This is a fascinating chapter with a difficult lesson.
After narrowly escaping being stoned to death, Jesus is walking along somewhere. He sees a man who has been blind from birth. The disciples want to know if the cause of the blindness is the man’s sin or his parents’ sin. Jesus says, nope, neither one; he’s blind so that “the works of God might be displayed in him.” (This could lead into a deep discussion of theodicy, but I’m not going there - too tired.)
And then Jesus lapses into metaphor again: day, night, I am the light. “As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming when no one can work.” (verse 4). So the themes of light and work(s) continue.
Jesus makes a paste of mud with his spit, puts the paste on the blind man’s eyes, and tells him to wash in the pool of Siloam. When the man does this, he can see.
The neighbors have a dispute on who this now-seeing person is. They bring the man to the Pharisees. Uh oh, this is sure to mean trouble for Jesus. The Pharisees decide that Jesus’ healing the man on the Sabbath breaks the laws of the Sabbath. It probably has something to do with touching mud? Or spit? Or it’s a false accusation? Not sure.
The Pharisees still doubt the man’s story, so they send for his parents, who are afraid to tell the truth. They know the Pharisees will expel from the synagogue anyone who says Jesus is Messiah. The Pharisees question the man a second time which understandably makes him testy. The Pharisees get testy right back, and insult the formerly blind man.
The man finds his voice to stand up to authority. He says to the Pharisees, 31-33 “... We know that God does not listen to sinners.* He listens to the godly person who does his will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”
*An aside - many of us would say that God does listen to sinners. Note that this is the formerly blind man speaking, not Jesus and not the gospel author. But perhaps the point here is that the Pharisees, as portrayed in this gospel, are not going to claim so.
The Pharisees, who clearly think that Jesus is not from God, feel threatened by this man’s challenge to their authority. They taunt him: “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” (verse 34). This contradicts Jesus’ declaration in verse 3 that neither the man’s sin nor his parents’ sin caused the blindness. The Pharisees throw the man out, presumably out of the synagogue.
Hearing that the man has been expelled, Jesus finds him. He asks the man, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” The man replies, who is that? Jesus, in typical fashion for this gospel, replies by referring to himself in the third person:
“You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.” (verse 37)
The man professes belief in Jesus (aligns with him, is loyal to him, beloves what Jesus beloves) and bows down to him.
Then Jesus, fulfilling his prediction in verse 3 that the works of God would be displayed through this blind man, says, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.” (verse 39) Does this statement conflict with verse 3:17?
A review of judgment and condemnation so far in this gospel:
- In 3:17 the gospel writer said “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn (judge) the world, but to save the world through him.”
- In 5:22-27 Jesus said that The Father has given all judgment to the Son.
- And in 5:30 Jesus said “my judgment is just, because I seek to do … the will of him who sent me.
- In 7:24 Jesus urged The Jews to not judge by appearances, but “judge with right judgment.”
- In 8:1-11 the woman caught in adultery has been condemned to death, but Jesus said only those who can claim to be without sin can inflict her punishment, and in the end, no one was left to condemn the woman.
- In 8:15-16, Jesus said he judges no one and then backtracked and said he judges with the Father who sent him.
- In 9:39, Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.”
So is it 3:17 (not to condemn the world) or 9:39 (for judgment)? In these past few chapters, Jesus seems to be more about judgment, at least of the religious authorities, than he is about saving.
The Pharisees are sort of like the Keystone Cops, and haplessly say, Who us? “Surely we are not blind, are we?”
Jesus’ reply is fascinating to me.
41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say,
‘We see,’ your sin remains.
He seems to be saying that the Pharisees’ claim to “see” is what makes them sinful. All along in this gospel Jesus has chastised those who don’t understand his metaphors, with the Pharisees chief among those he disses. I think he is compelling the Pharisees to “become blind”, that is, to stop thinking they have all the right answers and try to experience the world from another perspective.
If I can get past all the polemical accusations against the Pharisees, and their portrayal as unabashedly evil, this is a most interesting chapter. Who among us can really see everything and has all the facts to justly judge a situation or another person?
Coming up in Chapter 10, Jesus is about to throw at them a brand new metaphor. Who will see and understand?
Images and themes: judgment, belief, work
People/Beings: a blind man, the disciples, Jesus, the blind man’s neighbors and parents, the Pharisees.
Places: Walking along (somewhere in Jerusalem)
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