John 9:39-41

John 9:39-41     Sin as Blindness

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

Jesus’ comment explained his reason for identifying himself as the Son of Man: people’s stance regarding him would determine their ultimate destiny. The narrative summed up that destiny in the play of opposites: seeing and not seeing. Earlier in the text, the point had been made clearly that Jesus had been sent into the world by his Father, not to condemn, but to save and to give life [3:16-18]. His purpose was that those who do not see may see; its sad accompaniment was that those who do see may become blind.

40 Some of the Pharisees near him heard this,
and said, "We are not blind surely?"
41 Jesus said to them,
"If you were blind, you would not be sinning;
but now that you say you see, your sin persists."

To make his conclusion even clearer, the author had some Pharisees conveniently standing nearby and overhearing Jesus’ comment to the former blind man.

The story concluded by giving new perspective to the question with which it had begun: Rabbi, who sinned? In this Gospel, sin is not primarily the infringement of commandments or a question of behaviour, but the refusal to recognise and accept Jesus as the one who has come into the world, sent by the Father and the revelation of that Father’s saving love.

As Jesus had maintained at the beginning of the episode, the workings of God had been clearly seen [9:3] through the life-giving outreach of Jesus to the blind man and through the blind man’s growth in faith. The same God would have wished so much to lead the Pharisees to that same growth in faith; but sadly, their own professed, but misplaced, confidence in their orthodoxy blinded them to the action of God present in Jesus.

Next >> John 10:1-10