In John 9 is the record of the healing of the man born blind, one of the many healings brought into manifestation by Jesus on the Sabbath. I say “brought into manifestation” rather than “performed by” since Jesus didn’t actually “heal” the man’s eyes. Jesus’ consciousness of the man’s true spiritual identity that cannot experience blindness and the man being “touched” by that consciousness is what caused the man to see.
After the Pharisees had condemned Jesus for healing on the Sabbath, they asked the man healed what he thought of Jesus, to which he responded that Jesus was a prophet (v17). The Pharisees refused to believe that the man had indeed been born blind and had received his sight at the hands of Jesus.
So they proceeded to find the man’s parents and asked them if that were the case. They verified that he had indeed been born blind but, for fear of being put out of the synagogue by the religious leaders for confessing Jesus to be the Christ, would not credit Jesus for bringing about their son’s sight—and therefore told those leaders to ask their son whatever they wanted to know about Jesus (vv18-23).
So back to the son they go, telling him that he must give God the praise since Jesus had to be a “sinner” because He broke the law concerning the Sabbath (v24). This “beggar” (v8), who had never been instructed in the law of Moses, responded that all he knew was that he had been blind and now he could see—that was all he knew or needed to know.
Actually, he knew a lot more, as we can see in his continued questioning by the Pharisees. As they persist in asking him the questions that he has already answered about how Jesus healed him, the man becomes a little impertinent and says effectively, “Do you want to keep talking about this because you want to also be His disciple?” (vv 26-27).
Would that that had been the case! The story would have had a happier ending. But no, they “reviled” the man, saying that he was Jesus’ disciple but that they were disciples of Moses (not of this “sinner” Jesus who dared to break the law of Moses) because they knew that God spoke to Moses but they didn’t know from where Jesus came (vv 28-29).
Then the man showed forth his intuitive knowledge of God—that God hears those who worship Him and do His will and that if Jesus were “not of God, he could do nothing” (v33).
They deeply resented that this man “born in sins” should attempt to teach them, so they “cast him out” (v35). But Jesus “found him” and revealed Himself to Him (vv 35-38). (See below).
Now Jesus shows us the real purpose of this healing:
39 And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.
40 And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also?
41 Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.
This healing is but a parable (see Life Is a Parable) illustrating the reason God descended into this world—to open the eyes of mankind that had become blinded to the truth of who they were and of their relation to God their creator and Father. He came to show that it isn’t about acts judged to be “sin” because they broke the law of Moses. It is rather about hearing, seeing and believing the truth.
The disciples in the very beginning asked Jesus “who did sin,” this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? (V2). They had the same concept of God that the Pharisees had, a God of wrath who punished man for doing the wrong thing.
To really hear what Jesus is saying in response to His disciples, we need to punctuate the next couple of sentences differently:
3-5 Jesus answered, “Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents. But that the works of God should be manifested in him, I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day; the night cometh, when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
If we read it as punctuated in the text, it appears that God caused the man to be blind so Jesus could heal him, which is contrary to everything Jesus taught about God’s love for his children.
The “sin” Jesus came to be made for us so “that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2Corinthians 5:21) is believing ourselves to be separated from our Father and making ourselves laws concerning what we must do or not do to regain His love and acceptance. Jesus deliberately broke the law of Moses (with all its burnt offerings and sacrifices) by healing on the Sabbath so that people could see how this law was blinding them and causing their hearts to be hardened against God and their brother, thereby breaking the “greatest commandment” on which “hang all the law and the prophets” which is, of course, to love God and one another.
(Mark 12:28 And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? 29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: 30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. 31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.
And Matthew adds in his account of this same conversation, 22:40 On these commandments hang all the law and the prophets.)
The apostle John really grasped this truth and says very bluntly in his first epistle that if we are “born of God” and have received God’s love, we will love one another.
(1John 3:14 We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.
1John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. 8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. . . . 10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us.11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. 12 No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. 13 Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. . . .16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.)
That’s why Jesus could say of the Pharisees, “If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God” (John 8:42) and “ye have not the love of God in you” (John 5:42).
The story of the man born blind, like all other Scripture, is given to instruct us in righteousness (2Timothy 3:16:17), illustrating that righteousness does not come to us by keeping the “letter” of the law. These Pharisees
Romans 10:2 . . . have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.
They who were so well acquainted with “the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:40) read these scriptures only by the “letter” (not by the “Spirit”); and therefore “their minds were blinded” (2Corinthians 3:14) to the truths contained therein. They could not recognize the Christ in their midst as the Messiah they had been waiting for, the one who “is the end of the law for righteousness,” the one of whom the scriptures they were searching to find life testified (John 5:39). They judged Him to be a “sinner” (John 9:24) and “not of God, because he keepeth not the sabbath day” (v 16) as they did. They could read the words but did not hear God’s voice speaking to them (John 5:37) as they read.
As Jesus had told them earlier, “. . . . had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me; for he wrote of me. . . . if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?” (John 5: 42; 46-47).
They cannot see that they are blind because they are like the Pharisee of Jesus’ parable who “trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others” (Luke 18:9). They are “ignorant of God’s righteousness” (Romans 10:3) which must be accepted as a free gift.
They would not admit their blindness and receive the righteousness that is “of God” and is experienced by “every one that believeth” (v 5)—as we can see with the man born blind.
John 9:35 Jesus . . . said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? 36 He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? 37 And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. 38 And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him.
“For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness” (Romans 10:10). God’s righteousness cannot be earned, just believed. “It is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Romans 5:17; Ephesians 2:8-9).
We can see this all beautifully illustrated in the story of the man born blind.