A Man Named and Called (9:1–12)

To meet people's needs, our Lord did miracles. But He also used those miracles as a "launching pad" to spread a message of spiritual truth. Lastly, His miracles were proof that He was the Messiah. One of these miracles was "the blind receive their sight" (Matt. 11:5), and we see it happen in this chapter. Jesus used this miracle to give a short sermon on spiritual blindness (John 9:39–41) and a longer sermon on good and bad shepherds (John 10:1–18).

The man we meet in this chapter was born blind. He had never seen the beauty of God's creation or the faces of the people he loved. Everything changed when Jesus came, and the man was able to see. But the greatest miracle was that his heart was opened to the Savior, not that his eyes were. He was willing to say that Jesus was the Son of God, even though it cost him everything.
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This chapter is about how this man learns more about Jesus.

"A Man Named and Called" (9:1–12)

In those days, a blind person could only beg, and that's what this man was doing when Jesus walked by (John 9:8). Jesus likely had many blind people who would have welcomed healing, but he specifically chose this man (see Luke 4:25–27). The man and his parents were apparently well known in the area. Jesus healed the man on the Sabbath (John 9:14), which upset and challenged the religious leaders once more (John 5:9ff).

The disciples did not see the man as someone who needed help; instead, they saw him as someone to talk about theology. Talking about something abstract like "sin" is a lot easier than helping someone with a real need in their life. The disciples thought that the man was born blind because of sin, either his own or his parents', but Jesus disagreed.

Ultimately, all physical afflictions stem from the fall of Adam, whose disobedience introduced sin and death into the world (Rom. 5:12ff.). But later, it is definitely wrong for anyone to claim that a certain disability is caused by a certain sin done by certain people. Only God knows why babies are born with disabilities, and only God can turn those disabilities into something that will help people and bring glory to His name.

It is true that both the man and his parents had sinned at some point, but Jesus said that their sin was not what made the man blind. He also didn't say that God made the man blind on purpose so that Jesus could do a miracle years later.

The way our Lord healed was different: He put clay on the man's eyes and told him to wash it off. Jesus healed two blind men by just touching their eyes (Matt. 9:27–31), and He healed another blind man by putting spit on his eyes (Mark 8:22–26). Our Lord used different ways to heal so that people wouldn't focus on how He did it and miss the message in the healing.

There were at least two reasons why our Lord used the clay. It was a picture of the incarnation, for one thing. God made the first man out of dirt and then sent His Son as a real man. Pay attention to the meaning of "Siloam," which is "sent." And connect this to John 9:4, which says, "The works of Him that sent Me" (also see John 3:17, 34; 5:36; 7:29; 8:18, 42). Jesus gave a short example of how He came to earth, sent by the Father.

The second reason for the clay was to annoy/irritate the man and make him believe and do what he was told. If you have ever experienced eye irritation, you understand how urgently you wish to rinse it out. You could say that this "irritation" is like the Holy Spirit's work of convicting people by using God's law to bring the lost sinner to justice.

But the light now made it hard to tell who the man was: was it really the blind beggar, and who made him see? As John 9 goes on, the conflict over these two questions becomes intense. The religious leaders refused to believe that Jesus had healed the man, or even that he had been healed!

People asked, "How did you get better?" four times in this chapter. (John 9:10, 15, 19, 26). The man was first asked by the neighbors and then by the Pharisees. The Pharisees weren't happy with his answer, so they asked the man's parents and then questioned the son one last time. It all looked very official and well-organized, but it was really a way for both the people and the leaders to avoid the issue. The Pharisees wanted to get rid of the proof, and the people were too scared to tell the truth!

Everyone was asking the wrong question! They should have asked "Who?" instead of "How?" (Just change the order of the letters!) But we are so quick to ask, "How?" Instead of just trusting the Savior, who can do the miracle, we want to know how it works. Nicodemus asked how he could get back into his mother's womb (John 3:4, 9). "How can this man give us His body to eat?" (John 6:52). Even if we could understand the process, that doesn't mean we have seen the miracle.

When asked to talk about what happened, the man just did. The only thing he knew about the person who had done the miracle was that He was "a man named Jesus." Of course, he hadn't seen our Lord, but he had heard His voice. The beggar didn't know who Jesus was or where He had gone. The man is healed now, but he is not yet saved. The light had come up, but it would become brighter until he saw the Lord's face and worshiped Him (see Prov. 4:18).

In the gospel of John, Jesus is called "a man" at least twelve times (see John 4:29; 5:12; 8:40; 9:11, 24; 10:33; 11:47, 50; 18:14, 17, 29; 19:5). John's main point is that Jesus Christ is God, but he also reminds us that Jesus is a real person, which is of utmost importance. The incarnation was not a deception (1 John 1:1–4).