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

 

 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 a 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, an autumn harvest festival, and it is the final year of His earthly life.  He has been disputing with the religious leaders, and given many teachings.  Because of His declaration of equality with the Father, they tried to stone Him, but Jesus went out of the temple.  Yesterday we read that, as Jesus passed by, He saw a man 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 this 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."  My study Bible comments that with Jesus not present, the Pharisees call Him a sinner, but earlier when He asked them face-to-face, "Which of you convicts Me of sin?" (John 8:46), they evaded the question.  Give God the glory! was an oath formula used before giving testimony.  Nonetheless, the healed man will truly give God glory in his dialogue with Jesus further on in our reading ("Lord, I believe!").  The more he is pressed, my study Bible notes, the more fervent his faith becomes, while the Pharisees lapse into deeper darkness.  To get an idea about their use of power, note how the parents of the formerly blind man fear to say anything to them, referring them only to their son, who will understandably come to rely on Christ,  "He is of age; ask 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 Bible says that this healed man becomes a model of Christian witness.  Many people do not bear witness to Christ because they fear they will be asked questions they cannot answer.  This man's answer to people who are much more educated than himself provides our solution:  he admits what he does not know, but follows up with what he does know.  My study Bible tells us 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 a 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 asks us to see the evolution of the faith of this man.  Having his eyes opened by Christ begins a process of healing whereby his heart and spirit also become illumined.  Here he moves from knowing almost nothing about Jesus, through the conclusion that He could not possibly be a sinner, to confessing that Jesus must be from God -- and in dialogue with Jesus a little farther on in today's passage, to seeing Him as the divine Son of God and worshiping Him.  As the man says, it was unprecedented that the eyes of one who born blind would be opened.  This is a confirmation of Christ's divinity, and also a prophesied sign of the coming Messiah (Isaiah 35:5; 42:7), a prerogative belonging solely to God (Psalm 146:8).  Note the process of the man's logic which the Pharisees cannot refute, neither can they dispute the truth of what he reveals to them -- therefore, characteristically, they again resort to personal insult (see John 8:48). 

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 says that Christ's Incarnation brought judgment to the world, not because He came to judge (John 12:47-48), but because of humankind's accountability to Him.  Those who see and hear Him but do not believe are judged by their own faithlessness.  

What does it mean to truly hear and see Christ, and yet reject any faith in Him, to reject belief?  What is it about being exposed to the deity in the expression and works of Christ which is potent enough to render judgment in those who cannot accept them?  It tells us something not only about Christ, but also about our own capacities for knowing God.  For, unless we were capable of communing with God, of recognizing spiritual truth within ourselves, how could our rejection be that powerfully condemning?  What we receive from this understanding is not simply the depth of our freedom (for how deep must our freedom be to be capable of such potent rejection?), but also the nature of truth itself, and our own internal capacity to participate in it, and the dynamic internal call to faith.  We might think it a no-brainer to accept Christ should we be standing in the shoes of any witnesses to this stupendous healing of a man who was blind from birth.  But if so, then we fail to understand our own capacity for rejection and selfishness.  For clearly, the religious authorities do not want to relinquish any of their own authority which they would have to do if they recognized Jesus as the Christ.  This capacity for self-delusion which is ultimately self-serving is something that perhaps should never surprise us, if we but look around in our world.  But the figure of Christ adds an extra dimension to this question.  His presence tells us at once about the compelling nature of spiritual truth, and also of our own capacities for rejection of it, for fooling ourselves, and for our own blindness to anything but our own immediate gratification.  For we should consider what it might mean for the Pharisees, like Nicodemus who is one of them, to accept Christ among them.  At this time in history, Israel was suffering and on its way to terrible defeat and dispersion, even the horrific destruction of the temple and the Siege of Jerusalem that would come in a generation.  Who knows what path was possible should these men have recognized and accepted Christ?  The same is true for our lives as well.  It is hard for us to see beyond our immediate grasp of circumstances; we are blind to the future.  So often we fail to calculate where our path is taking us.  This happens because we fail to acknowledge our own ignorance and blindness.  It happens because we think we know more than we really do.  And it happens because we have our own course we'd rather pursue than face where a spiritual truth will take us, and there is the real crux of the matter.  Like these Pharisees, we fail to see and note our own blindness and limited capacity for understanding the powerful forces that surround us spiritually and are invisible to us.  We fail to see where our own misguided selfishness and even corruption is leading.  But most importantly, a rejection of Christ (that is, of the spiritual truth He offers) has its own capacity for disastrous consequences, for plans that go awry, for the wrong-headed pursuit of a dead end or one that leads to destruction.  In today's reading, a man blind from birth receives his sight.  But as my study Bible pointed out, this "sight" isn't merely physical; it also, of necessity, becomes a healing of soul and spirit, a granting of sight also on these levels of personal life for this man.  Let us consider this man a stand-in for ourselves; perhaps he has the great advantage of knowing he is blind, when we do not -- and we are capable of fooling ourselves enough to believe that we know more than we really do.  For today, let us consider what we miss when we fail to sit up and take note, to find the truth in Christ standing before us, even within us and among us (Luke 17:20-21).  What we fail to see might be the very thing we need, the one thing necessary, without which we might be among the blind led by the blind.  But it is the deliberate blindness of those who should know better which should give us all pause, for it is something of which we are each capable.