9:1,2
We now get another healing and another Sabbath controversy, and also a correction of common religious thought, which is highlighted in these two verses.
Jesus saw a man blind from birth. He had not become blind, but had been born blind. This stresses the enormity of the miracle that Jesus performed here. There is no way there could be a “natural explanation”.
The disciples were more concerned with why the man was blind. We have just seen in the foregoing chapters that the Jews and the people both had serious misunderstandings, to put it mildly. In fact they were spiritually blind. Perhaps that is why John places this miracle here. For the disciples also had spiritual blindness. So what is the difference between the disciples and the Jews? The disciples were with Jesus, trusting in Him, looking to learn from Him. All of us suffer from spiritual blindness to some extent, even if we have been Christians for many years, but Jesus can, and does, give us sight.
Who sinned? The common thought was that all disease was a result of either a person’s own sin or the sin of their parents. Some even thought a person could be punished for sins committed in the womb. Whatever we may claim to believe, or not believe, all men have a conception that disease and suffering is somehow related to sin. More on this matter tomorrow.
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