Last week we started looking at “the man born blind that Jesus healed” in John chapter 9. This was not the only blind man Jesus healed. When John the Baptist had a crisis of faith, and sent messengers to ask if Jesus was indeed the Messiah, our Lord said:

Matthew 11:5 The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.

Jesus listed “The blind receive their sight” first, making it more important than “the dead are raised up”. Jesus came to give spiritual sight to whosoever would listen to Him. He illustrated this by “being Light” (“I am the Light of the world” – John 8:12), but also by healing the blind. Jesus healed two blind men in Matthew 9:27-31, one of whom was called Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46-52). Jesus also healed a blind man in Bethsaida (Mark 8:22-26).

This Passage in John 9 Is The Longest And Most
Detailed Account Of Christ Healing The Blind

The other passages dealing with the blind are covered in about 17 verses of Scripture – but here we have an entire chapter devoted to blindness. The man born blind from birth starts the chapter, and triggers other events. But he is not the only blind person in this chapter.

The Man Is Physically Healed, But Still
Blind To Who Jesus Is

John 9:7 And {Jesus} said unto {the man born blind}, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.

Jesus made mud out of spittle and clay, and anointed the man’s eyes with it. He then sent him to the “POOL OF SILOAM”. The name “SILOAM” means “that which has been SENT”. The Bible Commentator William Barclay notes:

The water for the pool of Siloam came through Hezekiah’s tunnel, a remarkable engineering feat built in Old Testament times. “It was called Siloam, which, it was said, meant sent, because the water in it had been sent through the conduit into the city.”

Anglican Archbishop Richard C. Trench said:

“It was from the Siloam stream that was drawn the water which was poured over the great altar at the Feast of Tabernacles just past, which pouring out was regarded by the Rabbis (and is still) as typical of the pouring out of The Spirit in the ‘latter days’.”

When Jesus sent the man to Siloam, He was showing us that all healing He did while on this earth was through the Holy Spirit. The water of Siloam (Sent) represented the Sending of the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised that when He went away, He would send the Holy Spirit to the Church” (John 16:7).

Jesus did not do the miraculous in His own Divine Power. The Bible says that when our Lord came to minister on this earth, that …

Philippians 2:7-8 (ESV) {Jesus} emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Our Lord told the Pharisees,

Matthew 12:28 (ESV) … if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

Though Jesus as the Eternal Son of God has the power to do anything He wants to do (even the devil knew He could turn rocks into bread – see Matthew 4:3), Jesus did the miraculous through the power of the Third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. It was the Holy Spirit, the Finger of God (Exodus 8:19) by which Moses did miracles in Egypt. It was the Holy Spirit, the Finger of God (Exodus 31:18; Deuteronomy 9:10) by which the Ten Commandments were written on Stone. It was by the Finger of God (Luke 11:20) that Jesus cast out demons, and did the miraculous.

Jesus sent the blind man to Siloam so that we would see him healed by the waters, the same waters that were poured on the altar during Sukkot, translated “Booths” or “Tabernacles” in Deuteronomy 16:13 and Leviticus 23:34. When this was done back in John chapter 7, Jesus tied the waters of Siloam to the Holy Spirit:

John 7:37-39 (ESV) On the last day of the feast {of Booths/ Tabernacles}, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Faith in the Messiah, Jesus Christ, brings the indwelling Holy Spirit to our lives.

It is the Holy Spirit Who causes us to be born again (John 3:6, 8).
It is the Holy Spirit Who gives the gift of healing (1 Corinthians 12:9).
It is the Holy Spirit Who gives us spiritual sight (1 Corinthians 2:9-12).
It is the Holy Spirit Who “guides us into all truth” (John 16:13).

The Spirit is only received after a person receives Jesus as Lord and Savior. Like Jesus SENT this man to Siloam, He SENDS us to the Spirit, and the Spirit to us.

John 9:8-12 The neighbors therefore, and they which before had seen him that he was blind, said, Is not this he that sat and begged? 9 Some said, This is he: others said, He is like him: but he said, I am he. 10 Therefore said they unto him, How were thine eyes opened? 11 He answered and said, A man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash: and I went and washed, and I received sight. 12 Then said they unto him, Where is he? He said, I know not.

When the blind man asked how he was able to see, the man said “A man that is called Jesus” anointed him with clay and sent him to Siloam. He calls Jesus “A man”. Jesus is a man, but He is also more than a man. The Apostle wrote:

1 Timothy 2:5-6 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; 6 Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.

Jesus is a man, but He is a Perfect Man. He is the “ransom for all”, the payment for our sins. If Jesus were a sinner like we are, then how could He ransom us? He could not. A sinner cannot pay for the sins of sinners. A sinner is bankrupt before God. But Jesus is our High Priest, representing us before our Holy Father:

Hebrews 4:15 … we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

Hebrews 9:28 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

Jesus Christ called Himself “The Son of man” (Matthew 8:20), but declared that as the perfect “Son of man”:

Matthew 9:6 … the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins …

As “the Son of Man” Jesus is the Messiah, the Incarnate Son of God. God become Man, Perfect Man. Jesus said:

Matthew 12:8 For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.

When the Woman of Samaria finished talking to Jesus, she went and told her neighbors:

John 4:29 Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?

She was saved, She was a believer in Christ. She was blind, but now sees.

This blind man – who now can physically see – is spiritually blind. He has encountered Jesus, but has no idea Who Jesus is. He is still blind in the worst way.

Why Did Jesus Heal On The Sabbath?

The people are curious as to how this man – born blind – could now see. So we read:

John 9:13-14 They brought to the Pharisees him that aforetime was blind. 14 And it was the sabbath day when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes.

The Pharisees – along with the Scribes or Lawyers – were the Bible scholars of that day. If you have a question about the Scripture, they are the “Encyclopedia Britannica” that you would go to. We are told that Jesus healed this man on “the sabbath day”, what the Jews called “Shabbat”. God gave the seventh day as a day of rest for Israel after Israel was saved from Egyptian slavery. The Israelite as slave had absolutely NO days off, but worked in the harshest of conditions. As it was with circumcision, God gave Israel a Shabbat or Sabbath:

Exodus 31:12-17 And the Lord said to Moses, 13 “You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you. 14 You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. 15 Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death. 16 Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever. 17 It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’

The Pharisees and Scribes had taken the Sabbath and distorted it by adding rules that God never gave. Called “The 39 Melakhot” (39 Categories of Work), the Jews were forbidden to plant, plow, reap, gather, thresh, winnow, sort, grind, sift, knead, shear, scour, launder, spin, weave, tie, tear, trap, kill, skin, cure, smooth, score, measure, erase, construct, demolish, ignite, extinguish, carry … and on and on. Neither the Church nor the Gentile was given a Sabbath. The Apostle Paul, himself a Pharisee of the Pharisees (Philippians 3:5), wrote:

Colossians 2:16-17 (ESV) Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

There is no evidence that – after Jesus rose from the grave on the first day of the week (John 20:1; Luke 24:1) – that the Church ever kept Shabbat. The Church worshiped Jesus on the First Day, the Day of His resurrection from the grave (see 1 Corinthians 16:2; Acts 20:6-7). They called that day “The Lord’s Day”. God rested after creating the Heaven and the earth. Once Jesus died on the Cross and rose again, by His resurrection He brought about the Kingdom of God on the earth.

The Pharisees And Scribes Were Spiritually Blind. When they found out that Jesus healed this man on Shabbat, the Sabbath, we read:

John 9:15-17 Then again the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. He said unto them, He put clay upon mine eyes, and I washed, and do see. 16 Therefore said some of the Pharisees, This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the sabbath day. Others said, How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles? And there was a division among them. 17 They say unto the blind man again, What sayest thou of him, that he hath opened thine eyes? He said, He is a prophet.

When Jesus spat in the ground and kneaded a bit of clay to anoint the man’s eyes, this was one of the forbidden Melakhot. Based on that little bit of kneading, they condemned Jesus as “a sinner”, Someone Who purposely violated God’s Laws. Why didn’t Jesus heal on another day? He could have avoided the controversy, and after all, the man had been blind from birth. Why heal him on Shabbat?

Jesus did this because Israel was not only imprisoned under Roman Rule and Law, but Israel was also enslaved by the Pharisaic interpretation of the Law. The Apostle Peter called the Law as given by the Pharisees:

Acts 15:10-11 (NKJV) … a yoke on the neck … which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear …

Under the Law if a person’s ox fell in a ditch, they were allowed to get it out. If their animals needed watering, they were allowed to water their beast (Luke 13:15). It was – according to Jesus – “lawful to do good on the Sabbath, to save life” (Mark 3:4). Jesus chastised these religious leaders for:

Mark 7:7 (ESV) … teaching as doctrines the commandments of men …

Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). It was a gift from God, not a yoke. Jesus healed on the Sabbath to show the foolishness of the teachings of the Pharisees and Scribes, but also to show the love of God toward His creation. The Pharisees made Jesus out to be “A SINNER”, but the man that was healed that “He is a prophet”.

Jesus MUST have been from God, or else I would not be able to see! A Prophet, according to the Rabbis, was sent of God. Therefore the Prophet could dispense with the observation of the Sabbath, just as the Priest who did circumcisions did, because he was doing the work of God.

Bible Commentator Adam Clarke wrote:

“Works of necessity and mercy never could be forbidden on that day by Him whose name is mercy, and whose nature is love; for the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath; were it otherwise, the Sabbath would be rather a curse than a blessing.”

The Pharisees could not believe what they were told. We read:

John 9:18-23 But the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind, and received his sight, until they called the parents of him that had received his sight. 19 And they asked them, saying, Is this your son, who ye say was born blind? how then doth he now see? 20 His parents answered them and said, We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind: 21 But by what means he now seeth, we know not; or who hath opened his eyes, we know not: he is of age; ask him: he shall speak for himself. 22 These words spake his parents, because they feared the Jews: for the Jews had agreed already, that if any man did confess that he was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue. 23 Therefore said his parents, He is of age; ask him.

The parents of the healed man would not answer for their son. They were afraid that the Pharisees would have them “put out of the synagogue”. A person cast out of the Synagogue was excommunicated for thirty days for the first two offenses. The third time that person could be excommunicated forever, making them much like a leper. This was a formidable threat. The Scripture says:

John 12:42 (NKJV) Nevertheless even among the rulers many believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess [Him], lest they should be put out of the synagogue

John 9:24-29 Then again called they the man that was blind, and said unto him, Give God the praise: we know that this man is a sinner. 25 He answered and said, Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see. 26 Then said they to him again, What did he to thee? how opened he thine eyes? 27 He answered them, I have told you already, and ye did not hear: wherefore would ye hear it again? will ye also be his disciples? 28 Then they reviled him, and said, Thou art his disciple; but we are Moses’ disciples. 29 We know that God spake unto Moses: as for this fellow, we know not from whence he is.

The man who was healed did not try and argue the Bible – or about Jesus – with the Pharisees. He just stuck with what he knew to be true. He said simply, “I was blind, now I see”. Likewise, we as believers do not need to know the answer to every theological or philosophical question in order to tell someone what Jesus did for us. We just need to tell of our experience. “I was blind, now I see”.

John 9:30-34 The man answered and said unto them, Why herein is a marvelous thing, that ye know not from whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes. 31 Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshiper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth. 32 Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind. 33 If this man were not of God, he could do nothing. 34 They answered and said unto him, Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out.

The man who had been blind stuck to what he knew. He knew that the Scripture teaches that “GOD HEARETH NOT SINNERS”. The Scripture is clear on this:

Psalm 34:15-16 (ESV) The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry. 16 The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth.

Psalm 66:18 (ESV) If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.

Proverbs 15:29 (ESV) The Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous.

Proverbs 28:9 (ESV) If one turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination.

The only prayer that God hears from the sinner is the prayer of repentance. The Bible promises that God hears that prayer. “I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD.” (Psalm 116:13). “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10:13).

The only answer the Pharisees had to what this young man said was to “cast him out”. Of course, they insulted him before the excommunicated him. “Thou wast altogether born in sins”. You were a sinner from birth. That’s why you were blind. You were sinful from your mother’s womb. Though we are all born in trespasses and sin – even the Pharisees – that was not why that child was born blind.

It was to glorify Christ. It was to show us great truths concerning our Lord Jesus. It was so that He would be shown to be Messiah, the Savior of the world.

We will come back next week at verse 35. May God move you to live for Christ this very day. Amen and Amen.