John 9:1-40 - Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind

1. Right before this passage, in John 8 Christ had upset the Jewish crowd by claiming that he was God, in saying "before Abraham was, I am".
2. We are left with the picture of Christ fleeing from his persecutors, preparing to stone him.
3. Our passage in John 9 begins with a description of Christ's movement, as if continuing immediately from the prior event in John 8\.
4. So this story is one that begins, as Christ is fleeing, and means that his miracle with the blind man was a miracle done in relative haste "as he passed by".
   1. Matthew Henry points out that, in Christ's haste, he takes the time and effort to pity and help the blind man, acting as a lesson to us in the generosity and love of our Lord, of which we are told to imitate.
   2. This man was not blind by some accident, but was born blind.
   3. Christ is, physically, out of the picture for most of this passage, with the focus being upon the conversation between the Jews and the blind man who had been healed.
   4. Christ returns near the end of the passage, to speak again to the man who was once blind. He reveals himself to the man, as to give him no question of who it was that healed him. Christ asking in verse 35, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" followed by "You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you." This is meant not only to teach the blind man, but to prepare for a rebuke of the Pharisees, who Christ knew were listening in.
   5. His rebuke comes from verse 41, and is targeted at their arrogance, and their sense that they understood what others could not.
   6. This kind of gnosticism, Christ points out in verse 41 is what leaves them truly blind, and is preventing them from seeing Christ's true nature.
   7. This is all following an extended discourse questioning the blind man and the healing that took place.
   8. These men knew what Christ had done, yet still stood against Christ
   9. The significance of the miracle they had just verified intensifies the sharpness of the rebuke.
   10. We see that Christ's miracle is truly unique and powerful as a display of his ability to create in a true sense.
   11. With our modern advancements in medicine, doctors have been able to restore the sight of the blind, some blind from birth defects and others blind from the result of trauma.
   12. Restoring the vision of those with blindness has been shown to be generally unhelpful for those blind from birth, or who have been blind for many years.
   13. The brain undergoes changes while a person is without sight, and they often develop "visual agnosia", which essentially means their brain is unable to process the images it sees from the eyes, as your brain has stopped caring about the inputs from your eyes. So these people can struggle to distinguish male from female, where the curb of the street begins and ends, if what they are looking at is a "tree" or a "building".
   14. I mention this to show that Christ had healed this man completely, not only healing his eyes but imparting wisdom and knowledge to heal his mind and make his sight "true".
5. Christ has an important point to make in publicly healing this man in particular. Christ is demonstrating that he heals those who cannot see him and reach out to him. "For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind." (John 9:39)
6. For we know earlier from John 6:44-45 that those who come to Christ are those who the Father draws in, and that those who are drawn in are taught by God.
7. And so what does Christ do for those he draws in? He saves completely, teaching the spiritually blind and producing in them a new spiritual understanding that lets them see. It's with his healing of this blind man, that Christ presents to us a foretaste of the promise of deliverance that was fulfilled on the cross, and is available to all who would have faith. Even here, we see that Christ has the blind man demonstrate his faith, in going to the pool and washing as commanded.
8. Christ demonstrates dramatically with the healing of the blind man that he does not deal in half-measures, but that he completes the task that is laid out before him. We can trust Christ when he says upon the cross "It is finished"