Chapter IX

Verses 1-5. The contents of the entire ninth chapter are only found in this Gospel. As to the time, whether immediately after the happenings recorded in the previous chapter, or some time after, we have no certainty. It was probably a few days later, on a Sabbath (Verse 14). Some have stated that the miracle of the healing of the blind man happened as the Lord passed from the murderous multitude, inasmuch as the word rendered “‘passed by” is the same as in the last verse of the eighth chapter. But that is impossible, for we read, “Jesus hid Himself,” and that was a miraculous hiding.

As he passed by he saw that blind man. No appeal came from his lips. He knew nothing of Him and His power who passed by, nor could he see the Lord. But the Lord saw the blind man, and perhaps halted and looked compassionately upon him. How the disciples knew that his affliction was congenital blindness we do not know; perhaps he was like the impotent man in the third chapter of Acts, a familiar figure, and, as a mendicant, may have been in the same place for many years. His disciples asked Him, “who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind.”” The question arose undoubtedly from the Jewish opinion that such afflictions were the result of some special sin and that the man born blind was punished on account of it. In a general way all disease and affliction is the result of sin. The Jewish error that physical afflictions are the direct result of some wicked deed may have originated by misunderstanding what the Lord spoke in Exodus xx:5, “visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children.” Job’s friends also shared this common idea as to suffering, and charged Job with being an unrighteous man. It seems that the inhabitants of the island Melita also held the same view, for when Paul had been bitten by the viper they said, “this man is a murderer.”

The same is held by some of the extreme “faith healers” and so-called “‘divine healers.”’ They teach that a child of God is afflicted on account of some unconfessed sin; some have gone so far as to say when no results follow the “anointing with oil” and the sick one is not raised up, that it is on account of some special sin. This is foolish, unscriptural fanaticism.

The Lord corrects this popular error, that some special affliction is and must be a punishment for some special sin. “Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents.” The blindness with which the man was afflicted from his mother’s womb was not the result of some particular sin. This man’s blindness was known to God; it was permitted by Him in His all-wise purpose. It was thus allowed by God so that His own glory through this miracle of mercy and power might be demonstrated — “that the works of God should be manifested in him.” A double work was then manifest in this man; he was miraculously cured and then, after his cure, another work of God was worked, when he believed on the Son of God; as it is written, “the work of God is to believe on Him whom He hath sent” (John vi:29).

It is a deep and weighty statement our Lord made, and throws some light on the question of the origin and existence of evil. God permits it and allows it to exist for His own glory; yet this does not fully explain God’s great mystery, unfathomed by the finite mind of man, as to evil. ‘The man was thus ordained to be blind so that the works of God might be made manifest. It was so with Lazarus, whose death was permitted “for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby” (John xi:4). 7

Then our Lord speaks of the fact that His activity as man upon the earth is now soon to close. “I must work the works of Him that sent Me, while it is day; the night cometh when no man can work.” But what did He mean when He spoke of the approaching night. As long as He was here on earth it was “day.” When he left this earth, rejected by man, it became “night.” This age in which we live is “night,” yet faith in that night, the faith of the believer, can look up into the heavens and know itself there in Christ. Such use is made of night and day by the Apostle in Romans xiii:12 — “The night is far spent, the day is at hand.” The night is now, when Christ is not here; the day refers to His coming again. This interpretation is fully confirmed by the next statement our Lord makes: “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

Verses 6-7. The blind man had listened to the words of the Lord Jesus, but we hear nothing of an appeal from his lips. The Lord healed him of his blindness unasked and unexpectedly. Instead of speaking the word of power by which He could have given sight to the eyes of this blind man, He did, partially, that which He had done before in healing one deaf and dumb (Mark vii:33), and another blind man (Mark viii:23). He spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle and then anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. It is said that it was believed at that time that clay and spittle had curative properties, but even if there were any truth in this foolish belief, one born blind, with no optic nerves, could not be healed by such a remedy. Why did the Lord do this? To do this He had to lean down, as He did in the eighth chapter, when He leaned down and wrote on the ground. The finger which wrote thus had also written the law which pronounced death upon the sinner, and here in forming clay with spittle, we have a reminder that He once formed man out of the dust of the earth and that He has therefore the power to heal one born blind. And the miracle which took place is the evidence that He who healed the man was the Almighty Creator Himself. Spittle is connected with humiliation and deepest reproach. The action of our Lord appears then to be a witness to His own person. He is the Lord who has all power; He came in humiliation to suffer shame. He had come to Israel to open their eyes.

But the application of the clay did not remove the blindness of the man. If nothing else had been done, the blind man would not have been healed. The Lord sent him to a pool of water. ‘Go wash in the pool of Siloam (which is by interpretation, Sent). He went his way, therefore, and washed, and came seeing.” ‘That also was the instruction given to the leper Naaman when Elisha told him, “Go, wash in Jordan.” Not that the waters of Jordan or Siloam had power in them to heal of leprosy or blindness. It was a test of faith and obedience. The water typifies both the Word of God and the Spirit of God. The meaning of Siloam is especially emphasized as being “Sent,” because the heart must believe on Him who is the sent One, whom the Father sent into the world to do His will and to finish the great work on the cross; then the Holy Spirit does His gracious work. And so this blind man obeyed the voice he had heard, though he did not see the person. We do not know if some one took him by the hand when he expressed the desire, or if he groped his own way towards the pool of Siloam. He did not question the direction given to him, but obeyed implicitly. Then he was healed and came seeing. And this is the process still with the natural man in spiritual darkness.

A careful survey of the Gospels will show that our Lord healed more blind people than any other class of afflicted ones. A deaf and dumb one had his hearing and speech restored; then there was one case of palsy and dropsy healed; two lepers and two suffering with fever are recorded as having been healed; three were raised from the dead, but four, or probably five, cases of blindness healed are recorded. The reason for this is not far to seek. In the great prophecy of Isaiah relating to the Messianic Kingdom, the coming millennium, we read, ‘“‘then the eyes of the blind shall be opened” (Isaiah xxxv:5). Again it is written in Isaiah, ‘in that day... the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness” (xxix:18);, and in Isaiah xlii:7 it is stated that the work of the King will be “to open the eyes as of the blind.” These miracles the Lord wrought when He opened the eyes of the blind attested Him as the promised King. They were of an evidential character and showed to Israel that the King was in their midst with the powers of “the age to come...” Significant, therefore, is this healing of the man born blind, as it follows after His great self-witness in the preceding chapter, on account of which the unbelieving Jews wanted to stone him. The miracle showed Him that He is Jehovah and Israel’s King.

Modern “faith healers,”’ the present-day miracle men and women, with their twisted and unscriptural teachings, claim to perpetuate miracles of healing, among which the healing of the blind takes a prominent place. ‘They sometimes claim, what deluded Christian Science claims, that they do the same miracles our Lord did. But have all these “divine healers” ever healed a man who was born blind? Will they ever do it? Certainly not.

Verses 8-12. The miracle attracted wide attention. All the neighbors, who probably knew the blind beggar for many years, came together, and seeing him healed, asked in astonishment: “Is not this he that sat and begged?”” Some, who knew him well, said, ““This is he,” while others expressed a doubt and said, “‘He is like him.” He himself set all their questionings at rest by affirming that it was he.

They asked him the question how his eyes had been opened, and he gives them a simple account of what had happened. But when they asked him “where is He?” — that is, Jesus, who had healed him — he answered, “I know not.”

Verzes 13-16. There must have been great excitement among the people on account of this great miracle. Those who knew him intimately were convinced that it was a miracle. He had been blind from his birth and now he possessed complete sight. It was therefore not a “fakemiracle,” like those claimed today in Christendom by the so-called miracle men and women who, through hypnotism, do certain things which last just as long as a hypnotic spell lasts, The people therefore brought the man before the religious authorities to be examined by them. And here the information is given that it was on the Sabbath-day our Lord had made the clay and healed the blind man. The Pharisees now begin to question him how he had received his sight. The healed beggar gives a straightforward witness; they could not pick a flaw in the simple testimony. As it was with the lame man in the fifth chapter, whom the Lord also healed on the Sabbath day, and on account of which they tried to slay Him, so here; they charge Him with not being of God because He had done the deed on the Sabbath.

But not all of the rulers branded the Lord as a wicked man, because He had done this good deed on the Sabbath. Others said: “How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles??? We doubt not that Nicodemus headed this faction, which attempted a defense of the Lord. This great Pharisee and teacher in Israel had given expression to his belief when he visited the Lord. He was convinced that the miracles the Lord Jesus did were of God and that God was with Him. As a result there was a division among them (See viii:43).

Verses 17-23. On account of the division among those who were the rulers of the people, they were obliged to investigate this case more fully. A closer examination therefore follows. They therefore inquire first of all what he thinks of the one who opened his eyes. With this question they practically confessed that they believed that his eyes had been opened. If this question was asked by those who declared that ““This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the Sabbath,” then malice must have been the motive; they hoped that some damaging statement might come from the lips of the healed man. He answered, “He is a prophet.” How did the man know that. It is evident that the healed beggar did not see the Lord at all. The Lord sent him to wash, and the record says nothing of the blind man that he had even a glimpse of Him who had anointed his eyes and told him to wash. Verses 35-38 make this very clear. How, then, could he say that He is a prophet. In all probability he must have asked the people who it was. And they may have answered, “Jesus, the Prophet of Nazareth’; for this seems to have been the popularconception among the masses.

He must have heard that it was the Prophet of Nazareth; he believed what he heard and gladly confessed Him as Prophet. Faith thus began in his soul.

Finding that the healed man gave a straightforward answer once more, which they could not twist and pervert, they tried another avenue of approach. They tried to find a way to discredit the miracle by refusing to believe that he had been blind at all. They called his parents, hoping that they might say something which they might misconstrue and disprove the miracle. They ask them if he is their son and if he was really born blind. It was a direct question and it was unhesitatingly answered by the father and mother of the man. We know this is our son, and that he was born blind. There could be no possible mistake about it. But they also asked, ‘“How then doth he now see.”

But instead of repeating the story as their son had given it to them, they professed ignorance as to who opened his eyes and by what means it was accomplished. They tell the rulers of the people that their son is no longer a child, that he is of age; that they cannot be held responsible for him. They request the rulers to ask him, and that he will speak for himself. We are not left in doubt why they spoke thus. It was for fear of the Jews of authority and power. The Sanhedrim had agreed that anyone who would confess that this Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ should be put out of the synagogue and be excommunicated. They feared if they rehearsed what they had heard, how the Lord Jesus performed the miracle, that this might be their fate.

Verses 24-29. Completely defeated with attempt to upset the story of the healing of this man, unable to get any information from the parents, which would have helped them in the denial of the miracle, they once more call the man himself. ‘They start in with a very pious phrase, “Give God the praise.”” Acknowledge yourself now that only God could have done this miracle of opening your eyes. This of course was true. Only God can open the eyes of one who was blind from birth. But the pious statement was pure hypocrisy, for they added, “‘We know this man is a sinner.” They tried to ensnare him to assent to this statement that God had healed him, and then reject Him who wrought the miracle. How simple is this man’s answer. He speaks of two things, one thing which he knew not: “Whether He be a sinner or no, I know not.” Then he spoke of another

- thing he knew: “One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.” Concerning Him who healed him he could not bear witness, for he knew not who he was. Later the Lord revealed Himself to the healed one and then he fell at His feet to worship.

But of one thing he was sure. One thing could never be questioned. One thing was gloriously true, “Being blind, now I see” (literal rendering). The awful night of blindness had been lifted and he saw the sun and enjoyed a new existence. A wonderful change had come over him and all the world could never shake his testimony.

And millions after him have used his words of testimony after being saved by grace. Yea, this is the true confession of every child of God who has passed from death to life, from darkness to light, from the power of Satan into God: “One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see.” The great change brought about by the operation of the Spirit of God in the heart and life of the believer is as great as the healing of a man born blind.

The Jewish rulers were again defeated. They had acknowledged that the man had been healed, and now his own words sealed this fact beyond any doubt whatever. Yet they were not discouraged. Once more they questioned him as to the manner in which our Lord had opened his eyes. They but digged their own graves of shameful defeat.

It seems as if the healed beggar lost his patience. He had told them before how the Lord had made clay, put it on his eyes, sent him to the pool to wash, and now they asked once more, “What did He do to thee.” In sarcasm he answered them, and asked why they wanted to hear it again; if they intended to be His disciples also.

They reviled him for his bold language and ridicule and charged him with being a disciple of the Lord, which in the darkness of their wicked hearts they imagined a great dishonor, while they claimed to be Moses’ disciples. ‘They were convinced that God spoke to Moses. In this at least these religious corrupt leaders were better than the destructive critic leaders of Christendom, who deny that God ever spoke to Moses. But they denied that the Lord, whom they called “this fellow,” had been sent by God; they believed that He had no divine commission, yet the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Jehovah had appeared unt Moses, commissioned Moses, and spoken to him. He is greater than Moses.

Verses 30-34. We doubt not that the man in answering back had the aid of the Holy Spirit, for what he says presents a perfect and unanswerable argument. He expressed astonishment that these leaders of the nation said that they knew Him not, nor who gave Him the power to perform so great a miracle in opening his eyes. Then he declares that it would be impossible that He who had opened his eyes was a sinner, for God would not hear a sinner, but if God acknowledges a man and manifests His power through him, he must be a true worshipper of God and be obedient to Him. He becomes bolder and declares that since the world began such a thing as opening the eyes of a blind man, by a mere man, was never heard before. ‘Then he crowned his masterly argument by expressing his conviction that the man who had healed him must be of God.

He had silenced the great men of the Pharisees completely. They could not reply to these statements and were, therefore, defeated. All that was left to them was either to accept the testimony or to reject it. They became infuriated. They charged him that he was altogether born in sins, that he was a wicked man, and they cast him out. They did that which we read in verse 23, they put him out of the synagogue.

Verses 35-41. Probably the man was staggered. He may have trembled at the thought that he had been excommunicated, for it was a shame to be put outside; it made him an outcast, one who had no more right to the appointed worship and the privileges of the commonwealth of Israel. It must have had the meaning for him as if he were now a lost soul.

They had cast him out, but in doing this they only cast him into the arms of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Where our Lord was while all this took place we do not know, but we know that He knew all that had happened, and though He was not bodily present, He had heard every word which had been spoken, for He is the omniscient Lord. When the excommunication of the healed man was publicly announced then our Lord looked for the man. He had kept track of him; he was never out of His sight. He found him. Says Chrysostom on this passage: ‘“They who for the sake of the truth and confession of Christ suffer anything and are insulted, these are specially honored. So it was here with the blind man. The Jews cast him out of the temple, and the Lord of the temple found him. He was dishonored by those who dishonor Christ, and was honored by the Lord of angels.” He had lost the synagogue but finds instead the Lord, heaven and glory. The synagogue would not longer have him, but he becomes the sheep of the good Shepherd, as we find it in the chapter which follows.

He asks him a direct question: ‘Dost thou believe on the Son of God?” Then came from the man the longing heart cry, “Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him?” And he did not need to wait for the answer to his question. The Lord at once revealed Himself. “Thou hast both seen Him, and it is He that talketh with thee.”” Thus our Lord once more bore witness to His Deity. Did the blind man know that the One who was speaking to him was He who had healed him. The text says nothing about it. As we saw before, the blind man had not seen the Lord after his eyes had been opened. Though the Lord did not say to him in words, I am He who healed thee, yet the man must have known and felt, as the Lord addresses him and reveals Himself as the Son of God, that He had healed him. He probably also recognized Him by the tone of His voice. Then he said, “Lord, I believe” and worshipped Him. Faith and true worship go together.

When next our Lord declares that He came for judgment into the world, it does not mean that He came for condemnation (John ii:17); He came to reveal the right conditions, to lay them bare by His omniscient discrimination. The comment of Augustinus on this verse is correct: “Who are those that see, those who think they see, who believe they see? The judgment which Christ has brought into the world is not wherewith He shall judge the quick and the dead intheend. It is a work of discrimination rather, by which He discerneth the case of them that believe from that of the proud who think they see, and therefore are worse blinded.” ‘Those who see not” may be applied to the Gentiles, and “those who see,” or claimed to see, the Jews. The boast of the Jews, especially the boast of the Pharisees, was that they had the light. Paul bears witness to this in Rom. iii:19: ‘And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness.” And when He came who is the Light of the world they rejected Him, and thus they became blind, with all their profession that they were seeing.

Some of the Pharisees listen to these words. They voice at once their displeasure, realizing He meant them. Are we blind also? It was another sneer at Him and His teaching. He answered them as they well deserved. If they were really blind they would have no sin in having rejected Him, but their boast was that they were seeing, and yet they rejected Him; their sin therefore ‘‘remaineth.”