John 9 (II)

 (1) v.8 Then the neighbors and the people who had seen him previously as a beggar began saying... v.13 They brought the man who used to be blind to the Pharisees.9:14 (Now the day on which Jesus made the mud and caused him to see was a Sabbath.)

Opening the eyes of the blind man from birth was a big deal! All the people were amazed. However, this group of people brought the previously blind man to the Pharisees for judgment. They stood along with the Pharisees to oppose Jesus! 

v.22b For the Jewish leaders had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Christ would be put out of the synagogue.

(IVP) Excommunication was one of the severest forms of discipline administered by a synagogue community and was apparently rare and thus very harsh in the time of Jesus.

Therefore, that was a serious threat to people to acknowledge Jesus. Even He did such an amazing miracle people were afraid to cheer for His work. Instead, they handed over the man. 

(2) 9:18 Now the Jewish religious leaders refused to believe that he had really been blind and had gained his sight until at last they summoned the parents of the man who had become able to see.

The Jewish leaders were in a deadlock position. They could not deny the miracle, but they did not want to recognize that Jesus was the Messiah v.28-33. Therefore, they could only try to discredit the miracle. 

9:24 Then they summoned the man who used to be blind a second time and said to him, “Promise before God to tell the truth. We know that this man is a sinner.”

When the attempt to discredit the miracle failed they just wanted to silent the eye-witness, the blind man. 

(3) Note how many times the Scriptures repeated how Jesus healed the born blind 

v.6b-7 he spat on the ground and made some mud with the saliva. He smeared the mud on the blind man’s eyes 9:7 and said to him, “Go wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated “sent”). So the blind man went away and washed, and came back seeing.

v.11 He replied, “The man called Jesus made mud, smeared it on my eyes and told me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed, and was able to see.

v.15b He replied, “He put mud on my eyes and I washed, and now I am able to see.”

Plus there were multiple times thePharisees asked the blind men how he had gain his sight:  v.19, 21, 26. In order words, the Pharisees knew pretty clearly Who Jesus was. They picked on How Jesus did the miracle, namely, violating the Sabbath and tried to deny Him. 

(4) 9:41 Jesus replied, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin, but now because you claim that you can see, your guilt remains.”

(NET) The blind man received sight physically, and this led him to see spiritually as well. But the Pharisees, who claimed to possess spiritual sight, were spiritually blinded. The reader might recall Jesus’ words to Nicodemus in 3:10, “Are you the teacher of Israel and don’t understand these things?” In other words, to receive Jesus was to receive the light of the world, to reject him was to reject the light, close one’s eyes, and become blind. This is the serious sin of which Jesus had warned before (8:21–24). The blindness of such people was incurable since they had rejected the only cure that exists (cf. 12:39–41).

Summary: As the leaders of the people they led the people into fear. When they faced the truth they chose to deny it, discredit it and silent the witness. They knew Who Jesus was so they purposely shifted the focus on the issue of Sabbath. These spiritually stubborn, irrational, severely biased blind men claimed that they could see. 

Reflection: Praise God for Who Jesus is. He can open the eyes of the blind and He was the Creator and our Savior! He is the Lord of the Sabbath and cares about the born blind. He cares about our pains, too. 

As the negative examples, we look for anything we can avoid of what the Pharisees did. Do we avoid some obvious truth in the Bible like the Pharisees did? Being obedient to your husband? Read God's words regularly? Or others? Do we try to "work around" and see what we can do to neglect them? Or are we stubborn, irrational and biased like them?

What kind of leaders are we? Do we lead out of our own preference? 

Do we claim that we know but we actually do not? 

Audrey