In this chapter, the Pharisees point out a blind man to Jesus and ask if he is blind because of his sin or his parents’ sin. 

Rude. The poor guy just sat there taking an insult to go with his disability. Jesus said, neither, it is so God’s work can be displayed. What a 180° change in perspective. Not a curse but a blessing.

Jesus then spits in the dirt, makes mud, puts it into the man’s eyes and sends him to the pool of Siloam to wash. The location of the pool was near the Temple and people would be washed to go pray. He is healed and no longer has to beg and is cleaned to enter the Temple.

Everyone recognizes him and asks about what happened. He tells them. The leaders demand answers. Who did this and where is he? Not satisfied, they track down his parents. They say their son was blind from birth. When they are further grilled about it, they say, “ask him he is of age.” 

The now-seeing man is dragged to the Pharisees and again made to tell his story. They ask him who he thinks Jesus is and he says, a prophet. They ask him again and he says, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?”

The religious leaders are annoyed with his bold answer and say they are disciples of Moses. The man says that his miraculous healing should be evidence of the work of God. The leaders tell him he cannot teach them and kick him out. You get the feeling they preferred him when he was a blind beggar not a healthy, whole man.

Jesus asks him if he believes in him and the man says he does. Jesus tells him that, the blind see and the seeing are blind. The Pharisees hear him and ask, “are we blind.” Jesus says, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.”

Believing is seeing.