Third passover until Jesus' arrival at Bethany
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Man Born Blind
As Jesus passed by, he saw a man who was blind from birth.
His 12 disciples who were with him asked:
Teacher, whose sin caused this man to be born blind -- his own or his parents?
Jesus answered:
Neither. He was born blind so that the works of God could be displayed in him. We must do the work of he who sent me while it is daytime.
The night is coming when no man can work. When I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
After Jesus had said these things he spat on the ground and made clay and anointed the man’s eyes with it. He told the man to go to the pool of Siloam.
The man did as Jesus said and came away seeing.
The neighbors of the blind man who had known him for a long time and had seen him often begging for a living, said:
Isn’t this the blind man who sat and begged?
Others said:
It is.
Others disagreed.
But the man himself declared:
I am the man.
They asked him:
How is it that you can now see?
He said:
The man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and told me to go wash at the pool of Siloam. I did what Jesus said, and now I can see.
The people asked:
Where is Jesus?
The man answered:
I do not know.
The people brought the blind man to the Pharisees to see how they would respond to the man who had been born blind.Jesus did this miracle on the Sabbath day.
So the Pharisees asked the man how he had received his sight. He told them the same story he had told his neighbors.
When they heard this, some of the Pharisees said:
This man is not from God because he does not keep the Sabbath day.
Other Pharisees said:
How is it that a man who is a sinner can do such miracles?
So they questioned the blind man again.
The man who had been blind said:
He is a prophet.
The Jews did not believe that the man had actually received his sight. They called his parents and asked them how he had received his sight.
His parent answered:
Yes this is our son, and he was born blind. But we don’t know how he has received his sight. He is old enough, ask him yourself.
The parents feared the Jews because they knew that they had already agreed among themselves that anyone who confessed that Jesus was the Christ would be thrown out of the synagogue.
That is why they told the Pharisees to ask their son how he had received his sight.
So the Pharisees called a second time for the man who had been born blind. They said to him:
Give glory to God, not Jesus, because we know he is a sinner.
The man answered:
Whether he is a sinner or not I do not know, but I do know one thing, I was blind and now I can see.
They said to him, What did he do to you?
The man answered:
I have told you over and over what he did. Do you want to hear it again? Would you like to become one of his disciples?
The Pharisees, after hearing this, reviled the man and said:
You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God spoke to Moses, we don’t know who this man is.
The man said:
Why, here is a real mystery. He opened my eyes and yet you do not know who he is.
We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a true worshipper of God and does his will, he will listen to that man.
Since the world began I have never heard of a man who was born blind who had his eyes opened and received his sight.
If Jesus were not from God, he could do nothing.
They told him:
You were born into sin and you presume to teach us? They threw him out.
Jesus heard that they dismissed from the assembly and he went and found him.
Jesus said to the man:
Do you believe in the Son of God?
He answered:
Who is the Lord, that I might believe in him?
Jesus said:
You have both seen him and he is the one who is speaking to you right now.
The man said:
Lord, I believe.
The man worshipped him.
Jesus summed it up by saying:
Judgment came into this world so that those who could not see can now see, and those who can see have become blind.
There were Pharisees nearby who heard what Jesus said. They asked Jesus:
Are you saying that we are blind?
Jesus answered:
If you were blind, you would have no sin. But because you say that you see, your sin remains.