Jesus heals a blind man

John 9

One day Jesus’ and His disciples were walking and came upon a blind man who had been born that way. His disciples asked Jesus, “Why was this man born blind? Was it because of his parents‘ sin, or because he is sinful.” They assumed that if something that bad happens, it is because someone sinned and is being punished. But that wasn’t the reason the man was blind at all.

“Neither he nor his parents were being punished for sin when this man was born blind,” Jesus said. “He is blind so that God can be glorified in him.” Even our weaknesses, and things we wish were different about us, can give God the opportunity to bless us and use us. This blind man was not only about to be healed of blindness, but given sight spiritually, too, so that he would have eternal life.

Then Jesus did something strange. He spit on the dirt on the ground to make mud like clay. And He rubbed a little of it on the blind man’s eyes. He told the man, “Go wash off in the pool of Siloam.” When the man did what Jesus said, he came back seeing.

Everyone was surprised. Some said, “Isn’t this man who sees us the same one who always had to beg here because he was blind?” Some answered yes, and some said, “No, but he looks just like him.” The man told them all, “I am the one.”

“Then how did your eyes get opened to see?” they asked.

He told them, “Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes. He told me to go wash off. I did, and received my sight.” Here is where we find out why Jesus did the strange thing of making the mud and putting it on the man’s eyes. It was a sabbath day, when work wasn’t allowed. And the pharisees misused the sabbath law to prevent doing good things for others on the sabbath day. Jesus wanted to heal the man after working to make clay, so that the pharisees would get angry, and He could show the people the truth.

The pharisees did just what Jesus expected. Instead of rejoicing in wonder that a blind man had been healed, they got angry at the man for being healed on a sabbath day by Jesus. They investigated, asking his parents about him, and found out it was all true. The man was born blind, but now because of Jesus he could see.

They demanded the man call Jesus a sinner for healing him. The man said, “I don’t know of any sin He committed. I just know that I was blind, and now I see.” Angrily, they demanded he tell them what Jesus did to heal him. He answered, “I already told you, and you wouldn’t listen. Why are you asking again? Do you want to become His disciples, too?”

Hearing him say he was now a follower of Jesus made the pharisees mad at the man who was healed. They insulted him and said, “We follow Moses. This Jesus you’re following–we don’t even know where He came from.”

The man rebuked them. “How could you not know all about Him if you are God’s servants?” he asked. Continuing, he said, “Never in history has a man born blind been given sight, and yet this Man Jesus you don’t know did that for me? No sinful person could have done that. So you are wrong about Jesus.”

They mocked him for thinking he could teach them anything, and they kicked him out of the synagogue. He had paid a price for being healed by Jesus and praising Jesus for it. It was the right thing to do, but they persecuted him for it.

Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and Jesus went to him. (If people reject us for believing in Jesus and obeying Him, Jesus still accepts us.) He asked the man if He believed, and the man said, “Lord, I believe.” Jesus told him that he now sees physically with his eyes, and spiritually by faith. But the pharisees were spiritually blind, because they didn’t want to see the truth and believe. They claimed they could see, but the guilt of their sin remained, Jesus said. While the man once blind believed and had forgiveness and life.