Context No. 3787 of 4322 · John
Context · Reflection
John 9:35-41: in context
35Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and finding him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of God?” 36He answered, “Who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him?” 37Jesus said to him, “You have both seen him, and it is he who speaks with you.” 38He said, “Lord, I believe!” and he worshiped him. 39Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment, that those who don’t see may see; and that those who see may become blind.” 40Those of the Pharisees who were with him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” 41Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see.’ Therefore your sin remains.
After the man born blind is healed and then thrown out by the religious leaders, Jesus seeks him out and reveals himself: do you believe in the Son of Man? The man responds with faith, Lord, I believe, and worships him. Then Jesus speaks a paradox about sight and blindness: I came into this world for judgment, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.
The healed man, who knew he had been blind, comes to true sight, in body and in soul. But the Pharisees, so confident that they see, that they have all the answers about God, are in fact blind to the one standing before them, and their claim to see is what keeps them in their sin. The blindness that will not admit it is blind is the one that keeps a person in the dark. There is a searching lesson here. The way to true spiritual sight begins with admitting our blindness, our need to be shown. Those who humbly confess they cannot see are the ones Jesus opens; those who insist they already see remain in the dark.
Do I humbly admit my own spiritual blindness and need to be shown, or do I insist that I already see, and so remain in a blindness that will not let Christ open my eyes?