The events in this chapter begin when Jesus’ disciples asked Jesus a theoretical question about a man born blind. Jesus did not just answer with theories–he acted. He demonstrated that he is the light of the world. He taught the disciples and the man that we are not victims of fate. Tragedies and suffering can become opportunities to glorify God. It was the Sabbath, but Jesus knew that God was working. He made mud and put it on the man’s eyes. The man accepted this by faith. He accepted Jesus’ words of encouragement–“this man is not blind because of his or his parents’ sin.” He trusted Jesus. Jesus told him to go and wash and he did. He came back seeing. Most of the time when we read about Jesus healing men, the story ends with the healing. But not in the case of this man. He freely testified to his neighbors about how Jesus had healed him by making mud and putting it on his eyes. When the Pharisees questioned him, he told them exactly what happened. He made a factual report. When they pressed him for his personal opinion, he testified that Jesus must be a prophet, a man of God. This answer did not satisfy them, so they tried to discredit his testimony. He stuck to his story. He did not accept Jesus’ grace with thoughtless ingratitude. He held on to the bit of truth that he knew until his spiritual eyes were also opened and he could behold the face of God in Jesus.

The religious leaders (Pharisees) felt that Jesus was challenging their authority as leaders. They saw him as a threat to their legalistic control of the people because he made mud (worked) on the Sabbath. The man born blind exposed their hypocrisy by simply holding on to the truth. He taught them plainly that Jesus must be from God. They were furious and they threw him out of the synagogue. The Pharisees were spiritually blind. They had a closed view of truth. For them, truth was contained in their theories and theology and law. They closed their minds to facts. Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.” They saw Jesus; they heard his words; they saw his works. They had all the evidence. But they deliberately closed their minds to it, so their minds became dark. Sometimes following the small ray of truth that God gives us is painfully and costly. It cost the man born blind, for he was expelled from the only community he knew. He was evicted from the synagogue and incurred the wrath of the Jewish authorities. But he reembered the basic grace that God had received from Jesus. When the world becomes dark and the way uncertain and all the lights seem to have gone out, we must remember the basic grace that God has poured out on us. “While we were sinners, Christ died...” This is the one ray of light. “One thing I know...I was blind but now I see.”