I SEE BLIND PEOPLE
John
9:30-33 The formerly blind man answered the
Pharisees, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he
opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the
godly man who does his will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man
born blind. If this man were not from God, he could no nothing.”
The miracle was performed by
Jesus on a man born blind. The man was then seen by neighbors, family and
others in the area. He was brought before the Pharisees to be investigated. They
were agitated by the fact that this miracle happened on the Sabbath. They
demanded to know who performed the miracle. Some questioned whether he was even
born blind. They called in his parents to question them. Nothing would convince
them that the man had been healed of blindness. The man’s insistence on the
truth of the events led the Pharisees to throw him out of their synagogue.
After his expulsion, the man
is confronted again by Jesus. Jesus wants the miracle understood within the context
of his mission. He wants the man to be conscious of the greater things to which
the miracle points. Jesus wants to place him in a permanent, personal
relationship of faith to himself.
Look at the contrast between
this man who believed in the Son of Man and the responses of the
Scripture-trained Pharisees. Judgment has come. The dividing-line is between
those who see Jesus for who he is and those who are blind to him. The people in
this story place themselves on one side or the other by how they react to the
truth, to Jesus’ miracle. Judgment is not reason Christ came into the world but
the effect of his coming.