Some of the Pharisees—heard these words,— The Pharisees present, hearing him speak thus, knew that he meant them in particular, especially from the word see, in the former verse, seers being a common appellation by which the wise and learned among them were distinguished. As their sect was held in great veneration by the common people, because of their extraordinary skill in the law, they reply to our Lord with the greatest disdain, "Do you imagine that we are blind, like the rude vulgar? We, who are their teachers, and have taken such pains to acquire the knowledge of the scriptures?" See Acts 22:3. Jesus told them, John 9:41 that they would not have been to blame for rejecting him, if they had not had faculties and opportunities to discern the proofs of his mission. In that respect they were not blind. Nay, he acknowledged that they were superior to the populace in point of learning; but, at the same time, he assured them, that, because their hearts were averse from receiving and acknowledging the truth, they were altogether blind; and that an enlightened understanding greatly aggravates the guilt of a blind heart. What Jesus said to them, may be said to every one; no error can excuse from guilt, but what is invincible: that is to say, nothing will excuse us, but what argues a thorough, unperverted,honest,andgooddisposition—nothing,inshort,thatwemightandought to have prevented, and which is owing to our voluntary neglect. All voluntary error must on that very account be criminal error; and if error be criminal, only because it is voluntary, it hence directly follows, that the malignity of it must increase according to the degree in which it is voluntary; or, which is the same, it must always increase in proportion as it was in our power to have avoided it in our several stations, and with our respective abilities and advantages. From the argument here pursued, we may easily see that it was not, it could not be, the intention of Christ in the words, if ye were blind, ye should have no sin, to represent all ignorance as innocent; but that he only speaks of such instances of it as are involuntary and insuperable. The latter part of the passage suggests an observation of a different kind, namely, that sins committed against knowledge are most highly aggravated; and that a corruption of manners, and increasing wickedness in anenlightened age, are attended with peculiar circumstances of reproach and infamy. To this the universal consent of mankind in every age has been given, yea even of the vicious; which is a further argument why the knowledge, experience, and practice of religion should ever be inseparable; and that if we pretend to an enlightened mind, and right sentiments of holiness and piety, and pursue, at the same time, immoral courses, we are not only more criminal, but much more despicable, if our pretence be just, than the vicious without that knowled
Inferences.—The man was born blind, this cure requires not art, but power; a power no less than infinite and divine. Such are we, O God, by nature, blind to all spiritual things: it must be thou alone, who canst bestow on us illumination.
The blind man sat begging;—and where should he thus sit, but near the temple? Piety and charity ever dwell close together; the two tables were both of one quarry. Then we are best disposed to mercy towards our brethren, when we have either craved or acknowledged God's mercy to ourselves. If we go to the temple to beg of God, how can they deny mites, who hope for talents?
Never did Jesus move a foot, but to some purpose. He passed by, but his virtue stayed. The blind man could not see him, he sees the blind man: his goodness prevents us, and yields better supplies to our wants. O Saviour, why should we not imitate thee in this merciful improvement of our senses? Woe be to those eyes that care only to gaze upon their own beauty, pomp, or wealth; and cannot abide to glance upon the sores of a Lazarus, the sorrows of a Joseph, the dungeon of a Jeremy, or the blind beggar at the temple's gate.
The disciples see the blind man too, but with different eyes. Master, say they, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he is born blind? (See the Annotations.) How easily, and how far may the best miscarry with a common error! We are not thankful for our own illumination, if we do not look with charity and pity upon the gross misconceptions of our brethren.
Our Lord sees, yet will he wink at this great error of his disciples. We hear neither chiding nor conviction. He who could have enlightened their minds at once, as he did the world, will yet do it by due leisure, and only contents himself here with a mild solution: Neither this man, nor his parents. O Saviour, we learn nothing of thee, if we learn not meekness. It is the spirit of lenity that must restore and confirm the lapsed.
The answer is positive: neither the sin of the man, nor of his parents, bereaved him of his eyes: there was a higher cause,—the glory which GOD meant to win unto himself by the event. All God's afflictive acts are not punishments: some are for the benefit of the creature, whether for probation, or prevention, or reformation: all are for the praise either of his own divine power, justice, or mercy.
It was fit that so great a work should be ushered in with preface: thus the way being made, our Lord addresses himself to the miracle; a miracle not more in the thing done, than in the manner of performance.
The matter used was clay, John 9:6. What could be meaner, what more unfit, to all human apprehension? O Saviour, how often didst thou cure blindness by thy word alone; how oft by thy touch. Even thus, easily couldst thou have acted here; for most assuredly the virtue must wholly be in thee, none in the means: the utter, the evident disproportion of the help to the cure, adds glory and lustre to the Divine Operator; and had not the Jews been more blind than the poor beggar whom thou curedst, more hard and stiff than this attempered clay, they had in this one work seen and acknowledged thy Divinity.
What must the blind man think, when he felt the cold clay upon the hollow sockets of his eyes? Or, since he could not conceive what an eye was, what must the be-holders think to see that hollowness thus filled up?—Is this the way to give eyes, to convey sight? Why did not the earth itself see with this clay, as well as the man? What is there to hinder sight, if this can produce it?—
Yet with these contrarieties must the faith be exercised, where God intends the blessings of a cure.
All things receive their virtue from divine institution: Go, wash in the pool of SILOAM is the injunction of this blessed Saviour; and had not the man repaired thither, no wonder if he had still been blind.—Thou, O God, hast set apart the ordinances of thy gospel; thy blessing is annexed to them; hence is the ground of all our use, and of their efficacy. Hadst thou so instituted, Jordan would as well have healed blindness, and Siloam leprosy.
That the man might be capable of such a miracle, his faith is set at work. He is led to the pool; he washes; he sees. Oh what must this man think, when his eyes were now first given him? What a new world around him! How must heaven and earth, and all the creatures, have caught his wondering sight, and not more pleased than astonished him! Lo! thus shall we, if faithful, be affected, and more, when the scales of our mortality being done away, we shall see as we are seen; when we shall behold the blessedness of that other world, the glory of saints and angels, the infinite majesty of the Son of God, and the incomprehensible brightness of the all-glorious Deity.
It could not be but that many eyes had been witnesses of this man's want of eyes. He sat begging at one of the temple gates. His very blindness made him noted; deformities and infirmities of body more easily both drawing and fixing the eye, than an ordinary symmetry of parts.
Purposely, without doubt, did our Saviour make choice of such a subject for his miracle: a man so poor, so public! The glory of the work could not have reached so far, had it been done to the wealthiest citizen of Jerusalem: neither was it without its use, that the act and the manner are doubted of, and inquired into by the beholders. Is not this he who sat begging? Some said, It is he; others said, It is like him.
No truths have received such full proofs as those which have been questioned. I marvel not that some of the neighbours, who were accustomed to see this dark visage of the beggar led by a guide, and directed by a staff, and now saw him walking confidently alone, and looking them cheerfully in the face, should doubt whether this were he. The miraculous cures of God work a sensible alteration in men, not more in their own apprehension, than in the judgment of others. Thus it is in the redress of spiritual blindness; the whole habit of the man is changed; insomuch, that now the neighbours can say, Some, Is this the man? Others, It is like him,—It is not he.
The late blind man soon resolves the doubt, He said, I am he. He who now saw the light of the sun, would not ungratefully and unjustly hide from others the light of truth. O God, we are not worthy of spiritual sight, if we do not proclaim thy mercies aloud on the house-top, and praise thee in the great congregation.
Man is naturally inquisitive; and if there be any thing that transcends both art and nature, the more high and abstruse it is, the more busy we are to search into it. This thirst after hidden, yea, and forbidden knowledge, did once cost us dear; but where it is good and lawful to know, inquiry is commendable, as here in the Jews: How were thine eyes opened?
He that was so ready to profess himself the subject of the cure, is no niggard in proclaiming its author: A man that is called Jesus,—anointed mine eyes,—sent me to wash,—and now I see. He had heard Jesus speak; he felt his hand; as yet he could look no further; and hence he calls him a man: upon his next meeting, he sees God in this man. In matters of knowledge, we must be content to creep ere we can run.
"How did this man know what Jesus did? He was then stone blind; what distinctions could he yet make of persons and actions?" True; but yet the blind man wanted not the assistance of others' eyes; their relation had assured him of the manner of his cure; and besides this, the contribution of his other senses gave him sufficient warrant thus to believe and report. O Saviour, we cannot see with our bodily eyes what thou hast done for the spiritual cure and redemption of our souls: but what are the monuments of thine evangelists and apostles, but the relations of the blind man's guide, what and how thou hast wrought for us? On these we strongly rely; these we do no less confidently believe, than if our very eyes had been witnesses of what thou didst and sufferedst upon earth. Indeed, faith could have no place, if the ear were not allowed worthy of as much credit as the eye.
How could the neighbours fail to ask where he was who had wrought so strange a cure? Yet may we reasonably doubt that their solicitude intended him no favour; for, prejudiced against Christ, and partial to the Pharisees, they bring the late blind man before those professed enemies of the blessed Jesus.
Our Lord had fixed upon the sabbath for this cure: it is hard to find out any time wherein charity is unseasonable.—And yet this circumstance alone is ground of quarrel enough for these scrupulous, hypocritical, sanctimonious wranglers; namely, that an act of mercy was done on that day.
I do not see the man, once restored, beg any more: no citizen of Jerusalem was richer than he. I hear him firmly defending the gracious author of his cure, against all the cavils of malicious Pharisees: I see him, as a resolute confessor, suffering excommunication for the name of Christ, and maintaining to the last the innocence and honour of so blessed a benefactor. I hear him read a divinity lecture to those who proudly sat in Moses' chair; yea, and convince them of blindness, who punished him for seeing.
How can we fail almost to envy thee, O thou happy man, who, of a begging patient, provest an intrepid advocate for thy Saviour! whose gain of bodily sight, makes a glorious way for thy spiritual discernment! who hast lost a synagogue, and hast found a heaven! who, abandoned of sinners, and persecuted on all hands, art received into favour and protection by the Lord of life and glory.
REFLECTIONS.—1st, The connection between this chapter and the foregoing seems to speak as if the event here recorded immediately followed the preceding, though others suppose that they came to pass at the distance of three months from each other; the former happening at the feast of Tabernacles, this at the fear of Dedication, Chap. John 10:22. We have in this chapter the cure of a poor blind man.
1. Jesus observed him as he passed by, and knew his pitiable case, that he was blind from his birth. Such are we by nature; born in sin, and conceived in wickedness; blind to every spiritual object, and utterly unable to find the way to eternal life and peace, till Jesus, the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world, passeth by, or bestoweth upon us that light.
2. The disciples hereupon proposed a curious question to their Master. Who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? (See the Annotations.)
3. Christ answers their question, by way of rectifying their mistakes, and checking such censorious conclusions. Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents; not that they had never committed actual sin, nor been born in original corruption; but that it was not because of any particular crime which either had committed, that this blindness was inflicted; but that the works of God should be made manifest in him, and the Messiah be exalted in working a miraculous cure upon him. Note; (1.) We are not to judge of men's sins by their sufferings, it being often the lot of God's dearest children to be severely afflicted. (2.) God has purposes of his own glory to answer in those afflictive providences, the reason of which we cannot always discern; and this is at least a sufficient reason to reconcile us to them.
4. He gives the reason of his readiness to help this poor man. I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day. He was sent upon earth to do good to the bodies as well as souls of men; and therefore while his personal ministry lasted, this was his proper employment. The night cometh when no man can work: when death should put a period to his mortal days, his works of healing would then be done. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world; both corporally giving eyes to the blind, and enabling them to see the day; but more peculiarly in a spiritual sense, as the Sun of Righteousness arisen with healing in his wings, the only true light that can guide the benighted souls of men into the paths of eternal life. Note; (1.) Life is our day of usefulness, the moment in which we can serve and glorify God; we have need therefore to be diligent to redeem the time, and lay ourselves out in his blessed service. The night of death is near, when no work can be done for Christ and for souls; how precious then is every passing hour! (2.) What the sun is to the natural world, that Christ is to the spiritual world: without him all is darkness; we know nothing of God, or ourselves, our true happiness, our proper work, or the great end of our being; and he must not only shine upon us, but shine into our hearts.
5. He gives sight to the blind man, and this in a way different from the miracles that he usually performed, which were done with a word. He spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, and said unto him, Go wash in the pool of Siloam (which is by interpretation, Sent, and was) the figure of the Messiah and his kingdom, Isaiah 8:6. The blind man obeyed his orders, and instantly felt his eyes opened, and his sight perfectly good. Note; (1.) The word of the gospel is as this clay, unable of itself to communicate spiritual light to the soul; but, when applied to the believer by the powerful hand of Jesus, becomes effectual to open the eyes of the mind. (2.) Obedient faith never fails of bringing relief. They who at Christ's command perseveringly wait upon him in the way of his ordinances, will find their darkness enlightened, their doubts removed, their weakness strengthened, their souls comforted.
2nd, We have,
1. The amazement of the neighbours, who could scarcely persuade themselves that he was the same man, whom they had seen, a poor blind beggar, by the way-side during so many years. Some affirmed that it was the same man; others doubted, though they owned the resemblance; till the man himself ended the dispute, by affirming that he was the very person. Note; They who have experienced the power of the healing grace of Jesus upon their souls, should be ready to own it, to the glory of his great name.
2. In answer to their question, how he came to obtain his sight, after being blind from his birth, he informed them, that a man called Jesus, had made clay, anointed his eyes, sent him to the pool of Siloam to wash; and that instantly thereupon he received his sight. Note; If the opening the eyes of a dark body awakened such concern to inquire how it was done, much more ought the opening the eyes of the darkened minds of sinners to be matter of astonishment, and awaken our notice and inquiries.
3. They hereupon put another question to him, either out of desire to know this wonderful person, or with a malicious design to seize one whom the Pharisees had proscribed. Where is he? He said, I know not; Christ having departed when he had performed the cure. Thus in the work of grace upon the soul, we see and feel the blessed change, though the hand which produces it is unseen.
3rdly, Far from being induced by this wondrous miracle to admire the Person who wrought it, we find them incensed, and ready to prosecute Jesus as a criminal.
1. Information is lodged against him before the rulers and Pharisees; and the man who had been lately blind, is brought before the sanhedrim, because it was the sabbath day when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes, which they regarded as a vile profanation of the day.
2. The Pharisees interrogate the man concerning the matter, very loth to be persuaded of the fact, and determined to find fault where wonder and praise should have filled their hearts and tongues. The man simply gives a narrative of his case and cure, which divided the sentiments of the council. Some said, admitting the fact, this man is not of God, whatever miracles he may pretend to work, because he keepeth not the sabbath day; for they regarded the making clay of the spittle, as a violation of the strict rest enjoined by the tradition of the elders. Others were loth to admit the fact, and would fain overthrow its evidence; fearing lest, if it was allowed to be true, the people would justly conclude that no wicked man could work such miracles, and thereby the authority of Jesus would be established: or rather, How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles? are the words of some, such as Joseph and Nicodemus, who justly objected, that such miracles of grace were a strong evidence of a divine mission; and of God's approbation of the person who wrought them: and this occasioned some debates in the council. Some of them hereupon demanded of the man what he thought of Jesus, and whether he had really opened his eyes. The man from just experience owns, he could not but conclude that he must be a prophet. Note; (1.) A poor blind beggar often judges more wisely concerning Christ and his character, than those who boast themselves masters in Israel. (2.) Some, even of the great, submit to be saved by grace; and their conduct and testimony leave the rest more inexcusable.
3. They cite the father and mother of the man to appear at their bar, hoping to find some way to invalidate the credit of the miracle; but they only the more confirmed it; so easily can God take the wise in their own craftiness. They question the parents of the man, Whether this was their son? whether he was born blind? and how he now came to see? To the two first questions they gave a clear and explicit answer. He was their son, and had been born blind. How he now saw, was a question which they cared not, for certain reasons, to enter into; and therefore rather referred the matter to their son, who was of age, and therefore able to answer for himself. For the truth was, they were timorous, and apprehensive of the consequences of making that open confession, which gratitude and truth demanded; because they were afraid they should be excommunicated according to the law which the sanhedrim had passed, that if any should own Jesus as the Messiah, he should be put out of the synagogue; and therefore they were willing to trim, and leave the question for their son to resolve. Note; (1.) The church's censures, when wicked men are in authority, have often been laid on its best friends. (2.) The true religion of Jesus will generally be a suffering cause, even where the public profession of it is made; experimental godliness being possessed by a small number comparatively. (3.) When the profession of Christ exposes us to persecution, many are ready to conceal their religion in order to escape the cross.
4. The council, finding that they got nothing to their satisfaction from the parents, again called the man himself; and, unable to deny that the notable miracle was wrought, endeavoured to rob the Lord Jesus of the honour due to him for it, saying, Give God the praise, who has done the work; but we knew that this man is a sinner; and therefore, though God may please to use wicked instruments for the accomplishment of his purposes, yet the praise is only due to himself. So confidently do they speak, who, when challenged to bring a single proof of sin against Jesus, could not have the confidence to lodge one accusation. Note; Many endeavour thus to supply the want of argument with confident assertions of virulent abuse.
5. The man replied, Whether he be a sinner, or no, I know not, I will not determine; though I have all the reason in the world to believe the contrary: but one thing I know, by happy experience, that whereas I was blind, now I see, and cannot be persuaded out of my senses. Note; Many captious questions may be put to a gracious person, in order to shake the ground of his confidence; but though he may not be able to give a distinct account how that spiritual change is wrought which he experiences, yet he can say, I know it is wrought: my understanding is enlightened; my heart is changed.
6. Again they demand an answer to their questions, in hopes that through inadvertence or fear he might faulter in his evidence, or vary from what he had advanced; but his reply more exasperated them. He answered them, I have told you already, distinctly and clearly, and ye did not hear, so as to regard or credit what I said: wherefore would ye hear it again? to what purpose do ye desire it? will ye also be his disciples? which he suggests ironically, as knowing their aversion to Jesus.
7. With rage and resentment at the mention of this, they bitterly revile him: Thou art his disciple, a poor deluded wretch; but we are Moses' disciples, the followers of that great lawgiver of Israel, and who ought to be regarded as the guides in religious matters, and not to be taught by such a fellow as thou. We know that God spake unto Moses, face to face on the Mount, and that Moses delivered the law under a divine commission: but as for this fellow, we know not from whence he is: in truth, they desired not to know, and would not examine the evidence that he had produced of his divine original and authority; for then they might have seen that there was a perfect agreement between Jesus and Moses; and that, instead of the worthless fellow whom they scornfully rejected, this was the great Prophet of whom Moses spake. Note; (1.) Many boast of their external privileges, which only serve to aggravate their guilt. (2.) The servants of Jesus, like their Master, have often been treated with insolence and contempt, as upstart fellows whom nobody knows. (3.) Many are branded as forsaking the good old religion, who are in fact the very espousers of it, by those who, resting upon the form of godliness, are utter strangers to the power of it.
8. Once more the man replies, Why, herein is a marvellous thing, that ye know not from whence he is, when he has given such incontestable evidence of his divine mission by this amazing miracle, and he hath opened mine eyes. Now we know, we who are common people, and much more persons of your learning and sagacity, that God heareth not sinners, nor grants their prayers; much less would he enable them to perform miracles to support an imposture: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth; and in the present case, the miracle that Jesus has wrought, is an express testimony of God's approbation of him. Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind; such a thing, not the greatest of the prophets, not even Moses himself, had ever performed. If therefore this man were not of God, sent by him, and owned of him, he could do nothing; since it cannot be imagined that God would enable a bad man to work such extraordinary miracles to carry on a bad cause, and promote a delusion—a conclusion most reasonable and unanswerable, and drawn from premises the most evident and allowed. Note; (1.) An impenitent sinner, who persists in his iniquities, can never expect that God will hear and answer his prayers. (2.) They who in spirit worship God, and in simplicity obey him, may be assured that he will hear and grant all their petitions in that way which is best for them. (3.) A poor unlettered man, when taught of God, is able to confound the wisest doctors that are, with all their learning, strangers to divine teaching.
9. Unable to answer his reasoning, they make up in violence and abuse what they want in argument. Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us? Thou, a vile fellow, stigmatized from thy birth, dost thou pretend to direct us, the guides and rulers of the church, famed for wisdom and sanctity, and invested with chief authority? What insolence, what arrogance is thine! And they cast him out, excommunicated him immediately, and cut him off from the congregation of Israel. But the anathemas of church rulers, who abuse their authority, shall only light on their own head. Note; Proud worldly-wise men despise the poor, and think their own self-sufficiency above all need of others' help and teaching; whereas none who know themselves, will ever think themselves too wise to learn, or too good to mend.
4thly, The unjust act of these oppressive rulers was soon noised abroad, and came to the ears of Jesus. Hereupon we are told,
1. That Christ found him; he went in search of him, probably to encourage and comfort him under the persecution that he suffered for the truth, and said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God, the promised Messiah? Note; (1.) Though wicked men may abuse their power in casting out the faithful servants of Jesus, he will visit his outcasts with his love, and own them under their sufferings for his sake. (2.) True faith in the Son of God, is the great attainment, from which alone every thing spiritually excellent follows.
2. The poor man replied with earnestness, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? I do expect him, and should be happy to find him; and wish for nothing more than to be directed to him, that I might by faith embrace him.
3. Christ gives him a clear declaration of his own office and character. Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee; whose power thou hast experienced, and is so much nearer to thee than thou art aware of; as he often is to poor penitents, when they are afflicted and mourning his absence.
4. That moment, by the power of Jesus, he was enabled to exercise divine faith in his heart; and he makes an open profession of it; Lord, I believe; and he worshipped him; giving him that divine honour which was due to him, as the eternal Son of God. For they who truly know and believe in him, pay the same worship and honour to the Son, even as to the Father.
5thly, While Jesus so kindly encouraged and comforted the poor sufferer, he pronounces just judgment on his malicious persecutors.
1. He gives a general account of the design of his mission. Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, to fulfil the will of my heavenly Father; revealing his truth for the illumination of those who will believe, and inflicting judicial blindness on others who reject his truth: that they which see not, may see, both corporally and spiritually; not only opening, by miracle, the eyes of men's bodies, but by his grace shining into the benighted souls of men: and that they which see, conceit themselves wise and knowing in the things of God, may be made blind, given up for their pride and self-sufficiency to the blindness, hardness, and impenitence of their hearts.
2. The Pharisees, supposing that they were meant, with indignation replied, Are we blind also? Dare you insolently suggest, that we the guides of the people, and the light of the land, are in darkness ourselves? Note; Nothing more offends the proud and self-righteous, than to call in question their knowledge or goodness: and their passion on such occasions is a fresh proof of the truth of the charge laid against them.
3. Christ answered, If ye were blind, really destitute of the means of knowledge, as the Gentile world, or, deeply sensible of your own native blindness, and desirous to be led into the light of life, ye should have no sin; none, comparatively speaking: or you would have submitted in faith to me the true Messiah, whereby ye might have been justified from all things, and your sins be pardoned: but now ye say, We see, conceited of your knowledge, and puffed up with pride; and therefore your sin remaineth, aggravated by the pretensions that you make, and the abuse of the means of grace which you have enjoyed. Note; None are so far from divine wisdom, as those who are wise in their own conceits. Publicans and harlots shall enter the kingdom of heaven before such as there.