If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, "We see." Therefore your sin remains

 But the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind and received his sight, until they called the parents of him who had received his sight.  And they asked them, saying, "Is this your son, who you say was born blind?  How then does he now see?"  His parents answered them and said, "We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but by what means he now sees we do not know, or who opened his eyes we do not know.  He is of age; ask him.  He will speak for himself."  His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had agreed already that if anyone confessed that He was Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue.  Therefore his parents said, "He is of age; ask him."   So they again called the man who was blind, and said to him, "Give God the glory!  We know that this Man is a sinner."  He answered and said, "Whether He is a sinner or not I do not know.  One thing I know:  that though I was blind, now I see."  Then they said to him again, "What did He do to you?  How did He open your eyes?"  He answered them, "I told you already, and you did not listen.  Why do you want to hear it again?  Do you also want to become His disciples?"  Then they reviled him and said, "You are His disciple, but we are Moses' disciples.  We know that God spoke to Moses; as for this fellow, we do not know where He is from."  The man answered and said to them, "Why this is a marvelous thing, that you do not know where He is from; yet He has opened my eyes!  Now we know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is as worshiper of God and does His will, He hears him.  Since the world began it has been unheard of that anyone opened the eyes of one who was born blind.  If this Man were not from God, He could do nothing."  They answered and said to him, "You were completely born in sins, and are you teaching us?"  And they cast him out.

Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He had found him, He said to him, "Do you believe in the Son of God?"  He answered and said, "Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?"  And Jesus said to him, "You have both seen Him and it is He who is talking with you."  Then he said, "Lord I believe!"  And he worshiped Him.  And Jesus said, "For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind."  Then some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these words, and said to Him, "Are we blind also?"  Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, 'We see.'  Therefore your sin remains." 

- John 9:18-41

 In our recent readings, Jesus has been at the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem.  After the leaders sought to stone Him (in response to His use of the holy Name of God), Jesus passed by them.  Yesterday we read that as He did so, Jesus saw a man who was blind from birth.  And His disciples asked Him, saying, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"  Jesus answered, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.  I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work.  As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world."  When He had said these things, He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva; and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay.  And He said to him, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam" (which is translated, Sent).  So he went and washed, and came back seeing.  Therefore the neighbors and those who previously had seen that he was blind said, "Is not this he who sat and begged?"  Some said, "This is he."  Others said, "He is like him."  He said, "I am he."  Therefore they said to him, "How were your eyes opened?"  He answered and said, "A Man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and said to me, 'Go to the pool of Siloam and wash.'  So I went and washed, and I received sight."  Then they said to him, "Where is He?"  He said, "I do not know."  They brought him who formerly was blind to the Pharisees.  Now it was a Sabbath when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes.  Then the Pharisees also asked him again how he had received his sight.  He said to them, "He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and I see."  Therefore some of the Pharisees said, "This Man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath."  Others said, "How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?"  And there was a division among them.  They said to the blind man again, "What do you say about Him because He opened your eyes?"  He said, "He is a prophet."

  But the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind and received his sight, until they called the parents of him who had received his sight.  And they asked them, saying, "Is this your son, who you say was born blind?  How then does he now see?"  His parents answered them and said, "We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but by what means he now sees we do not know, or who opened his eyes we do not know.  He is of age; ask him.  He will speak for himself."  His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had agreed already that if anyone confessed that He was Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue.  Therefore his parents said, "He is of age; ask him."   So they again called the man who was blind, and said to him, "Give God the glory!  We know that this Man is a sinner."   We note once again that in John's Gospel, the term the Jews most frequently is used as a political term to denote the leadership.  My study bible points out that as Jesus is not present in this scene, the Pharisees call Him a sinner.  But earlier when He asked them face-to-face, "Which if you convicts Me of sin?" (8:46), they evaded the question.  Give God the glory! was an oath form that was used in giving testimony.  This healed man will indeed give God glory (see verse 38).  The more he is pressed, my study bible says, the more fervent his faith becomes.  At the same time, the Pharisees lapse into deeper darkness.  Let us note also that this healed man is on his own; his parents fear the leaders and will not speak for him.

He answered and said, "Whether He is a sinner or not I do not know.  One thing I know:  that though I was blind, now I see."  My study points out that this healed man becomes a model of Christian witness.  It says that many people do not bear witness to Christ because they fear they will be asked questions that they cannot answer.  But this man's answer to people who are far more educated than he is gives the solution.   He admits what he does not know, but follows up with what he does know.  My study bible says that this formula, "That I don't know, but what I do know is this," is foundational to witnessing one's faith to others. 

Then they said to him again, "What did He do to you?  How did He open your eyes?"  He answered them, "I told you already, and you did not listen.  Why do you want to hear it again?  Do you also want to become His disciples?"  Then they reviled him and said, "You are His disciple, but we are Moses' disciples.  We know that God spoke to Moses; as for this fellow, we do not know where He is from."  The man answered and said to them, "Why this is a marvelous thing, that you do not know where He is from; yet He has opened my eyes!  Now we know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is as worshiper of God and does His will, He hears him.  Since the world began it has been unheard of that anyone opened the eyes of one who was born blind.  If this Man were not from God, He could do nothing."  They answered and said to him, "You were completely born in sins, and are you teaching us?"  And they cast him out.  My study bible notes for us the evolution of this healed man's understanding.  In response to being questioned, he thinks through the problem for himself as a response.  The leaders don't know where Christ is from, but He opened the eyes of the formerly blind man.  He says, "We know that God does not hear sinners" and "Since the world began it has been unheard of that anyone opened the eyes of one who was born blind."  He reasons out, in the context of the times, this peculiar mystery with which he is confronted, and which the leaders don't seem to know anything about, and even go so far as to declare Jesus a sinner.  The man concludes on his own, "If this Man were not from God, He could do nothing."  My study bible adds that the unprecedented nature of opening the eyes of one born blind (not found elsewhere in Scripture)  is a confirmation of Christ's divinity.  In addition, it was one of the prophesied signs of the coming Messiah (Isaiah 35:5; 42:7), and a prerogative which belonged only to God (Psalm 146:8).  The Pharisees, in response to the logical progression of thinking of the healed man, respond as they have before (8:48), with a personal insult (you were completely born in sins).  Let us also note the contradiction between this insult and Christ's declaration at the beginning of the chapter (see yesterday's reading, above), "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him."

Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He had found him, He said to him, "Do you believe in the Son of God?"  He answered and said, "Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?"  And Jesus said to him, "You have both seen Him and it is He who is talking with you."  Then he said, "Lord I believe!"  And he worshiped Him.  And Jesus said, "For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind."  Then some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these words, and said to Him, "Are we blind also?"  Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, 'We see.'  Therefore your sin remains."   My study bible comments that the Lord's coming brought judgment to the world, not because He came to judge (12:47-48), but because of our accountability to Him.  It says that those who see and hear Him but do not believe are judged by their own faithlessness.

Jesus says to the Pharisees, "If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, 'We see.'  Therefore your sin remains."  This is an important understanding, in that it brings us some insight about judgment and how judgment works.  To be blind in the figurative sense is to be ignorant of something, not to "see" it is not to "know" it.  But these men claim they see all, and understand all.  Therefore they take upon themselves the responsibility for their own judgment, their lack of true discernment, and the decision to pursue a path that renders them more deeply in spiritual darkness.  Most important, also, is the understanding that they are the religious experts of their time.  They are the ones who spend their time studying the Scriptures, debating over God's commandments, and registering their own opinions on the regulation and order of the faith as given through Jewish spiritual history.  They are the very ones who ought to see.  They are those who hold themselves not only as authorities of the faith for others, the spiritual custodians of the Scriptures and their understanding and interpretation (as well as judgments), but as we see so often from the Gospels and the remarks of Jesus, they clearly hold themselves as examples for others.  They declare to Christ that they see, and not that they need to have their own eyes opened, figuratively speaking, and so their sin remains.  This statement by Jesus illuminates another facet of Christ's work as Judge:  those who wish to see are given instruction, led along, taught, as is, for instance, this formerly blind man.  My study bible points out after his eyes are opened, the Lord also opens his heart and illumines his spirit.  This man moves from knowing almost nothing about Jesus, through the conclusion that He couldn't possibly be a sinner, through confessing that He must be from God, and finally to seeing Him as the divine Son of God and worshiping Him -- while the Pharisees, unable to refute all of this as stated by the healed man, can only resort to personal insult, a deliberate kind of ignorance, especially in those who are the most highly educated of their time.  Jesus' statement regarding judgment seems to open up an understanding for us that there are always two ways to go, and for us to choose from:  either we want to learn more, or we wish to take refuge in darkness.  Putting it literally, we either wish to move forward in discipleship (the Greek word for disciple literally means "learner"), or we wish to retreat from illumination.  From the examples of the Pharisees in today's reading, that retreat from having our eyes opened to something new means taking refuge in a hole of one's own making, digging deeper and deeper, so to speak, into a stubborn insistence that refuses change.  There we come directly to the concept of repentance, or metanoia in the Greek, which literally means "change of mind."  Christ's desire to open our own eyes, to illuminate the mind and enlighten, seems to take top priority over all else.  If there is one directive we have as human beings, judging from the Gospels and from Christ's message, we are to "follow Him" in discipleship.  It is a refusal to go forward, to learn, to be willing to change our minds with a better understanding or greater enlightenment that creates judgment.  We heed this call, or we do not.  We are meant, in that perspective, for expansion, for the fulfillment of a potential known only to our Creator, who made us in God's own "image and likeness."  Let us consider what it is to refuse, to fear the change He asks of us, and the opening up and illumination He brings.   We may like the places we find ourselves in, we may cherish a particular image of ourselves.  But it is a deliberate blindness, in which we insist we already see, that is fatal.  Christ's expansion of our own understanding not only asks us to go forward to a new place of perspective, it will ask us to change who we think we are, to be aware of flaws that hold us back which we need to discard, and to consider a better way.  We need humility for this journey, for we are all on that road that asks us to grow in discipleship.  Let us consider the alternative, and all the possibilities for faith on the other side, on the "way" that Christ asks us to go, with Him.