This miracle is reported only by John, a fact that is not strange when we remember that he alone gives a report of the ministry in Judea in which it occurred. The time cannot be certainly determined. Some have supposed that it occurred on the same day, only a few moments after Christ had escaped from the attempt to stone him; others regard it improbable that he should have stopped at such a moment to perform a miracle. All that is certain is that it was on the Sabbath day; a fact that intensified the animosity of his strict, sanctimonious, but unscrupulous enemies. We are, however, inclined to think that it occurred on the same day as the events of the last lesson.

      1. And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. The last verse of the preceding chapter states that Jesus, "going through the midst of them, so passed by." This chapter begins, "As Jesus passed by." When we remember that there was no break into chapters when John wrote the passage, it seems certain that he designed to say that this occurred immediately after. In this case it was Jesus who came to the blind man, not the blind man to him. Blindness from birth is usually incurable by modern science. Like most such unfortunates then, the man was a beggar. See verse 8.

      2. Master, who did sin? The disciples observed the Savior's look, resting sympathetically on the sufferer. They ask the solution of a troublesome question. It was the current opinion of the Jews that such an infliction was a punishment for some sin. Traces of this belief are often found in the Scriptures. When Job was a sufferer from an unprecedented sorrow, his friends insisted that he must have been a great sinner. The prophet, describing the sufferings of Christ, declared that the people would say, "He is smitten of God and afflicted." When Paul placed the bundle of sticks on the fire after the shipwreck, and the viper came out and fastened on his hand, the barbarians decided at once that he was a murderer or, at least, a great criminal. The world still believes that great calamities are [157] judgments. When a great misfortune comes on a nation or an individual, the question is asked, "How did they sin?" Even Christ had said to the paralytic at the pool of Bethesda, "Go, and sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon thee." This man. Usually our sorrows are the direct result of our own sins. Men are broken in health, reputation, or fortune, because they have transgressed. When the drunkard has delirium tremens, or the rake is on the rack of a ruined constitution, or an outcast woman is dying in shame, they are all reaping what they have sown. The disciples knew this to be true, and did not stop to consider that the man's own sins could not have caused him to be born blind. Or his parents. The disciples knew well that the sins of parents are often visited upon the children. Many a child has received the legacy of a feeble constitution, or a hereditary disease, or of vicious habits, or of a shameful name, from its parents. Nor is such a question strange concerning a member of a race which has inherited the consequences of sin from Adam.

      3. Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents. Jesus, does not affirm that they were sinless, but that their sins were not the cause of the calamity. We are not justified in asserting that the sufferer is a sinner. Job's friends tried to prove his guilt by his calamities; the enemies of Christ, when he suffered on the cross, said, "He is smitten of God, and afflicted." Christ here shows that there may be other reasons for sorrow than personal or family sins. But that the works of God should be made manifest in him. By his miraculous cure the work of God shall be made manifest. It is the work of God to believe on Christ (John 6:29), and the blindness of this man was the occasion of faith being produced not only in him, but others. Thus Christ shows a nobler use of suffering. It is often a means of grace, and the saints are often called upon to suffer, that they may themselves be purified, or to show God's grace to others. "The Father chasteneth every son whom he loveth." "If ye be without chastening ye are not sons." "The blood of martyrs is the seed of the church."

      4. The night cometh, when no man can work. The works of God are to be made manifest in the blind man; Christ must work those works while the short day of life lasteth; the night of death soon cometh to everyone when no man can work. It is probable, when these words were spoken, the afternoon was moving toward night when the work of the day would be over. His night of death was near at hand, and he was diligent to finish his work. So, too, it soon comes to every man. What is to be done must be done first. If we have not "worked out our own salvation with fear and trembling," it will be too late.

      5. I am the light of the world. He was the sun that caused the day of life and hope to the soul. He sheds moral and spiritual light upon the world. It was prophesied that he should give sight to the blind. He not only opened blind [158] souls, but blind eyes. At that moment he was about to be light to one who had been wrapped in darkness all his life.

      6. He spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle. Why he did this we cannot be sure. The ancients believed there was a virtue in saliva, but one way of healing was as easy to the Savior as another. It is probable that this means was adopted in order to send the man to the pool of Siloam to wash. It was Christ's rule to give all who were healed something to do as a test of faith. He had volunteered the cure in this case; he therefore anointed the blind man's eyes and bade him go and wash off the ointment.

      7. Go, wash in the pool of Siloam. A pool in the environs of Jerusalem, called Siloah or Shiloah in Neh. 3:15 and Isa. 8:6. South of the temple mount is a basin hewn out of the rock in part and partly built of masonry, fifty-three feet long, eighteen feet wide and nineteen feet deep, which is identified as Siloam. A stream, rising in the fount of Siloam, passes through the reservoir, which is used for domestic purposes and irrigation by the people of the adjacent village of Siloam. Sent. The name of the pool was one of the titles of Christ. He was the Shiloah (Sent), it was Siloam. Came seeing. The man went in obedience, as Naaman went and washed in Jordan. The result in each case was the same. The divine power healed, but the act of obedience was demanded of the man.

      8, 9. Is not this he that sat and begged? The only doubt arose from the fact that that was a blind beggar, but this man could see. Apparently, he was a well-known beggar, but their surprise was so great that it required his affirmation before they were sure of his identity. "Both beggary and blindness are much more common in the East than with us,--the former owing to unjust taxation, uneven distribution of wealth, and the total absence of public and systematized charities; the latter owing to lack of cleanliness, and to exposure to an almost tropical sun, and to burning sands."--Abbott.

      10, 11. How were thine eyes opened? They were astounded. In surprise they [159] demand an explanation. His reply is so laconic as to stamp him as a more than ordinary man. The literal rendering of the account of what he, himself, did is, "And going, and washing, I see."

      12. Where is he? This question may have been asked out of curiosity. These questioners were the neighbors of the blind man.

      13. They brought him to the Pharisees. It was a notable event that demanded investigation. Hence they brought him to religious men of great influence. These Pharisees were then the ruling sect, and the blind man is brought to leaders among them for an informal investigation of his case. The Pharisees, as a sect, were hypocritical, but there were upright men among them. Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea, Gamaliel and Saul of Tarsus, were of this sect.

      14. It was the Sabbath day. Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath. We have found in the case of the miracle at the pool of Bethesda how they were angered by any apparent violation of the day. They tried to observe the day in the letter and constantly broke it in the spirit.

      15, 16. This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the Sabbath day. The Pharisees questioned the man, learned that his eyes had been smeared with spittle, and then declared that Jesus had broken the Sabbath. The Jewish doctors of the law, while binding burdens that God had never imposed, declared that on the Sabbath no man could even anoint one of his own eyes with spittle. Hence, according to their logic, Jesus had broken the Sabbath, and was not a man of God. But on the other hand was the wonderful miracle. How could one whom God did not help open the eyes of one blind from birth! Hence, "there was a division among them."

      17. He said, He is a prophet. They ask for each man's opinion and, finally, in their perplexity and division, turned to the man healed. A little while before he had said that "a man called Jesus" healed him; now he declares that "he is a prophet;" a little later he is prepared to receive him as the Son of God. His convictions constantly deepened. [160]

      1. Sinners are blind to their own interests, to God, heaven, spiritual life.

      2. They are not only blind, but beggars, unable to cure themselves, needing help from God and man.

      3. The miracles are "parables of redemption." Observe: 1. The man is in darkness; the state of the sinner; 2. Christ is the light; 3. The condition of receiving the light is faith and obedience; 4. The man believes and obeys and "came seeing."

      4. The sinner is blind to his best good, to God's goodness and love, to Jesus, to the Bible, to heaven. He is blind and a beggar, needing help from others. Blind, and grinding in the mill, like Samson among the Philistines.

      5. The blind eyes opened. I have recently read of a young lady, twenty-five years of age, who had been blind from birth. For twenty-five years she had lived in midnight darkness. A successful operation was performed, and sight was restored. On a lovely, pure morning, the window-blinds were thrown open, and she allowed to look out, for the first time in her life, upon the wondrous workmanship of God's hand. She nearly fainted from excess of rapture. Tears of more than early delight gushed from those eyes which had so long been sightless. "Oh, wonderful, wonderful!" she exclaimed; "heaven surely cannot surpass this." And thus shall it be with you, O happy, happy disciple of Jesus, when entering in at the golden gates, the splendors of the celestial paradise shall be open to your view!--Congregationalist.

      6. If thou art called on to suffer for Christ count thyself happy. They that bear his cross shall wear his crown. They that wear the white robes on high are those who have come up through much tribulation and washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb. See Rev. 7:14.

[CLC01 157-161]