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John 9:1-41

Who Is Really Blind?

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John 9:1-41

Who Is Really Blind?

By Dr. Carol J Miller

This is a super story! It’s not a made up story. It’s a true story.

It began when Jesus’ disciples saw a blind man as they walked through town. One disciple asked a strange question: “Was this man born blind because his parents sinned; or was he born blind because he sinned?”

Why is this a bad question [Accept all answers]? It’s a bad question because they assumed that anyone who was sick must have done something wrong. In Jesus’ day, most people thought that if you got sick, God was punishing you! We do NOT believe that. The fact that someone is sick is NOT a sign that that person has done something wrong.

Jesus answered their question. He said the man was not born blind because anybody sinned. Jesus said he was going to use the man’s blindness to show how great God was.

Then Jesus healed the man and he could SEE for the very first time! The crowd was shocked! They knew this man had always been blind. No one had ever healed someone born blind!

What would you be thinking if you had been in the crowd? [Accept all answers].

The crowd was so excited they took the man to the religious leaders. The leaders asked the man if he had really been blind. He said that he had been––but they refused to believe him. They found his mother and father. Mom and Dad said it was their son; he was born blind. They didn’t know how he could see.

So, here comes the newly seeing man. The leaders asked the man who he thought Jesus was. The leaders believed that Jesus was a sinner, a trickster. The man whom Jesus healed wouldn’t agree. He wasn’t afraid of them.

The leaders told the man that they didn’t know where Jesus came from. The man laughed and let out a “whoop!” [Let’s hear your whoop!] The man said, “Jesus opened the eyes of a person born blind. Can’t YOU see? It’s as plain as day. Why can’t YOU see? Jesus came from God. No one but God has the power to do what Jesus did.”

Why do you think the leaders couldn’t “see” who Jesus was? [Accept all answers]. They saw him heal and teach. They should have been able to understand who Jesus was. But the truth was they didn’t want to see who he was––because if they admitted that Jesus was from God, people would listen to him instead of listening to them.

The blind man was blind until Jesus gave him his sight. But the leaders were blind because they wanted to be. That is a much more serious thing.

Scripture quotations are Carol Miller’s paraphrase.

Copyright 2013, Richard Niell Donovan