Willfully Blind

In chapter 9 of the Gospel According to St. John the Evangelist, we get a stark contrast of authorities: Jesus' authority as the Creator, and the legalistic authority of the Pharisees.

When Jesus encountered the blind man (v. 1), His disciples asked Him who was being punished (v. 2). Jesus pointed out that, in this case, the man's blindness was no punishment, but a means to reveal the power of God (v. 3).

His sin was neither the cause nor the primary concern of Jesus' actions.

Once Jesus finished the repairs (a slight augmentation of His work in Genesis 2:7), He sent the man to be baptized in the Apostle's Pool (v. 7), appropriate since he was about to be an "apostle" to the Pharisees. At this point in the narrative, Jesus and the man lost contact. The man trusted Jesus' word, and went to wash. When he did, he received his sight.

How joyful this certainly made him! He received what he had never had before, and his entire life was transformed as a result. Not like someone who had become blind, mourning a vision lost, he went from what had been the only life he had known to one filled with brilliant hues, stark contrasts, smooth gradients, and the blessings or dangers in the hands of those around him. He no longer needed to fear the entire unseen world, because he could see the silent dangers, the sharp edges, the hard walls, the clenched fists. He had a strength that was new to him, sight, and it was a strength given by God Himself.

Such joy was short-lived. The rumors started to spread, that maybe he had an unknown twin brother, or a doppelganger that was standing in his place as an attention-grabber. He quickly affirmed that he had been the blind man (v. 9), and as a result he was compelled to appear before the Pharisees (v. 13).

The Pharisees did everything they could to find a crime, something to quash Jesus' ministry, but the only tenuous suspicion their legalistic minds could develop was "working on the Sabbath." Jesus had just demonstrated His perfect authority as God, the Giver of the law and the Sabbath, and the Pharisees were hung up on what day of the week it was!

When they could not use the man to find an accusation against Jesus, the man's parents were summoned to answer for their son. Their response cut to his heart: they would not defend him. These people, who had worked so hard to raise their blind son to adulthood, who until hours earlier did his cooking and cleaning, suddenly left their son to stand on his own. Their fear kept them from sharing in the joy of their son's new sight; they could only answer their interrogators with evasion and non-answers (vv. 20-23).

The Pharisees returned their attention once again to the man, this time forcing him into an oath, then trying to lead him into repudiating Jesus' authority (v. 24). The man refused to go along with this, taunting them for their automatic hatred of the One they claimed to serve (v. 27). The Pharisees, as if to confirm it, stopped whitewashing their attitude with a direct accusation: "You are this man's disciple!" (v. 28), then admitted that they hadn't bothered to investigate Jesus for themselves (v. 29). The man, now needing to defend himself without any assistance, threw their ignorance back in their faces, calling it a "wonder" (v. 30), then said plainly that Jesus' actions demonstrated His authority.

In their evil hearts, the Pharisees held on to the one thing Jesus rejected from the outset: the sin of the man and his parents. "You were completely born in sins, yet you would teach us?" (v. 34). What Jesus set aside regarding the man's blindness, became the only thing that mattered to the Pharisees.

They kicked him out of the synagogue for his proper contempt, but put a tail on him, hoping he would lead them to Jesus. Because he had not yet seen Jesus after he received his sight, he didn't recognize Him at their next encounter (v. 36). Jesus pointed out who He was, giving the man the opportunity to worship Him Whom he now saw (v. 38).

The Pharisees who had tailed the man, in refusing to worship the Lord and Creator Whom they had seen for several years, responded to His mission statement with the angry retort: "What, are we blind, too?" (v. 40). Jesus answered by pointing out that they didn't think they needed healing, so they would not get it (v. 41). They preferred their blindness.

Posted on Jul 9, 2007 at 12:07:39 AM EDT.