Jul 11, 2021
Scripture Reading; John 9:1-41
A central point of this miracle, and the dialogues which follow, is that there are two kinds of blindness … physical blindness and spiritual blindness … and Jesus can heal them both. Only John records this miracle. The gospel writers record sight to the blind more than any other healing miracle of our Lord. This particular miracle, perhaps, most aptly illustrates the miracle of conversion, in which spiritual sight is given to the spiritually blind.
There is a contrast here between the blind man to whom Jesus grants both physical and spiritual sight and the seeing Pharisees whose spiritual blindness is pronounced and tragic.
Jesus' disciples wondered if the blindness of this man (who was born blind) was the result of some particular sin … either his sin or a sin of his parents. Jesus said that no specific sin was at the root of the man's blindness. He was born blind "that the works of God might be displayed in him" (Jn 9:4).
The Jewish leaders excommunicated the man from the worship and fellowship of the temple because he believed that Jesus came from God. In tender compassion and grace, when Jesus heard that the man had been shut out of the Jewish religious community, He sought him out and opened the man's spiritual eyes. As magnificent as Jesus' power is to give sight to the physically blind, it is infinitely more astonishing that He has the power to change the sinful human heart and grant spiritual sight.