The Word: John 9:25; 30-34

“He then answered, ‘Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see’…Then the man answered and said to them, ‘Well, here is an amazing thing, that you do not know where He is from, and yet He opened my eyes. We know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He hears him. Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, He could do nothing.‘”

John chapter 9 is my favorite story in all Scripture. For the full context of the statements made in these verses, the man speaking was a blind man who was graciously given sight by Jesus (9:1-12). Of course, such a miracle caused such a great stir that people began to debate how this was possible, so much so that the Pharisees got involved and began harassing this man and his family about the truthfulness of the event (9:13-23). The saddest reality in such a situation is that although so many knew the truth of what had taken place, their fear caused them to remain silent (9:22-23), and the man found himself standing alone in the face of Pharisaical opposition. Yet, the problem was not ultimately with the man himself, but with the issue of who Jesus is; this man simply found himself caught in the reality of John 15:18: “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.”

An interesting note on this passage is the fact that nothing in the story indicates any prior knowledge of Jesus before the miracle took place. In others word, the man knew nothing about Jesus beyond what Jesus had just recently done for Him. When asked about Jesus’ whereabouts and identity, he responded twice: “I do not know.” (9:12, 25) This was the truth! His intimate knowledge of Jesus was very limited, and this point is important. In the face of great opposition, the only ground this man had to stand on was what Jesus had just done for Him. Yet, this reality was more than enough for Him to speak boldly for Jesus and give glory to God! Although he testified twice that he did not know, he also says twice: “one thing I do know…We know” (9:25, 31). Despite the fact that this man did not know much about Jesus, and there was A LOT that he didn’t know, he took the opportunity to proclaim what He did and could know from His brief encounter.

So, what did the blind man know?

1) Jesus does the impossible (9:25, 32)

“that though I was blind, I now see…Since the beginning of time is has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind.“

Someone may object to this point by asserting that doctors today do marvelous things for combating and curing blindness. This reality is certainly amazing and should not be underappreciated. However, what no doctor did then nor does today is cure blindness with supernatural power with His own spit and mud (9:6). The context of the story and the time makes this abundantly clear. If anyone could have done what Jesus did and cure blindness, then the incident would not have been so great, nor would blindness have ever been a problem for humanity. Clearly, everyone in the story had to acknowledge, willingly or unwillingly, joyfully or frustratedly, that Jesus could do what no other man could ever do; Jesus did the impossible. This man knew that!

2) God does not confirm false teachers (9:31)

“We know that God does not hear sinners.“

This statement may seem odd, but this truth is foundational to the man’s whole testimony. For the Jews, a foundational truth about God’s character and nature was that He does not confirm falsehood nor false teachers. To do so would be for God to promote a lie and purposefully mislead people, which would be sin, and God cannot sin nor lie (Number 23:19; Titus 1:2; Hebrews 6:18). The nature of Jesus’ miracles demonstrates God’s blessing on Him and His ministry. If Jesus were a sinner and false teacher as the Pharisees claimed (9:16, 24), then He would not be able to do what He is doing. Of course, some claimed that Jesus did His mighty works by the power of Satan, but the foolishness of this reasoning is apparent and blasphemous (Mark 3:20-29). This man knew that!

3) Jesus is from God (9:31, 33)

Putting the previous two points together makes the overall assertion clear: Jesus must be from God! With all the debate surrounding who He is, the reality is not very hard to discover! Even a once-blind man can clearly see the truth about Jesus from the very little information he had in his testimony. When he speaks of how God hears the one who is “God-fearing and does His will,” (9:31) He gives an apt description of who Jesus, the “Son of God”-man, is. He also stated clearly that apart from God, Jesus could do nothing, and the fact that Jesus did do something means everything. This man knew that!

In conclusion, the man’s fate before the Pharisees was tragic, as they rejected his testimony and put him out (9:34). Yet, Jesus met him where he was, and He came to know the Lord and Savior of His soul (9:35-38). The great irony of the story is in the fact that the man who knew very little had much to teach those who thought they knew it all (9:34), and those who were not blind were the ones who were unable to see the truth as He stood so clearly before their eyes (9:39-41). Such is often the case with humanity in our sin, but thank God that His Son came to take sins away (John 1:29)!

The Confrontation

The foremost application of this text is evangelistic in nature. For many Christians, the fear of not knowing all the answers can often discourage them from testifying of Jesus to those around them. Yet, the story of the man in John 9 demonstrates that taking a stand for Jesus is primarily about telling what you do know. As Christians, we have been given the task of stewarding the truth of the gospel. Although we will not always know all the answers to certain questions or the right responses to certain objections, if we are Christians, then we do know the basic truths of who Jesus is and what He did and what that means for us. These truths provide us with more than enough to share with others despite all that may be thrown at us as we witness. At the end of the day, we will not be held responsible for not stewarding what we did not have; but we will be held responsible for what we did with what we do have! Therefore, we cannot allow ignorance of many things to be an excuse not to testify of the things that we do know. The man in John 9 is a great and encouraging example of making a bold stand for Jesus, despite not know much about Him. After all, the man at his current maturity couldn’t even say for sure that Jesus wasn’t a sinner (9:25)!

Second, which relates to the first application, is that we must not glorify nor make excuses for ignorance; the goal should always be to come to maturity in faith and have wisdom from the Lord to know how to respond as we ought in certain moments (Ephesians 4:11-16; Colossians 2:6-7, 4:5-6; 1 Peter 3:15, etc.). The man in John 9 was ignorant of many truths about Jesus by virtue of the fact that he had literally just met him and experienced the miracle. Chances are he did not have much time to even cope with what had happened before he was bombarded with questions and opposition. A good illustration of this would be a man who gives his life at his first church service on a Sunday morning and then goes home that afternoon and calls his family to tell them what Jesus had done for Him! He naturally does not know much about Jesus, but He does know what he heard that morning! To contrast the situation in John 9, those who have been Christians for many years and grown up in the church all their lives should be ashamed if after years and decades of hearing about Christ, they hardly know anything about Him; they hardly can testify to the basic truths of Jesus confidently. If this reality is present in our churches, that is a mark of shame, not glory (Hebrews 5:11-14)! We must not fall into the pride of thinking we can know everything, but the call of the Christian life is not a call to remain in a state of immaturity where you hardly know anything!

Finally, our testimony is ultimately about Jesus, not us. Yes, something miraculous had happened to the man in John 9, just as God has done for all Christians (Ephesians 2ff.)! But his testimony was not ultimately about him, but Jesus! This fact is significant. As Christians, our personal testimonies are only evangelistically effective if they faithfully give glory to Jesus as the One who has made us who we are! He has freed us from sin. He has given us new life. He has opened our eyes to see the truth. He is the One worthy of our worship. He is the source of our hope. Our individual stories are meant to tell the story of one individual: Jesus! Therefore, like the man of John 9, we have to be diligent in making our testimony about Jesus more than it is about us. When you share your story, be sure that the truth of Jesus is at the center of it all, no matter how much or how little you may know!