Sight and Blindness

And Jesus said, “For judgment came I into this world, that they that see not may see; and that they that see may become blind.”
Those of the Pharisees who were with him heard these things, and said unto him, “Are we also blind?”
Jesus said unto them, “If ye were blind, ye would have no sin: but now ye say, ‘We see’: your sin remaineth” (John 9:39-41).

All five senses are important, yet we attach great significance to sight. We live in a world full of images, signs, books, and all sorts of material which need to be seen to be understood and/or appreciated. Sure, it is possible to survive without vision, but it is a hard road indeed.

Humans naturally connect vision and sight to “insight” or understanding. How many times, upon figuring out some problem, challenge, or difficulty, have we exclaimed, “I see it now!”? How many times, after having explained something to someone, have we asked them whether they can “see” it? We don’t exclaim that we’ve heard it, or tasted it, touched it, or smelled it; we “see” it.

This tendency to explain understanding in terms of vision is not new to us; we see it presented in the Scriptures as well. Jesus fully exploits this tendency in an exquisite double entendre at the conclusion of John 9.

John 9:39-41 is based on the interactions among Jesus, a physically blind man, and the Pharisees throughout John 9:1-38. Jesus comes upon this man born physically blind and heals him of his blindness (John 9:1-7). This event is made known to the Pharisees, and they bring in the formerly blind man for questioning (John 9:8-15). The Pharisees insist that such a thing could not be of God because it was done upon the Sabbath; others find it hard to deny the obvious evidence before them (John 9:16). The Pharisees question this man’s parents and then the man again: they demand that he give God the glory, since they “knew” that the Man who did this was a “sinner” (John 9:17-27). The Pharisees are “disciples of Moses,” and they know that God spoke to Moses, but they do not know where “this Man,” that is Jesus, is from (John 9:28-29). The formerly blind man stands boldly in faith, logically refuting the Pharisees’ argument: if He was really a sinner, God would not hear Him, and yet until that time there had been no example of anyone’s eyes ever being opened as his eyes were (John 9:30-32). He quite rightly concludes that Jesus could do nothing if He were not of God (John 9:33). The Pharisees were offended at this boldness, declaring that such a man was “altogether born in sins,” and yet dared to try to teach them, and therefore cast him out of the synagogue, in effect banning him from the Jewish community (John 9:34). Jesus then found the man born blind and asked him if he believed in the Son of God (John 9:36); after asking who He is and being informed that Jesus is, in fact, the Son of God, he declared his belief in Jesus and prostrated before Him (John 9:36-37).

The conclusion of the matter is found in John 9:39-41. The whole situation has provided evidence for His claim: He came for judgment, allowing the blind to see and blinding those who see. It is not as if the statement is to be taken literally; as far as we can tell, Jesus never caused anyone who could physically see to become physically blind (although Paul does in Acts 13:4-12). Yes, Jesus heals this blind man’s eyes, and he now can physically see. Jesus’ emphasis, however, is not on his physical vision but his spiritual insight: he now believes that Jesus is the Son of God. He now “sees” in a way he did not “see” while blind. He, once a blind man in the midst of those who could see, now finds himself as one who sees in the midst of blind men.

Jesus does not blind those who “see” physically, nor does He even really intend to do so spiritually. The problem is not with Him; the problem is in those who claim to “see,” evidently the Pharisees from John 9:41. Jesus’ statement there is stark: if they admitted their blindness, they would be without sin, but since they say they see, their sin remains. This again has less to do with physical sight and more to do with internal insight: the Pharisees are convinced they know Moses, they know what Moses taught, they know what Sabbath observance looks like, and they certainly know what Sabbath violations look like. They are blinded by their complete conviction of their vision! They find themselves declaring that the work of God really did not come from God because it did not happen in the way they would have expected it to according to their understanding of the Law.

Let us not be deceived into thinking that the Pharisees’ views come from some kind of humble conservatism: it is based in their claim of being Moses’ disciples and separated from the “sinners.” They refuse to listen to anything which goes against their understanding; if it contradicts their tradition or the way they’ve always been taught, it clearly must be wrong. They find themselves denying the obvious to attempt to maintain their control through tradition and dogma. Jesus is right: they are blind. They refuse to see; they do not want to see; they do not want to be in the awkward place of having to admit that they do not understand what they think they understand and are wrong.

People have not changed much in two thousand years. Plenty of blind men have great insight; plenty of people who physically see are blind to their condition. Most people are aware that they have deficiencies and readily admit to many of them, yet how many recognize that even in their strengths they have weaknesses, or they do not fully understand even that in which they have the most confidence?

We should not walk away from this text without coming to terms with its most powerful message: the “sinner” was physically blind but was willing to gain the insight regarding who Jesus was and what that meant, while the religious authorities, the “righteous ones,” were blinded by their own dogma. They did not challenge Jesus on the basis of some questionable aspect of the Law but on a matter on which they assumed their opinions and interpretations were exactly in line with God’s intentions beyond a shadow of a doubt. They proved unwilling to subject their confidence to any form of critical insight based on the evidence Jesus provided them; thus they were declared blind. Notice the way Jesus puts it: “but now ye say, ‘We see’: your sin remaineth” (John 9:41).

There is much we can learn about God based on His revelation in the Scriptures (2 Timothy 3:16-17). We should diligently apply ourselves to that end. Yet, in doing so, we must never become like the Pharisees and assume that once we have come to some level of understanding that we now fully “see.” At this time we see as in a mirror dimly (cf. 1 Corinthians 13:12); the ways of God are beyond our understanding (Isaiah 55:8-9). If we learn in wisdom, the more we learn, the more we recognize we really do not know! For every question that can be answered we can discover many more unanswered and unanswerable questions; the greater depths of knowledge which we plumb shows us how incomprehensibly deep that ocean really is. Therefore, even in that which we are to believe with complete conviction as true, there remains depth which we cannot plumb. We never have and never will be able to have perfect understanding; there is always more to learn, and always better ways to see.

On the other hand, we should not be like a blind man leading the blind into a pit (cf. Matthew 15:14)! We are to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18). But our knowledge must be in faith, and whatever is lacking in our knowledge must be filled by faith. The blind man, above all else, learned to trust Jesus; that is what he learned to see. Let us find true spiritual insight in Jesus, never trusting in our own understanding but in what He has revealed, always examining His truth, and in humility recognizing our blindness and limitations in the flesh, and glorify and honor God!

Ethan R. Longhenry

11 comments on “Sight and Blindness
  1. I found this information to be most helpful. I was struggling with trying to understand this passage of scripture, I always pray that The Holy Spirit give me understanding of his word, I was led here !!! Praise God !!!!

  2. Right on time! I just read this passage and was struggling with understanding the true meaning behind it. Your explanation was concise and very informative. God bless you!

  3. I was struggling with understanding the verses. Thank you for this expaination, very apt! God bless you!

  4. Thank you so much for taking the time to explain the scriptures to us. I truly enjoyed it and God showed me much through this. God bless !

  5. Neat! I felt like verse 39 and 41 were contradicting each other, but in the context of insight, it makes more sense. I’ve been noticing this recently; that the more I learn, the more I realize I do not know.

  6. Thank you and praise God for your ability to so clearly articulate God’s revelation over this scripture!

  7. So helpful, thank you! Glad I found your content as I fumble my way through the Bible for the first time.

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