EXPLANATORY AND CRITICAL NOTES
John 9:13. They brought.—Better They bring.
John 9:14. Now it was a Sabbath on the day that Jesus made the clay, etc.—It was most likely a festival Sabbath.
John 9:15. The Pharisees.—In the lesser Sanhedrin, or Synagogue Councils.
John 9:16. This man is not of God … a division among them.—The prophecy that was uttered at His presentation in the temple was being fulfilled (Luke 2:34). The Light was separating the righteous from the unrighteous (John 7:43, John 10:19).
John 9:22. The Jews had agreed, etc.—The Sanhedrin had not likely come openly to this agreement. They would have found opposition in their own ranks. A party of the leading sect had done so, however (Acts 23:20). Put out of the synagogue.—Publicly excommunicated from participation in all religious privileges for a time, or for life.
John 9:24. Give glory to God.—Many think that these words are simply a call to the man to abjure his supposed former error, in having called Christ a prophet, although He had broken the rabbinical Sabbath law (see Joshua 7:19). But it surely means also (since they could not deny the fact of the miracle), Give glory to God for the cure of thy blindness.
John 9:27. And ye did not hearken … would ye also become His disciples?—Indignant irony at the crooked method of these Pharisees, who sought to turn truth to error, echoes in these words.
John 9:28. Thou art the disciple of that man, etc.—They implicitly accused him of disloyalty to the law.
John 9:31. Heareth not sinners, etc.—I.e. men who are hardened and impenitent—wicked men, such as you accuse this prophet of being. A worshipper.—I.e. a devout, pious man (θεοσεβής).
John 9:33. Of God.—“The mighty work done by Him proves He is not a wicked man; it proves more, viz. that He is of God.”
John 9:34. Cast him out.—There were three degrees of excommunication. The first excluded the person under the ban for a short period from religious privileges. The second extended for a longer period, and was much more severe in that it debarred the person banned even from social intercourse for the time. The third was almost a virtual cutting off from Israel of the person excommunicated. Perhaps the meaning here is simply that they thrust the man violently out of the place of assembly. Those who were trying him might not have full power to excommunicate. Born in sins.—These men held the idea repudiated by our Lord (John 9:3).
John 9:35. When He found him.—Jesus had a greater work to perform on him than even the cure of his blindness, and therefore He sought him. Son of God.—Some MSS. read Son of man (Tischendorf, Exodus 8, etc.); and this to a devout Jew would mean the Messiah, the King of the eternal kingdom (Daniel 7:13).
John 9:38. Worshipped (προσεκύνησεν).—This word does not mean reverence merely, but worship due to God (John 12:20, etc.).
John 9:39. For judgment, etc.—Not to execute judgment (κρίσις), but judgment (κρίμα), a judicial decision, would follow from His very presence among men. The Light must reveal (John 3:17-20). This world.—In which there is much darkness, much evil and sin (Galatians 1:4).
John 9:40. Some of the Pharisees, etc.—Probably some who still believed on Him (John 8:30); but no doubt also others who, it may be, kept a watch on Christ and His actions. They were not conscious of their spiritual blindness, and thus were not driven to rely on Him who is the light of men.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— John 9:13-41
The progress of faith and the descent of unbelief.—A mighty miracle had been wrought. The blind man’s neighbours, and many who had before known him as blind, were astonished at the event. But the more minute their inquiries, the more fully was the greatness of the miracle established. The man gave a brief but complete account of what had occurred (notice the circumstantiality of the account; he had not seen how the clay was prepared— John 9:11). But here also the hatred of Christ’s enemies indirectly made itself felt, even in their absence. They had agreed on a line of action which would deter men from openly allying themselves with Christ (John 9:22). Fear of this, and perhaps a wish to ingratiate themselves with the powerful class of the Pharisees, made the man’s neighbours, etc., bring him before a sort of religious judicial court—a lesser Sanhedrin—composed apparently chiefly of Pharisees (John 9:18). In place of a judicial inquiry those unjust counsellors sought only by persuasion and threatening to set aside the truth. But their evil design proved abortive. They brought only confusion on themselves and greater glory to Christ. In this narrative we see—
I. The progress of faith.—
1. The blind man came seeing, after having washed in Siloam. What a wonderful evening that was for him, when first on that long-sealed vision the gentle light of the setting sun and gathering twilight revealed the world in its visible wonder and beauty, the human face divine, etc., and when as night descended the wonders of the celestial sphere, in all the brilliance of an Eastern night, first met his gaze, etc. So much was there indeed to attract his attention, that next day probably, when questioned as to the manner in which he had received his sight, he simply gave the facts, telling what the “man called Jesus” had done and said. Whilst full of gratitude for what had been done, he had not yet given thought as to the source of this man’s power.
2. But the question was soon to be pressed on him for an answer. Taken before the council of the Pharisees and questioned by them, he answered them apparently with some curtness, perhaps desiring to avoid a conflict with this powerful sect. He was no doubt aware of their threat (John 9:22), and also of the fact that the miracle, having been wrought on the Sabbath day, would further excite their enmity. This incontestable evidence had weight with the more honest and open-minded section of the council. The others, however, even though the voice of truth must have spoken to their consciences, clothed themselves in the triple brass of their tradition. But this division among them, and the further question asked, led the man another step upward on the stairway of faith. He is a prophet. Could He be less? for “were not wondrous works the mark of a prophet?” was that not, indeed, what Nicodemus, one of the Sanhedrin, had openly declared Christ to be (John 7:51-52)?
3. Thus the light which they imagined had been suppressed (John 8:59) burst out on them with even greater brilliancy. Baffled, yet unreconciled to the truth, they sought to prove the man an impostor or a liar, and proceeded to cross-question his parents concerning him. His parents in their answer left no doubt as to his identity, or the fact that their son had been born blind; but in regard to the manner in which their son was healed, they referred their questioners to the man himself, probably bearing in mind the threat of the rulers. With the man who had been born blind they tried another method (John 9:24). The fact of the miracle could not be denied: let the glory be given to God, and Christ denied any genuine participation in the wonder, on the supposition that He was a sinner. But their wicked attempt only led to the man ascending another step toward complete faith in Christ. His scornful utterance on their further cross-examination, “Will ye also be His disciples?” his trenchant repudiation of their attempt to make out Jesus to be a sinner, and his clear affirmation, “If this man were not of God,” etc. (John 9:33), show the man rising rapidly toward a true conception of Christ’s nature and office.
4. And now the rage of Christ’s enemies knew no bounds. We seem to hear the shriek of anger in their closing words as they carried out their threat in this case and excommunicated the man (John 9:34, but see p. 261). But as persecution never really hinders, but ever helps to forward truth, so the rage of our Lord’s enemies against him led this poor man nearer to that spiritual enlightenment toward which he had been progressing. When the Lord heard what had happened He sought out His persecuted disciple, who was now passing through an experience which all His followers would speedily pass through (John 16:2), and gladly aided him up the last step to faith and spiritual enlightenment. In reply to Jesus’ question, “Dost thou believe?” etc. (John 9:35), he had answered, “Who is He, Lord?” etc. (John 9:36). He had already implicit faith in Jesus’ word. And when Jesus in His reply first gently reminded him of the miracle that had been wrought on him, “Thou hast both seen Him,” i.e. with eyes enlightened by Him, etc., the spiritual darkness passed away from the man’s soul, and from the summit of faith he saw salvation (John 9:38). Earth with all its beauty was now lost sight of comparatively in the light of that new spiritual vision which the soul had attained to, and to which a new world of spiritual beauty and eternal glory had been opened. The blind had indeed been made to see (John 9:39). In this history there is further seen—
II. The downward progress of unbelief.—
1. The spirit of unbelief is essentially dogmatic and persecuting. The enemies of Jesus had made up their minds, and no amount of evidence of the truth would convince them. This is brought out in their determination to anathematise whoever should be openly favourable to the claims of Jesus. So now unbelief is dogmatic still. It will accept no proof, no evidence, for the truth of the faith. It has agreed to regard supernatural religion as an exploded idea.
2. The next step the Pharisees took was to attempt to weaken the credibility of the chief witness of the great miracle here recorded—to endeavour to show that the subject of the miracle was, in short, a liar. So unbelief still seeks to discredit the witnesses of the gospel, to resolve their writings into mythical histories, and to class their writers as romancers or forgers.
3. The next step of the Pharisees was virtually to admit the fact of the miracle, as all their attempts to throw discredit on it only made it more evident; but to call upon the man on whom it was wrought to deny to its immediate Author any real participation in it—indeed, by acknowledging Him as an especial sinner and transgressor (John 9:14; John 9:16; John 9:24), to declare that He could have had no part in it. So to-day there are many who cannot help acknowledging the beauty, the moral power, and the wonderfully elevating force in the gospel; but they would have men think that this is so not because the author of the gospel is the “power of God.” They would have them believe that it is all the result of a natural evolution of the human mind. The insincerity of the Pharisees is typical of a certain insincerity of modern unbelief.
4. These baffled Jews, unable to overturn the truth, used the weapon of excommunication. So the leaders of unbelief have their own engine of petty persecution. Refusing themselves to investigate candidly into the origin and progress of the faith, they shut themselves within their charmed circle, excluding therefrom all pertaining to the Christian faith, and stigmatising those who still adhere to it as unscientific. But their anathemas will no more prevail finally against the truth than those of the Jews of Jerusalem.
John 9:25. “One thing I know.”—Scepticism affected to disbelieve in the reality of this miracle, jealousy sought to argue that it was due to other agencies, persecution set itself to awe the man into contradictions. But through all he persisted in his artless and eloquent tale, with its unanswerable conclusion, “If this man were not of God, He could do nothing.” Mark—
I. The change.—
1. It was a radical change. It is impossible to conceive of two more opposite or different states than that of the blind and the seeing. And there is an analogy between this and spiritual blindness. There is the same glorious change from darkness unto light. Do we know it?
2. It was a divinely effected change. No power but a divine power could have wrought this miracle in the man born blind. So, too, with our spiritual blindness. Reason, education, civilisation may all seek to alleviate man’s condition; they cannot effect this change. “Not by might, not by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts.”
3. The change was wrought by means. Christ on this occasion chose to employ them. Thus too, in giving sight to those spiritually blind, God does not supersede the use of means, but He vitalises those means, which must be used, just as the blind man had to go and wash in Siloam. With the divine word the human effort must be conjoined.
II. In this miracle there was a testimony given.—
1. The miracle was so noised abroad that the Pharisees felt constrained to inquire into the circumstances of it. Every effort was made to bring the man who was healed to contradict himself, but in vain. He fell back on the evidence of his own senses. “One thing I know,” was his testimony. So is it in the spiritual life. Religion is a real change. And when God has changed a man’s spiritual life, that man should be able to say, “One thing I know,” etc. Does the Spirit of God testify with our spirit?
2. This testimony is consistent and clear. The man who had been born blind was bold and fearless, telling his tale with outspoken frankness. And so, too, are the witnesses of God’s grace equally sincere. There are differences of temperament. Some are reserved and silent. But all on whom this change has passed will in some way testify to its reality.
3. This testimony is consistent under all circumstances, under every pressure. “When, indeed, have these faithful witnesses not spoken? Not only in the fellowship of the saints, but amid the darkest scenes of life. Reproach may bow down the spirit, but it does not silence the testimony. Affliction may shrivel up the strength, but the Spirit-life waxes into comelier and more heavenly beauty.” Even death pauses till the dying can shout, “O death, where is thy sting?” Yes, the testimony is consistent—all circumstances have witnessed it. In every scene alike, whether of human gladness or of human woe, the cry of the faithful has gone upward to the skies: “One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.” How is it with us, brethren?—Abridged from Rev. Robert Russell.
John 9:29 ff. “God spake unto Moses.”—
I. In affirming, as they did, “We know that God spake to Moses,” etc., the Pharisees virtually condemned themselves, for—
1. In acknowledging the authority of Moses, his authority as a lawgiver commissioned by God, the Pharisees showed themselves capable of being acted on by that sort of proof which a messenger from heaven might be expected to adduce. Therefore—
2. They were bound, on every principle of justice, to admit the authority of any alleged teacher from heaven who should give as strong proof and of the same kind as Moses. On what ground was Moses acknowledged to have spoken in the name of Jehovah? The supernatural powers he displayed, etc.—the plagues, etc.
3. But if all this was received as an undoubted proof of Moses’ claim as a prophet heaven-sent, much more the beneficent miracles of Jesus should have been held to prove His divine mission. So we can offer the Jew precisely the same reasons for believing in Christ from the New Testament as those on which he founds the authority of Moses in the Old Testament.
II. And if the Pharisees were self-condemned, it becomes us to ask ourselves whether we stand in the same case—whether there may not be in our actions and creeds sufficient to convict us, at the judgment, were we to die without interest in the mercies of the Gospel.
1. There may be many who are furnishing against themselves such a testimony as that which was furnished by the Pharisees—a testimony as to a power of attending to what they neglect, believing what they disbelieve, or doing what they omit, which will supersede all necessity for any other evidence when they shall stand to receive sentence from the Judge of quick and dead.
2. An illustration of this is the forethought men apply to earthly things. But that which urges us to provide against to-morrow ought to urge us to provide against eternity. Religion requires nothing but that we be, in respect of another world, what we continually show ourselves to be in respect of the present world.
3. Again, the first and great commandment is, “Thou shalt love,” etc.; and there is no commandment commonly thought more impracticable. It will be urged by some that God is too highly exalted and removed by the majesty and spirituality of His nature to be the object of love on the part of men. “We will love our earthly benefactors and friends, but, as for God, He is too great and too glorious for such an affection.” Well, if men are so constituted that goodness is with them an object of love, then, as God is emphatically good, He ought surely to excite this love. Men are attached to others by kindness, love, etc. Surely, then, they ought to be attracted to God, whose lovingkindness, etc., is over all His works. It will not do to say: The creature is seen, the Creator unseen. It is not needful that our benefactor should be visible to awaken our gratitude and love. “Let a man, in affliction and poverty, be told of some exalted and admirable person who seems to have gathered every virtue into his character; let him know this person only by the description of his qualities, and let him receive from him continued proofs of his benevolence, the supply of every want, the solace of every care, the shield from every danger: will it be impossible for him to love this unknown and invisible benefactor? You know better.” No; “the domestic charities, feelings of children toward parents, etc., all testify that we are capable of loving God.”—Abridged from Henry Melvill.
John 9:39-41. The coming of the Light of the world results in a discrimination or judgment.—In these words our Lord made a general observation on the whole course of the events that had just occurred. Jesus came not to judge but to save the world, and His words here are no contradiction of that truth; they are simply a statement of what did actually occur on Christ’s advent. It is not an act of judgment which He performs, but a declaration of the consequences of His coming to various classes of men. But even when considered in this light the passage is a very terrible one. It means that He who came to bring salvation and blessing to men must, through the individual sin and folly of many, become to them a stone of stumbling, etc. (1 Peter 2:8). Nor could the result be unexpected. How many make God’s gifts, through prodigal and sinful misuse or neglect of them, to become a curse to them in place of a blessing? And it was foreseen that such would be the result to many, of the sending of God’s best gift (Luke 2:34-35). The result of Christ’s coming as the light of the world is—
I. That they which see not might see.—
1. These are those who are longing for the light, but on whom it has not yet risen. Those whose knowledge of divine things is limited and meagre, who, in the words of the Jews, know not the law (John 7:49), but who are conscious of this ignorance and desire enlightenment—these are the “babes” in Christ to whom the Saviour once and again so lovingly refers (Matthew 11:25; Luke 10:21). Their hearts and minds are open to the truth, and when it comes they eagerly embrace it.
2. No doubt, also, our Lord refers to those who were in the profoundest spiritual darkness, the other sheep not of that fold which He was to bring in (John 10:16). On those who sat in this great darkness the light was to shine, and to be seen by them with joy (Isaiah 9:2; Isaiah 60:2, etc.).
3. Such were those who were blind, and who rejoiced when Jesus came with healing, illuminating power—men like the subject of the great miracle which had been wrought, like the Samaritans who gladly believed His word John 4:41), etc.
II. That they which see might be made blind.—
1. Those who see are those who prided themselves on their knowledge of the law (John 9:29), and who thought themselves infallible interpreters of and guides to truth.
2. But their knowledge was no true knowledge. It was founded on misconceptions of the revelation committed to them. They did not seek to understand its divine, spiritual meaning, but rather sought to make it bear testimony to their own conceptions, and to minister to their own vanity and national pride.
3. From having been long immured in those darkened caverns of tradition, their sight had become defective and rudimentary (like that of the fishes in the waters in great caverns), unable to bear the light, or quite insensible to it. So were those men “blind leaders of the blind” (Romans 2:17-20). In their proud self-sufficiency they lacked all desire for knowledge of the truth. They accounted themselves so wise and prudent, so infallible, that when the Truth appeared, because He did not conform to their preconceptions of what He should be, they rejected Him blindly and stubbornly.
4. They should have known. A true spiritual life and a spiritual desire to know the divine oracles committed to them would have led them, like a Simeon, an Anna (Luke 2:25-38), a Nathanael (John 1:49), at once to rejoice in the light when it appeared. But they did not, would not. It was knowingly, in face of the divine revelation committed to them, that they rejected Jesus. They hardened their hearts, and thus committed that sin against the Holy Ghost which abideth. The former class were blind because the eye of knowledge yet waited for the revealing light, and the eye of faith was thus dim. Their sin was thus not the result of wilful rejection, and hope remained for them. Thus the coming of Christ was a revelation of men—“the thoughts of many hearts were revealed.”
III. The proclamation of the gospel leads to the same result now.—
1. Now, as of old, Christ’s truth is “hid from the wise and prudent,” those who presumptuously imagine that their knowledge and wisdom are the measure of the universe. Are they not around us—the men of scientific and philosophical learning, who (like the Sadducees of the council) rely on their own reason and the results of human investigation alone, and who will accept no revelation immediately given by the Eternal, who deny that such a revelation is possible? Founding on their own fancied infallibility, they reject the truth of Christ, forgetting that they, and all men, can see but a little way into the secrets of universal nature even, not to say the Infinite. Even their own boasted knowledge, wonderful as it really is, should lead them to pause in humility, and to examine reverently and earnestly what professes to be a divine revelation. Surely even more truly rational is the position of those who, like the pious Isaac Newton, acknowledge the limits of their knowledge, and confess themselves to be like children sporting on the shore of the infinite ocean of truth,—that “the universe is the centre of a circle whose circumference is infinity” (Pascal). These are the men whose hearts are open to truth, the “babes” to whom the Father will reveal eternal realities (Matthew 11:25).
2. There are those also who, like the Pharisees, shut themselves up in the cells of traditional systems, claiming infallibility; so that when the truth comes to them it must judge; they must choose between it and their traditions. And how many resolutely shut their eyes to the light, whilst at the same time refusing to permit others access to the word of truth, by which they might be led to the light! They take away the key of knowledge, etc., and thus choose the darkness, become wilfully blind. But those whose hearts are open to the word, like Luther and the leaders of the Reformation, burst through the walls of the traditional system. They go, following the divine command, untrammelled by supposed infallible systems, and search in the divine word itself, earnestly desiring the truth, and they come seeing.
3. Again, there is a large class who, like many of the Jewish rulers, are actuated by actual enmity to and hatred of the gospel. Had the people accepted and followed Christ, the personal pride and ambition of those rulers would have been thwarted—indeed, were being thwarted. So with many now. Christ and His gospel stand athwart the path of their pleasure, gain, ambitions, etc. “Thou art an hard man,” etc. (Matthew 25:24); and they refuse to serve, and the end is darkness (Matthew 25:30). “This is the Heir; come, let us kill Him,” etc., and the end is destruction (Luke 20:14-16). It is to those who realise that earth and the things of earth are not all, who wisely resolve to subordinate and make subservient the things of time to those of eternity, that light shall rise in obscurity, and their darkness be as the noonday (Isaiah 58:8-10).
John 9:39-41. Spiritual blindness.—In this miracle this judgment here spoken of was effected, when Christ said: “For judgment am I come,” etc. For just as Moses of old divided Egypt in such a fashion that in all the parts of it inhabited by the Egyptians there was darkness, whilst the Israelites rejoiced in day; thus at the same time when Jesus Christ enlightened the man born blind He blinded the Pharisees, who were the wise and the prudent of the Jewish people. This is a judgment which is daily renewed among us. In this discourse the terrible aspect will be dwelt upon, that some are stricken with an inner blindness, which keeps the soul in the most gross and fatal errors. There is nothing on which Scripture pronounces with such variety of terms as on spiritual blindness. Three kinds of it are here distinguished—a blindness which is itself sin, a blindness which is the cause of sin, and a blindness caused by sin.
I. A blindness which is sin, i.e. which is itself criminal. Why? Because it is voluntary. Such is the blindness of libertines and so-called atheists, who in themselves, and by the way of nature, have light more than sufficient for some knowledge of God, and who in consequence only cease to believe in Him because they will not subject themselves to Him. By continually sinning against Him they come to forget Him and then to deny Him. Such is the blindness of the unfaithful, of sensual and voluptuous men, who in order to be able to enjoy their infamous pleasures, without having their minds disturbed, do not desire to hear eternal truth spoken of. Such is the blindness of certain minds full of vanity, who by the reason of their pride cannot endure the truth, as it humiliates them. Not only will they not see their faults, however gross, but desire others to applaud even their weaknesses. Such is the blindness of many called Christians, who do not desire to be enlightened in certain directions, regarding certain doubts, certain troubles of conscience, because they well know that they are not disposed to accomplish the duties which this enlightenment would press upon them. “Noluit intelligere ut bene ageret.” There is no more pernicious sin than this, nor one more inimical to salvation.
1. Because this voluntary blindness excludes the beginning of all grace—the light divine—and thus arrests the progress of every grace.
2. Because it not only excludes the light, but takes away all desire for the light.
3. Because it makes our will opposed to the divine will, and leads us to flee from the light. God, it is true, can enlighten us; but when we flee from the light, when we hate it, we put serious obstacles in the way of salvation. Let us pray like David, “Open mine eyes.” Lord, enlighten me.
II. Blindness as a cause of sin.—Thus the Jews crucified Christ, because they knew Him not. This species of blindness is still common. How often do men offend against justice, charity, etc., without knowing it, and because they did not know that these acts are sinful! But does this excuse men before God? If it were so, why did David pray, “Cleanse Thou me from secret faults”? I assert that this ignorance is not always a legitimate excuse—that it never is in the case of the majority of Christians; for in the age in which we live there is more than sufficient light to render this excuse invalid. “If I had not come and spoken unto them,” etc. (John 15:22), said Jesus to the Jews. Apply this personally. How many have preached to you and instructed you? “They have Moses and the prophets,” said Abraham to Dives. So God says to men now. When, therefore, men who are Christians sin through ignorance their sin is inexcusable. Then you have servants, children. Their ignorance will not form an excuse for them; but still less will you be excused. It is your duty to endeavour that they should be able to instruct themselves, etc.
III. Blindness as the effect of sin.—When the making of men blind enters into the order of the divine decrees, it must be believed that it is an effect of sin, because it is one of the penalties God attaches to sin: in the words of Isaiah He said, “Shut their eyes” (Isaiah 6:10). If we take the Scripture terms in all their strictness and literality, one would conclude that God effected this blindness by a positive action. But according to their real meaning their signification is, as St. Augustine says, that if God makes us blind it is by way of privation, by withdrawing the light. But, as Augustine adds, God never absolutely deprives men of the light of His grace and the power of choice. He leaves men grace sufficient at least to lead them to seek the way of salvation—to pray, if not to act. This species of blindness is the most terrible punishment God can inflict. It is purely evil, without any leaven of good. After such considerations St. Augustine concludes, “Do you say that God does not even in this life punish sinful men and libertines? If God has not brought this severe judgment on some of you, it is because He has extended His mercy toward you. But who knoweth whether He will longer delay? Who would not tremble at the thought that there is a sin, perhaps, which God has marked as the limit of His forbearance, of His efficacious and victorious grace? What is this sin? I know not. But let me for neglect get nothing, O God, to avert this great evil.”—Abridged from Bourdaloue.
John 9:13-41. The gospel of the man born blind.—Jesus Christ healed this blind man; but the Pharisees, who sought to depreciate the works of the Son of God, disputed the reality of the miracle. The man who was born blind nevertheless maintained the fact of the miracle, and boldly bore witness to it. From the history we understand:—
I. Into what blindness our self-interest is capable of leading us, and does lead us daily, as it led the Pharisees. This passion of self-interest blinded the Pharisees—
1. As to the person of Jesus Christ.—As He was opposed to the Pharisees, and His influence gave them umbrage, that was sufficient to lower Him in their estimation. They declared He was a sinner, and in spite of all that could be said they believed it or would believe it. Such is the malignity of the spirit of this world. What is it that ordinarily blinds men in their opinions of others and makes them prejudiced? Their selfish interests. If a man is on our side, his devotion to our interests renders him so far as we are concerned a man of worth. But let him be opposed to us; he is then, according to us, one of the most unworthy of men. Justice withdraws when once self-interest prevails. It is because of this that we have a right to challenge a judge or witness in law, if he is proved to be swayed by some special interest in the case to be adjudicated on.
2. As to the miracles of Christ.—However glorious was the miracle wrought on the man born blind the Pharisees would not acknowledge it; and when finally obliged to admit the fact, they denied the working of it to Christ. They denied it without reason, I say, and in opposition to reason, because they thought it was their interest to deny it. This spirit produces the same effects to-day, or the same errors, not only in regard to the miracles of the Son of God, but generally
(1) in regard to the most incontestable facts of religion. A libertine will not believe so that his disordered and corrupt life may not be self-condemned.
(2) In regard to the most natural and best-established duties. A man may reason very justly concerning some matter proposed to him, and give a stringent decision, so long as his own interests are not concerned. But let these be touched, and he will soon modify the stringency of his judgment, and find reasons for doubting what seemed before incontestable.
(3) In regard to the most evident facts relating to justice and charity toward our neighbour. Why do we prepossess ourselves with a thousand false suppositions, which we seek to prove true, supported by judgments that are rash and futile often, but because our self-interests occupy our whole heart, and leave to the mind no room for the exercise of reflection and reason? Consider—
II. How the testimony of the man healed of his blindness teaches us to dissipate the darkness of error by the light of faith, and to confound falsehood by a holy confession of the truth.—The testimony of this man has four qualities:—
1. It was a sincere testimony.—His sincerity touched on naïveté, and it was this that disconcerted the Pharisees. They questioned Him narrowly. But because the truth never contradicts itself, and is ever the same, they could not embarrass the man or cause him to contradict himself. What could they do or say to elude the force of a testimony so simple and faithful?
2. It was a noble testimony.—In vain did the Pharisees threaten this poor man. They managed to intimidate his parents. But he feared nothing, and maintained his position. This showed a generosity and nobleness which was humiliating to those proud men. But it also condemns much more the weakness of many Christians who are persuaded of the truth, and are slack and timid in their defence of it.
3. It was a convincing testimony.—It is worthy of admiration, this stand of a poor man, who, without study or preparation, so reasoned as to shut the mouths of those doctors of the law. The wisest theologians could not have given better answers than those he gave to all they brought up against him. Such is the victory of faith, and so has she triumphed, and will triumph, over the wisdom of the world.
4. It was a steadfast testimony.—He constantly persisted in glorifying his Benefactor, and in publishing abroad the blessing that had been bestowed on him. The Pharisees cast him out of the synagogue with every mark of ignominy; but he became only the more attached to the Saviour. He worshipped Him as God, and embraced His law. If he had been perhaps less firm, as many are, he might have belied by a shameful inconstancy what he had just affirmed in his noble confession. Many of us yield in face of the least difficulty, and permit our faith to become disturbed. Novelty draws us away, and seduces us by the vain glory with which she decks herself. Let us hold fast the faith of Christ Jesus.—Abridged from Bourdaloue.
HOMILETIC NOTES
The healing of the man born blind; or, Jesus, the light of the world.—I. Jesus is the light of the world.—
1. This truth is perceived in the disclosure He makes regarding the designs of God in the enigmatical and inexplicable concerns of this life (John 9:1-3).
2. As the light of the world He has (like the sun) a set time for His earthly activity (John 9:4).
3. He declares Himself to be the light of the world (John 9:5).
4. And shows Himself to be so through the healing of the man born blind (John 9:6-7).
II. The evidence adduced in proof of this truth (John 9:8-23).—
1. Such evidence is necessary, for many are doubtful as to the power of Christ (John 9:8-9).
2. This testimony should be given by those who have experienced the power and grace of Jesus in themselves (John 9:9): “I am” (John 9:33).
3. Such must be prepared to give such testimony before everyone (John 9:13-15).
4. And should courageously witness to the truth, not caring how their testimony is received (John 9:16-17).
5. Many allow themselves to be deterred through the fear of man from giving an open testimony (John 9:18-23).
III. This testimony must be borne in face of persecution (John 9:24-34).—
1. The world, which is inimical to Jesus, seeks false witnesses against Him (John 9:24).
2. This sinful world hates and reviles the steadfast and constant friends of the truth (John 9:25-28).
3. They wantonly refuse to recognise the divine mission of Jesus (John 9:29).
4. They scorn the most powerful and irrefutable witnesses to the honour of Jesus and the holiness of His person (John 9:30-33).
5. They persecute with passionate anger the witnesses of the truth (John 9:34).
IV. The merciful Saviour receives to Himself those who suffer for His sake (John 9:35-38).—
1. He seeks those cast out by the world (John 9:35).
2. He inquires into their convictions (John 9:36).
3. He reveals Himself in His dignity to them as the Son of God (John 9:37).
4. He thus works in them joyful faith in His divine mission (John 9:38).
V. The manner in which fellowship with Jesus, the light of the world, is attained (John 9:39-41).—
1. Not all attain to this fellowship (John 9:39).
2. Humble confession of their own blindness in regard to divine things prepares men for this fellowship (John 9:40-41).
3. Vain-glorious conceit in their own wisdom shuts men out from this fellowship. (John 9:41). “But now ye say,” etc.—F. G. Lisco.
ILLUSTRATIONS
John 9:30. The careless are inexcusable.—This indication of forethought shall suffice to condemn the ungodly. Why did you live in carelessness as to religion? Why did death come upon you, and find you unprepared? Is it that you could not look forward? Is it that you were shut up, through the nature of your constitution, within things that were, and could not so extricate yourselves as to give heed to things to come? Nay, let the counting-house, the shop, the academy, the study, all witness upon this. These are beings who were always on the wing. They sprang toward coming days, and sought to make them their own. To-day was, with them, but a seed-time for tomorrow. The one toiled for fame, and made his appeal to posterity; another aimed at high station, though there stood many between himself and advancement. This man rose early, and late took rest, that he might add to wealth which he could not exhaust; and that, in order to ennoble his children. In one way or another, they all lived for the future; and, therefore, might they all have lived for eternity. Ay, there is not one of us whom his care for the things of this life will not suffice to condemn for his carelessness as to the things of the next life. There is not one who ever enters into a speculation, who attempts to lay up anything in store, who takes the least pains to secure himself against a possible evil or procure for himself a possible good, who does not thereby show that he might, if he would, give attention to the concerns of the soul, and that, therefore, can he have none but himself to blame if he enter another world with no provision made for the trial to be undergone. The parallel is most accurate, as we would again and again show, between any such case and that of the Pharisees.… The careless man—careless, we mean, as to his soul—will be condemned by his own carefulness; the improvident man, by his own providence; the man who laid up no treasures in heaven, by the treasures which he laid up on earth; the man who sought not the honour which cometh from God, by his having sought the honour which cometh from the world.… The great demand of Christianity is, that we “live soberly, righteously, and godly in the world,” mortifying evil affections, denying ourselves in things which a corrupt nature solicits, but reconciled to present sacrifices and endurances by the prospect of future and everlasting happiness. Does this seem hard? is it too much to ask of us to crucify the flesh, in hope of recompense in some yet distant state? Nay, do not men continually submit to inconvenience, to toil, to pain, for the sake of some advantage which they hope hereafter to reap? Will not a man abandon his home and his family, and go forth to face all varieties of peril and effort, sustained by the hope of accumulating wealth which will enable him to return and spend in quiet ease the close of his days?—Henry Melvill.
John 9:31. A clear proof of our divine sonship.—Let us take heed, then, how we continue to treasure up witness against ourselves. Examine carefully what you are proved capable of doing as to God and eternity, by what you are in the habit of doing as to man and time. This is the gist of our discourse: that in things commonly believed and performed there is conclusive testimony that men might, if they would, have believed the Bible and performed God’s will. God may go, as it were, into our households; and there, not by the blemishes which He finds, but by the beauties; not by the stormy passions which often agitate the inmates, but by those lovely affections which give a sacredness to our firesides—by the respect which parents feel and expect as their due, by the meek submissiveness of children, by their devoted attention to those who gave them life, by their obedience to their wishes, by their regard to their feelings—may He proceed to make good His charges against us, if it shall be found, that having drawn from Him our being, been sustained by His bounty, and protected by His power, we have yielded Him no homage and given Him no love. All then who perish must perish self-condemned, their actions attesting that it was in their power to have obtained salvation, and that, therefore, it was their guilt to have missed it.—Idem.
John 9:39. Praise to Jesus for spiritual sight.—Praise be to Thee, Lord Jesus, that Thou hast brought us to the knowledge of our spiritual blindness. We are born blind, and know not what we shall do for our salvation. But we would fain be saved, and so we plead with Thee this Thy precious word, that Thou hast come that those who see not might see. Oh, let Thy face be turned toward us also.… But what do we ask? Hast Thou not opened the eyes of us Thy Christian people in the washing of regeneration? (Titus 3:5). Yes, Lord, but Thou knowest also that the devil, the world, the flesh, have again obscured our eyes, and that daily the sand of sin streams in on them. Therefore enable us through faith at all times to turn to the Siloam prepared for us, so that the imperishable power of this gracious spring of life may renew us, and that our whole course of life may be continued within the limits of this sacred experience: “I went and washed and came seeing.” … Let Thy grace indeed be known by us from experience, and may we hold it fast whatever worldly wisdom, pride of reason, and human authority may say against it. Let us not be weary in acknowledging what Thou hast done for us, and never deny Thee before a generation at enmity with Thee and Thine. If men cast us out, take Thou us up, O Lord. Make those seasons in which we suffer for Thy name’s sake seasons of quickening for our inner man, so that we may grow in Thy grace and knowledge. May the comfort of Thy seeking love be precious to us; and when we have been found through Thy shepherd faithfulness, let us ever hear and know Thy voice as the voice of the Son of God who speaks to us: “It is He that talketh with thee.” Yes, in Thy word would we see Thee; strengthen our faith in Thy word, so that we may keep it unto the end … and let us then see Thy face eternally.—Besser, “Bibelst.”
John 9:40. “We see” the boast of present-day scepticism.—Just as the Jews felt in their relation to the Gentiles, and as among the Jews the Pharisees felt and comported themselves toward those among their people who were ignorant—self-satisfied, self-sufficient, haughty—so are there not such in our own generation? We see, so speak many cultivated people nowadays; we see the ark of the Church pierced by our scepticism, riddled by our negations—the Church is no longer a proud ship, she is now only a sinking wreck. We see, they affirm further in their selfrighteousness; there is in reality no sin—weaknesses and imperfections, but no guilt which requires forgiveness, no corruption that needs redemption. We see, and we behold Christ deposed from His throne, brought down to the common level, divested of the miraculous, as a Jewish rabbi, an enthusiast, the founder of a religion, and at all events a brave martyr; the days are gone past, for ever gone, in which as the Redeemer He shall wash men clean from their guilty stains, as the Prince of life shall lead them through the dark valley of death, and shall plead for them as their surety at the last judgment. We, we see—we see the coherence of nature as a huge machine: the mechanism of this machine has stifled the breathing of prayer; the regular succession of events has set aside the miraculous; the telescope has dissolved the other world. Like a foundling exposed on the sandbank of the Present, man must just accommodate himself to his poverty as well as he can, must put a good face on a bad business. We are all the more proud to rest on our own resources—unaided to fight the battle of existence. How then? Would not the Lord be justified in replying thus to those people, culture-proud, cultivated, and arrogant: Now you say, We see, therefore your sin remaineth—it abideth unknown, unacknowledged, unconfessed, unforgiven?—Kögel, “Predigt.”
John 9:41. The doom of indecision.—The undecided come under the judgment of Him who said, “He who is not with Me is against Me.” He is called the Amen. Yes, and shall He love a theologian to whom yea and nay are alike? He is called the “Bread of Life,” who for our sakes came down into this wilderness; and shall He leave unpunished those who adopt the thankless tongue of the fault-finder, and say, “That is common food.” His kingdom opposes the kingdom of Satan as light opposes darkness, as holiness opposes impurity, as life opposes death. How then? Shall there be before His sight a position lying midway between right and wrong, sweet and sour? Freedom and the kingdom of heaven will have no half-loyalty. The undecided Pilate crucified Christ. King Agrippa remained with arms crossed, an idle spectator, over against Paul in bonds. The vacillator does not take part in the scourging, but he permits it; he does not mock, but permits the mockery. The receiver stands on the same level as the thief. Participator in the act is to be participator in the punishment. First strabitic, then blind.—Idem.
John 9:41. The folly of indecision.—How foolish, on every calculation, is indecisive behaviour! Would that they would take one side or the other, that they would either be servants of Christ in earnest, or renounce Him openly, and say that they have nothing to do with Jesus of Nazareth and His salvation. Happy, indeed, would it be for the Church of Christ if all its false friends were to declare themselves its enemies: the gospel would then no more be reproached with the scandal of their evil lives, and the true believers would be drawn more closely to one another, and would feel the name of Christian to be a real tie of brotherhood. But how much more happy if any of those who know not the Son of God might be brought to learn who He is, and to believe and to worship Him in spirit and in truth? And, under God, there is no way so likely to draw them home as for those who do know Christ, and believe in Him and love Him, to increase their knowledge and love more and more, and to bring their lives to a more perfect conformity with His gospel. That in many things we offend all is a truth which the consciences of every one of us can abundantly confirm; but that our offences may daily become fewer and less flagrant should be at once our labour and our prayer. And for all who in sincerity of heart do thus strive to increase their faith and knowledge of their Saviour, His words to the blind man are a most comfortable prophecy of what He will one day say to them, “that they have seen Him, and He has talked with them,”—on earth, by His word and Spirit; in heaven, by His presence revealed to them, when they shall see Him as He is.—Dr. T. Arnold.
John 9:41. Men must choose light or darkness.—Through the whole of the New Testament runs an either—or. God’s word is a two-edged sword; Christ is a Rock, on which men either raise themselves, or on which they are broken. The cross is either the power of God unto salvation, or weakness and foolishness to men. The gospel is either a savour of death unto death or of life unto life.… The Alexandrian catechist of the fourth century, Didymus, who was blind from his fifth year, and who attained the age of ninety, once said to one who sought to console him, that he could not sorrow over the want of that eyesight which is common even to flies and mosquitoes—the Lord be praised he had been given such an eye as angels see with, with which God can be seen and His light received. How had that master of harmony Händel, blind in his later years, sought to raise his hands in prayer in the aria composed by him in the oratorio of Samson:—
“Darkness around—nor sun nor moon nor stars.”
With what fervency did a Milton, when singing his Paradise Lost, pray for inner light! “Send forth Thy light and Thy truth; let them lead me,” etc. (Psalms 43); “let Thy word be a light unto my feet; open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law.” Let the eyes of my understanding be opened for a double purpose—that I may realise my sinfulness, and recognise my Saviour, that Saviour who said, “If ye were blind, ye should have no sin. I am come,” etc.… In the grey dawn, of morning, in the falling night, I lift up mine hands and pray: Make me to see, make me blest, O Jesus! Away over the roses and lilies which summer bring forth, over the stubble, across which blows the cold breath of autumn, I cry, “Make me to see,” etc. Over biers that go under, over kingdoms that crash in ruin, over a new generation growing up, high over all I pray Him who was and is and is to come, Ever make me to see, ever bless me, O Jesus!—Translated from Kögel, “Predigt.”