Devotional John 9: The Healing of the Blind Man and Spiritual Blindness Reflection on John 9: the miracle of the man born blind, the accusation of the Pharisees, and how moral pride blinds us to the truth of God. Topics: Devotional, New Testament.

Devotional John 9: The Healing of the Blind Man and Spiritual Blindness

Today’s devotional is found in the Book of John, chapter 9, and this is what happened.

Synopsis: This chapter recounts how Jesus healed a man who had been blind from birth. Since the Pharisees, in their unbelief, refused to accept that Jesus was a man of God, a prophet, and much less the Christ, they tried to pressure the formerly blind man into confessing some sin that Jesus had committed. However, since he had never seen Jesus sin, he had nothing to tell them. He even asked them whether they also wanted to become His disciples — since they kept pressing him so insistently about Jesus and how he had been healed.

Observations

These were my observations:

1. Not everything bad that happens to someone means they sinned or that their ancestors sinned. We see this when the disciples ask Jesus whether the man was born blind because of his own sin or that of his parents. What is striking is that this mindset was very prevalent in the Old Testament with the story of Job, and some people still think this way today. We see many people complaining — especially when misfortune strikes good people while bad people live well and take advantage of the system. Because of this, they blame God for all the bad things that happen to us. Whether we like it or not, we tend to assume that the world should operate logically: if you do bad things, you receive bad things; if you do good things, you receive good things. But the world does not always work that way, as we have already seen with the example of Job, this blind man, and many things that happen in our own time. We must always remember that God makes the sun rise on the good and the evil, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous (Matthew 5:45). Furthermore, we must always keep in mind that the world is unjust and God is just — so that we do not confuse the two.
2. Spiritual blindness. The Pharisees, as always, were trying to catch Jesus in a sin, or because — in their view — He was transgressing the laws of Scripture (i.e., He healed the blind man on the Sabbath, forgave sinners, and through His words implied that He was the Christ of God). With this, they believed they had authority to judge others, to think of themselves as less sinful, and to claim moral superiority — and it is precisely this that blinds their spiritual vision. It drives them further from God, because they believe they have no need to repent like the worst of sinners.