It is interesting to notice that John chapter 9 takes up the story right exactly where chapter 8 leaves off. Chapter 8 verse 59: "Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by." Chapter 9 verse 1: " And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth." Jesus was not running from His enemies, He was merely passing by them all. And, far from being consumed by terror and in flight for His life, Jesus is still watching for opportunities to do His Father's will.
As I read the story of how Jesus healed this blind man, I thought of how different this healing was from the healing by the Bethesda Pool of the man who had been unable to walk for 38 years (chapter 5). The reactions of the two men were totally different.
The first man didn't even take the time to find out who had healed him. When he did find out that it was Jesus who had healed him, he ran to tell the scribes and Pharisees, even though he must have known these men were trying to find Jesus to kill him. He even tried to shift the blame on Jesus when he was reprimanded for carrying his bed on the sabbath: "He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up thy bed, and walk" (chap. 5 v. 11).
The blind man however knew He had been healed by "a man that is called Jesus" (chap. 9 v.11). He must have cared enough about who had healed him to find out. Did he ask if anyone knew who had healed him? Or had he perhaps listened intently to each word spoken while he was still in the dark world of his blindness and had maybe caught the whispers of Jesus name? When he is brought to the Pharisees, he tells them Jesus must be a great prophet (v. 17). As the questioning by the Pharisees becomes more heated, the former blind man stands up to them. He defends Jesus with very eloquent words and in such a forceful manner, that these jealous leaders actually "cast him out"(v.34) Some people say this meant the man was actually barred from worshiping at the temple, a type of excommunication.
When Jesus hears what was done to this man He goes to find him. He asks the man if he believes in the "Son of Man" and when the man asks who that is, Jesus says "You have now seen Him" and "He is the one speaking with you" (v. 37 from the NIV). This is all the man needs to hear and his reply is enthusiastic "I believe!" (v.39) What an eventful day this guy has had, he woke up this morning in total darkness and is ending the day by seeing, with his own two eyes, the "Light of the World" standing right in front of him! As I think of what this man's life was like up until this point, it makes me wonder how he lived the rest of his life after this momentous day.
Jesus uses this awesome miracle to illustrate a part of the job His Father had sent Him to do. "For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind." (v.39) Things were being made clear to those who had realized they were in darkness, but those who would not admit that there was anything wrong in their lives were blinded to the truth by their own stubbornness. It reminds me of one of my most favorite hymns:
I once was lost
but now am found
was blind but now I see....