John 9:13-23

The Pharisees Investigate the Healing

13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. 14 Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man's eyes was a Sabbath. 15 Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. "He put mud on my eyes," the man replied, "and I washed, and now I see."

16 Some of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath."

But others asked, "How can a sinner perform such signs?" So they were divided.

17 Then they turned again to the blind man, "What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened."

The man replied, "He is a prophet."

18 They still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man's parents. 19 "Is this your son?" they asked. "Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?"

20 "We know he is our son," the parents answered, "and we know he was born blind. 21 But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don't know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself." 22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who already had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. 23 That was why his parents said, "He is of age; ask him."



Dig Deeper

Fear is a powerful motivator. It can make people do things that they perhaps never thought they would, or it can keep them from taking actions that they normally would think was a part of their natural character. German protestant pastor, Martin Niemoller, an ardent critic of the Nazi regime, captured the powerful motivation that fear can have in keeping us from defending others and acting in self-preservation. In 1946 in Frankfurt, Niemoller uttered what has become a famous quote: "When the Nazis came for the communists, I remained silent; I was not a communist. When they locked up the social democrats. I remained silent; I was not a social democrat. When they came for the trade unionists, I did not speak out; I was not a trade unionist. When they came for the Jews, I remained silent; I wasn't a Jew. When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out." Most everyone believes that they would step up and defend those that need defending, but history shows us that most humans actually will back down from those actions in the face of fear. It is a brave and select few that will step up in the face of fear and act without concern for self.

This is an important component to understanding what is going on in this scene. The Pharisees and other Jewish leaders kept their power through respect, tradition, knowledge, status, and if all that didn’t work, fear. They would resort to intimidation and bullying if need be. It had become quite clear at this point, that Jesus was not going to be intimidated. Fear would not control his actions, but that didn’t mean that it wasn’t still a powerful tool. They would continue to use fear as a means to keep people in line. The people of Israel were standing on the precipice of the new creation, but those who were firmly in charge in the old world feared anything new, especially when it came from within Israel itself. They feared it and they feared losing their status and position, so they would use fear to keep people safely in tow. Fear would be their best weapon.

The crowds were amazed by this latest sign of healing the blind man and didn’t quite know what to do with this man, so they took him to the Pharisees. This probably wasn’t an act of trying to "get him into trouble," but was rather, out of a genuine desire to determine what had happened. They likely determined that this was a spiritual healing, so they would take this man to the spiritual leaders of their world. The Pharisees, however, seem far less concerned with the sign that has been done than with the details of it. They are far more concerned with the fact that this man was healed on a Sabbath than with the incredible truth that a man blind from birth could now see. They were so blinded by their own religious rules and expectations that they could not see the light that had broken into the crack of their dark world.

In the eyes of the Pharisees, this was not a life-or-death situation, and so, should have been put off to the next day. And that is part of why Jesus chose to work on the Sabbath. The Sabbath regulations represented the old creation. They were both well and fine for what they were. God had declared the old creation "very good" (Gen. 1:31). The old Sabbath regulations had a purpose, but this was the time of the new creation. Jesus intentionally brought light into the darkness on the Sabbath to demonstrate the power of God’s new creation. The Pharisees, though, couldn’t see any of this. All they could see was that he had broken the Sabbath rules on three accounts. First, he should have, as we have already mentioned, put the healing off until a non-Sabbath day. Second, He made clay by kneading the earth with saliva and kneading was one of the thirty-nine classes of work that was forbidden on the the Sabbath. Third, Jewish tradition forbade someone to anoint the eyes on the Sabbath. The Jews had made so many rules and traditions to enforce the old creation that they could not see when the new one began to break in. All they could see was that he did not keep the Sabbath.

Not everyone felt this way though. As Jesus always does, he had divided the crowd. Some focused on the "rules" and could not conceive of Jesus’ signs as being from heaven. While others focused on the signs and could not envisage them not being from heaven. It was all about perspective and expectation. This is still the challenge for humans today. Will we look at the things of God and measure them with how they match up with our will, or will we look at our will and see how it matches up with the things of God?

The fact that they turn to the previously blind man and ask for his opinion is an amazing development. This is just not something that Pharisees would normally do. The fact that they do ask him demonstrates just how flabbergasted they were. Perhaps he can shed some light on this whole thing. Of course, there is a load of irony in the fact that those that saw themselves as the leaders and lights of the Jewish faith are reduced to asking this insignificant formerly blind man what is going on. The man replies that Jesus is a prophet. For what he knows of Jesus, this is probably the highest category that this man can come up with in his current understanding to assign to Jesus. The dichotomy between this man’s increasing enlightenment and the Pharisee’s increasing blindness are stark as this scene unfolds. The blind man moves from calling Jesus a "man" (v. 11), to a "prophet" (v. 17), to one worthy of having a following of disciples (vv. 27-28), to one from God (v. 33), and finally the Son of Man who is worthy of worship (v. 38). The Pharisees who are opposed to Jesus, however, start with the declaration that he is not from God (v. 16), question whether he performed a miracle at all (v. 18), call him a "sinner" (v. 24), and finally are shown to be the true blind sinners (v. 41).

What becomes quite clear is that this man can see more than just physically. He has been touched by the new creation of the age to come and he is not afraid despite all of the intimidating circumstances that are being thrown at him. On the converse, however, stands his parents. The Pharisees did not want to believe that something miraculous had happened, so they sent for his parents. The parents quickly understand that this is more than just friendly questioning going on. The Pharisees have already threatened to expel from the synagogue anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah. The Jewish synagogue of this time was far more than just the religious center of life. Being put out of the synagogue would have been a virtual exclusion from village life, as the synagogue was the center of Jewish life. This was probably a localized and temporary ban that would only be systematized much later but it was still an intimidating circumstance. So intimidating, that the man’s parents were more than willing to throw off any scrutiny from themselves and back to their son. They leave him, as it were, swaying in the wind saying in essence, "don’t ask us, he’s a big boy, and we have nothing to do with the situation he’s gotten himself into." They understood the threats that were out there against anyone associating with Jesus and are quite prepared to let their son take the full brunt of the questioning and the consequences. The true gospel, as Jesus himself promised, will cause the people around him to "be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law" (Luke 12:53). Jesus was also clear that to follow him, people needed to be willing to lay down their lives (Luke 9:23-25). The parents of the healed many obviously had no intention of anything like that.

This story is a perfect example of the difference between fear and faith. Genuine faith always brings us closer to God. Fear always drives us away. Truth has touched a man that could not see. He has his physical sight, but he is beginning to truly see who Jesus is and what he is doing. Those who are so sure that they can see and know, are the ones that are truly blind. They have missed the light because of their own fear of the new creation. They were steeped in fear and using intimidation to cause fear in others. John would sum this all up perfectly when he wrote in 1 John 4:16-18: "God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love."


Devotional Thought

Who can you more relate to in this scene, the son that was blind and stood so boldly in front of the religious leaders of his day with nothing but faith in what God had done for him or the parents who cowered in fear. You may not face anything like this situation but you will surely face challenges in your life which can be met with fear or faith. Which will you choose. The man that had been healed by Jesus stood in faith because he focused on what Jesus had done for him rather than worrying about what might happen to him as a result of standing in faith.