Your Sin Remains – John 9:13-41

When I was a kid our family acquired a miniature French poodle, which we appropriately named Paco.  He was a great dog, but he occasionally failed to do his business outside.  Here was the deal:  Whoever was the first to see the mess cleaned it up.  As you can imagine, we became pretty sophisticated at failing to see the mess.  And you might say that the Jewish leaders had become pretty sophisticated at avoiding the obvious when it came to Jesus.

They brought him to the Pharisees, the man formerly blind.  Now it was the Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and anointed this man’s eyes.  So again the Pharisees began asking him how he could see.  He told them, “He put mud on my eyes and I washed it off and I see.”  Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God because he does not observe the Sabbath.”  But others were saying, “How can a sinful man perform these signs?”  There was a division among them.  So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him, since he opened your eyes?”  He said, “He is a prophet.”

The Jews did not believe, therefore, that the man was really blind and received his sight until they called the parents of the one who received his sight and asked them, “Is this your son whom you say was born blind?  How does he now see?”  His parents answered, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind, but how he now sees we don’t know, nor do we know who opened his eyes.  Ask him.  He’s of age.  He can speak for himself.”  His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews.  For already the Jews had decided that if anyone confessed that Jesus was the Messiah, he would be expelled from the synagogue.  So this is why his parents said, “he is of age, ask him.”

A second time they asked the man who had been blind, “Give glory to God!  We know that this man is a sinner.”  The man answered, “I don’t know if he is a sinner.  But one thing I know, that after being blind I now see.”  They said to him, “What did he do to you?  How did he open your eyes?”  He answered, “I told you  already and you did not listen to me.  Do you want to hear it again?  Do you not also want to be his disciples?”  And they reviled him and said, “You are that one’s disciple, but we are disciples of Moses.  We know that God has spoken to Moses, but we don’t know where this one has come from.”  The man responded, “How marvelous it is that you don’t know where he is from, and he opened my eyes.  We know that God does not hear sinners, but if anyone worships God and does His will He hears that person.  It has never been heard that someone opened the eyes of one born blind.  If he was not from God he would not be able to do anything.”  They answered, “You were born wholly in sin and you would teach us?”  And they expelled him.

Jesus heard that he was expelled and found him and said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”  He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I might believe in him?”  Jesus said to him, “In fact, you have seen him, and he is the one speaking with you now”  So he said, “I believe, sir.”  And he worshiped him.

And Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment, in order that those who do not see might see, and those who see might become blind.”  Those from the Pharisees who were with him heard this and said, “We aren’t also blind, are we?”  Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would not have responsibility for your sin.  But now you that you say, “We see,” your sin remains.”  (John 9:13-41)

What ensues after the miracle Jesus performs for this man would be comical if it didn’t speak so tragically of the blindness of the Pharisees.  They are willing to do anything to deny Jesus is the Messiah sent from God, but they can’t find a way to undo this miracle.  Jesus healed him on the Sabbath.  That makes Jesus a sinner?  They are doing more work investigating Jesus on the Sabbath than Jesus did by spitting and making mud and healing the man. 

An unforeseen consequence of the Pharisee questioning of the man formerly blind is that he becomes a budding theologian and logician.  He challenges the Pharisees’ contention that Jesus is a sinner with the inescapable truth that God would not answer the prayers of a sinner and do miracles through him.  He goes from Jesus being a prophet to acknowledging, with Jesus’ help, that Jesus is the Son of Man, the figure in Daniel 7 to whom God gives judgment of all the kingdoms of the world and the authority to set up God’s kingdom.

The Pharisees are not being genuine attacking this man’s argument because even some of them have made the same argument about Jesus not being a sinner, leading to a division among them about Jesus.  This elicits a rebuke from the former blind man and a taunt, “Don’t you also want to be his disciple since you are asking so much how I got healed?”  But in their hardness of hearts they cannot be instructed by such an unlearned one.  Their unreasoned response is pejorative, “You are a sinner,” and they excommunicate him from the synagogue.

For those who recognize their blindness and appeal to God for help, Jesus has come to give sight.  For those who think they see but are blind Jesus has come to harden them in their blindness.  When you claim that you are seeing you are guilty of your willful sin and rebellion.  We will find both kinds of people when we give testimony like the blind man did to how Jesus opened our eyes.

Discussion Questions

1. What examples stand out to you of people trying to avoid the truth?
2. Why would you say Jesus was not guilty for working on the Sabbath?
3. What ways do we find, like the Pharisees, to avoid acknowledging the truth?  What tactics aid us?
4. Is the former blind man making a good argument when he says no one has ever heard of someone healing a person born blind?
5. Should Jesus have accepted the former blind man’s worship?
6. What do you have responsibility for because you can see?