John 9 - The Son Who Opens the Eyes of the Blind

Text - John 9:1-5

John 9:1–5 “As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.””

Study of the Passage

Contrary to many of the chapters prior to this, the entirety of chapter 9 is dedicated to the miraculous sign of opening of the eyes of the blind man. In all of the signs that JESUS performed so far, the LORD always followed the miracle with teaching a spiritual truth.

Examples -

Likewise, here in the case of the blind man, our LORD expounds the truth of the abject spiritual condition of sinful man and the glorious life HE can bring to all men.

Earlier in chapter 1 we studied "In HIM was life and the life was the light of all men." and that "The True Light which gives life to everyone was coming into the world."

JESUS is the True Light who gives life to the world. He will give light to the blind by giving them life.

Blindness is one of those physical realities which essentially limits almost all of the enjoyment capacities of a person. If you lose your sight, you lose most of your ability to enjoy the world around you. And you will definitely not be able to see light. Eyes are your only way to see the light. And if you are blind, you are in darkness. This correlates symbolically so well to the spiritual reality of sin. Sin blinds a person and a person blinded has no way of seeing the light. A blind person will never be able to see the light of the glory of CHRIST. Darkness cannot overcome the light, but a blind man will never be able to see the light. A sinner cannot see the light of CHRIST.

John 3:19–21 “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.””

A sinner cannot see the light unless somehow miraculously his blindness is removed.

And GOD is the only one who can remove the blindness of a sinner. And when a sinner’s blindness is removed it is evidenced by the sinner repenting of his or her sinfulness.

2 Timothy 2:24–25 “And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth,”

When GOD grants repentance a sinner will acknowledge his or her sin and repent from it and will believe in CHRIST through the faith that GOD supplies. And this is salvation. And from that point on the redeemed sinner lives in the light of the knowledge of the Son. He lives in fellowship with the FATHER and the SON. The Triune GOD is the True Light.

So the scripture is clear that:

We were blinded by the devil - 2 Corinthians 4:4 “In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

God opens the eyes of the blind - Acts 26:16–18 “But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles—to whom I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’”

God commands the light of the Gospel of CHRIST to shine in our hearts - 2 Corinthians 4:6 “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

And this GOSPEL truth is what is truly displayed or revealed through this glorious miracle of the healing of the blind man.

So what we see in this chapter is a complete picture of the GOSPEL, a symbolic representation of the true liberation that comes through the light of the Gospel. What we see in this chapter is GOD opening the eyes of sinners through the work of HIS SON so that all who acknowledge their blindness receives spiritual sight and lives in the light.

Verse 1

John 9:1 “As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth.”

This man is blind from birth. It is not something that he later developed, but it happened from birth. So it begins with the truth of a man’s sinful condition. A man is born sinner with sin nature present in him or her.

Verse 2

John 9:2 “And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?””

Who sinned?

Generally it was held that suffering was the direct result of the sin of persons or their parents.

Example, Job - his friends accused him of some sin that he committed as the reason for his suffering.

Another example is Achan in the Old Testament. It is in Joshua 7, where we see an entire family is killed as a punishment by the Israelites due to one man's sin.

In the case of Job, the LORD made it very clear that it was not Job's sin that resulted in his suffering. As a matter of fact, GOD Himself attested that Job was a innocent and righteous man who kept himself from evil.

In the case of Achan, the punishment was because his entire family partook in that offense.

However, in this verse, the background is very different.

These were two prevailing positions among the Rabbis regarding a person's predicament. The suffering of a person was due to his own sins committed in the womb or his parents sins.

A person sinning from the womb

This person was blind from birth. So the question could not have been about some sin he committed in his lifetime, but rather some sin he committed in the womb.

Interestingly, the Rabbi's taught about fetus committing sin in the womb.

They used the example of Esau (Genesis 25:22–23 “The children struggled together within her, and she said, “If it is thus, why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the Lord. And the Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.”” ).

They also use Psalm 58:3 “The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray from birth, speaking lies.”

So the Rabbi's held that persons get blind from birth due to the sins that they committed in the womb.

The sins of the parents

Second reason was the sin of the parents -

Ancients had some sort of belief that blindness from birth was due to sexual sins committed by parents. Gonorrhea is a disease caused by sexual activities which scientifically proven to cause blindness upon children.

However, the disciples were probably not asking about this, but rather what the Rabbis taught as the sins of the parents as per their interpretation of the Old Testament.

Exodus 20:4–6 ““You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.”

Deuteronomy 5:9 “You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,”

Exodus 34:7 “keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.””

Numbers 14:18 “‘The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation.’”

The meaning of the above is illustrated by Jeremiah:

Jeremiah 32:18 “You show steadfast love to thousands, but you repay the guilt of fathers to their children after them, O great and mighty God, whose name is the Lord of hosts,”

Lamentations 5:7 “Our fathers sinned, and are no more; and we bear their iniquities.”

The LORD is very clear that sons will not bear the iniquity of the father.

Ezekiel 18:20 “The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.” (the entire chapter, especially verses 1-20 must be read here.

While the repercussions of the sins of the fathers or one generation may affect several generations, a person's iniquity will not be counted against anyone else except that person alone.

The Bible does not condone the idea of sons or daughters bearing the punishment for the iniquity of the parents.

Bible clearly states that the person who commits sin will die.

Ezekiel 18:4 “Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die.”

Ezekiel 18:20 “The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.”

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

James 1:15 “Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”

Verse 3-5

John 9:3–5 “Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.””

In verse 3, the LORD clearly states that this man's blindness is not a result of his sin nor his parents' sin, but that the works of God may be revealed in him.

JESUS did not say that one's sin will not result in sickness. As the New Testament clearly states that a person's sin can result in sickness and even death.

1 Corinthians 11:29 “For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.” , 1 Corinthians 11:30 “That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.”

Sickness and death could be a result of one's sin. However, not all sickness, suffering, and death are a result of sin.

Likewise, parents' sins can have consequential effect on their children and families and societies. Humanities sins have consequences that go beyond the persons against whom the sins are committed. Think about the sins of jealousy, gossip, murder etc. which carry consequences far beyond those who are directly involved.

JESUS says that this particular man's blindness was so that the works of GOD might might be displayed.

What are the works of GOD that were displayed in this man?

Is JESUS talking about the miraculous opening of the eye of the blind man since such a miracle was never performed in the history of the world? Or is he meaning something more than that.

We must read it together with the next verse, "We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the Light of the world."

Does this sound like disconnected sentences? Or does it mean something other than what we commonly understand this to be.

May be we should read the last few verses of this chapter - verses 39-41 (John 9:39–41 “Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.” )

The LORD is talking about spiritual blindness and the opening of the eyes of the spiritually blind who acknowledge that they are blind. While there are others who never acknowledge they are blind and still remain in darkness.

Light and darkness are two metaphors that are used spiritually to reflect the Truth and darkness. God is Light. God is Truth.

Through the glorious miracle of opening of the eye of the blind man who was blind from birth, the LORD is amazingly symbolizing the overarching spiritual truth of GOD regenerating and saving a sinner who is estranged from GOD, dwelling in darkness.

Remember he was a blind man from birth. Likewise every sinner is a blind from birth.

Works of GOD may be displayed in him.

What is the work of GOD? John 6:28–29 “Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.””

Displayed is from the word "phaino" which means to cause something to be fully known by revealing clearly and in some detail—‘to make known, to make plain, to reveal, to bring to the light, to disclose, revelation. (Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). In Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains (electronic ed. of the 2nd edition., Vol. 1, pp. 337–338). United Bible Societies.)

In this miraculous healing of the blind there is a glorious display of the work of GOD on how a sinner believes in CHRIST.