The Man is Healed by Jesus (9:1-7)
John 9:1
As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth.
Some believe that this healing took place immediately after Jesus left the temple in chapter eight (8:59), especially since He claims to be the light of the world in 8:12 and then again in 9:5. Further support for this healing taking place upon Jesus leaving the temple is that it follows John’s focus of connecting Jesus as the fulfillment of the Jewish feasts.
In the earlier sections of John’s accounts pertaining to Jesus’ actions and teachings in proximity with a Jewish feast, discussions started with miraculous signs, like the healing of the paralytic in chapter 5 and the feeding of the multitude and walking on water in chapter 6. These signs then led into the discourses of those chapters. However, in the Tabernacles segment of the Festival Cycle, this order is reversed. After a brief encounter with his brothers (7:1–9), there are a series of extended dialogues that cover most of chapters 7–8. It isn’t until chapter 9 that the story of the blind man appears, serving as a powerful summary of the previous discussions.
Yet, some say the text is vague enough that the precise time and location of the healing cannot be determined without a doubt. However, since Jesus sent the blindman to wash his eyes in the pool of Siloam, the event must have taken place in Jerusalem. The temple was also a prime place for beggars (Matthew 21:14; Acts 3:1-10). Those in need knew that people coming to the temple to worship would be more apt to be charitable and since large crowds gathered at the temple they could collect a larger haul than begging at other places (this reasoning would also make it likely for the man to be at the temple during the Festival of Lights too and thus connecting chapters eight and nine).
While Jesus was walking along, he saw a man that had been blind since birth. Unfortunately, those without a support system to care for them in their unfortunate condition turned to begging for survival. Then, like today, blindness and other physical disabilities and sicknesses remind us that all is not right in the world. For those with a biblical worldview, we are reminded that while we can see the beauty of our good God in creation, we can also see brokenness in our world and bodies in which we live. We understand from Genesis that the brokeness we experience and see in our lives and world is a result from humanity’s rebellion and not part of God’s original creative work.
While we as believers understand why ugliness and beauty exist in a world created by a good God, we also have hope for today because we know that immediately after Adam and Eve’s disobedience, the LORD promises a deliverer (Genesis 3:15). Genesis 3:15 is called the protoevangelium. Proto means “first” and evangelium means “evangelistic message of salvation.” Another way to describe Genesis 3:15 is simply the “first gospel.” This verse is seen by many as predicting the defeat of evil by the victory of Jesus Christ and thus as the first promise or ‘gospel’ of the coming Redeemer.
Scatted throughout Genesis 3:15 to Malachi 4:5-6, God tells us what His Redeemer will be like and do so that people can know without a doubt when He arrived on the scene of history. Isaiah 42:7 predicted that the Messiah would give sight to the blind.
You will open the eyes of the blind.
You will free the captives from prison,
releasing those who sit in dark dungeons.
While we have records of Jesus causing the blind to see on more than one occasion, this is the only instance in which He heals a man that has been blind since birth (with a congenital condition). We are not told how the disciples knew that this man had been born since he entered the world. Perhaps the man told them himself or that it was simply common knowledge of those in the city who encountered the man routinely or knew him personally. However the information concerning this man was transmitted, we have a situation that only Jesus can change.
9:2
2 “Rabbi,” his disciples asked him, “why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?”
Upon encountering this man, most likely not for the first time, the disciples asked their Teacher, why the man was born blind. Their question exposes a popular belief in Judaism at the time. The disciples’ question reflected a common belief that suffering was caused by sin, either the individual’s or their parents’, based on interpretations of texts like Ezekiel 18:4, 20 and Jeremiah 31:29–30. In cases like this man’s blindness from birth, the blame might have fallen on the parents or even on prenatal sin, as some rabbis argued from texts like Genesis 25:22–23. But Jesus refused to engage in this blame game and instead shifted the focus from blame to God’s providential grace, indicating that He would use the man’s condition to reveal God’s works (John 9:3).
The disciples’ question can be both encouraging and comforting to us because it reveals to us that we can ask our God the difficult and stomach turning questions we have when we see the brokenness, pain, and sickness around us. Another way of putting it is that the disciples’ question reminds us that we can wrestle with theology and life experiences by bringing them to the Word (Incarnate and Written). Again, as already noted, I understand and can explain why we live in a world of beauty and brokenness simultaneously but still struggle with my emotions that arise when I see or experience the cuts of a shattered once perfect world. During those instances, I can run to my Father’s presence and promises to find comfort for my troubled soul and the hope to give those who are suffering – the gospel.
9:3
3 “It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him.
While we live in a broken and fallen world because of sin, verse three reminds us that we experience the suffering we do only because God allows it in our lives. For example, Satan had to have God’s permission to test Job. While God was not the author of Job’s suffering, He allowed Job to suffer. The outcome of Job’s suffering was that he could say that he had not only heard about God but had now seen Him (Job 42:5). Job’s suffering allowed him to see and experience God in a way he wouldn’t have without it.
The disciples’ question teaches us another important truth about human suffering. God uses people’s suffering to bring them to Himself. Pain and brokenness tell us that something is wrong, that the world needs repair, that we need rescue. Jesus told the disciples that this man was born blind, not to be punished for his parents’ sin or a personal sin committed while in the womb but so that the power of God could be seen in him.
We will see God’s power in giving this man sight but also through the good news about Jesus, the power of God at work, saving all who believe (Romans 1:16). Would this man have believed in Jesus as his Messiah if he didn’t suffer with blindness and the hardships that come with such a disability? Only God knows, but I know this, in His providence, the God who desires that none should perish but that all should come to repentance oversees the aspects of every person’s life so that they are most apt to see Him and having seen Him, believe in Him (Acts 17:24-27).
In this man’s case, the LORD allowed this man to be born blind, spend decades in darkness so his heart would be ready to believe and receive Jesus, being immediately and forever changed. This man without a doubt would agree with Paul in that our present struggles dim in comparison of our future glory (Romans 8:18) and that God will use our present pain to help us attain our future glory as it leads us to belief in Jesus, the One who makes it all possible (Romans 8:28-29).
What present suffering or difficulties are you facing? How might they help you see Jesus more clearly? Pray that God will use your current pain and trials to help you experience Him more deeply like Job and this blind man.
9:4-5
4 We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent us.[a] The night is coming, and then no one can work.5 But while I am here in the world, I am the light of the world.”
The mention of God’s works highlights Jesus’ mission (“Him Who Sent Me”) and His partnership with His followers (“We Must Do the Work,” 9:4). The focus is on Jesus’ earthly work, which must be done while it is still “day” (9:5), why He still has time before His betrayal and death.
Light and darkness, used as symbols of good and evil, appear throughout this Gospel (1:4–5, 8:12). Early Christians would have seen the contrast between night and day as a reminder that after the darkness of Jesus’ death, the light returned with His resurrection (21:3–4). The “night” was a difficult time of separation during Jesus’ crucifixion when all seemed lost. This loss of their friend and leader paralyzed the disciples with fear and pain (when no one can work; 9:4). But that time had not yet come. Jesus was still in the world and declared Himself “the light of the world” (9:5). Although this is not a full “I am” statement, it connects to His earlier declaration in 8:12.
The Father sent the Son, the Son sent the Spirit, and the Spirit sends us to do Kingdom work. Until we go to be with our Savior or until He comes back for us, we have a task to do. We are to be the light of the world as well in and to our spouse, families, places of employment, neighborhood, and churches. Are you being faithful to use your gifts and resources to bring honor to God? If not, how can you begin today in one of the afore mentioned areas?
9:6-7
6 Then he spit on the ground, made mud with the saliva, and spread the mud over the blind man’s eyes. 7 He told him, “Go wash yourself in the pool of Siloam” (Siloam means “sent”). So the man went and washed and came back seeing!
Once finishing His conversation with His disciples, Jesus spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva. In the Gospel of Mark, there are two miracles involving spittle (the healing of a deaf man in 7:32–35 and a blind man in 8:22–25), but none have Him making clay out of spittle. In these instances, as in John 9, spittle seems to be a medium Jesus uses to perform miracles, much like His touch, which is seen as carrying His power. In this case, Jesus mixes His spittle with dirt, reminiscent of God creating humanity by breathing life into the dust of the earth (Genesis 2:7). If this is accurate, the clay would symbolize the Lord’s creating a new seeing pair of eyes for a pair that had never seen before!
Jesus then sends the blind man to wash in the Pool of Siloam, where the healing is completed. This recalls the story of Naaman, who was healed by washing in the Jordan River (2 Kings 5:10, 13–14). In both cases, the healing required obedience to the healer’s instructions, emphasizing the link between faith, obedience, and experiencing God’s power.
The pool of Siloam was located near the southeast corner of Jerusalem’s city wall. The pool was fed by the constant flow of water from the Gihon spring, located in the Kidron valley. King Hezekiah constructed a tunnel that allowed a continual supply of water to find its way into the pool from the spring providing a trustworthy water supply for the city out of fear that the Assyrians would besiege the city (2 Kings 20:20). The High Priest also Drews water from the pool of Siloam during the Feast of the Tabernacles (John 7:37).
The Hebrew transliteration of Siloam means sent. The name of the pool most likely originated because water was sent to the pool from the Gihon spring. Since the water was used during the Feast of Tabernacles, the name also symbolized the blessings that God sent to Israel. Here, in chapter nine, it represents the greatest blessing that God had sent them, the Messiah!
The man follows Jesus’ instructions and is healed, gaining his sight (9:7)!
The Man is Questioned about Jesus (9:8-34)
8 His neighbors and others who knew him as a blind beggar asked each other, “Isn’t this the man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some said he was, and others said, “No, he just looks like him!”
But the beggar kept saying, “Yes, I am the same one!”
10 They asked, “Who healed you? What happened?”
11 He told them, “The man they call Jesus made mud and spread it over my eyes and told me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam and wash yourself.’ So I went and washed, and now I can see!”
12 “Where is he now?” they asked.
“I don’t know,” he replied.
13 Then they took the man who had been blind to the Pharisees,14 because it was on the Sabbath that Jesus had made the mud and healed him. 15 The Pharisees asked the man all about it. So he told them, “He put the mud over my eyes, and when I washed it away, I could see!”
16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man Jesus is not from God, for he is working on the Sabbath.” Others said, “But how could an ordinary sinner do such miraculous signs?” So there was a deep division of opinion among them.
17 Then the Pharisees again questioned the man who had been blind and demanded, “What’s your opinion about this man who healed you?”
The man replied, “I think he must be a prophet.”
18 The Jewish leaders still refused to believe the man had been blind and could now see, so they called in his parents. 19 They asked them, “Is this your son? Was he born blind? If so, how can he now see?”
20 His parents replied, “We know this is our son and that he was born blind, 21 but we don’t know how he can see or who healed him. Ask him. He is old enough to speak for himself.” 22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who had announced that anyone saying Jesus was the Messiah would be expelled from the synagogue. 23 That’s why they said, “He is old enough. Ask him.”
24 So for the second time they called in the man who had been blind and told him, “God should get the glory for this,[b] because we know this man Jesus is a sinner.”
25 “I don’t know whether he is a sinner,” the man replied. “But I know this: I was blind, and now I can see!”
26 “But what did he do?” they asked. “How did he heal you?”
27 “Look!” the man exclaimed. “I told you once. Didn’t you listen? Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?”
28 Then they cursed him and said, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses! 29 We know God spoke to Moses, but we don’t even know where this man comes from.”
30 “Why, that’s very strange!” the man replied. “He healed my eyes, and yet you don’t know where he comes from? 31 We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but he is ready to hear those who worship him and do his will. 32 Ever since the world began, no one has been able to open the eyes of someone born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he couldn’t have done it.”
34 “You were born a total sinner!” they answered. “Are you trying to teach us?” And they threw him out of the synagogue.
The Man Sees and Worships Jesus (9:35-41)
35 When Jesus heard what had happened, he found the man and asked, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?[c]”
36 The man answered, “Who is he, sir? I want to believe in him.”
37 “You have seen him,” Jesus said, “and he is speaking to you!”
38 “Yes, Lord, I believe!” the man said. And he worshiped Jesus.
39 Then Jesus told him,[d] “I entered this world to render judgment—to give sight to the blind and to show those who think they see[e]that they are blind.”
40 Some Pharisees who were standing nearby heard him and asked, “Are you saying we’re blind?”
41 “If you were blind, you wouldn’t be guilty,” Jesus replied. “But you remain guilty because you claim you can see.
Although the man had been excluded, Jesus didn’t abandon him. Just as Jesus had found the first disciples and even the ungrateful paralytic in John 5, He sought out the blind man. Unlike the paralytic, who was focused on self-preservation, the blind man showed remarkable integrity and faith. When Jesus asked him if he believed in the Son of Man, it was a profound question that went beyond mere acknowledgment of miracles. It called for deep, personal commitment to the one who brings God’s hope and forgiveness.
The blind man, even before physically seeing Jesus, had already demonstrated faith. He stands as an example of those who would believe without seeing, as Jesus later mentioned (John 20:29). He also faced persecution, much like the early Christians.
When Jesus revealed Himself as the Son of Man, the blind man immediately believed and worshiped. His confession of faith was genuine, transitioning from addressing Jesus as “sir” to “Lord” once he recognized who had transformed his life.
The term “worship” here is significant. While some scholars argue that the man didn’t fully worship Jesus in a divine sense, the context suggests otherwise. The man’s confession and worship illustrate a profound recognition of Jesus as Lord, prefiguring the confession of Thomas after the resurrection (“My Lord and my God!”).
Jesus’ subsequent conversation with the Pharisees highlighted the contrast between physical sight and spiritual blindness. While the blind man came to see both physically and spiritually, the Pharisees, though physically sighted, were spiritually blind. Their rejection of Jesus left them in a state of guilt and blindness, much like the hypocritical Pharisees condemned in Matthew 23.
In this story, Jesus’ coming is a moment of truth and judgment. While He did not come to condemn, rejection of Him leads to inevitable condemnation. The blind man’s transformation stands in stark contrast to the Pharisees’ refusal to see the truth, illustrating the eternal divide between those who accept Jesus and those who reject Him.
The interaction between the blind man and the authorities showcases the power of authentic faith against the rigid, self-righteousness of the religious leaders. Despite being cast out by the religious establishment, the blind man was accepted by Jesus, who judges with true authority. This story serves as a reminder to Christians to stay true to Jesus, even in the face of persecution and exclusion, and to avoid the pitfalls of self-righteousness, embracing instead the humility and transformation that comes through faith in Christ.
Footnotes
- 9:4 Other manuscripts read I must quickly carry out the tasks assigned me by the one who sent me; still others read We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent me.
- 9:24 Or Give glory to God, not to Jesus; Greek reads Give glory to God.
- 9:35 Some manuscripts read the Son of God? “Son of Man” is a title Jesus used for himself.
- 9:38-39a Some manuscripts do not include “Yes, Lord, I believe!” the man said. And he worshiped Jesus. Then Jesus told him.
- 9:39b Greek those who see.
Subscribe today to receive all of our new resources straight to your inbox!
Related Resources
- Related Sermons
- Related Blog Posts
- Related Music and Media
- Related Products
Leave a Reply