Then they turned again to the blind man, “What do you have to say about[Jesus]? He opened your eyes.” The man replied, “He is a prophet.” . . . To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin from birth; how dare you preach to us!” And they threw him out.
John 9:17,34
tell it like it is
The Pharisees were not wrong when they said of the blind man they met in John chapter nine that he was “born in sin.” They were just telling it like it is. The Bible is clear on this point. What King David admitted about himself is certainly true of all of us: “Surely I was a sinner from the time I was born, and a sinner from the time my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51:5). This man was no different. He was literally “immersed in sin at birth.”
The problem with the Pharisees’ claim, however, is that they were likely unwilling to make the same confession about themselves. Like Jesus’ own disciples, these despicable religious leaders assumed that the man was born blind because his parents had committed some terrible sin in the past or because God had foreseen the future of the blind man. Surely, they thought, such a serious birth defect indicated some kind of divine punishment for wrongdoing!
But the wrongdoing revealed in these verses was done by the Pharisees, not the blind man. And the blindness displayed is not of the physical kind; It is spiritual. And this is worrying. It’s not that Jesus never showed the Pharisees that He was the long-promised Messiah, the Son of God. He proved it again and again. But their budding hatred for Jesus and His Word – yes, for the gospel – prevented them from accepting the truth. This caused them to fight against it and fall into spiritual blindness under God’s judgment.
It was left to the formerly blind man to tell it like it is. When they asked him who he believed Jesus was, he answered plainly, “He is a prophet,” one who faithfully preaches the Word of God; Which tells it like it is.
And what message does Jesus have for sinners like you and me? Two words: “You are forgiven.”
Prayer:
Dear Jesus, give me the strength to hear Your Word and follow You always. Amen.
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All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used with permission from Zondervan. All rights reserved world wide.
