1As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
3Jesus answered, “This man didn’t sin, nor did his parents, but that the works of God might be revealed in him. 4I must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. The night is coming, when no one can work. 5While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 6When he had said this, he spat on the ground, made mud with the saliva, anointed the blind man’s eyes with the mud, 7and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means “Sent”). So he went away, washed, and came back seeing.
8Therefore the neighbors and those who saw that he was blind before said, “Isn’t this he who sat and begged?” 9Others were saying, “It is he.” Still others were saying, “He looks like him.”
He said, “I am he.”
10They therefore were asking him, “How were your eyes opened?”
11He answered, “A man called Jesus made mud, anointed my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam and wash.’ So I went away and washed, and I received sight.”
12Then they asked him, “Where is he?”
He said, “I don’t know.”
13They brought him who had been blind to the Pharisees. 14It was a Sabbath when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. 15Again therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he received his sight. He said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, I washed, and I see.”
16Some therefore of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, because he doesn’t keep the Sabbath.”
Others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” So there was division among them.
17Therefore they asked the blind man again, “What do you say about him, because he opened your eyes?”
He said, “He is a prophet.”
18The Jews therefore didn’t believe concerning him, that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of him who had received his sight, 19and asked them, “Is this your son, whom you say was born blind? How then does he now see?”
20His parents answered them, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; 21but how he now sees, we don’t know; or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. He is of age. Ask him. He will speak for himself.” 22His parents said these things because they feared the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that if any man would confess him as Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue. 23Therefore his parents said, “He is of age. Ask him.”
24So they called the man who was blind a second time, and said to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.”
25He therefore answered, “I don’t know if he is a sinner. One thing I do know: that though I was blind, now I see.”
26They said to him again, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”
27He answered them, “I told you already, and you didn’t listen. Why do you want to hear it again? You don’t also want to become his disciples, do you?”
28They insulted him and said, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. 29We know that God has spoken to Moses. But as for this man, we don’t know where he comes from.”
30The man answered them, “How amazing! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. 31We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, he listens to him. 32Since the world began it has never been heard of that anyone opened the eyes of someone born blind. 33If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”
34They answered him, “You were altogether born in sins, and do you teach us?” Then they threw him out.
35Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and finding him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of God?”
36He answered, “Who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him?”
37Jesus said to him, “You have both seen him, and it is he who speaks with you.”
38He said, “Lord, I believe!” and he worshiped him.
39Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment, that those who don’t see may see; and that those who see may become blind.”
40Those of the Pharisees who were with him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?”
41Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see.’ Therefore your sin remains.
I Was Blind and Now I See
John 9
I Was Blind and Now I See
13 They brought him who had been blind to the Pharisees. 14 It was a Sabbath when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. 15 Again therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he received his sight. He said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, I washed, and I see.”
People spend a lot of time arguing about who Jesus was. Some people argue that Jesus was a good man with good teachings for all of humanity. Some (even Muslims) claim that He was a prophet. Others think He was an insane young rabbi who captivated his generation with talk about deliverance from the Romans. This chapter points to one thing: results. In this chapter, we see that an encounter with Jesus changed a man’s life. In the account, the healed blind man initially didn’t know exactly what had happened or exactly who had healed him. He just knew that he was blind, and now he could see.
For most of my adult life, I have taught that Jesus saves the sinner and can free us from the captivity of sin. I’ve seen it in some lives, but in others, there's little change after a person claims an encounter with Jesus. However, that changed in March of 2020. I was preaching a sermon on Psalm 23. A young couple had been visiting the church for about 3 months. The wife felt the need to “get in a church somewhere.” I think the husband just complied with his wife and began attending. On March 14, 2020, the husband later reported to me that he was filled with intense anxiety as they made their way down the church driveway. At one point, he had his wife stop the car, and he told her, “I can’t go in there today. Something bad is going to happen to me.” She told him to get back in the car, and they came into the service.
About halfway through my sermon, the young man interrupted me out loud. He cried out, “Help me. I don’t know what I need, but I’m not the husband or the father that I need to be.” I stopped speaking, and I invited him up to the front to commit his life to Jesus. He did so. That day, he was born again. What followed was miraculous. In the next month, as he laid one addiction before the Lord and was healed, he would bring another addiction to the Lord. He was never the same. The young man still struggles with life's difficulties. If you ask him how it all happened, he can’t explain it all. All he can say is, “I was blind, and now I see. I’m not sure how God did it, but He did, and I am no longer a slave to these things.” Reader, the proof is in the pudding. These kinds of things do not happen outside of a personal encounter with Jesus. Jesus wasn’t just a good teacher or a prophet. He was and is almighty God in the flesh, ready to bring healing to all who call upon Him.