John, chapter 9

I hate details and minutiae. There was a time in college when such things cost me an entire letter grade on a math exam. I had answered the question correctly and showed how I had arrived at my answer, but I received no credit on that question because I didn’t use the method they wanted me to use. As a result, I got a B instead of an A, and it knocked down my overall grade for the class as well. I thought this was ridiculous. What did it matter what method I used as long as I arrived at the right answer?

We see a similar situation with today’s lesson. In it, Jesus performs a miracle by healing a man who was born blind. I don’t know about you, but I would be pretty amazed by this. If it happened in front of me, I would definitely be in awe of the person who did it, as well as curious about the man that was healed. Is this the attitude the Pharisees took? Of course not.

¹³They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. ¹⁴Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man's eyes was a Sabbath. ¹⁵Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. "He put mud on my eyes," the man replied, "and I washed, and now I see."

¹⁶Some of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath."
But others asked, "How can a sinner do such miraculous signs?" So they were divided. – John 9:13-16

How short-sighted can these people be? As we see throughout the chapter, they are more concerned with how he got healed and why he was healed as opposed to the fact that he was healed. As usual, the lesson in this chapter comes from the metaphor of healing. The man that was blind not only sees physically, but he is able to see spiritually that Jesus came to save the world. The Pharisees remained blind to this fact even though they could see physically.