Spiritual Blindness
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2021 · 9 May 2021
Jesus is in Jerusalem. He’s going through one of the temple gates and He comes across a blind man who has been born blind. He is reduced to being a beggar at those entrances. Jesus walks up to him and creates new eyes for him. Because as John tells us, nothing was made except what He made. Everything that was made, He created, and He is still the creator and He creates new eyes for this blind man.
He is immediately able to see. First of all, his neighbors are trying to figure out how this man they know who is blind can now see. So, he goes through an interrogation with his neighbors, but he is convinced that whoever did this is from God. He then is brought to the Pharisees, who are supposed to render some kind of spiritual explanation as to how this could happen. And so, the Pharisees interrogate him.
But they already have their verdict before they start the questioning. They believe that Jesus is an insane, demon-possessed, satanic imposter. So, they reject the testimony of this man, they reject the testimony of the neighbors, and they eventually end up throwing the man who can now see out of the building, and really, out of the life of the nation, and out of the life of Israel.
He’s already an outcast, because anybody who was born blind was believed to have been cursed by God for sin. He has been a pariah and an alien, and consequently a beggar. We know he has a mother and a father. They show up in this story but they are not willing to protect him, just themselves. And if they truly loved their blind son, they would’ve cared for him, as any normal parent would do.
Now when he can see, he’s struggling to get people to accept what has happened. Those who are his neighbors see it, but can’t explain it. The Pharisees see it but refuse to see it. His own parents treat him with disdain. And when the interrogation is over, the last words of the Pharisees in verse 34 were, “You were born entirely in sins, and are you teaching us?” They reject Jesus and they reject the miracle.
Jesus is not there at this point. Jesus enters the scene, in verses 35-41, “When Jesus heard what had happened, He found the man and asked, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?” 36 The man answered, “Who is He, sir? I want to believe in Him.” 37 “You have seen Him,” Jesus said, “and He is speaking to you!” 38 “Yes, Lord, I believe!” the man said. And he worshiped Jesus.”
39 Then Jesus told him, “I entered this world to render judgment—to give sight to the blind and to show those who think they see that they are blind.” 40 Some Pharisees who were standing nearby heard him and asked, “Are you saying we’re blind?” 41 “If you were blind, you wouldn’t be guilty,” Jesus replied. “But you remain guilty because you claim you can see.”
Now we’re moving from physical blindness to spiritual blindness. The healing is physical. Throughout the Bible, blindness is used metaphorically to represent the human corruption and fallen-ness, and the inability to comprehend God and divine truth. In Isaiah 43:8 we read of people who are blind even though they have eyes. In Jeremiah 5:21, the people who are foolish, who have eyes but do not see.
In Isaiah 56:10, the corrupt leaders of Israel are described as watchmen who are blind, all of who see nothing. Jesus called the Pharisees blind men, and then He called them blind guides. The Apostle Paul, according to Acts 26, was sent with the gospel to the nations “to open their eyes that they may turn from darkness to light.” That had happened to him on the Damascus road, where he was spiritually blind.
Then he was blinded, physically. And then, he was given sight both physically and spiritually in that Damascus road experience. All sinners, says the apostle Paul in Ephesians 4, are darkened in their understanding. In John 3, our Lord said that sinners love the darkness rather than the light because they cherish their evil deeds. Revelation 3:17 says that sinners are naked, poor and blind.
So the Bible speaks of blindness as a metaphor for spiritual darkness, spiritual corruption, the inability to know God or to know the truth. That natural blindness, because of sin, is compounded by Satan’s power and deception, which makes a kind of double-blindness, spoken of in 2 Corinthians 4: the god of this world, Satan, has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they cannot see the glory of Christ.
When this blindness continues relentlessly, there is a third kind of blindness, a divine judgment blindness that brings about a terminal blindness. Isaiah 44:18 says, “They do not know, nor do they understand.” Why? Because God “has smeared their eyes so that they cannot see and their hearts so they cannot comprehend.” They will not believe, because they have been hardened as a judgment of God.
Paul wrote of such a judgment in Romans 11:8, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes to see not and ears to hear not, down to this very day.” Terminal blindness is a judgment of God and the removal of all hope. According to Ephesians 5:11, the whole world is full of people who participate in the works of darkness, because as Colossians 1:13 says, they are part of the domain of darkness.
And in the Old Testament, God talks about the Messiah coming to bring light in Isaiah 9, Isaiah 29, Isaiah 42 and Isaiah 60. The Messiah is seen as the one who brings spiritual light to the world in the midst of darkness. And as the New Testament opens up, in John 1:3–4, we hear that “everything that was made was made by Him. 4 And in Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.”
So God, in His divine purposes, has designed to use blindness and darkness as a metaphor for the spiritual condition. In John 9:1-34 the verses are about physical light, and physical sight. But also of spiritual blindness and spiritual darkness manifested by the Pharisees. In verses 35 to 41, the subject changes from physical sight and light, to spiritual sight and light and spiritual blindness and darkness.
Let us break them into two sections: spiritual sight in verses 35 to 38, that’s the beggar. And spiritual blindness in verses 39 to 41, that’s the Pharisees. The comparison is built on this miracle between spiritual sight, which the beggar receives, and spiritual darkness, in which the Pharisees remain. The beggar is an illustration of one who not only sees physically for the first time, but who will see spiritually for the first time.
There are four elements. The first element is: spiritual sight requires divine initiative. He can’t do anything to help himself. Humanly speaking, it can’t happen on a temporal, physical and natural level. Verse 35, “When Jesus heard what had happened, He found the man and asked, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” Jesus found him. This is how you receive spiritual sight.
It all starts by a sovereign purpose in the mind of God. Luke 19:10, “Jesus says the Son of Man is come to seek and save that which was lost.” Romans 3 says no man seeks after God. We wouldn’t know where to go or who to look for. Jesus says to His apostles in John 15:16, “You have not chosen Me. I have chosen you.” That’s why He came. He is the one who is seeking us. He is the finder.
The Lord sought this man for His own purposes, His own sovereign kingdom intentions. He sought him out while this man could’ve never found Him. Christ is always the initiator of salvation, always the seeking Savior. Again, the blind man has no power to give himself physical sight; neither does the sinner have any power to give himself spiritual sight. It has to be initiated in heaven.
These accounts in the New Testament are condensed. We don’t think the conversation was limited to this, but this is the essence that God has revealed to us. Jesus says, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” That’s really important. This man is knows the Old Testament, even though he has never been in a synagogue. We don’t know how, but he knows that no one has ever been healed of blindness.
He knows what characterizes a prophet. He has said of Jesus, “He is of God.” He said, “He’s one who does the will of God. He is one who God hears. He is a prophet.” He also knows the title, Son of Man. He is familiar with Daniel 7:13 which says, “Behold with the clouds of heaven, one like a Son of Man was coming.” This introduces the coming of Messiah to establish His kingdom.
These Jews understood the Messianic title, the Son of Man. And it appears 13 times in the gospel of John because they know Daniel 7 is referring to the Messiah. So, our Lord says to him, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” Do you believe in the Messiah? Do you believe in Messianic theology? Do you believe the Messiah is coming to establish His kingdom? Do you believe that?
The second thing is that spiritual sight requires faith. Verse 36, “The man answered, “Who is he, sir? I want to believe in Him.” What you’re seeing here is the essence of the doctrine of regeneration at work. It is because of what God has done to open them to believing that they respond to what we say. Here is a man who is saying, “I’m ready to believe. Show me who to believe in.” That is a prepared heart.
Something has been happening in his heart. This divine initiative is not only Jesus finding him, but God, by the power of the Holy Spirit is opening his heart to believe, and that is all he needs. This is not a rational act where you have convinced this person he needs to believe based on facts. The Holy Spirit has enabled him to believe, even before the facts become clear.
Thirdly, spiritual sight confesses Jesus as Lord. Notice verse 37, “You have seen Him,” Jesus said, “and He is speaking to you!” I don’t know how much this man had heard Jesus teach. Certainly, he hadn’t seen any miracles. But God is overcoming his spiritual darkness by giving him faith. And all he wants to know is who he’s supposed to put that faith in. Jesus says, “It is I.”
Verse 38, “Yes, Lord, I believe!” the man said. And he worshiped Jesus.” He didn’t say, “Could you give me some evidence why I would believe that?” It was sufficient for him that Jesus made him able to see, that he had already declared about Jesus all those things. He’s from God. And if a prophet says, “I am the Son of Man. I am the long-awaited Messiah,” that’s enough for this man.
The Father seeks true worshipers who worship Him in spirit and truth. How do you know when someone’s a believer? Because he becomes a worshiper. How do you know you are Christian? Not because you got emotionally moved in a meeting and felt sentimental about Jesus. Ask yourself if you love God, if you love the Holy Spirit, if you desire to be obedient, if you desire to please the Lord and if you are a worshiper.
This man falls on his knees in adoration. He is blind physically and spiritually. He is sought by the Lord, physically and spiritually. And he has been given physical sight and spiritual sight. He’s given an opportunity to testify about the Lord. He is forsaken by his family. He is thrown out of the system of his day because of his association with Christ. But he becomes a worshiper as all believers do.
In contrast to that, the spiritual blindness of the Pharisees. Verse 39, “Then Jesus told him, “I entered this world to render judgment—to give sight to the blind and to show those who think they see that they are blind.” To give sight to sinners who repent and believe and “to show those who think they see” like the Pharisees, who think that they can see but in reality are spiritually blind.
There is an immediate judgment that happens at the point at which Christ is introduced. There is a division that takes place between the believer and the unbeliever. In John 3, He says, “If you reject Him, you judge yourself.” You are already judged. If a person sees in Jesus nothing desirable, nothing that that person wants, that is a judgment on that person. That’s a self-condemnation.
That’s the Pharisees. They didn’t need anything. They thought they knew God. They thought they knew the truth. They thought that Jesus was a sinner, a satanic, demonic, insane man. Because they thought they could see, they are totally blind. Spiritual blindness is stubborn, verse 40, “Some Pharisees who were standing nearby heard him and asked, “Are you saying we’re blind?”
Spiritually blind people reject sight when it’s offered. Verse 41, “If you were blind, you wouldn’t be guilty,” Jesus replied. “But you remain guilty because you claim you can see.” You are blind, in the sense that you don’t see your sin. “If you were blind, you would have no sin.” If you have no knowledge of the Scripture, didn’t have Me, didn’t have all the demonstration of who I am, your sin would not be so severe.
You are not blind in the sense that you have been exposed to the truth. You have the law, the prophets, the covenants, the promises and the Old Testament. You have had Me, you’ve heard My words, you’ve seen the miracles. Yes, you are blind to your own sin. Verse 41, “But since you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.” The religious elite are in darkness. And a blind beggar, sees physically and sees spiritually. Let us pray.