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John 9:1-41






Lesson Focus

Jesus wants to heal our spiritual blindness, which keeps us from recognizing who Jesus is and what he has come to do.


Lesson Outcomes

Through this lesson, students should:


  1. Learners will understand the context of the tensions between Jesus and the religious authorities in John 9.

  2. Learners will recognize the significance of Jesus healing the man born blind and its implications for spiritual and physical sight.

  3. Learners will explore the themes of spiritual blindness and the willingness to see God's new works in the world.


Catching up on the Story

In the Gospel of John, Jesus regularly gets into verbal skirmishes with the religious authorities. On several occasions, these verbal skirmishes have led to more physical attempts to harm Jesus. The very last verse we read in chapter 8 depicts the religious leaders’ attempt to stone Jesus. Jesus avoids the dangerous situation by hiding himself and making his way out of the Temple. These confrontations highlight the growing tension between Jesus and the religious authorities, setting the stage for the events in John 9. As we move into this chapter, we see that despite the dangers, Jesus continues his ministry, leading to further conflicts and significant miracles and teachings.


Out for a Stroll

Our text begins with Jesus and his disciples out for a stroll. We are not given a definite time marker to differentiate between this episode and the previous one. It stands to reason that some time has passed between the end of chapter eight and the beginning of chapter nine. The religious leaders Jesus interacts with have had some time to settle down (or perhaps it is a different set altogether) so that they might again have a conversation with Jesus.


As Jesus and his disciples walk, Jesus notices a blind man who, we are told, has been blind from birth. The incident is set off by a seemingly innocent question put to Jesus by the disciples, “Who sinned, this man or his parents?” For people in Jesus’ day, illness and physical disorders like blindness and lameness were often thought to occur because of sin in the person’s life. There is much we could say regarding this question, but it is well beyond the scope of our intended lesson!


Jesus responds that this man’s blindness is neither the result of his parents’ sin nor the man’s sin (presumably committed in utero). Rather, the man was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. As we continue to examine this passage, it will become clear that God uses this man to glorify God. We should not get stuck on questions of whether or not God caused the man’s blindness. Jesus continues to speak with his disciples, declaring, “We must work the works of him who sent me…” (John 9:4). Obviously, the “we” is plural. Jesus is including the disciples (and you and I) in his mission in the world. Jesus is the light; as long as the light is in the world and Jesus is always with us, we must do his work. Part of Jesus’ work is to heal the blind, both physical blindness and spiritual blindness.


After saying this to his disciples, Jesus bends down and spits into the dirt to make mud. Imagine how much spit it might take to make enough mud to cover a person’s eyes! The mud Jesus makes he then applies to the man’s eyes. All of this is done without the man’s permission. Jesus simply addresses the need. Imagine the surprise of the man who has just had freshly made mud put on his eyes. Jesus then commands the man to head down to the pool of Siloam to wash. John informs us that “Siloam” means Sent. The Greek word that John uses in his parenthetical statement is apostalmenos, which comes from the same root word from which we get apostles. The fact that John mentions this makes it significant. The blind man is literally sent as a part of his healing or perhaps because of his healing. He becomes part of the “we” spoken in verse 4, “We must work the works of him who sent me…”


The man goes and does as Jesus instructed and is healed. He comes back from the pool and is immediately questioned by his neighbors. Some of them find it hard to believe that this is the same man they have known to be blind from birth. The question that reoccurs over and over in this chapter is first put to the blind man by his friends and family, “…How were your eyes opened?” (John 9:10) Notice the man’s response: he rightly identifies Jesus as the one responsible for his healing, but only identifies him as “the man.” As the narrative progresses, the blind man’s understanding and subsequent confession of who Jesus is grows. As with the Samaritan woman, the blind man’s understanding of Jesus grows. At this point, the blind man is ignorant of the situation.


In verse 13, there is a shift in scene. The friends and family have brought the healed blind man to the Pharisees. Then, we are given another significant piece of information: the healing took place on the Sabbath. According to Pharisaic law, the kneading of clay was forbidden on the Sabbath. Jesus’ making mud from dirt and spit and applying it to the man would have been forbidden. This healing, taking place on the Sabbath as it does, will only escalate the confrontation between Jesus and the religious leaders. In the mind of the Pharisees, a truly righteous man would not violate the Sabbath as Jesus has done. Some of the Pharisees’ first reaction was to declare that Jesus could not possibly be from God. A sinner cannot perform such signs. One final question is put to the blind man. The religious leaders want to know what the man thinks of Jesus. It is here that we get the blind man’s second confession. He proclaims Jesus to be a prophet. Throughout Israel’s history, a prophet has been one whom God sent to say or do God’s will in the world. Slowly, the man’s spiritual blindness is healed as well.


The religious leaders are still skeptical after questioning the healed blind man. So, they call in his parents to get the whole story. The conversation between the parents and the religious leaders yields very little. The parents are afraid to do anything more than confess their ignorance. They are worried that they will be put out of the synagogue if they say anything positive about Jesus.


A second time, the blind man is brought before the religious leaders. Their first statement is to direct the man to give glory to God. It seems that for the man to offer “glory to God” in the eyes of the religious leaders, he would have had to tell them what they wanted to hear instead of what he was gradually coming to believe. To get the force of the religious leader’s statement, we could write it like this, “Give glory to God! Agree with us that this man who healed you is a sinner!” The healed blind man, however, confesses that the only thing he knows for sure is that he was blind, but now he sees.


It is important to recognize here the change in confidence on the side of the religious leaders. They have moved from asking questions to declaring what they know. The “we know” of verse 24 indicates the stance that the religious leaders will take through the rest of the chapter. The religious leaders are confident that their beliefs and assumptions about who they are to be as the people of God are true and right. Anyone, then, who questions their beliefs or attempts to modify their understanding of God and how God might act in the world is seen as a threat. At this point, the religious leaders are more blind than the healed blind man has ever been.


The religious leaders want to hear from the man, once again, how it is that Jesus healed the blindness. The healed blind man is suspicious, “Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” (John 9:27) This, of course, causes a great reaction from the religious leaders. Of course, they do not want to become his disciples. This healed blind man might want to be Jesus’ disciple, but the religious leaders are disciples of Moses! Once again, the “we know” comes out. They know that God spoke to Moses but do not know who this Jesus is or why he is doing what he is doing. Their blindness becomes more evident.


The healed blind man is amazed by the religious leader’s reaction and blindness. He is facing people who believe they know and have the answers, yet they have not caught the most important thing. The healed blind man proclaims that if Jesus were a sinner, he would be unable to do what he has done. God would not have listened to him; the man would not be able to see. Healing a man born blind is an unheard-of thing! If this man were not from God, he would be unable to do anything. The religious leaders are unwilling to hear sensible words from one who they believe was born steeped in sin. They also fail to recognize that they, too, were born steeped in sin! So they drove him out of the synagogue.


The healed blind man’s exclusion from the synagogue leads him not to despair but to a new and fresh encounter with Jesus. Jesus hears that the man has been turned out from the synagogue and seeks out the man. Notice here that Jesus is doing the seeking. It was Jesus who initiated man’s healing in the first place, and it was Jesus who brought the man to salvation. As Wesleyans, we have a phrase for this: prevenient grace. It is the grace that goes before drawing all people to God. The blind man’s journey toward physical and spiritual sight has been possible because of the grace of God through the sending of Jesus Christ. Our journey toward gaining spiritual eyesight is much the same. Even after we initially believe God is still seeking us out, healing us of our blindness so that we might see him more clearly.


Jesus finds the man and asks him one final question: “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” (John 9:35) This question sets up the healed blind man’s final confession. The man’s response is once again one of ignorance. He does not know who the Son of Man is, but he will believe if told who he is. Once again, contrast this with the confidence of the religious leaders who constantly confess that “we know.” Jesus responds to the man by saying that the one with whom he is in conversation is the Son of Man. Now, we have the healed blind man’s final confession, “Lord, I believe.” (John 9:38). The man confesses and worships Jesus. Through this passage, we have watched the man move from blindness and utter ignorance to receiving physical sight and growth in spiritual sight. In this last section, he now clearly sees who Jesus is and the most appropriate response to an encounter with Jesus, that is, worship.


Apparently, some of the religious leaders have been following Jesus and have witnessed this latest conversation. Jesus makes two final statements that draw everything together for us and the religious leaders listening. Jesus declares that he has come into the world for judgment (contrast this with John 3:17). Those who do not see, those who are blind spiritually, will be given sight. Those who think they see all too clearly will be made blind.


We should not read this in a way that depicts Jesus as intentionally keeping folks from seeing him for who he really is. Rather, as this story has shown us, some think they see clearly and confidently know what God is up to in our world. When confronted with the truth about God’s activity in the world, they are blind to it. Their confidence and surety have caused them to become blind. Meanwhile, those ignorant and willing to see what God is doing in fresh ways will receive the gift of sight.


Some of the Pharisees listening in on this final conversation ask one more question. It strikes me as a rhetorical question, but Jesus goes on to answer anyway: “Surely we are not blind, are we?” (John 9:40) In other words, have we been so caught up in what we think we know that we have missed out on the truth? Jesus responds that they are indeed blind.


So What?

There is truth in which we can be confident: Jesus Christ is Lord, the creator, sustainer, and savior of the world. We can often get overconfident in how we think Jesus would respond to this situation or that situation. We can get overconfident in the way we name certain things as sin, just like the Pharisees named making mud and healing the blind man on the Sabbath as sin. Or, we get overconfident, thinking that Jesus has not called our current behavior sin. We stand with the Pharisees and the religious leaders who, when faced with the truth of God in Christ Jesus, declare that we know what the church teaches, but we do not know where this man has come from or who he is. Our eyes get covered up, and we fail to see the fresh and new things God is doing in our world.


All is not lost. If Jesus can make a man who has been blind from birth able to see, then Jesus can heal our spiritually comfortable and blind hearts. God’s prevenient grace goes before us even after receiving salvation, ever calling us to examine this Jesus we think we know. Jesus comes to us today, mixes up some mud, slaps it on our eyes, and bids us to go and wash. Will we now wash away our blindness so we might see with new eyes and hearts?


Jesus desires to heal us of our spiritual blindness not just so that we might see well but also so that we might join in with his work. Remember the statement in verse 4, “We must work the works of him who sent me…” The “we,” as we said at the beginning, is Jesus, the disciples, and every person who has ever been drawn into a relationship with Jesus Christ.


Now is a great time to ask ourselves the same question that the Pharisees ask Jesus at the end of the passage, “Surely we are not blind, are we?” Are we open to seeing the new things Jesus is doing in our world? Are we open to joining him in those things?


Discussion Questions

Read the text aloud. Then, read the text to yourself quietly. Read it slowly, as if you were very unfamiliar with the story.


  1. Why do you think that the disciples wanted to know who sinned, the blind man or his parents?

  2. In verse 4, Jesus states, “We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day…” To whom does the “we” refer?

  3. What are the “works” that Jesus refers to in verse 4? As a group, identify ways you can participate in those “works.”

  4. John tells us that the day that Jesus healed the blind man was the Sabbath. Why is this important?

  5. Jesus is the one who seeks the blind man out, both at the beginning with the initial healing, and at the end after the man has been kicked out of the synagogue. How is this significant for us?

  6. The final question that some of the Pharisees ask is, “Surely we are not blind, are we” (John 9:40). What were the Pharisees blind to?