Jesus
Heals a Man Born Blind
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.” Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made
mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud and said
to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which
means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.
The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a
beggar were saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” Some
said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am
the man.” So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” He
answered, “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to
me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So
I went and washed and received my sight.” They said to him, “Where is
he?” He said, “I do not know.”
They brought to the Pharisees the man who had
formerly been blind. Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and
opened his eyes. The Pharisees again asked him how he had received his
sight. And he said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I
see.” Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does
not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such
signs?” And there was a division among them. So they said again to the
blind man, “What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?” He said,
“He is a prophet.”
The Jews did not believe that he had been blind
and had received his sight, until they called the parents of the man who had
received his sight and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born
blind? How then does he now see?” His parents answered, “We know that
this is our son and that he was born blind. But how he now sees we do not
know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak
for himself.” (His parents said these things because they feared the
Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to
be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.) Therefore his parents
said, “He is of age; ask him.”
So for the 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.” He answered, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I
do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” They said to him, “What did
he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” He answered them, “I have told
you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you
also want to become his disciples?” And they reviled him, saying, “You
are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has
spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes
from.” The man answered, “Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know
where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not
listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God
listens to him. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone
opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he
could do nothing.” They answered him, “You were born in utter sin, and
would you teach us?” And they cast him out.
Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having
found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” Jesus said
to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to
you.” He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. 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. (John, Chapter 9 ESV)
What powerful
words! “I was blind, now I see.” They are true for me, too. I was blind, but NOW I SEE! Praise God, now I can see.
We are
born spiritually blind, but when we accept Jesus as our Savior and make Him the
Lord of our lives, He gives us the Holy Spirit, and the spiritual blindness we
had is healed. Then we can truly see.
