Healing of a Man Born Blind.

(John 9:1-41).

Evidently, this great miracle performed in the temple straight after the Lord’s sermon to the Jews about His Divine origin and worthiness is narrated only by Evangelist John — and with that, in great detail. In seeing the man — known to be blind from birth — begging for alms, the disciples asked the Lord: “who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” The Jews believed that all major misfortunes occurring with people, was none other than punishment for their personal sins, or the sins of their parents, grandparents or great grandparents. This belief was based on the law of Moses that declared that God punished children for the sins of their fathers, up to the fourth generation (Exodus 20:5). It was also based on the Rabbi’s teachings, which asserted that a child could sin in his mother’s womb, inasmuch as he could differentiate between right and wrong from the day of his conception. In response to His disciples’ question, the Lord instead indicates as to the purpose for the man’s blindness: “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” although, of course, being human beings, they were not without sin in general, “but that the works of God should be revealed in him.” i.e. so that his cure would reveal that Christ was the “Light of the world,” that He came into the world for humanity’s enlightenment, which dwelt in spiritual blindness, symbolized by the man’s physical blindness. “I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day,” i.e. while I am on earth and can be seen by everybody, because “night is coming,” i.e. the time of My departure from earth, when Christ the Savior’s activities on earth as a Miracle Worker, will not be as apparent to everybody as they are now.

“As long as I am in the world, I am the Light of the world” — although Christ always was and will be the Light of the world, His visible activities on earth will continue only for the duration of His earthly life, which was coming to a close. The Lord performed many miracles with just a spoken word, while sometimes He resorted to an initial and particular action. Thus on this occasion: “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.’” It can be assumed that all this was done in order to evoke faith in the healed man: to let him know that a miracle is about to occur with him. The bathhouse was built on the Siloam spring (which flowed from the foot of the holy Mount Sinai) as a place of God’s especial presence in Jerusalem and in the temple. Consequently, it was regarded an eminent gift from God to His people, or that it was sent as an extraordinary grace, which is why it was regarded as a holy spring that contained a symbolic meaning.

The Evangelist explains that “Siloam” means “messenger.” Was the Lord Jesus Christ trying to express that He is the true Messenger of God, the realization of all the Divine blessings, representation and symbol, which the Siloam spring was to the Jews? Having washed himself in the Siloam waters, the blind man regained his sight. This miracle produced a strong effect on his neighbors and those that knew him. So much so, that some of them were dubious as to him being one and the same blind person that they regularly saw begging for alms. However, the cured individual confirmed that it was he, and explained to them how the miracle occurred. After listening to his narration, they took him to the Pharisees in order to examine this extraordinary event and to obtain their opinion. This was because the miracle was performed on a Saturday, which according to the Pharisee law regarding the Sabbath’s tranquility, even treating the ill was not permissible. The cured man explained to the Pharisees all he knew about the miracle.

This story created a dispute between the Pharisees. Some — and it must be assumed the majority — were saying: “This Man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.” Others discussed it fairly: “How can a Man who is a sinner do such signs?” Then those Pharisees that didn’t believe in Christ turned to the cured man with a question as to what he can say about his cure. Apparently they were trying to find something in his words that they could take offence, so as to reject the authenticity of the miracle or to re-define it. However, the cured individual decisively declared: “He is a Prophet.” Finding no support from him, the irate Jews summoned his parents for questioning. Afraid of being excommunicated from the synagogue, the parents gave an evasive answer: they confirmed that he was his son who was born blind, but as to why he could now see — they didn’t know, suggesting that they ask him as he was an adult and could speak for himself.

Summoning the cured man for the second time, the Jews attempt to instill into him that after a detailed investigation of that Person, they reached an indisputable belief that “this Man is a sinner.” “Give God the glory” was an oath formula applied by the Jews in those times, meaning: acknowledge Him on your part as a sinner, who violates the laws of the Sabbath, and speak the truth under oath. The cured individual gives an answer to the Pharisees, that is imbued with truth and irony: “Whether He is a sinner or not I do not know. One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see.” Not having any success in their inquiries, the Pharisees once again request that he recount the miracle in the hope of finding some new facet, which would allow them to condemn Jesus.

However, this begins to annoy him: “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?” This audacious sarcasm provoked a reproach for the daring confessor of the truth: “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 Jewish leaders had to ascertain where this Person came from — Who was constantly followed by multitudes of people. But they lie when they say they do not know Him. This lie provokes the cured man even further, amplifying his boldness in defense of the truth. “Why, this is a marvelous thing, that you do not know where He is from,” he responds to the Pharisees — yet you should know where He is from, having performed such an unheard of miracle: sinners are incapable of performing such miracles — therefore it is clear that this is a holy Man, Messenger of God.

Astounded by such implacable logic of the guileless and simple person, the Pharisees were incapable to continue with their argument. Having censured him in that he was “completely born in sins,” they threw him out.

In learning about this and wishing to open his spiritual eyes as well, the Lord sought him out and by revealing Himself as his Healer, brought the cured man to believe in the Lord as the Son of God. All the transpired events gave occasion for the Lord to express His thoughts, that an unavoidable consequence of His arrival on earth was the sharp separation of people into believers and disbelievers. “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.” “Who do not see” — are the humble, poor in spirit who believed in Christ; “who see” — are those who regarded themselves as perceptive and sensible, and therefore felt no need to believe in Christ. They are the self-styled sages, which the Pharisees were, having rejected Christ; the Lord refers to them as “blind,” because they were spiritually blind in not seeing the Divine truth, which He had brought into the world. To this, the Pharisees inquired: “Are we blind also?” But the Lord gave them an unexpected answer: “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see.’ Therefore your sin remains.” The meaning of these words is: if you were among those blind that I spoke about, then you would have no sin, because your disbelief would have been forgivable a forgivable sin of ignorance and frailty. However, because you state that you can see, and regard yourselves as experts and analysts of God’s Revelations — and you have at hand the laws and Prophets in which you can see the truth — your sin is none other than that of stubbornness and obdurate opposition to God’s truth. And this sin is unforgivable because it is a sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (Mat. 12:31-32).