Spiritual Blindness

Now as Jesus was passing by, He saw a man blind from birth, and His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the works of God would be displayed in him. While it is daytime, we must do the works of Him who sent Me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

When Jesus had said this, He spit on the ground, made some mud, and applied it to the man’s eyes. Then He told him, “Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam” (which means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came back seeing.

At this, his neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging began to ask, “Isn’t this the man who used to sit and beg?”

Some claimed that he was, but others said, “No, he just looks like him.”

But the man kept saying, “I am the one.”

“How then were your eyes opened?” they asked.

He answered, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and anointed my eyes, and He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed and received my sight.”

“Where is He?” they asked.

“I do not know,” he answered.

They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened his eyes was a Sabbath. So the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight.

The man answered, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and now I can see.”

Because of this, some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for He does not keep the Sabbath.”

But others said, “How can a sinful man perform such signs?”

And there was division among them. So once again they asked the man who had been blind, “What do you say about Him, since it was your eyes He opened?”

“He is a prophet,” the man replied.

The Jews still did not believe that the man had been blind and had received his sight until they summoned his parents and asked, “Is this your son, the one you say was born blind? So how is it that he can now see?”

His parents answered, “We know he is our son, and we know he was born blind. But how he can now see or who opened his eyes, we do not know. Ask him. He is old enough to speak for himself.”

His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews. For the Jews had already determined that anyone who confessed Jesus as the Christ would be put out of the synagogue. That was why his parents said, “He is old enough. Ask him.”

So a second time they called for the man who had been blind and said, “Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner.”

He answered, “Whether He is a sinner I do not know. There is one thing I do know: I was blind, but now I see!”

“What did He do to you?” they asked. “How did He open your eyes?”

He replied, “I already told you, and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become His disciples?”

Then they heaped insults on him and said, “You are His disciple; we are disciples of Moses. We know that God spoke to Moses, but we do not know where this man is from.”

“That is remarkable indeed!” the man said. “You do not know where He is from, and yet He opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but He does listen to the one who worships Him and does His will. Never before has anyone heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, He could do no such thing.”

They replied, “You were born in utter sin, and you are instructing us?” And they threw him out.

When Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, He found the man and said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

“Who is He, Sir?” he replied. “Tell me so that I may believe in Him.”

“You have already seen Him,” Jesus answered. “He is the One speaking with you.”

“Lord, I believe,” he said. And he worshiped Jesus.

Then Jesus declared, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind may see and those who see may become blind.”

Some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard this, and they asked Him, “Are we blind too?”

“If you were blind,” Jesus replied, “you would not be guilty of sin. But since you claim you can see, your guilt remains.”