John 9

John 9:1-41 . THE OPENING OF THE EYES OF ONE BORN BLIND, AND WHAT FOLLOWED ON IT.

1-5. as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from birth--and who "sat begging" ( John 9:8 ).

2. who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind--not in a former state of existence, in which, as respects the wicked, the Jews did not believe; but, perhaps, expressing loosely that sin somewhere had surely been the cause of this calamity.

3. Neither . . . this man, &c.--The cause was neither in himself nor his parents, but, in order to the manifestation of "the works of God," in his cure.

4. I must work the works of him that sent me, &c.--a most interesting statement from the mouth of Christ; intimating, (1) that He had a precise work to do upon earth, with every particular of it arranged and laid out to Him; (2) that all He did upon earth was just "the works of God"--particularly "going about doing good," though not exclusively by miracles; (3) that each work had its precise time and place in His programme of instructions, so to speak; hence, (4) that as His period for work had definite termination, so by letting any one service pass by its allotted time, the whole would be disarranged, marred, and driven beyond its destined period for completion; (5) that He acted ever under the impulse of these considerations, as man--"the night cometh when no man (or no one) can work." What lessons are here for others, and what encouragement from such Example!

5. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world--not as if He would cease, after that, to be so; but that He must make full proof of His fidelity while His earthly career lasted by displaying His glory. "As before the raising of Lazarus ( John 11:25 ), He announces Himself as the Resurrection and the Life, so now He sets Himself forth as the source of the archetypal spiritual light, of which the natural, now about to be conferred, is only a derivation and symbol" [ALFORD].

6, 7. he spat on the ground, and made clay . . . and he anointed the eyes of the blind man--These operations were not so incongruous in their nature as might appear, though it were absurd to imagine that they contributed in the least degree to the effect which followed. (See Mark 6:13 and

7. Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, . . . Sent, &c.--(See 2 Kings 5:10 2 Kings 5:14 ). As the prescribed action was purely symbolical in its design, so in connection with it the Evangelist notices the symbolical name of the pool as in this case bearing testimony to him who was sent to do what it only symbolized. (See Isaiah 8:6 , where this same pool is used figuratively to denote "the streams that make glad the city of God," and which, humble though they be, betoken a present God of Israel.)

8-15. The neighbours therefore . . . said, Is not this he that sat and begged--Here are a number of details to identify the newly seeing with the long-known blind beggar.

13. They brought to the Pharisees--sitting probably in council, and chiefly of that sect ( John 7:47 John 7:48 ).

16, 17. This man is not of God,
Others said, &c.--such as Nicodemus and Joseph.

17. the blind man . . . said, He is a prophet--rightly viewing the miracle as but a "sign" of His prophetic commission.

18-23. the Jews did not believe . . . he had been born blind . . . till they called the parents of him that had received his sight--Foiled by the testimony of the young man himself, they hope to throw doubt on the fact by close questioning his parents, who, perceiving the snare laid for them, ingeniously escape it by testifying simply to the identity of their son, and his birth-blindness, leaving it to himself, as a competent witness, to speak as to the cure. They prevaricated, however, in saying they "knew not who had opened his eyes," for "they feared the Jews," who had come to an understanding (probably after what is recorded, John 7:50 , &c. but by this time well known), that whoever owned Him as the Christ would be put out of the synagogue--that is, not simply excluded, but excommunicated.

24-34. Give God the praise; we know that this man is a sinner--not wishing him to own, even to the praise of God, that a miracle had been wrought upon him, but to show more regard to the honor of God than ascribe any such act to one who was a sinner.