John 9

Chapter 9.

9 ¹ As Jesus passed by, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. ² His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"

³ "It was not that this man sinned, or his parents," Jesus answered, "but this happened so that the works of our Father might be displayed in him." ^a a v3 Jesus refuses to read the man's blindness as punishment for sin. He points instead to our Father, whose redemptive work will be displayed in the very place the world saw only failure. ⁴ "We must do the works of the one who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work." ⁵ "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." ⁶ When he had said this, he spat on the ground, made mud with the saliva, and spread the mud on the man's eyes. ⁷ And he said to him, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam" (which means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came back able to see.

⁸ Then the neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, "Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?" ⁹ Some said, "It is he." Others said, "No, but he looks like him." He kept insisting, "I am the man."

¹⁰ So they asked him, "Then how were your eyes opened?"

¹¹ He answered, "The man called Jesus made mud and spread it on my eyes and said to me, 'Go to Siloam and wash.' So I went and washed, and I could see."

¹² They said to him, "Where is he?" He said, "I do not know."

¹³ They brought the man who had been blind to the Pharisees. ¹⁴ Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. ¹⁵ So the Pharisees also asked him again how he had received his sight. He said to them, "He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see."

¹⁶ Some of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath." But others said, "How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?" And there was a division among them.

¹⁷ So they said again to the blind man, "What do you say about him, since he opened your eyes?" He said, "He is a prophet."

¹⁸ The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight. ¹⁹ They asked them, "Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?"

²⁰ His parents answered, "We know that this is our son and that he was born blind." ²¹ "But how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself." ²² His parents said this because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone confessed Jesus as the Christ, he would be expelled from the synagogue. ^b b v22 Being expelled from the synagogue meant total social and religious exclusion from the Jewish community. ²³ That was why his parents said, "He is of age; ask him."

²⁴ So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, "Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner."

²⁵ He answered, "Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see."

²⁶ They said to him, "What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?"

²⁷ He answered them, "I told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?"

²⁸ And they reviled him, saying, "You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses." ²⁹ "We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from."

³⁰ The man answered them, "What a marvelous thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes." ³¹ "We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him." ³² "Never since the world began has anyone heard of someone opening the eyes of a man born blind." ³³ "If this man were not from God, he could do nothing."

³⁴ They answered him, "You were born entirely in sin, and would you teach us?" And they threw him out.

Do You Believe?

³⁵ Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?"

³⁶ He answered, "And who is he, sir, so I can believe in him?"

³⁷ Jesus said to him, "You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking with you."

³⁸ He said, "Lord, I believe," and he worshiped him.

³⁹ Jesus said, "I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind."

⁴⁰ Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard these things and said to him, "Are we also blind?"

⁴¹ Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now that you say, 'We see,' your sin remains."