Whether He is a sinner or not I do not know. One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see

 

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 

 

We are currently reading about the events which occurred at the Feast of Tabernacles, during the final year of Jesus' earthly life.  Yesterday we read that, as Jesus passed by, He 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."  In yesterday's reading (above), we read of the opening of the eyes of this man who was born blind, the sixth of seven signs in John's Gospel.  This "illumination" of the man's sight is an expression and manifestation of Christ's quality of light (John 1:4-5), as "Light of Light, and true God of true God" (Creed).  Here the religious leaders turn to the healed man's parents, to question them.  "The Jews" is used in John's Gospel as a type of political label, meant to indicate the leadership and not the people; all the people in this story are Jews.  Note the fear of the religious establishment, who  threaten "that if anyone confessed that He was Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue," and have the power to do so.  That the people fear them is a testimony to their power, and how they wield it.  By now, they clearly consider Jesus to be an enemy and a threat, and conspire against Him.  So much so, that these parents will not speak on behalf of their son.

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 now, 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! it says, was an oath formula used before giving testimony.  Nonetheless, this healed man will give God glory a little further on, toward the end of today's reading (verse 38).  My study Bible makes an important observation, that the more the healed man is pressed, the more fervent his faith becomes -- but the Pharisees lapse into deeper darkness.  

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 remarks that this formerly blind man now 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 they cannot answer.  This man's answer to people who are far more education than he is provides the right solution:  he admits what he does not know, but he follows up with what he does know.  My study Bible cites the formula, "That I don't know, but what I do know is this."  It 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." My study Bible notes that the unprecedented nature of opening the eyes of one who was born blind is a confirmation of Christ's divinity.  This was one of the signs of the coming Messiah (Isaiah 35:5; 42:7) and a prerogative belonging solely to God (Psalm 146:8).

 

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.  My study Bible comments that, having opened the blind man's eyes, here Christ also opens his heart and illumines his spirit.  The healed man moves from knowing nearly nothing about Christ ("Whether He is a sinner or not I do not know. One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see"), through the conclusion that Jesus could not possibly be a sinner ("Now we know that God does not hear sinners. . ."), through confessing that Jesus must be from God, and to finally seeing Him as the divine Son of God and worshiping Him.  Again, the Pharisees can't refute the man's logic nor the truth of what he reveals; therefore, they resort yet again to personal insult ("You were completely born in sins, and are you teaching us?").  See also John 8:48.

 

 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 states that Christ's coming brought judgment to the world, not because He came to judge (John 12:47-48), but rather because of humankind's accountability to Him.  Those who see and hear Him but do not believe are judged by their own faithlessness.  This is a repeated theme in John's Gospel (see also John 3:16-21).  

The formerly blind man has something to teach us all, which my study Bible points out.  He knows how to testify.  Although he does not have the education, qualifications, and social position or power of the religious rulers to whom he speaks, he makes a good testimony for himself.  He also frustrates them in the process, because what he says cannot be counterattacked, except through the fallacy of personal insult.  He uses the formula my study Bible clearly names:  "That I don't know, but what I do know is this."  In so doing, he also displays a characteristic which is has historically been deemed essential to our faith, and the real door to all the virtues, and that is humility.  It takes a kind of grounded humility to be able to speak in this straightforward and honest way.  Perhaps it is because he has spent his life as a person blind from birth, and so has never had any capacity for pretense at being something he is not.  Possibly -- as even the disciples indicate in their beliefs -- because he was surrounded by a culture that presumed that either he or his parents sinned, and so his blindness was a result, he never experienced social distinction of any kind, but rather dismissal.  Possibly such a person has retained the capacity for the type of straightforward honesty, embedded in humility, that he expresses here.  This is another factor related to hidden beauty and goodness that the light of Christ may bring out of a bad circumstance.  When Jesus teaches, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:3), we should stop to think about this formerly blind man, if we are to understand what it is to be poor in spirit.  For this man embodies these qualities of honesty, humility, and being without guile that are hallmarks of what it is to be "poor in spirit," and those things in turn make him the perfect witness for Christ.  Effectively, from a life of affliction and hardship, is produced, through Christ, the beauty that blossoms in this man.  That is, not only his movement toward faith and what that means for him, and not only the opening of his eyes and the sixth great sign given us in John's Gospel of "God with us," but also that he serves as a kind of monument to witnessing for all the rest of us.  For in saying, "Whether He is a sinner or not I do not know.  One thing I know:  that though I was blind, now I see," this man gives to us a model, and the perfect image for how we present ourselves to the world.  It might be helpful to remember that Christianity and its theology is filled with mystery; we actually have a need to say there are things we don't know.  This man reminds us that there is never a need to pretend we know what we don't know, nor contrarily to behave in a way that is simply servile to those whom we would consider above us in some sense.  What is needful is to be "poor in spirit" -- humble, truthful, and without guile.  This serves for anyone, anywhere -- and maybe especially for those who would be in leadership positions.  Let us give thanks for Christ's illumination, bringing this man to such a place, and revealing the work of God in him.