Willful Blindness
“What a contrast between the opening and the closing of this chapter! The blind sees! The beggar is enriched! The outcast on the Temple steps is a worshiper in the temple of the spirit! And how vast a contrast to the deterioration at work in the hearts of these professedly religious men! From the mouth of a babe in the divine life God can elicit strength to quell the enemy and the avenger. “O God, our God, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!”
The man's judges cast in his teeth the life-long deprivation from which he had suffered, as a conclusive evidence of his sins. This was the common Jewish interpretation of such a calamity, John 9:2. Our Lord, however, taught that suffering is permitted to befall for wise and good reasons, which are compatible with the character of God, and it provides a platform on which the grace and power of God may manifest themselves, each new phase of evil leading to a fresh manifestation of the power and love of God. How often He seems to say, when we are perplexed with the world's sin and sorrow, “These things are not unto death, but to manifest the works of God!” Look not at the pain, but at its results! See what humility and patience God gives; wait to see the harvest of these sowings!