They
brought him who had been blind to the Pharisees. It was a Sabbath when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. Again therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he received his sight. He said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, I washed, and I see.” Some therefore of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, because he doesn’t keep the Sabbath.” Others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” There was division among them. Therefore they asked the blind man again, “What do you say about him, because he opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.” The Jews therefore did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind, and had received his sight, until they called the parents of him who had received his sight, and asked them, “Is this your son, whom you say was born blind? How then does he now see?”
John 9:13-19
John 9 [12.] Then they asked him, “Where is he?”
He said, “I don’t know.”
John 9 [13.] They brought him who had been blind to the Pharisees. It was a Sabbath when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. Again therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he received his sight. He said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, I washed, and I see.”
John 9 [16.] Some therefore of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, because he doesn’t keep the Sabbath.” Others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” There was division among them. Therefore they asked the blind man again, “What do you say about him, because he opened your eyes?”
He said, “He is a prophet.”
John 9 [18.] The Jews therefore did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind, and had received his sight, until they called the parents of him who had received his sight, and asked them, “Is this your son, whom you say was born blind? How then does he now see?”
John 9 [20.] His parents answered them, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but how he now sees, we don’t know; or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. He is of age. Ask him. He will speak for himself.” His parents said these things because they feared the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that if any man would confess him as Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue. Therefore his parents said, “He is of age. Ask him.”
Meaning:
The neighbours could not explain how a man born blind had received his sight (John 9:6-12), so they brought him to the Pharisees, the recognised teachers of the law. These verses show how the same clear miracle can divide people, and how unbelief looks for any way to avoid the obvious conclusion.
- “It was a Sabbath”:
John now adds the detail that explains the whole controversy. Jesus healed on the Sabbath, and he did it by making mud. The law commanded, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8), and the teachers of Jesus’ day had built a detailed list of forbidden kinds of work around it. Kneading was one of them, and many held that healing a condition that was not life-threatening should wait for another day. A ruler of a synagogue once said, “There are six days in which men ought to work. Therefore come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day!” (Luke 13:14).
This was not the first Sabbath conflict. When Jesus healed a lame man at the pool of Bethesda, the Jews objected, “It is the Sabbath. It is not lawful for you to carry the mat” (John 5:10). In Galilee he asked, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath day to do good, or to do harm? To save a life, or to kill?” (Mark 3:4). His answer was always that “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27).
- “He put mud on my eyes, I washed, and I see”:
The man’s second account is even shorter than the first. He does not argue about the Sabbath; he simply reports what happened. His few words carry more weight than all the debate that follows, because no one can deny that the man who once sat begging now sees.
- Division among the Pharisees:
“This man is not from God, because he doesn’t keep the Sabbath.” Some reasoned from their rules to their verdict: whoever breaks our understanding of the Sabbath cannot come from God. The law did warn that a prophet who worked a sign but led people after other gods must not be followed (Deuteronomy 13:1-3). But Jesus was not leading anyone away from God; he was opening blind eyes in the name of his Father.
Others asked, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” They reasoned from the sign to the person, as Nicodemus had done: “no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him” (John 3:2). The same division had appeared at the Feast of Tabernacles, when “there arose a division in the multitude because of him” (John 7:43), and it will appear again after the Good Shepherd discourse (John 10:19-21).
- “He is a prophet”:
Asked for his opinion, the man goes further than before. He had called him “a man called Jesus”; now he says, “He is a prophet.” After Jesus raised a widow’s son, the people said, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” (Luke 7:16). The Samaritan woman made a similar step: “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet” (John 4:19).
- The parents are summoned:
“The Jews therefore did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind.” Unable to deny the sign, some now try to deny the facts. So they call his parents as witnesses. The law required that a matter be established by witnesses (Deuteronomy 19:15), and no one could testify better to a son’s blindness from birth than his own parents. Their frightened answer follows in John 9:20-23.
The Significance of John 9:13-19
- When rules hide mercy:
The Sabbath was God’s gift of rest, yet some used it to condemn the act that set a man free. Believers fall into the same trap when customs matter more than people. God’s commands are meant to lead us to love him and our neighbour, not to make us blind to his work in front of us.
- Holding to what we know:
The man could not answer every question about Jesus or the Sabbath, but he held firmly to what he knew. When others doubt or argue, a faithful witness keeps telling the truth plainly and lets the facts speak.
- Growing in understanding:
Each time the man was questioned, he saw a little more of who Jesus was. Opposition can strengthen faith when we keep looking to Christ instead of giving in to fear.
Cross-References:
Exodus 20:8: "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." The commandment at the centre of the dispute.
Mark 2:27: "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." Jesus on the purpose of the Sabbath.
Luke 13:14: "There are six days in which men ought to work. Therefore come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day!" A similar objection to Sabbath healing.
John 7:43: "So there arose a division in the multitude because of him." Jesus divides opinion again and again.
Conclusion: Brought before the Pharisees, the healed man told the facts simply: “He put mud on my eyes, I washed, and I see.” Some condemned Jesus for breaking their Sabbath rules, others could not deny his signs, and the man himself confessed, “He is a prophet.” The passage warns us against letting rules blind us to God’s mercy and encourages us to hold fast to what Jesus has done.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible