According to the Berean Bible Society,* this incident counts as one of seven miracles Jesus performed as part of his divine mission during his earthly ministry.
Read John 9:13-15.
- Jesus healed the man on the Sabbath.
- The man received (physical) sight he never had before.1
- The Pharisees investigated the “healing.”
- Jesus doesn’t work as we expect.
- Zodhiates’ comment on the word “see” in this passage confused me. The way I read it, “see” as used in this passage leads into the following verses about spiritual blindness, seeing “as distinct from blindness.”2 What I’m not sure about is if this expanded meaning also applies here in the way the man described his new sight.
*Why did they (neighbors) take the man to the Pharisees?
*What “loopholes,” if any, might have been in place for healing on the Sabbath?
*How do you interpret the man’s description of his healing?
Read John 9:16-17.
- The Pharisees accused Jesus of not observing the Sabbath.
- God set aside the Sabbath as
*a day holy unto the Lord
“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy” (Exodus 20:8).
*a day to rest
“but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work…” (Exodus 20:10).
*a day to savor
Allen Arnold said God didn’t rest as a result of being burned out, overwhelmed, or weary. God is a joyful Creator who at the end savored his creation. Arnold interpreted this as God rejoicing in all he had made, an “active rest.”
- “Others” called whoever accomplished the miracle a sinner, among the wicked who do not keep God’s law.3
- This is a good place to remember the meaning of miracle, “proof of Jesus’ divine mission,”4 as we learned in John 7.
- “Still, many in the crowd believed in him. They said, ‘When the Messiah comes, will he perform more signs than this man?’ (John 7:31).”
- The Pharisees and the Jewish people still didn’t assign deity to Jesus.
- The Pharisees asked the man for his opinion of the person who healed him.
- The man claimed Jesus was a prophet, a teacher sent from God who had divine influence.5
*Which person(s) in this account truly kept the Sabbath?
*What do you think about the idea God savored his creation?
*What does that imply for how we choose to keep the Sabbath?
Read John 9:18-23.
- Because the Pharisees didn’t believe the whole story, they talked to the man’s parents.
- They confirmed the man was their son.
- They served as witnesses—by their testimony—he was born blind.
- They claimed no knowledge of his (miraculous) healing.
- People were afraid to acknowledge Jesus as Messiah for fear they would be “excommunicated, separated from the synagogue,”6 although the degree of severity isn’t specified.
*What is the significance for us if we don’t acknowledge Jesus is who he says he is?
Read John 9:24-29.
- The Pharisees talked to the man again.
- They accused him of discrediting God, since he believed Jesus healed him.
- Again the Pharisees equated Jesus’ work not as from God, but against God.
“At this they exclaimed, ‘Now we know that you are demon-possessed! Abraham died and so did the prophets, yet you say that whoever obeys your word will never taste death” (John 8:52).
- We also read in the previous chapter God seeks glory for himself.
“I am not seeking glory for myself; but there is one who seeks it, and he is the judge” (John 8:50).
- The blind man testified to what he knew by experience: now he could see.
- He wondered why the Pharisees wanted to hear the story again.
- To him, this was the most wonderful story in his life.
- Perhaps (surely) worthy of their hearing again too!
- The man asked the Pharisees if they also wanted to believe and live according to Jesus’ teaching.7
- But to them this story—Jesus himself—was a stench.
“For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life…” (2 Corinthians 2:15-16).
- The Pharisees claimed they followed God’s true prophet, Moses.
- They refused to consider who Jesus was or where he came from.
*Why does God the Father seek glory for himself?
*What is the most wonderful story in your life you never tire of telling?
Read John 9:30-34.
- The man was incredulous and offered a logical argument:
*Opening blind eyes is a miracle, certainly of God.
*God listens to godly people who worship and reverence him and do his will.
- What does this mean, to do his will? God’s word has the answer.
“Come and hear, all you who fear God; let me tell you what he has done for me.
I cried out to him with my mouth; his praise was on my tongue.
If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened;
but God has surely listened and has heard my prayer.
Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me!” (Psalm 66:16-20).
“The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are attentive to their cry” (Psalm 34:15).
*Jesus opened the blind man’s eyes, so he must be from God.
- If the Pharisees read their own prophets, they would remember God is in the business of healing.
“say to those with fearful hearts, ‘Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you.’ Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped” (Isaiah 35:5).
- The Pharisees clung to their belief the man’s sins caused his blindness.
- They essentially refused to acknowledge he could see.
Although not all sin causes obvious physical maladies, it is true we have a sin nature from birth.
“Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;
you taught me wisdom in that secret place” (Psalm 51:5-6).
It is also possible to know God from any point in time forward.
*In what ways does God listen to godly people who do his will today?
*When have we refused to acknowledge God’s hand at work?
*What is a logical next step after reading this passage?
*Pastor J.C. O’Hair, “Part 22: Christ’s Miracles—The Gospel of John,” Bearan Bible Society,
https://bereanbiblesociety.org/christs-miracles-the-gospel-of-john/
- Spiros Zodhiates Th.D., The Complete Word Study Dictionary New Testament (AMG Publishers, 1992), 143.
- Zodhiates, 343.
- Zodhiates, 131.
- Zodhiates, 1286.
- Zodhiates, 1244.
- Zodhiates, 239.
- Zodhiates, 936.