1 Samuel 16:1-13 | Psalm 23 | Ephesians 5:8-14 | John 9:1-41
John 9:1-41
1 As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ 3 Jesus answered, ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. 4 We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.’ 6 When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes, 7 saying to him, ‘Go, wash in the pool of Siloam’ (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see. 8 The neighbours and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, ‘Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?’ 9 Some were saying, ‘It is he.’ Others were saying, ‘No, but it is someone like him.’ He kept saying, ‘I am the man.’ 10 But they kept asking him, ‘Then how were your eyes opened?’ 11 He answered, ‘The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, “Go to Siloam and wash.” Then I went and washed and received my sight.’ 12 They said to him, ‘Where is he?’ He said, ‘I do not know.’ 13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. 14 Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. 15 Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight. He said to them, ‘He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see.’ 16 Some of the Pharisees said, ‘This man is not from God, for he does not observe the sabbath.’ But others said, ‘How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?’ And they were divided. 17 So they said again to the blind man, ‘What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened.’ He said, ‘He is a prophet.’ 18 The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight 19 and asked them, ‘Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?’ 20 His parents answered, ‘We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; 21 but we do not know how it is that now he sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.’ 22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. 23 Therefore his parents said, ‘He is of age; ask him.’ 24 So for the second time they called the man who had been blind, and they said to him, ‘Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner.’ 25 He answered, ‘I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.’ 26 They said to him, ‘What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?’ 27 He answered them, ‘I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?’ 28 Then they reviled him, saying, ‘You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. 29 We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.’ 30 The man answered, ‘Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will. 32 Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.’ 34 They answered him, ‘You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?’ And they drove him out. 35 Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he found him, he said, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’ 36 He answered, ‘And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him.’ 37 Jesus said to him, ‘You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.’ 38 He said, ‘Lord, I believe.’ And he worshipped him. 39 Jesus said, ‘I came into this world for judgement so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.’ 40 Some of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him, ‘Surely we are not blind, are we?’ 41 Jesus said to them, ‘If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, “We see”, your sin remains.
Introduction
The Gospel reading is a rich and complex passage. As is typical of John the Evangelist, he’s packed much in here. We have blind man, blind from birth, being given sight. We have a dispute over healing on the Sabbath. We have angry Pharisees plotting against Jesus. But, the question driving this passage is something a bit different. The question driving this passage is this: where did Jesus come from? The tension of the passage, the conflict, the dispute revolves around this question. Who is this Jesus? Where did he come from?
1. Exegesis
The story begins with Jesus and his disciples encountering a man blind from birth. The disciples assumed, as did pretty much everyone in those days, that something like blindness was the result of a particular sin committed by the man or his parents. While the theology behind this belief is partially true, disease and deformity and the like are the result of the fall, of sinfulness in general, Jesus, however, dismisses this notion immediately. Particular sins don’t necessarily result in particular maladies. But then, unsurprisingly, Jesus shifts the conversation radically in verse 4: “We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Jesus wants to take the conversation in a different direction. ‘I’ve been sent by somebody to do some work.’ Whatever is going on here, in Jesus’s mind, it is connected to the work he was sent to do and the one who sent him. But how?
Notice the use of imagery. This is quite typical of John’s Gospel. Light and dark are most often in reference to spiritual light and spiritual darkness. And these ideas are then also connected to seeing in general, and especially to seeing here. It’s a bit of a foreshadowing. The man born blind is not merely physically blind, he’s spiritually blind. He’s spiritually in the dark. And in this way, his blindness anticipates the spiritual blindness of others. And what he needs, then, is to see Jesus, who stated in the previous chapter, 8:12: that is the “light of the world.” Whoever follows him “will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” And so these images are tied together, blindness and darkness, light and sight, pointing to Christ Jesus, the light of the world.
Having made his seemingly unconnected, but provocative statement, Jesus then spits in some dirt, makes some mud, and begins to heal the man by placing the mud on his eyes. It sounds absolutely disgusting. Probably not an acceptable practice in a Viennese hospital, though, I suppose ironically, it is not far off from the proposed Republican healthcare plan in the United States.
Now, I have to pause here for a quick tangent. As with most passages of John’s Gospel, there is another layer of symbolism under the surface. Jesus’s spit. Spittle, while apparently thought to have some medicinal value in pagan literature and especially ancient magic, was something else in Judaism. Like all bodily fluids, for Jews, spit is a pollutant and added a dimension of religious uncleanness that is especially severe. We see in places like Leviticus 15 that such uncleanness is transferred via spit and requires ritual cleansing. It is no accident, then, that Jesus tells the man to go and was himself in the pool.
The healing is complete when he goes to the pool and washes. Here the details bring us back to the main point. The name of the pool is Siloam. And if like me, your Hebrew is a little rusty, John helps us out and tells us what it means: “sent.” This is his less-than-subtle way of telling us, again, that the focus of this story is question of where did Jesus come from? Who sent him?
What happens next is simple. The man tells his story to the people hanging around. Confused as to the religious implications, they take him to the Pharisees. He tells his story to them. They don’t believe he was ever really blind. They drag his parents in, who confirm yes, he really was blind from birth. The Pharisees then bring him back in again, tell him that they know Jesus is a sinner, and ask him to tell his story again. The blind guy, a little annoyed at this—after all, he has never seen anything before, he’s got better things to do than being a professional trial witness—gets a bit feisty. Verse 27: “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” Obviously, they do not. They get angry and drive him out.
Note again, the Pharisees do not get hung up on Jesus healing on the Sabbath, as they did back in chapter 5. This time, they assume it and tie it to the question of whether it is God who sent Jesus. Verse 16: “This man is not from God, for he does not observe the Sabbath.” They conclude in verses 22: “that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue.” But the most telling moment is when they question the man for the second time in verses 28-33:
28 Then the Pharisees reviled him, saying, ‘You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. 29 We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.’ 30 The man answered, ‘Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will. 32 Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.’
The issue is brought to the foreground. They Pharisees persist in their spiritual darkness. They continue, unlike this man, in their spiritual blindness. They have witnessed the evidence of a miraculous healing, and yet they cannot believe that Jesus came from God. And in contrast, the man believes. He once was blind, but now he sees. And when Jesus asks him whether he believes in the Son of Man, the man’s response is “Lord, I believe.”
2. Application
What are we to take away from this? I offer you a couple thoughts.
First, what do you believe about Jesus? Do you believe that God sent him? Do you really believe that his authority over nature, over blindness, over the Sabbath, really comes from God?
Both ancient and modern Jews, for example, view Jesus as the son of Mary, a teacher, a disciple-gatherer, a miracle-worker, someone who rightly died for blasphemy, and a stumbling block. They did not and do not believe he was from God. Muslims, for the most part, have a higher view of Jesus. For them, he was born of the Virgin Mary, a righteous messenger, one who performs miracles (and the Quran even mentions this particular miracle in chapter 3), and who ascended into heaven and will come again in judgment. But they do not believe he was anything more than a messenger (Quran 5:75), denying that he is the Son of God (Quran 9:30).
In other words, both Judaism and Islam think Jesus was a wise teacher, but also specifically deny his divinity, deny that he was from God. And I wonder if, functionally, this isn’t most of us? Thirty-five percent of millennials in a 2015 Barna Group poll of American adults, 35 percent of millennials think Jesus was simply a spiritual leader like Buddha or Mohammed. What is the result? Sixty-four percent of millennials have made no commitment to Jesus.
So, I ask you again, what do you believe about Jesus? Do you believe that he was a pretty good guy who said some pretty good things and should inspire us to live better lives? Or do you believe he is what he claims to be in this passage, the light of the world, sent from God to save his people for eternal life? Because Jesus is abundantly clear on this distinction, stating it in metaphorical terms in verse 39: “Jesus said, ‘I came into this world for judgement so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.’”
Make no mistake, friends. Whether you think Jesus is merely a good guy who founded a religion or whether you think he is the light of the world, makes all the difference. For those who believe, he is a light that shines in the darkness and gives us sight. But for those who do not believe, he is a light—but like staring into the sun—a light that blinds. He will continue to divide the world between those who know him to be sent from God, his only Son, who came to die for our sins and give us eternal life, and those who deny he came from God.
You see, ours is an uncomfortable world. It is a dark world, full of spiritual blindness, not to mention actual blindness. It is a world full of people who live for themselves, whose identities are wrapped up in any number of noble pursuits—work, family, love, even religion. But they reduce Christianity to a set of rules, and they reduce Jesus to a role model. In such a worldview, life is frustrating, tiring, disappointing. In such a worldview, we will always fail to live up to Christ’s standard, and we will go about as the blind man did, beaten down by sin and its effects.
But, friends, Jesus is more than a mere role model. He is the light of the world. He is the Saviour of the world. So, what do you believe about Jesus? Who do you think sent him?
If we look to the end of the Gospel, this question appears again. John 19. Jesus had been betrayed and then tried before the high priest and convicted and sentenced to death. As part of the process, he was then brought before Pontius Pilate, who ultimately bowed to the will of the people, despite having no case against him. For all his flaws, Pilate was no stupid man. And even though Jesus was about to go to his death—the death that leads to resurrection that leads to salvation for those who believe—even though Jesus was about to be taken out and crucified, Pilate came back to him. And he asked the right question. John 19:9: “He entered his headquarters again and asked Jesus, ‘Where are you from?’”
So, again, I ask you. What do you believe about Jesus? Who do you think sent him? Because belief in him is light in the darkness, sight for the blind. This is precisely the lesson that the blind man learned that day. Note the final conversation he has with Jesus. Jesus asks him in verse 35: “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” His eventual response in verse 38: “’Lord, I believe.’ And he worshipped him.”
Second, and I will be much briefer here: remember the spit. It is a bodily fluid that pollutes. And yet, in this case, it also heals. Well, this is not the only reference to Christ’s unusual use of bodily fluids in John’s Gospel. John chapter 6 shows that Christ’s blood, in fact, is even more powerful. This blood is the blood which was shed on the cross. And the cleansing that comes from his blood is the cleansing from sin that leads to eternal life. This is precisely what we remember when we celebrate the Lord’s Table, as we will in just a few minutes.
Conclusion
So be encouraged, friends, in your faith. Who is this Jesus? He Jesus Christ, the light of the world. And where did he come from? He came from God the Father. And why? He came to give sight to the blind, faith to the faithless, life to those who believe in him.
Let me pray: Heavenly Father, give us your light that we believe that Christ Jesus came from you to save us. We pray in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.