John 9 - Africa Study Bible

The Pharisees insisted that Jesus must be a sinner because he broke the Sabbath. He healed the man born blind. They had known the blind man for many years but could not help him. So, they were probably envious. A proverb among the Lelna of Kebbi State of Nigeria says, Av buz zomo, av ta rut o da, av reb o c’con, meaning, “If you chase a rabbit and fail to catch it, you could at least claim it is worth nothing more than long ears.” The implication is that those who downplay the achievements of others are merely showing their own frustration at not achieving what those others have achieved. We should be humble enough to acknowledge our failings. We should recognise the achievements of other people.

Necessary Suffering • John 9:1-3

Many people believe that rich people are blessed and poor people are cursed—and that they are cursed because of sin. It seems that the disciples also believed that. When they saw a blind man, they assumed he was blind because he or his parents had sinned.

Suffering is not necessarily the result of sin. Jesus taught that suffering is sometimes necessary so that the power of God can be seen through us. When we are faced with problems and are not conscious of sin in our lives, we should not be thinking, “What did I do wrong?” Rather, we should seek to know God’s plan for us in that problem. Then we can be at peace, knowing that Jesus has the power to deliver us and demonstrated his power in his time and in his way.

Jesus said in John 9:4, “We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent us. The night is coming, and then no one can work.”

We Africans love to greet one another; greeting is a good part of our culture. But at times we have to decide between the good and the best thing to do. A Nigerian proverb says, Ba a gama kasuwa da maraba, meaning, “One does not greet everyone in the market.” Even though greeting is good, if we attempted to greet everyone there, we would spend all our time greeting and not get the necessary shopping done. In the same way, we must “carry out the tasks assigned us” by Jesus and not get distracted. We must focus on them as Jesus did.