EXPLANATORY AND CRITICAL NOTES
John 9:1. The connection of this narrative with what precedes and what follows is variously stated. Westcott, e.g., supposes that the occurrence took place at the feast of Dedication (John 10:22: “Then was the feast of dedication,” etc.). It is here assumed that it is immediately connected with the previous chapter—that the miracle was wrought in the evening of the festival Sabbath, in the morning of which Jesus declared Himself to be the Light of the world. The blind beggar might be seated not far from one of the temple gates (Acts 3:2). Blind from his birth.—“The miracles recorded in John’s Gospel stand out each as a type of its class. Hence stress is laid on this special fact” (Westcott).
John 9:3. Our Lord does not mean in the words “Neither hath this man sinned,” etc., that the man and his parents were not sinners (Romans 3:23); but that this special calamity was not the result of special criminality or transgression.
John 9:4. I must, etc.—The better reading is ἡμᾶς δεῖ ἐργάζεσθαι, We must work (א, B, D, L), with Tischendorf, Tregelles, Westcott and Hort, etc.
John 9:5. As long as I am in the world, etc., or better When I am, etc. (ὄταν).—This evidently refers back to the preceding discourse (John 8:12 ff.). Whilst it is true that Christ is ever the light in the spiritual world: “for the day of Christ’s presence has no evening: His sun never sets” (Augustine in Wordsworth): yet His immediate visible manifestation, the day of His activity in which He gave sight to the blind and relief to the wretched, would soon pass away, φῶς (not τὸ φῶς, the light).—I.e. light manifesting itself in various ways—here healing the blind physically and spiritually.
John 9:6. The application of saliva to the eyes (which was considered salutary), and the making of the clay especially, were in Jewish eyes, and according to rabbinical tradition, a serious breach of the Sabbath law.
John 9:7. Siloam (הַשִׁלחַ from שָׁלַח, to send forth).—Now Birket Silwân, lying south from the temple area, at the foot of Mount Moriah, at the mouth of the Tyropœon valley (see note, p. 268). “Sent.”—The waters of the pool were intermittent, and were popularly supposed to be specially sent with healing power; and doubtless there is a hidden reference in the name and its interpretation to Jesus—the Sent of God.
John 9:8. The neighbours, etc.—Those in whose vicinity the blind man lived. Probably the scene now recorded took place on the day following the miracle. “Who saw him before that he was a beggar” (ὅτι προσαίτης ἧν) is the reading of all the best MSS.
John 9:9. Others said, No, he is like him.—No, οὐχί: א, B, C, L, etc. He.—ἐκεῖνος.
John 9:11. A man, etc.—Better The man called Jesus. The blind man said nothing regarding our Lord’s claim to be Messiah; but the words imply that Jesus was well known, and most likely the man who had been healed knew Him who had been so much talked about in Jerusalem.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— John 9:1-12
Jesus, the light of the world, heals the man born blind.—It was at the close of a festival Sabbath day (John 9:14, “Now it was Sabbath on the day,” etc.) that Jesus, passing through some place of public resort apparently, “saw a man,” etc. The late afternoon was wearing toward evening, and sitting by the way, conspicuous among the moving crowds, was this blind beggar, known to some extent by the populace (John 9:8). Jesus “saw” this poor man, the narrative tells us. And in the case of the Saviour, to see human misery was to be moved to relieve it. We are to think of Him looking compassionately on the blind beggar. Our great High Priest was ever “touched with the feeling of our infirmities.” The difference between divine and human pity is strikingly brought out in the manner in which the disciples regarded this pitiful case. The Lord’s seeing of the blind man led Him to heal; the disciples’ seeing led them to moot a subtle question regarding the origin of such infirmities. Jesus proved that He was the light of the world—
I. In giving sight to the blind.—
1. Jesus had been rejected in the temple, His well-established claim to be the light of the world set aside with scorn, and He Himself assailed violently. But that did not stay His beneficent activity as the world’s light, any more than the clouds can hinder the sun from shining, although they may shut out his beams from the earth, as the Jews shut out the healing rays from their souls. On the high levels of faith His light is undimmed.
2. And here we find the rays of Christ’s love and mercy directed to one sorely in need of them. This man whom Christ restored was one whose case was evidently past all human power. He was known to have been hopelessly blind from his birth; and evidently people were convinced that in some way his affliction was connected, with special sin (John 9:2). This was an opinion familiar to the Jewish people. So that not only was the man a special sufferer; but according to this belief his affliction was the result, so to speak, of a divine decree
3. Thus his restoration would manifestly be a work, not only of mercy, but of divine power; and in this case, where the cure was so extraordinary and so manifest, it could not fail to impress all who witnessed it, that here was One more than man, and that this work, performed by Him, was indeed a work of God (John 9:4-5), and must have been wrought by One sent from God. Only He who “formed the eye” (Psalms 94:9) could thus be able, or could give power, to heal the eyes to which sight had been denied from birth. It is the Creator who forms the seeing eye, who every day is working this miracle million-fold among the tribes of earth and air by slow gradation. He, therefore, who is able thus, as it were, to carry out and perfect the work of the Creator, must have heavenly power.
II. In the evident fulfilment of the ancient prophecies.—Jesus proved Himself to be the promised “Sun of Righteousness,” the light sent to lighten the Gentiles, etc.
1. In all His miracles our Lord had not only the immediate end in view, such as the alleviation of human suffering, etc., but the general and comprehensive end of manifesting forth His glory as the Messiah, and thus the glory of His Father (John 2:11; John 11:40-42; John 12:27-29).
2. This also was to be one of the glories of Messiah’s reign, one of the signs of His working: “The eyes of the blind shall be opened” (Isaiah 35:5). And at the beginning of His public ministry our Lord proclaimed this as part of His mission (Luke 4:18). When John sent from his prison cell two of his disciples to ask, “Art Thou He that should come?” etc., Jesus in answer pointed to His teaching and works in proof of His mission. And at the head of these He places the fact, “The blind receive their sight” (Matthew 11:2-5).
3. This then was an undoubted sign of Messianic times and of the working of Messiah, and prominence is given to it on account of the included spiritual meaning to which the miracle points. Messiah was to give sight to the spiritually blind. Thus was there placed before the people an evident proof of the truth of Christ’s claim (John 8:12).
III. The awakening of faith in the heart of the man who was healed.—
1. This, so far as the afflicted man was concerned, was the end for which this miracle was wrought. Not only would Jesus restore him to sight, but rescue him from a deeper spiritual blindness—let a more glorious light shine into his soul than the natural light which he now saw for the first time (2 Corinthians 4:6).
2. And it was doubtless as a means of quickening that faith that Jesus in this instance used outward means toward the end in view. This poor man did not see Jesus, and the anointing of his eyes with the clay brought him into contact with the Saviour, showed him the source of the power (as Mark 7:32-37). From ancient histories we learn that saliva jejuna was held in repute as a remedy for blindness, and clay was considered to have sanative properties. May not all these things have been tried in this man’s case and failed? But now they were to become aids to this man’s faith, to show whence was the healing power.
3. Further, he was sent to wash in Siloam as a test of the trustful obedience of faith. Is there not bound up with the mention of this fountain, and the interpretation of its name, a spiritual meaning? Was it not in reference to the pouring out the water of that spring at the feast of tabernacles that Jesus had pointed to Himself as the true Siloam, sent of God to heal men’s diseases, to bring them spiritual life (John 7:37-39)?
4. The man went forth trusting in the word of Christ; and he went not in vain. No direct promise had been made; but he believed that He by whom He was sent would not mock him. “He came seeing”—in a double sense; for now he believed that the divine Teacher, of whom so much was spoken, was indeed “the sent of God” (John 9:30-33). It was a notable miracle; many were cognisant of it; and it was a convincing answer to the opposition and calumnies of the Jews.
5. All believers spiritually go through the same experience as this blind man. Men by nature are poor, miserable, blind, etc. Of themselves they can do nothing to alleviate their wretchedness. “Grace, grace alone, availeth.” The “Sent of God” alone can bring them from darkness to light. But the means He prescribes must be used: they may seem humble enough; but they lead, if used in faith, to the same blessed result, e.g. “It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching,” etc. (1 Corinthians 1:21). Have we listened to Christ’s gracious command, obeyed it, and have we spiritually received sight? If not, then hear His invitation (Revelation 3:18).
John 9:2-3. The problem of human suffering.—No thinking man can look abroad unmoved on the spectacle of human pain, and the question that is so fully investigated in the Book of Job must come up for answer. Especially perplexing is the apparently indiscriminate apportionment of suffering and calamity. The good have to bear them as well as the wicked. Often, indeed, the wicked flourish, whilst on the good adversity descends. How can this occur under the government of a just and merciful God? Many, trusting to reason alone for a solution of the problem, have reached either pantheistic ideas regarding evil, considering it only the condition of a higher good, or have embraced materialistic conceptions of the universe, regarding it as the result of the working of laws formed and directed by no intelligent lawgiver.
I. Our Lord did not deny the general connection between sin and suffering.—
1. It is true that in the widest sense suffering is the result of sin. The subtle poison, the dreadful moral disorder, has become widespread and universal in the world. And further, therefore, when suffering overtakes us, it is because we are parts of the great sinful whole.
2. But it must be remembered that suffering often is directly and unmistakably connected with particular sins. This awful conclusion we cannot escape. The transgression of God’s natural laws brings speedy punishment on the transgressor. So too does the transgression of His moral laws, especially where the breaking of them is effected through physical channels.
3. Then there is the vast amount of suffering brought on those who are innocent, through the crimes, sins, and follies of others. Much of the misery in our great cities especially is caused in this way. The children of the intemperate man, e.g., ragged, half starved, pinched, and wretched, bear in this way the iniquity of their father. It is a sad and even overwhelming picture, an awful commentary on the apostolic word, “The wages of sin,” etc.
II. But whilst this is so, our Lord shows us that it is not our part to endeavour to establish the connection between special suffering and special sin.—
1. For in reality we have no infallible means of judging. It is enough if we judge ourselves, and we cannot always do even that perfectly—much less can we investigate fully and pronounce sentence upon the lives of our fellows.
2. Then there are undoubtedly two classes of sufferings, i.e. those which are the direct and immediate result of special sins, and those tribulations which God permits to come even upon His own people for His own wise purposes and their good.
3. There are many who forget this fact, and neglect the warning of our Lord not to judge others (Matthew 7:1). When they hear of calamity overtaking others, they are too ready often to consider it as a divine judgment sent on account of special sin. If some who thus judge would only remember how great would be their own danger in that case! Our Lord rebuked this spirit when some came to tell Him of the eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell (Luke 8:1-5).
4. Under this condemnation, therefore, would come those who would charge the sufferers from wars, pestilences, conflagrations, storms and floods, etc., as sinners above all others; or think that those into whose family circle come misfortunes of various kinds must always be guilty of secret transgressions. Carefulness and charity in judging others should ever be exercised. And whilst it must be recognised that much of the terrible suffering in the world is the direct consequence of gross sinfulness, yet it is also clear that much of the world’s suffering is often remedial, or is intended as a trial of the faith and patience of the saints.
III. There is a divine purpose of love in much of human suffering.—
1. It was so, Jesus told His disciples, in the case of this man. His “light affliction” was to be a means of manifesting God’s works. A sifting inquiry followed this miracle. The enemies of our Lord tried their utmost to overturn the clear testimony to the fact. But their efforts resulted only in their own confusion. The clear proof of the miracle resulted in showing forth the glory of Christ as the light of the world, and gave the lie to their calumnies.
2. The miracle also testified to Christ’s power as the spiritual physician. He not only healed the physical vision of this man, but the spiritual. May not this blindness have been in the plan of God for this man’s salvation? Might it not have been a means of keeping him from some way of sin into which he might otherwise have gone? Various conjectures might be made as to the divine purposes fulfilled in this man’s affliction. But in regard to the chief purpose of it, it is safe to say that God will never permit any one to endure in vain in His service.
3. The divine purpose in and use of tribulation are recognised by all believing men (Psalms 119:71).
“Sweet are the uses of adversity.”—Shakespeare.
And when affliction comes on Christian men because of their sins directly, it is intended for their profit. Just as pain is a warning to keep from danger, so affliction is often an admonition to beware of sin.
4. And suffering that is not directly but indirectly caused by the sin of others shall become a means for showing forth the works of God. “The poor ye have always with you,” said Jesus to His disciples, thus confiding the wretched to their sympathetic care. And where do care and love show so like God’s as in the care and love of a true mother for the weak and feeble member of her flock? And where is more of the Christ-spirit shown than in the means used by His people for the alleviation of sorrow and suffering? And where are greater triumphs seen of the grace of Christ overcoming than in the case of many on whom sore affliction has been laid, and to whom it has become even here a crown of glory?
5. Add to all this that whilst suffering is the general result of moral evil, it forms in a measure a check to the supremacy of the latter. To what awful lengths might not moral evil go, further than what we see even, did not this salutary check bar its progress! In every way there is a divine purpose of good to man in affliction. If men could not believe this they might well despair.
In view of this Christian men, whilst ready
(1) to judge themselves, and to inquire earnestly when affliction comes for what purpose it has been sent, what sin has been gaining dominion over them, are at the same time
(2) to be slow in judging others. God gives us no right to judge what He alone can know perfectly. But
(3) in imitation of our Master we have a divine mission to fulfil toward those who are afflicted—a mission of mercy and love in His name and spirit to
“Raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
Heal the sick, and lead the blind.”
John 9:2-3. Healing the blind.—This is a signal miracle. The healing of the man born blind was what could not be effected naturally. The circumstances of this blindness were the occasion of these words in John 9:2-3. We have first:
1. A question of Christ’s disciples. The design and proposal of this question might be twofold:
(1) that it was simply and positively their opinion that all maladies of the body come from the antecedent demerit of sin, according to which all men’s sufferings are the effects of their personal sins, either as sin past and committed, or future and foreknown to God; or
(2) that the opinion was proposed for argument’s sake, occasioned by a former passage in John 5:2. Christ’s rejoinder. The words do not contradict Scripture. They mean that sin was not the cause of his blindness. Having removed the false cause, He subjoins the true: “That the works of God,” etc. These words not only exhibit the erroneous curiosity of the disciples, but show the charity of Christ in clearing the man’s innocence and vindicating God’s proceedings. The design of the words in this view is prosecuted in three propositions:—
I. Men are prone to charge God’s judgments upon false causes.—
1. These false causes are:
(1) sin on his part that suffers;
(2) hatred on God’s part.
2. The principles inducing men thus to charge God’s judgments upon false causes:
(1) the fallibility of the rule, and the falseness of the opinion by which they judge;
(2) their inability in discerning, joined with their confidence in pronouncing;
(3) the inbred malice of our nature.
II. Not always the sin or merit of the person afflicted, but the will of God that afflicts, is sometimes the sole, but always the sufficient, reason of the affliction.—This is apparent from several scriptures. To produce one. See the whole series of Job’s sufferings resolved into this by God Himself. The necessary distinction between punishments and afflictions must be observed. The divine proceeding is cleared from injustice on three reasons:
1. His absolute, unaccountable dominion, etc., over the creature;
2. The essential equity of the divine nature;
3. The unerring, all-disposing wisdom of God.
III. Though God’s will and power be a sufficient reason of any evil inflicted upon men, yet He never inflicts it but for the great end of advancing His glory, and that usually in the way of their good.—This glorious design of bringing these calamities on men is expressed in these words, “That the works of God,” etc. And the works that God intends thus to glorify are usually these:
1. The miraculous works of His power;
2. The works of His grace.
Let us apply this resolve of Christ, in the words of the text, to all the rugged instances of Providence.—“The peremptory way in which men often judge is highly odious to God, more especially on account of the cause of it—curiosity. This is but one remove from rebellion, as breaking through all the bounds God has set about the secrets of His counsel.”—South.
John 9:4. The works of God.—Genuine spiritual religion does not end in acts of worship. It will spur men to effort for the good of others, to do the works of God. Such was Christ’s life here. He not only prayed, engaged in acts of devotion; He preached the gospel to the poor, fed the hungry, healed the sick, relieved the wretched, and went about continually doing good.
I. The works of God should embrace all life’s activity.—
1. If men desire special work after the example of Jesus, it is easy to find it. The Judge of all will not reward those who merely say, “Lord, Lord!” etc. Those who feed the hungry, etc. (Matthew 25:40), shall inherit the kingdom.
2. But work for God cannot be confined within special limits. All labour should be made religious, the whole life should be consecrated (1 Corinthians 10:31). This is the end of redemption. Men are made “new creations,” and fitted for the divine service. There is no true distinction—should be none—between what are termed the sacred and secular spheres. “Ye shall be to Me a kingdom of priests” (Exodus 19:6). Christ shall make His people kings and priests unto God, etc. (Revelation 5:10), and they shall in the heavenly, perfect state “serve Him day and night in His temple.”
3. Those who become citizens in His kingdom consecrate the whole life to Him. What cannot be consecrated were best left undone. Religion was intended to raise our ordinary life higher. Christ’s gospel is not a system that requires men to remove from the society of their fellows to some calmer region, where there are no rude interruptions to the life of devotion. It is a religion for men and women who are striving onward and upward.
4. The gospel sets the seal of its approval on every honest occupation (1 Corinthians 7:20-21). In doing the common duties of life, “not with eye-service, as men-pleasers, but as servants of God,” we are doing His work.
5. In this, too, Jesus is our great example. When at the close of His ministry He said, “I have glorified,” etc. (John 17:4), did He not include those preparation years spent in labour and silence at Nazareth? Thus to men in every rank and station He fitly says, “We must work the works,” etc. It is forgetfulness of this truth that tends to stunt the Christian growth of too many. Their practical life-work is not done with a single eye to God’s glory, and becomes a clog on their spiritual progress.
II. Spheres of service.—
1. The general principles laid down should be a guide in every sphere of service. There is one work, however, that must go before all others, if these are to be done for God. It is the work of believing: it is the spring of all genuine work for God (John 6:29).
2. Then our common daily work will be consecrated. St. John mending his fishing-nets, St. Paul labouring at tent-making, were serving God, even as when preaching the gospel. The true Christian workman will prosecute his handiwork “as ever in the great Taskmaster’s eye” (Milton). And if all hand labour were done thus, how much better would it often be done!
3. Then there is the work of providing for those depending on them by God’s people. It is a part of Christian duty especially commanded (1 Timothy 5:8).
4. Young people have a most important work given them to do—the work of training and preparing themselves for life’s duties. Diligence in study, care of health, strengthening of the moral nature, are all incumbent to fit them for the higher duties that will by-and-by engross them.
5. Then there is the work of training the young. Evil increases apace in the heart; good grows slowly. Teachers, parents, have thus a pressing, important work to do. This is truly a divine work, the work of Him who sent Jesus, His only Son, to save men. Soon those children will take their place in life, to work good or evil in their day, pretty much in accordance with the training and example they have received. It is a noble yet serious work to train the young for duty here and their eternal destiny; and in this training, first and all through, believing should be kept in the foreground. Need here for faith and prayer!
6. Thus all through life devotion and action will be blended. They are the warp and woof of every true spiritual life. And thus, if lived in the spirit of devotion,—every talent used, every opportunity seized, every duty entered upon not from selfish motives, but from a desire to do God’s will and finish His work—then the whole life will be an acceptable service.
III. Limits of service.—
1. Our own imperfection and sinfulness, the sin and opposition of the world, may circumscribe and mar our service; but those barriers we must overcome.
2. But there are limits of time. It was so with Christ in His earthly ministry. How promptly and eagerly therefore did He make use of every opportunity!
3. So we have but a day given to us in which to do our work, nor can the length of that day be determined. For some it merely dawns. With others it is eclipsed at noonday. For all it comes to an end. It is inevitable, this onward march of life. The diurnal sweep of the heavens, the seasons in their changeful round, every heart-beat—all proclaim
“The day of life fleets fast away,
And none its rapid course can stay.”
Eventide, with its closing shadows, is swiftly approaching, when our work must be laid aside, and we wait in silence until it is judged on that great day.
John 9:4. “The night cometh, when no man can work.”—The sense of the text lies in these three positions:—
I. There is a work appointed to every man to be performed by him while he lives in the world.—Man as he is—
1. A part or member of the body politic—hath a temporal work, whereby he is to approve himself a good citizen in filling the place of a divine, a lawyer, etc.
2. As a member and subject of a higher and spiritual kingdom, he has also a spiritual calling or profession as a Christian, and the work that this calls him to is threefold:
(1) to make his peace with God;
(2) to mortify the flesh and sin;
(3) to have his heart purified through the operation of the Holy Spirit implanting within it the graces and virtues of the Christian life.
II. The time of this life being once expired, there remains no further opportunity or possibility of performing this work.—The word “day,” as the expression of the time of human existence, here may denote three things:
1. The shortness of it.
2. But also the sufficiency of our time: short as it is, yet it equals the business of the day.
3. Then by a day is denoted to us the determinate stint and limitation of our time.
III. The consideration of this ought to be the highest and most pressing argument to every man to use his utmost diligence in the discharge of this work.—
1. Because of the difficulty of the performance of that work; and
2. Because of its necessity: especially is this so with regard to a man’s salvation.—Abridged from South.
HOMILETIC NOTES
John 9:2-3. Sin and suffering.—
1. The Master looked on the blind beggar with an eye of pitying love, and the resolve to work a gracious work in him. The disciples seemed to regard him simply as an interesting problem or case.
2. Among the Jews suffering and calamity were regarded as consequences of sin; and in a sense all suffering results from sin, regarded either as failure or transgression. The whole creation participates in this result (Romans 8:22). Our Lord did not deny this connection between sin and suffering (John 5:14). The Decalogue contains this idea in a striking form (Exodus 20:5-6; Numbers 14:18, etc.). Modern science reaffirms the truth in its doctrine of heredity; the slums of our great cities give a terrible affirmation of it. The sins of the fathers are visited upon the children, i.e. the suffering at least descends. Revelation brings in the element of hope, however. It is only to the third and fourth generation of those who hate God that this doom applies. To those who love Him He shows mercy; and even where suffering does follow sin in this case, it is made to serve merciful ends.
3. But though this is true, none of human kind can truly and infallibly pronounce judgment in individual cases. Men suffer individually as a part of the whole of humanity. But they cannot always say this particular calamity is the result of that particular sin. It may have been—in some glaring cases it cannot be denied, e.g. the physical results following drunkenness, etc.; but, generally speaking, where the connection cannot be directly traced, we have no right to suppose that such a special connection exists. The Book of Job was written to teach this among other truths.
4. The disciples seem to have entertained the Jewish ideas on this subject—hence their question. In regard to the first part of their question, some suppose there is a reference to the idea of the transmigration of souls. But that doctrine does not seem to have been held by the Jews generally. A few of such sects as the Essenes may have held ideas approximating to it, or some may have expressed the truth of the soul’s pre-existence in terms which seemed to imply this doctrine. (But see Wordsworth’s Ode to the Intimations of Immortality, and Henry Vaughan’s The Retreat, for an expression of ideas not far removed from metempsychosis.) Others think the disciples were alluding to a rabbinical fancy that a child might sin before birth (Genesis 25:22; Psalms 51:5; Luke 1:41); others, again, that this man had been punished by anticipation for some crime he was to commit during his lifetime (Tholuck, etc.). But such attempts to account for the disciples’ question are somewhat far-fetched. For though the disciples did hold the almost universal ideas as to the nature of Messiah’s kingdom, etc., it does not appear that they were much conversant with or affected by the subtleties of rabbinic lore. There is much to be said for Chrysostom’s idea that the disciples wished to show that both suppositions were baseless—in short, that they were combating the popular view. “The man could not have brought it on himself; and the prophet (Ezekiel 17:2 seq.) warns not to impute such calamities to the sins of others.” But this explanation seems hardly to agree with our Lord’s answer to the disciples. It seems a direct answer to a direct inquiry. Two other explanations of the first part of the disciples’ question seem to afford the simplest and best solution of the difficulty, according to Trench:
(1) “The man could not have brought the affliction on himself, for he was born blind. How and why then was it laid upon him? Or
(2) they failed to perceive at the moment when they asked their question the self-contradiction involved in the first alternative.”
John 9:7. The pool of Siloam.—In the summer of 1880, one of the native pupils of Mr. Schick, a German architect long settled in Jerusalem, was playing with some other lads in the so-called pool of Siloam; and while wading up a channel cut in the rock, which leads into the pool, slipped and fell into the water. On rising to the surface, he noticed what looked like letters on the rock.… He told Mr. Schick of what he had seen, and the latter, on visiting the spot, found an ancient inscription, concealed for the most part by the water. The pool is of comparatively modern construction, but it encloses the remains of a much older reservoir, which, like the modern one, was supplied with water through a tunnel excavated in the rock. This tunnel communicates with the so-called spring of the Virgin, the only natural spring of water in or near Jerusalem. It rises below the walls of the city, on the western bank of the valley of the Kidron, and the tunnel through which its waters are conveyed is consequently cut through the ridge that forms the southern part of the Temple hill. The pool of Siloam lies on the opposite side of this ridge, at the mouth of the valley called that of the Cheesemakers (Tyropœon) in the time of Josephus, but which is now filled up with rubbish and in large part built over. According to Lieutenant Condor’s measurements, the length of the tunnel is 1,708 yards; it does not, however, run in a straight line, and toward the centre there are two culs-de-sac, of which the inscription now offers an explanation. At the entrance, on the western, or Siloam side, its height is about sixteen feet; but the roof grows gradually lower, until in one place it is not quite two feet above the floor of the passage.—Sayce, “Fresh Light,” etc.
ILLUSTRATIONS
John 9:2. Causes of affliction—Affliction may come upon a man either in his own person or in that of some one of his family; but it may not in the remotest degree have been brought on him by any sin at which God would thus mark His displeasure, or for which He would thus exact punishment. And we hardly know a more interesting or consoling truth than this, if you come to consider how it may be made to work among those who are “distressed in mind, body, or estate.” For there is nothing more common with a Christian, when God visits him with a bereavement or trial, than that he anxiously inquires what particular sin he has committed, for which the bereavement or trial is to be taken as the chastisement. And the inquiry is a wholesome one: it is but that which Job so pathetically urges, “I will speak in the bitterness of my soul; I will say unto God, Do not condemn me; show me wherefore Thou contendest with me.” It becomes the Christian, when he is in trouble, to “search and try his ways,” that he may see whether some particular fault be not pointed out by the particular affliction. This is what so often aggravates affliction, and gives it a character which renders it intensely more difficult to endure. Visit a Christian mother, who has been suddenly deprived of a much-loved child, and very probably she is exclaiming in the bitterness of her anguish, “Alas! I must have made an idol of that child: God would never have thus removed the child except to punish my idolatry; and thus, miserable that I am, the child has died for its mother’s sin.” And undoubtedly it is but too possible that the mother may be right; she may have made an idol of her child; and God, who is “a jealous God,” has often to take rough ways of loosening our affections when we suffer them to grow entangled with the creature. But may not the child have died, and yet not have been made an idol? Yes, indeed: “Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents.” It does not at all follow, from the sudden removal of the child, that it has been made the object of an undue, inordinate affection. There may have been other and wholly different ends proposed by the bereavement than the correction of an idolatrous regard. If there have been this idolatrous regard, undoubtedly its correction is one of the proposed ends; and the sorrowing parent does right in considering whether or not she have deserved such correction. But what we insist upon is, that the bereavement is not necessarily any proof of the idolatry; whereas the heart-broken mother is almost sure to conclude that it is, and thus to write bitter things against herself, adding a new pang to affliction, a sharper and severer than the mere loss could cause.—Henry Melvill.
John 9:3. The divine end of affliction.—We cannot but dwell with the greatest interest on these words: “that the works of God might,” etc. They seem like a shield of protection thrown gracefully by our blessed Redeemer round the most helpless of our race. They give a kind of dignity to deformity, not only securing it from contempt, but requiring for it respect; denouncing not merely those who could treat it with ridicule or neglect, but those also who fail to discern in it a means for advancing God’s vast, if inscrutable, purposes. I would have the words graven as a motto over every asylum for the blind, the deaf, the crippled, the dumb. They would teach the supporters of such noble institutions that they were doing something more than mitigating a certain species of human misery: that they had under their care one of those mighty hosts by which God wages war with principalities and powers. Oh, who can fail to look hereafter with something more than pity on the deformed, on those wanting in the common organs or faculties; to look on them with a measure of the very feelings excited by the spectacle of instruments employed to the highest ends; if he remember that of every blind, and of every dumb, and of every maimed person there may be good ground for saying, “Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him”?—Idem.
John 9:2-3. The meaning and purpose of pain and sorrow for God’s people.—“It pleased the Lord to bruise Him!” Strange pleasure this, surely, to dwell in the heart of the All-beneficent. Is it not the nature of the heavenly Father to give joy? Does He not delight rather in the laughter than in the tears of men? Why, then, should He find pleasure in the bruises of that heart in which there was no violence and no guile? Nay, but look deeper. The prophet tells us that the bruises of the Servant of God were the source of His prosperity: “When Thou shalt make His soul an offering, He shall prolong His days.” Wherever the soul is offered, wherever the will is given, there is a fresh access of life. Did not He find it so in the garden of Gethsemane? When did the angels come to Him with that strength which prolonged His days? Was it not when He took the Father’s cup in His band and said, “Not as I will, but as Thou wilt”? No wonder that the Father was pleased to bruise Him; the bruising of His soul was the surrender of His will, and the surrender of His will was resurrection begun. The pressure of the flower brought out its perfume; the breaking of the alabaster box diffused its fragrance till it filled all the house. It recompensed the Father for the unloveliness of the past; it made atonement for the sins of the world. Art thou chafing under the hand of thy God? Art thou murmuring that He should seem to look on complacently while thy desire is being thwarted, while thy will is being denied? What if He is complacent? What if He is pleased to bruise thee? Thinkest thou that there cannot be a divine benevolence which rejoices in thy moment of pain? Knowest thou not that there is a pain which gives cause for rejoicing? There is a pain which is the proof of convalescence, the sign that death is not yet. There is a pain which tells that the wound has not mortified, that there is life left in the mutilated member. There is a pain which is symptomatic of purity, which cannot be felt by the impure. No conscience can feel the wound of sin but the tender conscience; no spirit can perceive its own unrest but the regenerated spirit. Ought not the sight of such pain to be dear to thy Father’s heart? Must not thy Father strive to produce such pain? What pleasure to Him can be the vision of thy perfect satisfaction with the earth? what is that but the vision that thou wert not made for Him? But if He shall see thee unsatisfied with the earth, then indeed it is meet that He should be glad, for by the very want which earth cannot fill He knows assuredly that thou art made for Himself alone. It is pleasing to thy Father’s heart to see the travail of thy soul.—Dr. Geo. Matheson.
John 9:4. True labourers.—Two men I honour, and no third. First, the toil-worn craftsman, that with earth-made implement laboriously conquers the earth, and makes her man’s. Venerable to me is the hard hand,—crooked, coarse—wherein, notwithstanding, lies a cunning virtue, indefeasibly royal, as of the sceptre of this planet. Venerable, too, is the rugged face, all weather-tanned, besoiled, with its rude intelligence; for it is the face of a man living manlike. Oh! but the more venerable for thy rudeness, and even because we must pity as well as love thee! Hardly entreated brother! For us was thy back so bent; for us were thy straight limbs and fingers so deformed: thou wert our conscript, on whom the lot fell, and, fighting our battles, wert so marred. For in thee, too, lay a God-created form, but it was not to be unfolded; encrusted must it stand with the thick adhesions and defacements of labour, and thy body was not to know freedom. Yet toil on, toil on; thou art in thy duty, be out of it who may; thou toilest for the altogether indispensable—for daily bread. A second man I honour, and still more highly: him who is seen toiling for the spiritually indispensable, not daily bread, but the bread of life. Is not he, too, in his duty, endeavouring toward inward harmony, revealing this, by act or by word, through all his outward endeavours, be they high or low;—highest of all, when his outward and his inward endeavour are one,—when we can name him artist; not earthly craftsman only, but inspired thinker, who, with heaven-made implements, conquers heaven for us! If the poor and humble toil that we have food, must not the high and glorious toil for him in return, that he have light, have guidance, freedom, immortality? These two, in all their degrees, I honour; all else is chaff and dust, which let the wind blow whither it listeth. Unspeakably touching is it, however, when I find both dignities united; and he that must toil outwardly for the lowest of man’s wants, is also toiling inwardly for the highest. Sublimer in this world know I nothing than a peasant saint, could such now anywhere be met with. Such a one will take thee back to Nazareth itself: thou wilt see the splendour of heaven spring forth from the humblest depths of earth, like a light shining in great darkness.—Carlyle.
John 9:4. The sacredness of true work.—All true work is sacred; in all true work, where it but true hand-labour, there is something of divineness. Labour, wide as the earth, has its summit in heaven. Sweat of the brow; and up from that to sweat of the heart; which includes all Kepler calculations, Newton meditations, all sciences, all spoken epics, all acted heroisms, martyrdoms,—up to that “Agony of bloody sweat” which all men have called divine!… Who art thou that complainest of thy life of toil? Complain not. Look up, my wearied brother; see thy fellow-workmen there, in God’s eternity; surviving there, they alone surviving: sacred band of the immortals, celestial body-guard of the empire of mankind.—Idem.
Go! let your deeds His praises prove;
To all make manifest His love;
Like brethren live and journey on.…
Make known His promise to the earth,
Bliss unto all of mortal birth;
To you the Master shall be nigh;
For you He has been raised on high.
John 9:4. Man’s highest happiness in the completion of the work given him to do.—The only happiness a brave man ever troubled himself with asking much about was happiness enough to get his work done. Not “I can’t eat!” but “I can’t work!”—that was the burden of all wise complaining among men. It is, after all, the one unhappiness of a man—that he cannot work; that he cannot get his destiny as a man fulfilled. Behold, the day is passing swiftly over, our life is passing swiftly away, and the night cometh, wherein no man can work. The night once come, our happiness, our unhappiness,—it is all abolished, vanished, clean gone; a thing that has been: “not of the slightest consequence” whether we were happy as Eupeptic Curtis, as the fattest pig of Epicurus, or unhappy as Job with potsherds, as musical Byron with Giaours and sensibilities of the heart; as the unmusical meatjack with hard labour and rust! But our work!—behold, that is not abolished, that has not vanished: our work, behold, it remains, or the want of it remains—for endless times and eternities, remains; and that is now the sole question with us for evermore! Brief brawling Day, with its noisy phantasms, its poor paper crowns tinsel-gilt, is gone, and divine everlasting Night, with her star-diadems, with her silences and her veracities, is come!—Idem.
John 9:5. The word of Christ the true guide of men.—The world truly, which knows and criticises everything, God not excepted, demands first the test of sight ere it will submit to the word of the Lord. But the result is in accordance with this spirit. The world lies, and abides in wickedness (1 John 5:19) until the end of this dispensation. But we shall call in our own experience to counsel us. Oh, how often have we been sensible of the fact that our reputed seeing has been simple deception and illusion, when we have undertaken anything, and sought to carry it through apart from God! How often do people determine on a course which they gain nothing by! How often are we careful in vain and for nothing! How often do we hope vainly because we have not been careful and hoped in accordance with the divine word! What are even the greatest spirits, the wisest of men, otherwise but little children who know not how to help themselves? They are “blind leaders of the blind” who point each other to the way where God’s word is not. Without this word of the living God all the most ingenious and splendid lights which are kindled in the world avail nothing. With the word of Jesus men can implicitly find their way. His word clears the eyes. It is certain, beloved, that when a soul does what the Gospel commands, turns neither to the right hand nor to the left, considers neither what this man or that says, even though it should have to press through nothing but difficulty and perpetual mockery—so truly as there lives a God in heaven, who has given His only begotten Son for us all, that soul will attain to the end it has in view; for God is true, and what He has promised that He will surely perform.—Translated from Lecher, “Predigt.”
John 9:7. Spiritual blindness and its cure.—This man did not act as at first Naaman the Syrian did when he came to Elisha at Samaria. Had the blind man thought that this going to wash in Siloam was a very small matter—had he thought, What can this pool in especial do for me?—or had he thought it too much and had said, Why send me such a distance, I, a blind man? how shall I get through the crowds? why should I make myself a laughing-stock with these clay-bedaubed eyes?—then he would not have come seeing. But he went as Jesus commanded. His faith resulted in obedience, and stood its first test.… Thus, too, obedience is a part of every Christian life. Faith and self-will agree like chaff and wheat. The evangelist himself found the fact worthy of note that Jesus had sent the man to the pool of Siloam, and calls attention to this—that the word Siloam is by interpretation Sent; for people do not send a blind man about. This was truly a blind obedience. And the Christian must blindly obey God’s word, as a child well trained obeys his father.… Blindly, as Noah entered the ark, and Abraham left fatherland and kindred. How can it be otherwise? We are blind by nature.—Idem.
“All our knowledge and our thought
Are with darkness veilèd round,
Where God’s Spirit hath not brought
Light within us to abound.”
Translated from Clausnitzer.
How shall one who is blind see if he will not implicitly obey his Physician and Saviour? if he first seeks to examine the instruments by which he will be operated upon? would seek to test the salve which he must rub in? when he desires to study the prescription which has been written for him?—Idem.