Blindness

There are two things I really love about John's gospel, firstly the way it flows is great but also John is always showing us the practicalities of the ministry that happens and gives us a feel for what the world of Jesus was like, encounters seem very genuine, Jesus talks to people he meets on the street. So it makes sense that Jesus would use the healing of a blind man as an opportunity to talk about Spiritual Blindness.

Jesus heals this man, but does so on a Sabbath and so the man is brought before the Pharisees to account for what has happened:
The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. 32 Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”

34 To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out. (John 9:30-34 NIV)
The blind man has had his eyes open in more ways than one, he sees through the surface of the issue and cuts right to the point. Only God can heal blindness, something that the Pharisees would have acknowledged. But Jesus healed him, as a result, Jesus cannot be a sinner even though he supposedly "worked" on the Sabbath. In fact far more than that, not only is Jesus not a sinner he must be FROM God. Healing a man's blindness could only from God, if this man were not from God, he could do nothing. If Jesus was not God, he would have just been some creepy guy spitting on the ground and rubbing mud on some dude's face, but Jesus was from God and he healed the man. But the Pharisees refuse to listen to the man's sound logic, it doesn't fit their paradigm, someone who breaks the Sabbath can't be from God. So they find an excuse to discredit his testimony, he must have been blind because he was a sinner (another example of John's flow, the disciples having spoken about that earlier in the passage) and so they don't have to listen to him and throw him out.

It's clear that this man has had an impact on Jesus because he comes to speak to him more:
Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
36 “Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.”

37 Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”

38 Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. (John 9:35-38 NIV)
Jesus is compassionate and after hearing that the man has been thrown out he comes to offer comfort to him. The man, though, hardly needs it, he knows that they were wrong and he knows that he will follow this man that healed him (he has already proclaimed to be a disciple of him) he has seen what he can do and wants to know more. Jesus speaks of who he is and immediately the man believes he has seen the proof that he needs and he worships Jesus, further proving Jesus' identity as God is the fact that Jesus doesn't stop this action, which would be inappropriate for anyone other than God.

As they are talking some Pharisees come by:
Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”

40 Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?”

41 Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains. (John 9:39-41 NIV)
Too often we are in the boat of the Pharisees. Someone gives us a word of teaching that greatly impacts us, but we think that it's not for us, that we can see clearly and we are above it. Jesus' statement is condemning, they could have claimed to have been ignorant of their sin and maybe would have received mercy (in the Old Testament unintentional sins were covered by a once yearly sacrifice) but because they claimed that they could see they had no chance of that.

Too often we're in that boat, we think we're above it, we think we can see clearly when in reality we are largely blind to Spiritual things. Our response should be that of the Blind man who falls down at the feet of Jesus and trusts him to lead the way. Instead we are like the Pharisees, claiming that we are not blind and that we see clearly and we are right. Let us repent of our self importance and ask God to forgive us and change us.