John 9

This is one of the very few miracles that Jesus did without being asked to do it! Before performing the miracle, Jesus made it very clear that this man’s blindness was not caused because of either his sin or his parent’s sin, vs 1-3, but so that the acts of God may be revealed through his blindness.

This shows us that there is a possibility of us having some physical infirmity on account of our sin or our parent’s sin or just simply so that the glory of God should be revealed. The actual reason for the same is for the person concerned to find out and it is not for us to judge anyone else for the same. Being the Light of the world and feeling compelled by the Holy Spirit, Jesus was led to miraculously heal the blind man, while time still permitted him to do so, vs 4,5.

However, the healing would be manifested only after the man, who was told to go in faith and wash at a particular pool, did so in obedience to Jesus’ instructions, vs 6-7! Thus we see that this healing was not done instantly, the infirmity was not because of sin and Jesus was led to heal the man without him asking to be healed! The neighbours and others around found it difficult to believe that this was the same blind beggar who was healed, but he boldly proclaimed that he indeed was, and told them how Jesus had healed him, vs 8-12.

When this news reached the Pharisees’ ears, instead of them being enthusiastic about the healing, they were indignant that Jesus had performed this miracle on the Sabbath, and so concluded that Jesus was not sent from God, because he broke the Sabbath This proves that it is possible for someone to be perfectly innocent of breaking God’s law, while the Pharisee in us misjudges them ruthlessly and wrongly for doing so!

They also felt that the man who was healed was infact not at all blind in the first place, and so, in order to verify the story, the parents of the boy were summoned, vs 13-18. The parents affirmed that the boy who was healed was indeed their son who was born blind, but they refused to acknowledge that it was Jesus who had done the healing, for they knew that the Jewish leaders had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Christ would be put out of the synagogue, vs 19-23!

Do we also find ourselves conveniently avoiding the confrontation of some issues with the leaders of our Churches for fear of being put out by them?

So, his parents told the leaders to question their son himself about the same, for they reasoned that he was a mature adult. When their son once again affirmed the miracle by also stating that Jesus was a Prophet vs 17, who was indeed sent by God and who could not have performed such miracles if he was a sinner, as the leaders thought him to be, they got angry on him and maligned him and threw him out of the synagogue, vs 24-34! It was only then that Jesus met with him again and revealed Himself to Him as the Messiah, and he immediately believed and worshipped the Lord, vs 35-38!

This revelation is what the parent’s missed, because they chose to fear man, more than they feared God, being only satisfied with their son’s healing!

Jesus then stated that He came into the world so that those who were willing to acknowledge their blindness (sin), in all honesty and humility, would indeed regain their sight, while those who pretended that they could see (had no sin) would continue to remain blind, vs 39-41(guilty of their sin).

Some traits of the Pharisees that we see here include:
*Being dishonest about their sin in private.
*Being dishonest about their sin when rebuked in public.
*Misjudging the reason for other people’s problems.
*Lacking in discernment concerning the spiritual maturity of a person.
*Unhappy about seeing people being delivered, but instead being angry about people breaking their man-made traditions.
*Using their authority to punish/persecute those who refuse to accept their wrong teachings.
*Seeking to remove the speck from their brother’s eye, without first removing the log from their own.
*Failing to believe in and accept supernatural miracles, as well as failure to discern the character of those through whom God works those miracles!

Let us determine to judge ourselves in the light of these points, and others as the Holy Spirit reveals, so as to ensure that we don’t make the same mistakes that the Pharisees made, thus missing out on the revelation of who Christ really is and who we are in Him, and thus fail to be delivered from our spiritual blindness, during such a time as this! Amen.

Rowena Thomas
Mumbai, India.