The once-blind man recognises the spiritual blindness of the Pharisees, and he is an unbeliever

This is brought out beautifully in verses 13-34. We have the ex-blind man vs. the Pharisees.

 

John 9:13 They brought to the Pharisees him who was formerly blind.

 

John 9:14 Now it was a Sabbath on the day when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes.

 

/The Pharisees (not God) made it illegal to spit on the Sabbath or to make clay, and Christ did this right on the steps of the temple.\

 

If you remember in John 5, Christ healed the lame man on the Sabbath as well and they got all bent out of whack.

 

Legalism hates grace and therefore they don’t even acknowledge the miracle. No one with congenital blindness has ever been healed ever but they don’t care.

 

Their little pet taboo has been violated. They made up these taboos so they could elevate themselves above others. Therefore they don’t care about others - they only care about control and power.

 

They say one thing, but do another. They’ll quote

 

/Ps 146:8

The Lord opens the eyes of the blind;

The Lord raises up those who are bowed down;

The Lord loves the righteous;\

 

They’ll sing this but won’t believe it. After all they’re the righteous, in their eyes. They just elected themselves righteous and convinced themselves that they know more than everyone else.

 

This type of thinking has been going on with power hungry people all throughout time.

 

The ex-blind man who has been seeing for a couple of hours is going to logically paint them in a corner to reveal just how blind they are.  

 

John 9:15 Again, therefore, the Pharisees also were asking him how he received his sight. And he said to them, "He applied clay to my eyes, and I washed, and I see."

 

They interrogate him and he shortens his story, but again right to the point.

 

/They can’t deny the genuineness of the miracle. It’s happened and they can’t refute that. So they’ll discredit the people involved.\

 

So they’ll do what people always do when they can’t deny something that they hate - they’ll discredit it by discrediting the person who performed it and the man who received it.

 

This happens all the time. If you can get some people to believe a lie to discredit someone’s character then you can accomplish their defeat. This is American politics every 2 and 4 years.

 

John 9:16 Therefore some of the Pharisees were saying, "This man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath." But others were saying, "How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?" And there was a division among them.

 

Legalism is blind. We’ve seen it a hundred times in this Gospel. This Gospel is the gospel of the uniqueness of the God man. It reveals over the other synoptic gospels that JC is God.

 

They say He’s not from God. He is God. And He has alleviated the suffering of the man, done something no one has ever done before.

 

Yet there is a division. We find some logical thinkers in the crowd who can’t understand how an average man, a sinner, could pull off such a miracle.

 

John 9:17 They said therefore to the blind man again, "What do you say about Him, since He opened your eyes?" And he said, "He is a prophet."

 

/This is different from the first interrogation. They want him to renounce any gratitude for what Jesus did because of their Sabbath rule.\

 

They had used the Sabbath as a means of control for a long time and anyone who violated it would be expelled forever from the temple. So they put some pressure on the man, but the seeing man is not going to succumb to the pressure.

 

This man is a genuine person with real appreciation for what Jesus did.

 

I still am trying to imagine what it is like for this man who has never seen a thing, ever.

 

/He chooses to call Jesus a prophet because he still doesn’t know who He is. It’s the highest office he can think of.\

 

John 9:18 The Jews therefore did not believe it of him, that he had been blind, and had received sight, until they called the parents of the very one who had received his sight,

 

Impossible. Even if they acknowledge Jesus as a prophet He would be a higher rank than them and they will have none of that. So they shout out for the man’s parents.

 

John 9:19 and questioned them, saying, "Is this your son, who you say was born blind? Then how does he now see?"

 

/They try three ways to discredit.

1. Is this your son?

2. Was he born blind?

3. How does he now [temporarily] see?\

 

John 9:20 His parents answered them and said, "We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind;

 

They take care of the first two with ease, but they are far too intimidated to answer the third and final question and so they pass this off to their son.

 

/1. Is this your son? Yes

2. Was he born blind? Oh yeah.

3. How does he now [temporarily] see? We don’t know. Ask him.\

 

John 9:21 but how he now sees, we do not know; or who opened his eyes, we do not know. Ask him; he is of age, he shall speak for himself."

 

/Why were they intimidated? They would have been kicked out of the temple. This meant excommunication which meant social and economic ostracism.\

 

John 9:22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed, that if anyone should confess Him to be Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue.

 

 

John 9:23 For this reason his parents said, "He is of age; ask him."

 

   

John 9:24 So a second time they called the man who had been blind, and said to him, "Give glory to God; we know that this man is a sinner."

 

Saying, “give glory to God,” is equivalent to putting him under oath, with the implication that he has been lying before.

 

They have already tried to discredit him, now they move on the discredit Christ.

 

/They say of the only sinless man ever, “we know that this man is a sinner,” and they hand out the command to glorify God - ironic at best.\

 

John 9:25 He therefore answered, "Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see."

 

Like a good lawyer, if there is such a thing, they are trying to get him to tangle up in his words, but this man sticks to the facts.

 

/He uses a debaters technique, “if he’s a sinner I don’t know, but here’s what I do know.” - Let’s stick to the facts!\

 

You and I have found ourselves in debates like this where a person who seeks to be right, even to the point of discrediting anyone, even you, will bounce all over the place and try and put words in your mouth. They never stick to the hard facts.

 

/The blind man from birth does not judge the Lord Jesus Christ.\

 

John 9:26 They said therefore to him, "What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes?"

 

Classic debaters technique - get you to refute prior testimony. They asked the same question 3 times hoping he’d make a mistake.

 

And what a great response.

 

John 9:27 He answered them, "I told you already, and you did not listen; why do you want to hear it again? You do not want to become His disciples too, do you?"

 

This is beautiful sarcasm.

 

/ “Why do you keep asking about Him? You don’t want to become His disciples too, do you? The question with the negative means he already knows the answer to this is no.\

 

So he’s not truly asking if they’re interested in becoming a disciple we know that he is using sarcasm.

 

John 9:28 And they reviled him, and said, "You are His disciple, but we are disciples of Moses.

 

They can’t meet logical argument with logic so they have to verbally abuse him.

 

/Reviled is loidoreo, which means verbal abuse. They called him everything that a religious person should not call anyone!\

 

They shed their religious dignity and in their anger and frustration they now show everyone that they are bullies, that they have no answers, that their theology is absolutely no good, that they are legalists.

 

And they say he is a disciple, but he isn’t. He’s not a believer yet.

 

They always used that phrase, “we are disciples of Moses,” to put other people down. These are mean, cruel, bullies and that’s what religion does to a person.

 

John 9:29 "We know that God has spoken to Moses; but as for this man, we do not know where He is from."

 

When you lose your temper you always make mistakes. The Pharisees proclaimed to know everything, but they admit that they don’t know where Jesus is from.

 

/Exasperated the Pharisees make a critical error. They admit their ignorance but continue judging anyway and this uneducated man is going to see right through it.\

 

/Moses spoke of Christ. Christ is the Passover and the Levitical offerings, but they never saw Him because of their NV.\

 

And now he goes to even greater sarcasm and shows incredible insight.

 

John 9:30 The man answered and said to them, "Well, here is an amazing thing, that you do not know where He is from, and yet He opened my eyes.

 

Notice his confidence.

 

/The once-blind man recognises the spiritual blindness of the Pharisees—and he is an unbeliever.\

 

/He suffered from physical blindness; they suffered from spiritual blindness. The one who cured his physical blindness is the only one that can cure their spiritual blindness.\

 

Now this man has been on the temple steps hearing their discussions day after day and year after year. And he is going to take what they taught and show how they are discrediting their own words.

 

John 9:31 "We know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is God-fearing, and does His will, He hears him.

 

You call this man a sinner and yet God heard him. Therefore, He can’t be a sinner and you can’t be right and He be wrong.

 

John 9:32 "Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind.

 

John 9:33 "If this man were not from God, He could do nothing."

 

Case closed. If there were a mediator present he would have pronounced victory in the debate for the ex-blind man. And in their hearts (those cold tiny hearts) the Pharisees know it.

 

So, they conclude, let’s just do what we always do, put him down and throw him out.

 

John 9:34 They answered and said to him, "You were born entirely in sins, and are you teaching us?" And they put him out.

 

/ “put him out” - exbalo - they picked him up and through him down the temple steps.\

 

On his first day of sight he gets tossed out of the temple and goes rolling down the steps. What a great day! And it’s gonna get a heck of a lot better because Jesus hears about him being bounced.

 

 

John 9:35 Jesus heard that they had put him out; and finding him, He said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" 

The Lord sought him out just like He’s done to every one of us when we went positive.

 

And the Lord doesn’t come right out with the Gospel. Sometimes He did, but here he challenges the man on the mechanics of the Gospel - faith.

 

/There is no one way to witness. The sensitive ambassador knows which way to witness in any given circumstance.\

 

Jesus also sees that the blind man had completely rejected religion and religion had completely rejected him. Now he’s ripe for the gospel.

 

John 9:36 He answered and said, "And who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?"

 

John 9:37 Jesus said to him, "You have both seen Him, and He is the one who is talking with you." 

 

/When the blind man got his sight he said he could see - blepo - hello brand new world. And he was described as seeing everything - anablepo meaning to keep looking at everything.\

 

But when the Lord said:

 

/ “You have both seen Him,” He uses horao, which refers to the perceptive ability of the soul - the eyes of the soul.\

 

That’s where we see Christ for the first time. If people had to see Him face to face to see Him then only those living during the first advent could have been saved.

 

 

 

John 9:38 And he said, "Lord, I believe." And he worshiped Him.

 

/ “worshipped” - proskuneo (pros = face to face; kuneo = to kiss) He didn’t kiss Him physically but he kissed Him with his soul.\

 

His self-consciousness is aware of Christ. In his mentality he has just believed in Jesus Christ. His emotion appreciates Jesus Christ.