Lesson for August 10, 2025
The Book of John
Lesson 27
Chapter 9:1-41
Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind
Verses 1-13
“As Jesus passed by, He saw a man who had been blind from birth. 2 And His disciples asked Him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?’ 3 Jesus answered, ‘It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 We must carry out the works of Him Who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. 5 While I am in the world, I am the Light of the world.’ 6 When He had said this, He spit on the ground, and made mud from the saliva, and applied the mud to his eyes, 7 and said to him, ‘Go, wash in the pool of Siloam’ (which is translated, Sent). So, he left and washed and came back seeing. 8 So the neighbors, and those who previously saw him as a beggar, were saying, ‘Is this not the one who used to sit and beg?’ 9 Others were saying, ‘This is he,’ still others were saying, ‘No, but he is like him.’ The man himself kept saying, ‘I am the one.’ 10 So they were saying to him, ‘How then were your eyes opened?’ 11 He answered, ‘The Man who is called Jesus made mud, and spread it on my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash’; so I went away and washed, and I received sight.’ 12 And they said to him, ‘Where is He’ He said, ‘I do not know.’13 They brought the man who was previously blind to the Pharisees.”
Jesus had left the temple grounds when He passed by a man blind from birth and saw an opportunity to teach His disciples and confirm His authority from God. Based on their question, His disciples did not see what Jesus saw – a man in need of a Savior. This blind man’s need was salvation, not receiving his sight. However, Jesus gave him both his physical sight and his spiritual sight. Judaism had seemingly adopted the false doctrine of transmigration (a belief of the Greeks that all souls exist in the past and some are punished for sins committed by the last person who had that soul, similar to reincarnation). This seems to have been the foundation of the disciples’ question. Added to this was the Pharisees distorted interpretation of Exodus 20:5, “You shall not worship them nor serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, inflicting the punishment of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing favor to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”
Jesus answered, ‘It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents. Children are not punished for the sins committed by their parents. We are all responsible for our own sins. Ezekiel 18:20 says, “The soul who sins is the one who will die. The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son.”
Exodus 20:5 was referring to the sin of idolatry, therefore the children raised in this pagan practice would continue the pattern unless it was broken by faith in Christ. Therefore, saying God punishes the children of those raised by idolatrous parents is simply a way of saying that the children are repeating their parents’ sin. This passage was a warning to the nation of Israel for their idolatry.
But it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must carry out the works of Him Who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the Light of the world. The reason Jesus encountered this blind man was so he could be healed physically to authenticate His Messiahship. Night is coming meant there was a time coming when Jesus would be crucified and return to Heaven. So, while He was on earth, his disciples needed to do the work of sharing the Gospel regarding Jesus, the Light of the World.
When He had said this, He spit on the ground, and made mud from the saliva, and applied the mud to his eyes, 7 and said to him, ‘Go, wash in the pool of Siloam’ (which is translated, Sent). So, he left and washed and came back seeing. After Jesus healed the blind man, the man began to describe how Jesus had put mud on his eyes and told him to go wash them in the pool of Siloam. Those who heard him brought him to the Jewish religious leaders, so they could hear his story.
Verses 14-17
“Now it was a Sabbath on the day that Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. 15 Then the Pharisees also were asking him again how he received his sight. And he said to them, ‘He applied mud to my eyes, and I washed, and I see.’ 16 Therefore some of the Pharisees were saying, ‘This Man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.’ But others were saying, ‘How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?’ And there was dissension among them. 17 So they said again to the man who was blind, ‘What do you say about Him, since He opened your eyes?’ And he said, ‘He is a prophet.’ “
Now it was a Sabbath on the day that Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. Once again, we see the religious Jews trying to trap Jesus because He healed someone on the Sabbath. As we know, they had distorted the Mosaic Law and turned it into a system of legalism, while ignoring the spirit of the Law. One would think the Pharisees would be saying how great it was, but they didn’t. They didn’t care about the man being healed. The Sabbath had been violated, according to them, and they didn’t care about the alleviation of suffering or the fact that they had seen a sign confirming that Jesus was the Messiah. They cared only that their “pet taboo” had been violated.
So, the Pharisees attempted to discredit this miracle, the One Who performed it, and the one who had been healed. The one thing they could not explain was the fact that the blind man could now see.
Verses 18-23
“The Jews then did not believe it about him, that he had been blind and had received sight, until they called the parents of the very one who had received his sight, 19 and they questioned them, saying, ‘Is this your son, who you say was born blind? Then how does he now see?’ 20 His parents then answered and said, ‘We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; 21 but how he now sees, we do not know; or who opened his eyes, we do not know. Ask him; he is of age, he will speak for himself.’ 22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already reached the decision that if anyone confessed Him to be Christ, he was to be excommunicated from the synagogue. 23 It was for this reason that his parents said, ‘He is of age; ask him.’
Their interrogation of the blind man’s parents did nothing to help them discredit the miracle Jesus had performed. But it did confirm that a miracle had taken place before the eyes of a large crowd. The parents were afraid of the Jews and being excommunicated from the synagogue. If this occurred, no Jew could give them food or sell them food or help them in any way. No one could do business with them. The parents knew this and that’s why they were so frightened. For this reason, the parents told the Pharisees to go ask their son, since he was an adult and able to answer their questions. The fear of religious retribution was greater than their gratitude to Jesus for healing their son.
Verses 24-34
“So for a second time they summoned the man who had been blind, and said to him, ‘Give glory to God; we know that this Man is a sinner.’ 25 He then answered, ‘Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.’ 26 So they said to him, ‘What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes?’ 27 He answered them, ‘I told you already and you did not listen; why do you want to hear it again? You do not want to become His disciples too, do you?’ 28 They spoke abusively to him and said, ‘You are His disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. 29 We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this Man, we do not know where He is from.’ 30 The man answered and said to them, ‘Well, here is the amazing thing, that you do not know where He is from, and yet He opened my eyes! 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners; but if someone is God-fearing and does His will, He listens to him. 32 Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. 33 If this Man were not from God, He could do nothing.’ 34 They answered him, ‘You were born entirely in sins, and yet you are teaching us?’ So, they put him out.”
Give glory to God was not an expression of gratitude, it was putting this man under an oath to tell the truth. It is the equivalent of going to court and being asked, “Do you swear to tell the truth?” The implication was that the man had been lying to them, but now we are going to get you tell us the “truth.” So, they attempted to use the law to try to intimidate and to discredit this man who had been healed.
Their gimmick to discredit Christ was“we know that this Man is a sinner.” They are implying that Jesus had blasphemed God, in order to discredit Him and to get the once-blind man to renounce Jesus. They were bullying this man through intimidation. But the man was an honest witness. He didn’t know anything about Jesus except He had healed him. And he refused to discuss something that he didn’t know, so he stayed with the facts and refused to let the Pharisees put words in his mouth. So, they rebuked him and sent him away.
Verses 35-38
“Jesus heard that they had put him out, and upon finding him, He said, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’ 36 He answered by saying, ‘And who is He, Sir, that I may believe in Him?’ 37 Jesus said to him, ‘You have both seen Him, and He is the One Who is talking with you. 38 And he said, ‘I believe, Lord.’ And he worshiped Him.”
When they couldn’t meet his logic, when they couldn’t stand his sarcasm, they threw him out. It was obvious that the blind man cared nothing for religion. And not only had he not care for religion but religion, of course, didn’t care for him.
Jesus sought this man out knowing he was ready to believe in Him. Jesus’ question was designed to elicit a positive response, which it did when this man put his faith in Jesus for salvation. Now, his spiritual blindness had been lifted so that he could see and believe in Jesus as his Savior.
Verses 39-41
“And Jesus said, ‘For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.’ 40 Those who were with Him from the Pharisees heard these things and said to Him, ‘We are not blind too, are we?’ 41 Jesus said to them, ‘If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now that you maintain, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.’”
Jesus had two purposes for coming as the Messiah: 1) He came to call His sheep (those who would believe in Him) 2) He came to judge those who are not His sheep (those who reject Him). There are only two choices in life regarding eternity: 1) faith in Jesus Christ resulting in eternal life 2) rejection of Jesus Christ resulting in eternal death.
So that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind. We have a description of the blind man and a description of the Pharisees. The blind man: so that those who do not see may see. Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost. He sought the blind man, and He saved the blind man. The result of physical healing caused this man to receive spiritual healing by believing in Jesus as his Savior. The Pharisees: those who see may become blind. Jesus came to judge those who rejected Him. The Pharisees could see physically, but not spiritually. Their religion had blinded them to the truth. And even the miracles Jesus performed did not open their eyes to spiritual truth.
If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now that you maintain, ‘We see,’ your sin remains. The sin of the Pharisees was not recognizing their Messiah and rejecting Him as their Savior. They were not blind to the claims of Jesus, that He was their Messiah. However, they were blind to spiritual truth that He was the Messiah. And they remained in their sin of unbelief, as a result!!!