The Blind Man and the Pharisees: Seeing the Light of Christ | John 9 Sermon

Scripture Reading: John 9

As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.

The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.” They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”

They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them. So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.”

The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” His parents answered, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. But how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” (His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue. Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”)

So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.” He answered, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” And they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” The man answered, “Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” They answered him, “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” And they cast him out.

Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.

Sermon on John 9: "I Am the Light of the World" — Blindness, Sight, and Faith

John 9 | Preached by James Huenink

Grace, mercy, and peace to you, from God, our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

John uses a number of images throughout his gospel. We see all sorts of different ways that he likes to play with language, taking earthly things and making them metaphorical and applying them to our spiritual life. One of the ones that's important in this reading and in other places is the theme of light and darkness. Jesus Christ is the light coming into a world filled with darkness.

This is why, when we read about Jesus and Nicodemus, Nicodemus is said to come at night — because he simply doesn't understand. He is coming to Jesus, and Jesus speaks him the truth, and yet he still doesn't quite get it.

Just before chapter nine, where we see our reading today, John tells us about Jesus, who says, I am the light of the world.He goes on a lengthy discourse, a conversation back and forth between him and the Jews, where they keep saying, "No, you're not." It's longer than that, but it's basically that. In fact, they accuse him of having a demon, being a Samaritan, and falsely testifying about himself — pretty aggressive accusations. Jesus says, I am the light of the world, and they do not believe. They say, "If you testify about yourself, you are wrong." And the conflict gets heightened.

And then we get to another passage where we see light and darkness, blindness and sight, where Jesus again says, I am the light of the world. He comes to a blind man, mixes mud, puts it on the eyes of the blind man, and the man suddenly can see. And the contrast in this story is between the Pharisees, who can physically see but spiritually cannot, and the blind man, who physically cannot see — but Jesus opens his physical eyes and the eyes of his heart as well.

That's what I'd like to do today: to talk about the comparison between the two groups of blind people and how they react to Jesus throughout this story.

Two Groups of Blind People: The Man Born Blind and the Pharisees

We start out with two groups of people that are blind: the Pharisees and the man who is blind from birth.

The blind man knows that he is blind because he just can't see — it's pretty obvious. He knows he is blind and he knows that he cannot live on his own without the kindness of strangers. We're told that he has been begging all of this time, and everybody knows exactly who he is, because he relies on the kindness of strangers throughout his whole life.

But even worse, everyone assumes that he is a sinner. This is what the disciples say. They ask, "Rabbi, who sinned — this man or his parents — that he was born blind?" The assumption is either his mom or his dad did something terrible and this was a punishment for that, or maybe in the womb the poor little baby did something that caused God to smite him with blindness. Either way, everyone has looked at him with suspicion all of this time. He knew he was in need. He knew that something was wrong.

The Pharisees, on the other hand, are blind but have no idea. They think they know exactly how the world works, how everything is supposed to happen, and yet they cannot see the Messiah. When Jesus comes and proclaims that he is the light of the world, they are the ones who fight against the light. He comes to heal a blind man, and they are the ones who refuse to see. They think that because of their knowledge, their wisdom, and their training, they know better than the people who are around them — even when contrary evidence comes up.

I'll start in the same place as both of these — the blind man and the Pharisees — because each of us were born into sin. As St. Paul says in Ephesians 5, "At one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord." Everyone is born in the darkness of sin, and then God's Word comes to us, comes to enlighten our hearts and open our eyes to his truth: that all who believe in him are saved, that Jesus is God's Son sent into the world to save it — to save you and me.

Jesus Heals the Blind Man — and the Pharisees Refuse to Believe

So after Jesus mixes the mud and puts it on the man's eyes — which is a little weird — he goes and washes, and all of the sudden he can see. And the crazy thing is, everybody is fighting about this miracle. Half the people are like, "It's got to be a different guy. There is no way this happened." And the other half say, "Oh yeah, definitely him. We know it's the guy." The Pharisees call him forward to testify, and they fight over his testimony. They call his parents: "Is this really him?" And the parents know the situation, so they dodge and deflect, like they're testifying before Congress. I have no recollection of this.

So Jesus gives sight to the blind man, and when he can see, he's like, "Something must have happened, because I used to be blind, and now I can see. And it's all this guy's fault." Something cool happened, and as he says, God does not listen to sinners.

The Pharisees, on the other hand — their hearts are hardened. They see this amazing miracle, they go through all of this testimony to make sure it happened, and then their response is: It can't be right. Jesus must be a sinner. They grasp and cling to all sorts of different reasons. They talk about being disciples of Moses. They point out that he did this on the Sabbath. They grasp for anything that would condemn Jesus.

When the Light Comes, There Is Always Division

And I think this reminds us that when Christ comes into the world, the light and the darkness, there is always a division. When the Word of God goes out, some people's eyes become even more closed, and others are opened. We don't always know why it's one person or the other. We don't know who is going to hear the Word and respond with joy or have a hardened heart. But we know that this is the case — whether it's the Pharisees versus the blind man, or the people we talk to in our daily lives. Christ comes, and there is always division: the saved and the unsaved, the believing and the unbelieving.

As Jesus says, "For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind."

For us who believe, who know the light of the world and have faith in his joyous resurrection and the eternal life he promises us, it is joyful when we get to proclaim the Word and people believe — but also painful when those that we love do not, when we see that there are people in our lives whose eyes become closed when they hear the Word. This is just how the Christian faith works: when the light comes, some see and some are blind.

We just have to learn that this spiritual hardness of heart is always going to happen to some people, and we have to be careful that it doesn't happen to us, too. When the Word comes and challenges us, and we hear things that we don't like to hear, we should respond the way the blind man does. We hear the Word, and we ponder it, and we receive it — because Jesus is our Savior, and we know that when light comes into darkness, it scatters the darkness. Sometimes things are challenging and they hurt, but we still have to receive this.

Simple Faith: What the Blind Man Teaches Us About Believing in Jesus

After the Pharisees figure out what they're going to do, and the blind man knows what is going on, there is another distinction between them: what do they do in response to this miracle?

The blind man doesn't have a great deal of philosophy, not a whole lot of education. He basically says, "I don't know what happened. What I do know is I used to be blind, and now I see, and it's all this guy's fault." Something cool happened, and God does not listen to sinners. And what an amazing faith that is, right? He isn't super knowledgeable, he hasn't gone to seminary and learned all the best doctrines, and yet he has experienced Christ, been healed, and will follow.

The Pharisees, on the other hand, have had all the education, have had all the learning — they should know who Jesus is. And yet, faith is always this simple: Christ comes to us, we see his power, we see his beauty, we see his forgiveness, and we just believe. Sure, we also want to have the learning. We want to know God's Word and understand the doctrine. But down at the heart of it all, faith is quite simple: Christ came to save me. I know this is true. He gives me life because of his death and resurrection on the cross.

This is the joy of the light of the world — that Christ has come to open the eyes of the blind, and to shut the eyes of those who think they can see. The gift that he has given to you is eternal life.

In Jesus' name. Amen.