
• “When you stretch out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood.” (Isaiah 1:15 NRSV)

As a boy, this healed man certainly had been taught the Scriptures, and he pointed out this fact to these supposedly “learned” Pharisees. God does not listen to the requests of sinners, only to the requests of those devoted to him. This verse is also translated, “He listens to the godly man who does his will” (NIV).

9:32-34 “Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”NRSV Jesus had done the unprecedented, but not the unpredicted. In their fury, the Pharisees were blind to the Old Testment descriptions that specifically speak of the Messiah bringing sight to the blind (see Isaiah 29:18; 35:5; 42:7). Indeed, many thought the healing of the blind would be the messianic miracle par excellence because there was never any record of such a healing in the Old Testament.

The healed man’s condemnation of the Pharisees’ irrational rejection of Jesus proved too much for them to take, so they threw him outNIV (i.e., “they expelled him from the synagogue”) with a curse about his presumed guilt from birth: “You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?”NRSV

JESUS TEACHES ABOUT SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS / 9:35-41 / 150

Unless we have suffered rejection for our faith, we may not be able to identify with the state of this blind man whom Jesus healed. In a single day he went from being a disabled outcast to a celebrity who had miraculously received his sight, then to being a witness in court where he was treated like a criminal, and finally to being outcast again (literally) for simply telling the truth as he clearly saw it.

At this point, Jesus intervened again. He found the man, faced him, and asked a question that would uncover whether or not this man was ready to receive complete vision. The man’s understanding of the one who had healed him had already expanded considerably. Here was his chance to really see Jesus.

In the background of the man’s willing trust and worship we hear the Pharisees mumbling, incensed that Jesus was unwilling to recognize their spiritual stature. Instead, Jesus diagnosed their problem as ongoing profound blindness coupled with guilt.

9:35-38 After the man was thrown out of the synagogue, Jesus found him and asked him, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”NIV This is the reading in all the earliest manuscripts; later manuscripts read, “the Son of God.” Since Son of Man is a title of the Christ, Jesus was asking the man if he believed him to be the Messiah. Perhaps the man instantly recognized Jesus by his voice. He expressed immediate desire to believe, which here means not intellectual recognition, but wholehearted trust.

20/20 VISION

The longer this man experienced his new life through Christ, the more confident he became in the one who had healed him. He gained not only physical sight but also spiritual sight as he recognized Jesus first as a prophet (9:17), then as his Lord. When you turn to Christ, you begin to see him differently. The longer you walk with him, the better you will understand who he is. Peter tells us to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18 NIV). If you want to know more about Jesus, keep walking with him.

When the man asked who the Son of Man was, Jesus responded, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”NIV The words you have now seen him have double impact —the man could physically see Jesus with his healed eyes, and he could spiritually see because he understood that Jesus was the Messiah.

“Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.NIV The man acted on his newfound belief —he worshiped. He may have just been excommunicated from the synagogue, but he had found true worship. His personal belief is the culmination of the narrative. His belief sharply contrasts with the blindness of the religious leaders (9:40-41).

9:39-41 Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment.”NRSV Do Jesus’ words here contradict his statement in 3:17: “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world” (NKJV)? Jesus did not execute judgment during his years on earth, although he would do that in the future. However, his words here reveal that, as the Light of the World, he sees and reveals people’s innermost thoughts and deepest motives. In so doing, he “judges” or separates those who claim to have great spiritual knowledge when in fact they are blind, from those who humbly seek to follow God and who thus find the Savior.

ULTIMATE ADVENTURE!

John 9 would make a wonderful script for a play or movie. The innocent hero, a disabled victim, is expelled from his home and lives on the periphery of society. Religious people suspect his parents committed some heinous sin, possibly before he was even born!

Into our victim/hero’s life steps a remarkable stranger who heals his blindness. The blind man is asked to wash off some miracle mud and loses track of the one who gave him his sight. Strangely, no one recognizes the miracle that has happened to him or shares in his joy. Instead, they treat him as if he has contracted a new disease! Even his parents maintain their distance. Finally, as he explains over and over what happened and what he thinks about the man who healed him, he finds himself thrown into the street. It is only then that he finally meets Jesus face-to-face and believes.

By relating this incident John prepares those who follow Jesus to expect opposition from unbelievers —even religious unbelievers. The trials of those who trust Jesus are real. The backlash and rejection can take financial, familial, social and religious forms. It takes courage and conviction to keep on following Christ. “Though my father and mother forsake me, the LORD will receive me” (Psalm 27:10 NIV).

“So that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.”NRSV Christ spoke these words to the healed man in the presence of the Pharisees. Those who do not see are those who realize their need for the Savior and humbly come to him for salvation. They will see. But those who do see are the self-righteous who think they have all the answers and have no need of the Savior. They become blind because they have rejected the “light of the world” (8:12).

The Pharisees quickly understood that Jesus had directed this statement toward them, but they were not fully sure of the meaning of his words, so they asked, “Surely we are not blind, are we?”NRSV They assumed that with their learning, reputation, and high standing, they certainly would not be counted among the “blind.”

Jesus expanded his statement with the rather cryptic condemnation: “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.”NIV In contrast to the man who had received his sight, the Pharisees had sight but no light. They were spiritually blind, though they claimed to see. Those who admitted blindness could receive the light and see, but those who thought they saw would remain in their darkness. And their guilt remained, whether they felt guilty or not.

CHOOSING BLINDNESS

The Pharisees were shocked that Jesus thought they were spiritually blind. Jesus countered by saying that it was only blindness (stubbornness and stupidity) that could excuse their behavior. To those who remained open and recognized how sin had truly blinded them from knowing the truth, Jesus gave spiritual understanding and insight. But he rejected those who had become complacent, self-satisfied, and “blind.”

Spiritual darkness describes the worst form of judgment. The Light of the World, Jesus, gives us a glimmer of hope. All of us need to follow the Light given to us. Otherwise we are left with nothing but our blind judgment and self-darkening opinions.