Healing the Man Born Blind
John 9:1-7
In our exposition of the Gospel of John we have come to chapter 9 where Jesus heals a man who was born blind. The story is powerful both in its vivid portrait of Jesus and in its significance in our understanding of suffering and salvation. I want to begin today by reading the entire chapter so that you can grasp the whole context of the story although I will limit my comments to just the first 7 verses today.
1 Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. 2 And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. 4 I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the 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 these things, He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva; and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. 7 And He said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent). So he went and washed, and came back seeing.
8 Therefore the neighbors and those who previously had seen that he was blind said, “Is not this he who sat and begged?” 9 Some said, “This is he.” Others said, “He is like him.” He said, “I am he.” 10 Therefore they said to him, “How were your eyes opened?” 11 He answered and said, “A Man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed, and I received sight.” 12 Then they said to him, “Where is He?” He said, “I do not know.”
13 They brought him who formerly was blind to the Pharisees. 14 Now it was a Sabbath when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. 15 Then the Pharisees also asked him again how he had received his sight. He said to them, “He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” 16 Therefore some of the Pharisees said, “This Man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.” Others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them. 17 They said to the blind man again, “What do you say about Him because He opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.”
18 But the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind and received his sight, until they called the parents of him who had received his sight. 19 And they asked them, saying, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” 20 His parents answered them and said, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; 21 but by what means he now sees we do not know, or who opened his eyes we do not know. He is of age; ask him. He will speak for himself.” 22 His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had agreed already that if anyone confessed that He was Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue. 23 Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”
24 So they again called the man who was blind, and said to him, “Give God the glory! We know that this Man is a sinner.” 25 He answered and said, “Whether He is a sinner or not I do not know. One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see.” 26 Then they said to him again, “What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes?” 27 He answered them, “I told you already, and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become His disciples?” 28 Then they reviled him and said, “You are His disciple, but we are Moses’ disciples. 29 We know that God spoke to Moses; as for this fellow, we do not know where He is from.” 30 The man answered and said to them, “Why, this is a marvelous thing, that you do not know where He is from; yet He has opened my eyes! 31 Now we know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does His will, He hears him. 32 Since the world began it has been unheard of that anyone opened the eyes of one who was born blind. 33 If this Man were not from God, He could do nothing.” 34 They answered and said to him, “You were completely born in sins, and are you teaching us?” And they cast him out.
35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He had found him, He said to him, “Do you believe in the Son of God?” 36 He answered and said, “Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?” 37 And Jesus said to him, “You have both seen Him and it is He who is talking with you.” 38 Then he said, “Lord, I believe!” And he worshiped Him. 39 And Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind.” 40 Then some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these words, and said to Him, “Are we blind also?” 41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see.’ Therefore your sin remains.
Jesus’ ministry was filled with miracles of healing. There are at least three purposes for these miracles. First, our Lord healed in order to relieve human suffering. He was full of compassion when He saw the suffering of people. But second, He also did those miracles as a testimony to who He is: the Christ, the Son of God. His works bear witness of His identity. And thirdly, His miracles are intended to be signs to convey spiritual truth. Jesus used this miracle to teach about spiritual blindness.
So this is another of the miraculous signs that John gives us in his Gospel so that we might believe in Jesus. And a great sign it is! Leon Morris comments that there are very few accounts of healing the blind in antiquity. There is no miracle of the giving of sight to the blind in the Old Testament. The scriptures record that God is the only One who has the ability to give sight to the blind:
[Exodus 4:11] 11 So the LORD said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? [Have] not I, the LORD?
[Psalms 146:8] 8 The LORD opens [the eyes of] the blind; The LORD raises those who are bowed down; The LORD loves the righteous.
In the Old Testament prophecies concerning the coming of Messiah, it was He who was to give sight to the blind.
[Isaiah 29:18] 18 In that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book, And the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness.
[Isaiah 35:5] 5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
[Isaiah 42:7] 7 To open blind eyes, To bring out prisoners from the prison, Those who sit in darkness from the prison house.
Jesus claims to fulfill such prophecy. In Luke 4 when Jesus is in the synagogue in Nazareth He read from the scroll of Isaiah:
[Luke 4:18-19] 18 “The Spirit of the LORD [is] upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to [the] poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to [the] captives And recovery of sight to [the] blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; 19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.”
And Luke records that Jesus began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:20). Giving sight to the blind is a God-given function of the promised Messiah.
Morris reminds us that, “There are more miracles of giving of sight to the blind recorded of Jesus than healings in any other category (see Matt. 9:27-31; 12:22f.; 15:30f.; 21:14; Mark 8:22-6; 10:46-52; Luke 7:21f.).” Here is but one more testimony—one more sign—that Jesus is the Son of God, the promised Messiah, the Savior of all who believe in Him (John 20:30-31).
As we saw from the end of the chapter, this blind man is also a picture of our spiritual condition. The sign of his healing points to a greater spiritual healing that needs to take place in the heart of every sinner. The blind man comes to see both physically and spiritually. The greatest miracle was not the opening of his eyes, but the opening of his heart to the Savior. But by way of contrast, at the end of the chapter the proud Pharisees, who thought that they could see, are left in their spiritual blindness.
Let’s briefly look at this man’s healing. First we see,
1. The blind man’s pitiful situation. (John 9:1)
John 9:1, “Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth.” Blindness was an all too common occurrence in the ancient world (cf. Lev. 19:14; 21:18; Deut. 27:18; 28:29; 2 Sam. 5:6, 8; Job 29:15); and the uncared-for blind were reduced to begging (cf. Mark 10:46). We know this is true of this man because John 9:8 tells us, “Therefore the neighbors and those who previously had seen that he was blind said, “Is not this he who sat and begged?”” We don’t know how old the man was although his parents say he is of age (John 9:23) meaning he is no longer a child. What we do know is that he had been blind all of his life, “blind from birth.”
Verse 1 says that this event took place “as Jesus passed by.” Jesus is again in Jerusalem. It was common for beggars to be at the gates leading into the Temple to receive alms for those going to worship, and we know from verse 14 that these events occurred on the Sabbath. This makes it likely that this event occurred as Jesus and His disciples are approaching the Temple.
John points out that it was Jesus who saw the blind man. This blind beggar did not take the initiative to cry out to Jesus for healing (in contrast to Mark 10:47-48). Rather, Jesus saw Him, and although John does not say it, I’m sure that He saw him as He saw all hurting people, with compassion. Jesus takes the initiative because only He could. Always remember that our Lord cares about people especially those with a debilitating handicap. This blind man was important to Jesus.
This blind man is a picture of the condition of every lost sinner. We are all born spiritually blind. This man lacked the ability to see Jesus physically, just as unbelievers lack the ability to see Jesus spiritually. The apostle Paul put it this way (2 Cor. 4:3-4):
3 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.
Lost people don’t need just a little more information so that they can make an informed decision to get saved. Rather, they need the miracle of spiritual sight that only God can give.
So that is the blind man’s pitiful situation. In verse 2 we see,
2. The disciple’s plaguing speculation. (John 9:2)
The disciples must have noticed Jesus looking at the blind man. So they ask, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
Warren Wiersbe wrote, “The disciples did not look at the man as an object of mercy but rather as a subject for a theological discussion.” Behind their question was the common Jewish view that there was always a direct correlation between sin and suffering. That was the view of Job’s “comforters”: if Job was suffering, it must be because he had sinned. But both the book of Job and our Lord’s words here refute that view.
The Bible does teach that children can suffer on account of their parents’ sins (Exod. 34:7; Jer. 32:18). We see this principle all around us. Kids born to a drug-addicted or alcoholic mother, or to a mother with AIDS, suffer physical and mental impairment. Children whose parents are verbally, physically, or sexually abusive suffer terrible trauma. The examples are endless. But again, not all suffering is traceable to a particular sin.
It’s true that all suffering in the world can be traced back to Adam and Eve’s original sin. And sometimes there is a direct correlation between sin and suffering (John 5:14; 1 John 5:16), but certainly not always. The Bible is clear that often even the righteous suffer apart from any specific wrong that they have done. But the disciples bought into the popular view. Since this man had been born blind, either he or his parents must have sinned to result in this difficult trial.
The discicples bring up this plaguing speculation. So Jesus goes on to give:
3. The Lord’s purposeful explanation. (John 9:3-5)
In John 9:3 Jesus corrects the disciples, “Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned.” Certainly both the man and his parents had at some time committed sin, but Jesus did not see their sin as the cause of the man’s blindness. Instead Jesus says, “but that the works of God should be revealed in him.”
John Piper points out that Jesus,
“answers their question but not in the categories that they are using. They want an explanation for this man’s blindness. And he gives it to them. But they ask for the explanation in the categories of cause. What is it in the past that caused the blindness? But Jesus says that won’t work, and he gives them an explanation in the category of purpose. Not what’s the cause of the blindness, but what’s the purpose of the blindness?”… The explanation of the blindness lies not in the past causes but the future purposes.
The big issue is not what caused the blindness, but what God’s purpose is for the blindness, “that the works of God should be revealed in him.” That gives a positive reason for this kind of affliction. It is an opportunity, not a disaster. God intends to display His glory through this blindness. In this case, it happens to be by healing — the glory of God’s power to heal. But there is nothing that says it has to be healing. When Paul cried out three times for his thorn in the flesh to be healed, Jesus said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). God told him, “I will put my power on display, not by healing you, but by sustaining you.”
Fanny Crosby, that dear saint of the last century who wrote “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!” was blind from her earliest babyhood as a result of an accident. When she was only eight years old she wrote this little rhyme,
Oh, what a happy child I am,
Although I can not see.
I am resolved that in this world,
Contented I will be.
How many blessings I enjoy
That other people don’t.
To weep and sigh
Because I’m blind,
I cannot and I won’t!
She lived to be over 90, and that beautiful, rejoicing spirit characterized her all her days. To quote Piper again, “Suffering can only have ultimate meaning in relation to God.”
Jesus goes on to say (John 9:4-5), “I (We) must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
Jesus has a mission, a mission He is obliged to fulfill. That mission is to be the “light of the world.” This is a mission His disciples share with Him, and thus they must join Him in performing the Father’s deeds. Our Lord’s response reveals His sense of mission and His priorities.
Here, although the Pharisees were threatening to kill Jesus and His death was just months ahead, He must work the works of the Father who sent Him. Notice the urgency of doing the Lord’s work: Jesus says (9:4), “the night is coming when no one can work.” He was referring to death. His “night” was coming soon, when He would be betrayed into the hands of sinners (John 13:30). But night is coming soon for all of us. None of us are guaranteed of even another day. But even if we live a long life, it goes by all too quickly. As James 4:14 says, “whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.” Paul says (Eph. 5:15-16), “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” “Redeeming the time” could be translated, “Buying up the opportunities.”
Do you sense that necessity in your life? It’s not just that the Lord would like to use you to accomplish His works if you’ve got some spare time and don’t have anything better to do. Serving the Lord is not only for the super-dedicated. It’s a necessity for all who have been bought with the blood of the Lamb. If you belong to Jesus, you’re a member of His body and every part has a necessary function for the proper working of the whole body.
Some of you have heard the saying, “Only one life, ’twill soon be past; only what’s done for Christ will last.” Are you looking for and taking advantage of the opportunities that the Lord gives you to point people to Jesus and to help them grow in Him?
So we have the Lord’s purposeful explanation. That brings us to the healing where we see,
4. Jesus’ peculiar solution. (John 9:6-7)
Look at the peculiar manner in which Jesus heals the man, “When He had said these things, He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva; and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. 7 And He said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent). So he went and washed, and came back seeing.”
Many have wondered why Jesus did this. Why did He spit and mix it with dirt to make mud and then place this mud on the eyes of the blind man?
While our Lord gave sight to a number of people who were blind, this is the only healing of its kind. Every instance of someone blind receiving their sight at the hand of our Lord is different. In Matthew 9 we read that Jesus touched the eyes of two blind men. In Mark 8 we have the account of Jesus spitting in the eyes of a blind man. He looked up and said, ‘I see men as trees, walking.’ Jesus put His hands on his eyes, and made him look up, and his sight was restored. In Luke 18 a certain blind man cried, saying, ‘Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me.’ Jesus simply said, ‘Receive thy sight,’ and the man was made whole.
So far as I can tell, He does not indicate to this man that He is about to heal him. He simply puts mud over each eye, and then tells the man to go to the pool of Siloam and wash. John makes a point of telling us that Siloam is a word which means “sent” (verse 7). Surely the meaning of Siloam is important, or John would not have included this detail. The man was “sent” to the pool named “sent.” Up to this point in John’s Gospel there has been considerable emphasis (and even debate) over the fact that Jesus was “sent” from heaven to the earth by the Father.
Accordingly, when the man is told to go and wash in the pool Siloam, though it is certainly true that this must be taken in the most literal sense so that he was actually expected to wash his eyes in that literal pool, the deeper meaning is surely this: that for spiritual cleansing one must go to the true Siloam; i.e., to the One who was sent by the Father to save sinners.
Was the blind man disappointed when he washed eyes in these symbolic waters? Absolutely not! What does John 9:7 tell us? He “came back seeing.” This young man will never again be the same. And by the end of the chapter he will receive more than physical sight. His spiritual eyes will be opened so that He sees Jesus as the Son of God and worships Him (John 9:35-38). His life will never be the same, now that he has “seen the light.”
Let me ask, have you “seen the light”? Have you come to recognize your sin, your helplessness, your blindness to spiritual truth? Have you acknowledged Jesus as the “sent one,” sent by the Father to die on the cross of Calvary for you, bearing the guilt and penalty for your sins? Let me urge you to come to the “light,” to trust in Jesus Christ as God’s only provision for lost sinners to be saved, and for the spiritually blind to see.
