What do you see when you look at Jesus? After He healed a man who had been born blind, no one in today’s passage could deny that He could do amazing miracles. But the fact of His power led people to at least three different conclusions, and thus three different reactions to Him.

Some of the Pharisees just couldn’t see that Jesus really was God’s Messiah because He didn’t agree with all their preconceived theological notions. They had, for example, elaborated God’s Sabbath commandment, prohibiting more and more activities on God’s holy day, to the point where they believed that healing a man of his blindness on that day constituted work. They therefore came to the conclusion that Jesus must not be in a right relationship with God (9:16). So when, after careful inquiries, they could not deny the fact that Jesus indeed had such healing power, they concluded that His power actually came from demons (10:20), and thus that He was trying to lead people astray.

Of course, the blind man’s family didn’t need to conduct any further investigations. They knew their son had been born blind, and it was obvious to everyone that he could now see. But because the religious leaders had threatened to kick anyone out of the Synagogue who professed that Jesus was in fact God’s Messiah (9:22), they allowed their fears to keep them from saying the obvious. So they refused to make any sort of public statement about Jesus at all (9:21).

So, what about the man who had been healed of his blindness? At first, he didn’t know what to think. Oh, he knew Jesus had made mud and anointed his eyes, and that when he had washed off the mud he could see. But at first he simply thought Jesus was a man (9:11). After further reflection, he came to the conclusion that Jesus must have been a miracle-working prophet (9:17), perhaps like Elisha who had raised a Shunammite’s son from the dead (II Kings 4:32-35) and had cured Naaman the Syrian of his leprosy (II Kings 5:1-14).

But in the face of the religious leaders’ opposition, the man who had been healed stood firm even while his parents had not. He insisted that Jesus had to have been sent from God (9:31, 33). And so, when Jesus told him that He was indeed the Son of Man, he simply said, “Lord, I believe” and worshipped Jesus (9:38), the only One Who can open the eyes of the blind and allow us to see Him as He truly is (9:39).

So, how do you see Jesus today? Is He someone you must oppose so that you can go on living the way you want to? Is He someone you must deny so that you can remain popular with the increasingly wicked world? Or has He opened your eyes to see Him as He really is? Will you worship Him as Son of Man and Son of God no matter what anyone else thinks?

John 9:13-41 (ESV)

They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind.
14 Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes.
15 So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.”
16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them.
17 So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.”
18 The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight
19 and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?”
20 His parents answered, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind.
21 But how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.”
22 (His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.)
23 Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”
24 So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.”
25 He answered, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”
26 They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”
27 He answered them, “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?”
28 And they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses.
29 We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.”
30 The man answered, “Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes.
31 We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him.
32 Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind.
33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”
34 They answered him, “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” And they cast him out.
35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
36 He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?”
37 Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.”
38 He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.
39 Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.”
40 Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?”
41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.