The Reaction of the Pharisees to the Healing
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Introduction:
Introduction:
We have made our way to Johns Gospel Chapter 9:13.
The conflict between our Lord Jesus Christ continues with the Jewish religious leaders in Jerusalem, with regards to who He was. They tried to place doubt in the minds of those who would dare believe in this Nazarene claiming to be the “Light of the world.”
The Pharisees challenged His authority and the authenticity of His claim. They rejected His testimony, because He supposedly had no witnesses. They also knew Joseph and Mary and supposed that He came from the hideous place called Nazareth. But they didn’t know, that He was the promised Messiah born in Bethlehem to Mary.
But Jesus not only had His own trustworthy testimony, He had the testimony of His disciples, He had the testimony of those whom He had healed, those whom He had fed, those whom He had delivered from disease and death, but He had the testimony of God the Father saying, “this is MY beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”
Jesus assured the Jews and the Pharisees, that He was not of this world. He said, “I go away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”
Jesus said to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He.
Some of the Jews came to believe in Him.
Jesus gives affirmation to them, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
Christ Jesus sets free those who are true followers of His. Free from what? From the law of sin and death.
Right out of the gate, they claim to be “Abraham’s descendant and had never yet been enslaved to anyone.” But Jesus says to them, “Truly, Truly, I say to you everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.” Jesus affirms, “I know that you are Abraham’s descendants; yet you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you. You are doing the deeds of your father, the devil.” He is a murderer. He is a liar and the father of lies. And the truth is not in him.
Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he will never see death,” by this they were angered. And they try again to justify themselves by being descendants of Abraham. But Jesus delivers a stern word of reality, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I AM.”
At this point, the confrontation had escalated beyond having a conversation. They became so angry that they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.
Coming to the 9th Chapter of John, we encounter the account of a blind beggar. Jesus anointed his blind eyes with clay. Jesus told him to go wash in the pool of Siloam, and the man returned having received his sight. Well this caused quite a stir among the people, so they sought answers from their Jewish religious leaders, the enemy of Christ.
13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who was formerly blind. 14 Now it was a Sabbath on the day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes.
The crowd at Siloam questioned the healing of the blind man. They were trying to make sense as to how it is possible for this man to now see. It seems undeniable that a miracle has occured, who is this miracle worker? The crowd wanted answers, so they sought their spiritual leaders for answers.
15 Then the Pharisees also were asking him again how he received his sight. And he said to them, “He applied clay to my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” 16 Therefore some of the Pharisees were saying, “This man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.” But others were saying, “How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?” And there was a division among them.
It comes as no surprise at the Pharisees response.
Did the Lord deliberately provoke the leaders by violating their Sabbath regulations? Yes and He did so to display His divine authority as Lord of the Sabbath.
Jesus’ disregard for the rabbis restrictions and extrabiblical applications, is what upset them. The Pharisees were perverting God’s design for His weekly day of rest. What they were doing was adding unnecessary extrabiblical standards and oppressive burdens on the people, that were not lawful. So Jesus disregarded them and as a result, they accused the Lord of disregarding the Sabbath. Jesus was considered a sinner, even accused Him of having a demon!
But some were asking, “How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?” And there was a division among them.
17 So they said to the blind man again, “What do you say about Him, since He opened your eyes?” And he said, “He is a prophet.” 18 The Jews then did not believe it of him, that he had been blind and had received sight, until they called the parents of the very one who had received his sight,
Keep in mind what Jesus said to Nicodemus , “unless one is born again, he cannot SEE the kingdom of God.”
When Adam sinned, what happened? Adam became minus God in his spirit. The spiritual life went out of Adam.
That is what we see in the world today, spiritually dead men walking.
The blind man was blind from birth. But the Pharisees were spiritually blind.
The blind man was given physical sight, and we now see some indication of spiritual light. The man has come to believe that His healer is a prophet of God.
This would serve as a rebuke to the Pharisees claim that Jesus is insane, having a demon.
We can relate to the blind beggar, can’t we?
We too were born blind, spiritually speaking!
We have all experienced the inability to see, spiritually speaking!
We have all found ourselves to be beggars. Without hope. Without peace. Without assurance. Without God.
We are all by nature, spiritually blind. We needed LIGHT and we needed sight!
It is of no coincidence that Jesus is the Light of the world, and He is the One who gives sight to the blind!
There is a progression of faith taking place with this blind man.
When the blind man was first heal, he referred to Jesus as a “man” who made clay and anointed his eyes.
Later, the blind man refers to Jesus as more than a man, he perceived that He is a prophet.
They did not believe the testimony of the blind man, so they wanted to here from his parents.
19 and questioned them, saying, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? Then how does he now see?”
You can easily see the hardness of heart in their blunt, authoritarian questioning. These were not men of God, Jesus had affirmed that they were of their father the devil.
So, the parents were careful in their response, out of fear of repercussions from the Pharisees.
We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind;
20 His parents answered them and said, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; 21 but how he now sees, we do not know; or who opened his eyes, we do not know. Ask him; he is of age, he will speak for himself.”
It is evident that the parents are not comfortable with this interrogation. They were afraid of being cut off from the religious and social life of Israel.
22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone confessed Him to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue. 23 For this reason his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”
The parents were not prepared to give an explanation for the miracle, even though they knew that a miracle had occured.
I hope we are not like these parents today? God does amazing things and gives many blessings such that we cannot describe, but when the heat is on, when the stress test is applied, are we quick to disassociate ourselves from Him? Many will turn away from Christ, when the cost gets too high to take a firm stand.
And the religious rulers could not deny the miracle, yet they still try to prevent the Lord from getting credit for it.
24 So a second time they called the man who had been blind, and said to him, “Give glory to God; we know that this man is a sinner.”
They tried to steer the healed man away from what he knew to be the truth. We have to be cautious in this day and age too! They wanted him to deny Christ and join with them in their unbelief.
They blasphemously say, “we know that this man is a sinner.”
The conversation is growing increasingly snide, sarcastic, and malicious by the moment.
They are implying that it must have been God, give Him glory…because we know that this man Jesus couldn’t have healed you because He is a sinner!
Unlike his parents, the healed man stands his ground. He does not back up or shut up. He doesn’t timidly shy away from the Jewish aggressors.
25 He then answered, “Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”
He doesn’t claim to know whether Jesus is a sinner or not. In fact, so far he has not claimed to know anything, except “one thing” that he is sure of, one thing that he can now testify. For the first time in his life, he can now say, “I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”
The Pharisees were persistent and pressed him to explain his healing, trying to get him to discount Jesus’ role...
26 So they said to him, “What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes?”
Standing firm, he continued to assert that Jesus’ miracles opened his blinded eyes. Something no one else could do for him. He asserted that such a miracle could only be that of a prophet of God.
27 He answered them, “I told you already and you did not listen; why do you want to hear it again? You do not want to become His disciples too, do you?”
It was apparent that the Pharisees were not genuinely seeking the truth and they certainly were not going to accept his testimony as true.
Perhaps they were trying to see if this healed man is actually an imposter who was a disciple of Jesus, posing as a blind man, faking a miracle.
I say this because in this next verse, they make the accusation.
28 They reviled him and said, “You are His disciple, but we are disciples of Moses.
Sporting with them in mockery, the healed man asked them, “is it that you want to become Jesus’ disciples too?”
The Pharisees resorted to the safety of their supposed loyalty to Moses.
29 “We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where He is from.”
They believed that Moses was to be believed, but Jesus could not be!
They knew that Jesus came from the village of Nazareth, they knew that he was a carpenter by trade, they considered Him deranged, untrained, and a blasphemer for claiming to be the Son of God.
They said, as for this man, we do not know where He is from.
They claimed to not know, they claimed ignorance of Him, even after the amazing signs that were given.
To this day, like these Pharisees, stubborn rejection of Christ persists. They know the gospel truth yet cling to their sin and unbelief.
Jesus came forth from God and has gone back to God, and He is coming again!
I can’t help but smile when I read the healed man’s sarcastic comeback, to their “unknowing.”
30 The man answered and said to them, “Well, here is an amazing thing, that you do not know where He is from, and yet He opened my eyes.
In other words, “How did you manage to not know, being you seem to have all the answers?”
The fact remains…He opened my eyes.
This really is great here. The healed man proceeds to give some common sense theological teaching to these Christ rejecting Pharisees. Not only was he certain that he was blind and now is able to see. But he also knows this…lets read what he says....
31 “We know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He hears him. 32 “Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. 33 “If this man were not from God, He could do nothing.”
The humble beggars logic is this… “apparently God heard Jesus since Jesus was able to do this miracle for him. So since God heard Jesus, Jesus must not be a sinner, because only a man from God could do such things as these.
Again, the Pharisee’s go on the attack...
34 They answered him, “You were born entirely in sins, and are you teaching us?” So they put him out.
Their assumption again, is that this man must have been born into sin, since he was born unable to see.
Their response was meant to belittle him, while lifting themselves up. Their unwillingness to hear and heed the truth is evident. They deny the undeniable and refute the irrefutable.
The Apostle Paul himself, as a former Pharisee by the way, explains in....
14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.
Jesus plainly stated in...
44 “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.
The Pharisee’s put him out of the synagogue, excommunicating him.
Men are hopelessly blind to the truth, unless the Holy Spirit give them sight. The Pharisees were presented with living proof of Jesus’ divine power. They were given testimony and the evidence stood before them. Yet they continued to reject the obvious because they were spiritually blind. It takes more than light to see, it takes sight.