Joh 9:1-13 | PNT | STEP | The Man Born Blind SUMMARY OF JOHN 9: Are Physical Misfortunes Judgments?. Sometimes for the Glory of God. The Blind Man Healed. The Pharisees Examine Him. They Excommunicate Him for Honoring Christ. He Confesseth Christ. He saw a man who was blind from [his] birth . Like most such unfortunates in the East, he was a beggar ( ).

John 9:1-13

The Man Born Blind SUMMARY OF JOHN 9: Are Physical Misfortunes Judgments?. Sometimes for the Glory of God. The Blind Man Healed. The Pharisees Examine Him. They Excommunicate Him for Honoring Christ. He Confesseth Christ.

He saw a man who was blind from [his] birth. Like most such unfortunates in the East, he was a beggar (Joh 9:8). Master, who did sin? Many of our misfortunes and physical ills are brought on us either by our own sins, or are inherited from parents and caused by their sins. The disciples ask if the blindness is a judgment, and who caused it? They were, perhaps, not aware that he was blind from birth. 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, Christ, Paul, and the whole army of martyrs disprove it.

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 (Joh 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. "The Father chasteneth every son whom he loveth" (Heb 12:6). 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. His night of death was near. Nor is ours far off. I am the light of the world. He opens the blind eyes of both the body and the soul. We see morally, because he has given us light. Go, wash in the pool of Siloam. It was Christ's rule to require an act of faith. Hence, instead of bidding him to see, he sent him to Siloam to wash the clay from his eyes. Siloam is a rock-hewn basin fifty-three feet long, eighteen wide, and nineteen deep, fed by a spring. It is named in Isa 8:6 Ne 3:15, and can still be seen in Jerusalem. They brought to the Pharisees him. It was a notable event that demanded investigation. Hence they brought him to religious men of great influence.