A Study on John 9 Part 1: The Healing of the Man Blind from Birth

The Bible serves as the definitive method by which God reveals Himself and His wonderful plan for mankind to all who are willing to open their hearts and minds to it. During his earthly ministry, Jesus delivered many beautiful lessons to his disciples as well as the general population who flocked to hear him. Through God’s overruling, many of those lessons were preserved in the Bible for people down through the centuries to learn from as well. Many of these lessons were the result of Jesus explicitly delivering sermons, parables, prayers and instructions. Some of Jesus’s most powerful lessons were also accompanied by actions, some of which were nothing short of miraculous.

Jesus’s miracles are a common source of inspiration to all of those who seek to follow God. There are often many details in these accounts that, with a little bit of reflection, can truly be dazzling in their brilliance. Consider, for example, an encounter between Jesus, his disciples, and a man who was born blind. These events, recorded in John chapter nine, offer many rich jewels that, the more one reflects on them, the more layers of harmony, wisdom, and beauty one finds.

This new multi-part series of studies focuses on the events of John chapter nine. The encounter between Jesus and the blind man, and the events surrounding the healing, span several pages of the most important book every written. This fact alone lends itself to the thought that this encounter must have special significance and importance in store for God’s followers. From this perspective, we will both examine the actual events of this encounter as well as well as reflect on the potential deeper meanings behind the words and actions of the individuals in the account, including our Lord Jesus.

The Events of John Chapter Eight

John chapter nine actually begins as a continuation of the events in chapter eight. This is immediately made obvious by the manner in which verse one starts:

John 9:1 And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.

Note how the very first word of the verse is “and.” The use of this word clearly connects verse one with the preceding verse from the previous chapter. To further emphasize the point that the events in chapter nine are a direct continuation from the events in chapter eight, consider how the last verse in chapter eight ends:

John 8:59 Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.

Verse 59 ends with the phrase “and so passed by” while verse 1 of the next chapter begins with “And as Jesus passed by…” Combining the two together makes the thought that there is no time gap between the two chapters: “and so passed by. And as Jesus passed by…”

Thus, it seems logical that any study of the events in chapter nine must take into consideration the events of chapter eight. As chapter eight starts, Jesus was in the temple near the Mount of Olives when a crowd of people approached them, and Jesus began teaching them (John 8:1-2). As he taught, members of the scribes and Pharisees, who were part of the religious leadership of the time, brought a woman to him. The woman was accused of adultery (John 8:3-5). According to verse six, their intention for doing so was to attempt to find fault in Jesus in front of the people. After failing to do so, the remainder of chapter eight describes a series of exchanges between Jesus and this group. The group became so angered at Jesus and his words that they began to pick up stones to throw at Jesus (verse 59). John chapter eight concludes with Jesus and his disciples “passing by.” Some translations provide the clearer description that Jesus hid himself, and left the temple.

Jesus encounters a blind man: John 9:1-7

John 9:1 And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.
John 9:2 And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?

John chapter nine directly continues the unfolding of the events from chapter eight. As Jesus leaves the temple area, he passes a man who “was blind from his birth.” Although at first this may seem like an unimportant detail, there are a few potential implications that are significant to the overall context of the events being recorded.

Many of the Jewish people at the time traditionally saw health problems as a potential punishment from God for sin, disobedience, or some other action. As an example of this, consider the account of Job. Job was recorded as a “man who was upright” and who “feared God” (Job 1:1). Job was also wealthy for his period in time, as described in Job 1:3. Job experienced a series of calamities This is especially evident in the words of Bildad in chapter eight. Bildad’s words in verse 2 seemingly support a rightful confidence in God’s justice, yet his words stress to Job that the suffering Job was experiencing must have been a result of God’s justice. A similar perception about a relationship between physical suffering and God’s justice could have prompted the disciples to ask Jesus, their teacher, about the blind man and the blind man’s parents, and which one of them committed a sin that led to the blind man’s condition.

Additionally, the scriptures at that time (which we have come to know as the Old Testament) contained many accounts of God punishing Israel for disobedience (I Chronicles 21, for example). The Jewish people were also very familiar with the plagues that were visited upon Egypt (Exodus 7-11). This history may have also contributed to equating displeasing God with physical ailments and conditions.

When reading the disciples’ question to Jesus regarding the perceived sin of either the man or his parents, a casual reading may suggest a similarity between this question and the question that the religious leadership put to Jesus, in chapter eight, regarding the woman accused of adultery. However, the disciples were doubtlessly asking their question from a different standpoint than the Pharisees did. John 8:6 indicates that the Pharisees were asking the questions as a means to “trap” Jesus. However, no such description is applied to the disciples asking what they believed to be a moral question of Jesus. The disciples were asking their master to explain something that they saw, but did not understand.

Jesus’s answer to the disciples’ question is, like many of his teachings, simple yet profound. It is as applicable to the present day as it was at the disciples’ time:

John 9:3 Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.

The scriptures are clear that since the disobedience of Adam and Eve in Genesis chapter three, mankind fell from a state of perfection. Paul, in Romans 3:10, reminds us that “there are none that are righteous,” which is in turn a quote from Psalm 14:1. Later, in Romans 3:23-24, Paul clarifies his statement further:

Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Romans 3:24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:

Paul was expressing the thought that none of mankind were, or are, perfect and completely free from sin. It is through Jesus that all are able to have their sins forgiven during the current time, and will be able to have their sins forgiven in the future, due to Jesus’s sacrifice, as well.

At first, Jesus’s words in John 9:3, declaring that neither the man nor his parents had sinned, may seem to be in contradiction with the thought that all of mankind have sinned at some point in their lives, because all are descended from Adam and Eve who, through disobedience, lost perfection. Being a Jew himself, Jesus was undoubtedly familiar with the perception that physical problems, particularly serious ones, were sometimes believed to be punishments from God. This perception was what Jesus was replying to. In his response, he dispelled the mistaken belief that God punishes people for sin with diseases and poor health while at the same time, reinforcing the goodness of God’s character.

Even in today’s times, there is sometimes a tendency to look at disasters that happen to individuals, groups, even nations, and think, even briefly, that “surely God is punishing them” or “what must they have done to deserve such a condition?” Jesus’s words put such thoughts to rest. He gently, but definitively, teaches, through the example of the blind man, that any such perception of a relationship between a health condition and a punishment from God for a sin is not accurate.

In the second half of verse three, Jesus indicates that the blind man will be used, however, to show the true works of God. This thought is continued in verses four and five:

John 9:4 I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.
John 9:5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

Consider Jesus’s words about the works of “him who sent me,” referring to “the works of God.” Although a thorough examination of this meaning is beyond the scope of this study, a major part of the plan of God is the restitution of mankind to the state of perfection that was lost due to Adam and Eve’s disobedience (Romans 5:12-16, Acts 3:21, Isaiah 11:9). When that restitution work is complete, all sickness and death will no longer exist (Revelation 21:4). This perfect condition is the condition that God intended for mankind when He created them, and intends for all mankind when the time in His plan is right for it to be restored. When conditions such as blindness are forever no more, mankind will be able to witness and at last understand the true works of God.

After answering his disciples’ question, Jesus performs a set of very deliberate actions. The actions may seem somewhat odd by today’s standards, and possibly even seemed somewhat odd to the disciples themselves:

John 9:6 When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay,

John 9:6 describes how Jesus spat in the dirt of the ground, and after mixing the two together, formed the mixture into clay. He took the clay and applied it to the blind man’s eyes. He then directed the blind man to go to a specific pool of water and wash himself. The man obeyed Jesus’s commands, and after doing so, the man was able to see:

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

Water as a Symbol of Life

Whenever something appears different in the Bible, it is often productive to take notice and ask oneself why the difference may be. There are many other examples of Jesus healing the sick without performing a rather elaborate sequence of actions in his interactions with the blind man. In Mark chapter five, for example, a sick woman is healed simply by touching the hem of Jesus’s garment (Mark 5:25-29). Later in the same chapter, Jesus restores life to a young girl who had recently died by taking the girls hand and telling her to “arise” (Mark 5:35-43). In Luke 17:12-19, a group of lepers were healed by Jesus by obeying Jesus’s command to the lepers to show themselves to the priests. Yet, in the healing of the blind man in John 9, Jesus takes the time to craft clay using moisture from his own body, applies it to the blind man’s eyes, then tells him to go to a certain pool and wash himself. There is a sequenced measure of complexity to this act of healing, different than others, that calls attention to the careful student’s thoughts as worthy of reflection.

Like many things that are repeatedly mentioned in the Bible, water is often associated with one or more symbolic meanings. One of the most consistent symbolic meanings for water is associated with purification. McClintock and Strong Biblical Cyclopedia makes the following comment about water: “Water is used in the sense of purification, as the “washing away of sin. …. When clear, cool, and pleasant, it is the symbol of great good; and, when muddy and thick, it denotes disease and affliction…” Vines Complete Expository Dictionary also provides thoughts on several symbolic meanings attached to water, including one related to this thought of purification: “The word “water” is used symbolically… of the truth conveyed by baptism, this being the expression, not the medium, the symbol, not the cause, of the believer’s identification with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection.”

Jesus took moisture, or water from his own body and mixed it together with the dirt of the earth. Consider how Jesus left his heavenly pre-human position and took on human form (John 1:1-2, 14) to redeem mankind from the condition of sin and death that resulted generations ago by Adam and Eve’s disobedience (Romans 5:12-16). In a very real sense, Jesus brought life back to mankind. Being mankind’s home, the earth is often thought of as a representation of mankind itself. By combining all of these thoughts together, Jesus mixing the water from his own body with the dirt of the earth to make a clay which was then used to heal may be seen as a beautiful picture of the much greater message that Jesus, through the sacrifice of his own perfect life, brings healing and life to all of mankind.

After applying the clay to the blind man’s eyes, Jesus told the man to bathe in a certain pool of water. It was only after this bathing that the man’s sight was healed. Recall the words from Vine’s, that water is often used as a symbol of baptism. Even today, people who wish to consecrate their lives to God often display an outward symbol of that consecration by immersing themselves in water. Consider this thought in relation to the picture of the clay. All potential salvation and restitution rely first on Jesus’s sacrifice of his perfect life, pictured, as suggested earlier by Jesus forming the clay and applying it to the blind man’s eyes. Whether in the present time, or in the future time of God’s kingdom, all of mankind will need to recognize this sacrifice, and return to God through an act of consecration, which is often represented by immersing oneself in water. Combining these two events gives a more complete picture of the restitution of mankind.

The Light of the World

A second line of reflection on these events revolves around Jesus’s words in John 9:4-5. In verse four, Jesus describes how he must perform the works that God had laid out for him. He tells his disciples that he “must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day” and that “the night cometh, when no man can work.” These words have been an inspiration to Christians for centuries as a call to be diligent in whatever service God has, while there is still energy and life to perform that work.

In verse five, Jesus proclaims that as long as he is in the world, he is “the light of the world.” In Romans 5:12-21, Paul lays out a straightforward explanation of the relationship between the disobedience of the first man, Adam, and Jesus’s sacrifice of his perfect human life and mankind. Paul reminds the reader that through disobedience to God, Adam, the first man, lost his right to life. This loss was carried forward to all of Adam’s descendants, meaning all of mankind. Through the sacrifice of his perfect human life, however, Jesus balanced the scales of God’s justice, facilitating a pathway to restitution. This is the “offense of one judgement” and “righteousness of one” that Paul references in verse 18:

Romans 5:18 Therefore as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.

Consider the narrative flow of the events in John 9:1-6. Jesus encounters a man, blind from birth. He has had no hope for sight until Jesus’s arrival. This bears a striking symbolic similarity with the condition of mankind. Being born imperfect due to our descendant’s disobedience, none, save Jesus, could perfectly keep God’s laws, and thus gain a right to life. In a very real sense, each member of mankind has “been born blind.” In the giving of something of himself and mixing it with the earth, Jesus allowed the man to see for the first time. A hopeless situation was miraculously resolved, bringing light to the man’s eyes. Having brought light to the man, Jesus then sent him forward to perform a further act of personal cleansing. After the completion of that act, the formerly blind man served as a testimony to all those who knew him of Jesus’s ability to bring light to his eyes. In a much wider sense, in the fullness of God’s plan, Jesus will bring a much more marvelous light and healing to all of mankind. At that time, all will fully understand Jesus’s words that he is “the light of the world.”

Jesus’s True Followers Also Described

The actions of the formerly blind man after washing himself in the pool will be examined in a future study in this series. However, there is another nuance to these events that further enriches the thought of Jesus as “the light of the world. Since Jesus’s sacrifice, a way has been opened to a grand reward for those who faithfully consecrate their lives to God. Paul refers to this life path in his letter to the Romans:

Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Romans 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Note that Paul’s words do not refer to any man-made division or groupings among those who profess to follow Jesus and serve God. The commitment to God is what is called out, and the willingness to follow Jesus’s example and thoroughly devote one’s like to serving God above all else is what is important, as stated simply and emphatically by Jesus himself:

Matthew 22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
Matthew 22:38 This is the first and great commandment
Matthew 22:39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Matthew 22:40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Although beyond the scope of this study to thoroughly examine, those who are found worthy of living lives pleasing to God will have a significant role in God’s ultimate plan for the blessing all of mankind. Just as he described himself as “the light of the world” in John 9:5, Jesus also described his faithful followers as “the light of the world” as well:

Matthew 5:14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
Matthew 5:15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.
Matthew 5:16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Jesus’s sacrifice opened the way for members of mankind to also share in the blessings that God has in store for the faithful. His light thus enabled others to possess “light” as well. Jesus formed clay using something of himself mixed with the earth to begin the process of healing the blind man. After immersing himself in the pool, the blind man’s restored sight was noticed by a great deal of people. This set off a series of further encounters (which will be covered in subsequent studies) that ultimately led to many more people believing in Jesus, and thus pleasing God (John 10:38-42). This sequence of events seems to dovetail harmoniously with the thought of God’s consecrated followers helping to bring blessing to mankind, and thus playing a part in “the light of the world.”

In Summary

The healing of the blind man outside the temple began with a somewhat negative beginning. While speaking to the crowds, the religious leadership at the time arranged a situation intended to discredit Jesus. True to his nature, Jesus responded to this provocation with level-headed reasoning. He also pointed out the negativity and emptiness behind the actions of the leaders. From this potentially volatile situation came one of the most memorable miracles of the Bible. Jesus’s perfect mind and heart were able to turn a negative situation to a beautiful and positive miracle through which an accompanying set of lessons have continued to ring out through the centuries, down to us in the present day.

Any interpretation of scripture that is not directly taken from the scriptures themselves should never be taken as definitive. This study does not presume to dictate what was on our Lord Jesus’s mind during the events of John chapters eight and nine, nor does this study present any of the thoughts expressed as anything more than suggestions. Reflections on this account, and the harmonious connections with other aspects of both the scriptures and our Lord have proven to be a great blessing, and are shared in this spirit.

In part two of this study on John chapter nine, we will examine the people’s reaction to the blind man’s healing, and consider the formerly blind man’s response to their questioning. We will also consider the reaction of the Pharisees regarding the restoration of the man’s sight. By comparing the reaction of the Pharisees to the blind man’s healing with the actions of the Pharisees in chapter eight, a great and harmonious lesson will begin to make itself clearer; a lesson that has as much applicability to those of us in the present day as it did in Jesus’s day. Our Lord Jesus understood the work and will of God so clearly and beautifully, and it is the extraordinary privilege of each and every one of us to see, through Jesus’s teachings, the true spirit of God shine through the veils of error and misconception that so often obscure His glorious majesty.

A Study on John 9 Part 1: The Healing of the Man Blind from Birth

Further Readings and References

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