Read John 9:1-41
9 As
Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been born blind. 2His
disciples asked him, “Teacher, whose sin caused him to be born blind? Was it
his own or his parents’ sin?”
3 Jesus
answered, “His blindness has nothing to do with his sins or his parents’ sins.
He is blind so that God’s power might be seen at work in him. 4As
long as it is day, we must keep on doing the work of him who sent me; night is
coming when no one can work. 5While I am in the world, I am the
light for the world.”
6 After
he said this, Jesus spat on the ground and made some mud with the spittle; he
rubbed the mud on the man’s eyes 7and said, “Go and wash your face
in the Pool of Siloam.” (This name means “Sent”.) So the man went, washed his
face, and came back seeing.
8
His
neighbours, then, and the people who had seen him begging before this, asked,
“Isn’t this the man who used to sit and beg?” 9Some said, “He is the
one,” but others said, “No he isn’t; he just looks like him.” So the man
himself said, “I am the man.”
10 “How
is it that you can now see?” they asked him.
11 He
answered, “The man called Jesus made some mud, rubbed it on my eyes, and told
me to go to Siloam and wash my face. So I went, and as soon as I washed, I
could see.”
12 “Where
is he?” they asked.
“I don’t
know,” he answered.
The Pharisees Investigate the Healing
13 Then
they took to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. 14The day
that Jesus made the mud and cured him of his blindness was a Sabbath. 15The
Pharisees, then, asked the man again how he had received his sight. He told
them, “He put some mud on my eyes; I washed my face, and now I can see.”
16 Some
of the Pharisees said, “The man who did this cannot be from God, for he does
not obey the Sabbath law.”
Others,
however, said, “How could a man who is a sinner perform such miracles as
these?” And there was a division among them.
17 So
the Pharisees asked the man once more, “You say he cured you of your
blindness—well, what do you say about him?”
“He is a
prophet,” the man answered.
18 The
Jewish authorities, however, were not willing to believe that he had been blind
and could now see, until they called his parents 19and asked them,
“Is this your son? You say that he was born blind; how is it, then, that he can
now see?”
20 His
parents answered, “We know that he is our son, and we know that he was born
blind. 21But we do not know how it is that he is now able to see,
nor do we know who cured him of his blindness. Ask him; he is old enough, and
he can answer for himself!” 22His parents said this because they
were afraid of the Jewish authorities, who had already agreed that anyone who
said he believed that Jesus was the Messiah would be expelled from the
synagogue. 23That is why his parents said, “He is old enough; ask
him!”
24 A
second time they called back the man who had been born blind, and said to him,
“Promise before God that you will tell the truth! We know that this man who
cured you is a sinner.”
25 “I
do not know if he is a sinner or not,” the man replied. “One thing I do know: I
was blind, and now I see.”
26 “What
did he do to you?” they asked. “How did he cure you of your blindness?”
27 “I
have already told you,” he answered, “and you would not listen. Why do you want
to hear it again? Maybe you, too, would like to be his disciples?”
28 They
cursed him and said, “You are that fellow’s disciple; but we are Moses’
disciples. 29We know that God spoke to Moses; as for that fellow,
however, we do not even know where he comes from!”
30 The
man answered, “What a strange thing that is! You do not know where he comes
from, but he cured me of my blindness! 31We know that God does not
listen to sinners; he does listen to people who respect him and do what he
wants them to do. 32Since the beginning of the world nobody has ever
heard of anyone giving sight to a person born blind. 33Unless this
man came from God, he would not be able to do a thing.”
34 They
answered, “You were born and brought up in sin—and you are trying to teach us?”
And they expelled him from the synagogue.
Spiritual Blindness
35 When
Jesus heard what had happened, he found the man and asked him, “Do you believe
in the Son of Man?”
36 The
man answered, “Tell me who he is, sir, so that I can believe in him!”
37 Jesus
said to him, “You have already seen him, and he is the one who is talking with
you now.”
38 “I
believe, Lord!” the man said, and knelt down before Jesus.
39 Jesus
said, “I came to this world to judge, so that the blind should see and those
who see should become blind.”
40 Some
Pharisees who were there with him heard him say this and asked him, “Surely you
don’t mean that we are blind, too?”
41 Jesus
answered, “If you were blind, then you would not be guilty; but since you claim
that you can see, this means that you are still guilty.”
Think
The Pharisees, angry with the
blind man say to him: “You were born and
raised in sin and yet you try to teach us!”
So often we dismiss people
because we think we’re better, more clever, more spiritual than them. Yet – God has something to say to us through
everyone.
Pray
Lord, give me a teachable
spirit.
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