Anchor My Faith

Punished for Being Healed

Scripture: John 9:28-34

We closed the previous lesson with the former blind man refusing to repeat how he was healed and instead accused the Pharisees of not listening and questioning whether they might want to become disciples of Jesus. This was not a good response and will surely produce some harsh words from the Pharisees.

^{Jn 9:28} “And they reviled him, saying, “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 comes from.”’

As expected, the Pharisees turn on the man with verbal assaults, speaking to him with bitter statements using insulting words with a mean spirit with the intent to demoralize or humiliate him. Within this assault they compare Moses and Jesus and imply that Moses is the greater and that they are disciples of him not Jesus, who they refer to, with contempt, as only a “man” like themselves.

They “know that God has spoken to Moses” because he gave him the law, which they interpret incorrectly to their own liking. God gave the law through Moses and he now is giving the gospel through Jesus, but these Pharisees are not willing to accept that because if they did they would stand condemned before God. To not know where Jesus is from is their way of expressing their belief that he was not from God.

To their angry response, ^{Jn 9:30} “The man answered, “Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. ³¹ We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. ³² Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. ³³ If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”

This man, who has just been reviled, stands before these Pharisees, having experienced the miracle of being given his sight, is amazed that they can’t see that Jesus is no ordinary man. Surely, he must be from God because of what he did. The man then draws on verses like Psalms 34:15 (ESV): “The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry.” and concludes that Jesus is not a sinner and is doing God’s will. Surely this man is from God, he says, because no man has ever opened the eyes of a man born blind. This statement is confirmed by the absence of similar instances in the Old Testament or extrabiblical sources.

^{Jn 9:34} [The Pharisees] answered him, “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” And they cast him out.”

Since he was born blind, the Pharisees conclude that he was born in utter sin. In Old Testament times it was a common belief that misfortune was the result of sin. This was the position of Job’s friends who tried in vain to get him to confess his sins so that he could get well and not have bad things happen to him.

These Pharisees could not stand up against the man’s arguments, so they indict him with a false crime and excommunicate him from the synagogue. These Pharisees are also seeking false charges against Jesus to casting him out through his death.

Conclusion

We have come to the end of another section about this blind man, but there is still another. In this current section he sees Jesus as a prophet. In the next section he comes to embrace Jesus as his savior.