I Once Was Blind, But Now I See!

John 9:18-41

18 But the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind and received his sight, until they called the parents of him who had received his sight. 19 And they asked them, saying, "Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?"

20 His parents answered them and said, "We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; 21 but by what means he now sees we do not know, or who opened his eyes we do not know. He is of age; ask him. He will speak for himself." 22 His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had agreed already that if anyone confessed that He was Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue. 23 Therefore his parents said, "He is of age; ask him."

24 So they again called the man who was blind, and said to him, "Give God the glory! We know that this Man is a sinner."  25 He answered and said, "Whether He is a sinner or not I do not know. One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see."

26 Then they said to him again, "What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes?"  27 He answered them, "I told you already, and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become His disciples?"

28 Then they reviled him and said, "You are His disciple, but we are Moses' disciples. 29 We know that God spoke to Moses; as for this fellow, we do not know where He is from."

30 The man answered and said to them, "Why, this is a marvelous thing, that you do not know where He is from; yet He has opened my eyes! 31 Now we know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does His will, He hears him. 32 Since the world began it has been unheard of that anyone opened the eyes of one who was born blind. 33 If this Man were not from God, He could do nothing."

34 They answered and said to him, "You were completely born in sins, and are you teaching us?" And they cast him out.

True Vision and True Blindness

35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He had found him, He said to him, "Do you believe in the Son of God?"

36 He answered and said, "Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?"  37 And Jesus said to him, "You have both seen Him and it is He who is talking with you."  38 Then he said, "Lord, I believe!" And he worshiped Him.

39 And Jesus said, "For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind."

40 Then some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these words, and said to Him, "Are we blind also?"  41 Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, 'We see.' Therefore your sin remains.

The man born blind given eyes to see by the Creator who spoke man into existence out of the dust of the earth and life from His Spirit now faced the unbelief of the Pharisees (John 9:16).  The religious leaders first interrogated the man’s parents to prove he really was born blind who now could see to prove he was a fake.  The parents did not give an answer for fear of excommunication from the synagogue for confessing Christ and directed them back to ask their son for how he came to be able to see all of a sudden.  They had the legal advantage of their son being an adult and so they were not required to answer for him.  The disbelieving leaders then summoned the man back for more questioning.  They did their best to discredit Jesus as the Christ by blaspheming Him as a sinner (John 9:16, because He healed on a holy day) and pressured the man to give God the glory as they saw it by agreeing with them.  The man righteously answered back that he had no idea if the one who heal him was a sinner, but exclaimed, “One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see.”  This is the phrase of belief immortalized by John Bunyan in his song Amazing Grace which captures the awe and wonder of God’s unmerited goodness to heal the sin scarred soul with His nail scarred hands to open our eyes (Acts 26:18) from the darkness of sin’s bondage to the light of His glory (Psalm 84:11, John 8:12) and grace as we turn our eyes upon Jesus when He opens them!  The disbelieving ones who rejected Jesus asked him again what He did and how his eyes were opened; the man said he had told them clearly so they must have understood what he had said, and then asked it they were asking so they also could believe and follow Jesus.  That did not end well for the man who gave a true testimony to ones denying the truth.  They reverted to being adherents of Moses (who by the way testified of Jesus as recorded in John 1:45), and denied knowing where Jesus came from.  The man was dumbfounded that they did not grasp what Moses and the prophets had testified of the coming one who had come and healed the man miraculously as only God could do.  He testified that this Jesus had to be of God to be heard and able to heal as a sinner would be unable to do.  He used reasoning as well to point out that this was indeed something new for a man born blind to be given eyes to see which proved that Jesus had to be from God or He could do nothing like this.  Of course, the self-righteous then grew angry and tossed the man out into the street because they accused him as a sinner trying to teach them as sinless, not knowing the scripture which tell us we all are born sinners (Psalm 14:3, Isaiah 53:1-3, Ecclesiastes 7:20, Romans 3:19, 23).  Jesus heard what happened and sought out the man to encourage him with the gospel truth.  He asked, “Do you believe in the Son of God?”  The man asked who that was and the Lord told him it was Him standing there before the man.  The man with opened eyes of regeneration answered, “Lord, I believe!” and he worshiped Jesus as the Lord God made man (John 1:14) standing there.  Jesus then pointed out that He came to make the blind see (Isaiah 29:18, Matthew 11:5) as told long ago.  Those who reject Him are not given this sight and their continued love of darkness and sin prove they are not sheep of Him (John 6:65, 10:3-4, 14, 27).  Because the Pharisees claimed to have vision when they were still in darkness, they were declared blind by God and still in bondage to sin unless they heard and saw Him for who He is, the Son of God, Messiah.  Can we confidently say that we once were blind but now we see by God’s word and work of grace to open our eyes and hearts to the truth which we have confessed that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and our divine Lord who alone delivers us from blindness to see clearly now the Son has come?  It is such a bright sunny day when we are given this sight after a lifetime of groping for Him  (Job 12:25, Acts 17:27) in the darkness of sin!  We then can confidently say, “I Once Was Blind, But Now I See!”