Chapter LXVIII.
JESUS GIVES SIGHT ON THE SABBATH TO THE MAN
BORN BLIND.
[John 9.]
AS Jesus was one day going out of the Temple[1], He saw a man who had been blind from his birth. The disciples who were with Jesus therefore asked Him: “Master, who hath sinned[2], this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?” Jesus answered: “Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents; but that the works of God[3] should be made manifest in him.” When Jesus had said this, He spat on the ground and made clay with the spittle, and rubbed the clay[4] on the eyes of the man, and said to him: “Go, and wash[5] in the pool of Siloe.” He went, washed, and came away seeing[6].
Now the neighbours that had known him wondered, and some of them said: “Is not this he that sat and begged?” But the others denied it, saying: “No, but he is like him.” The man himself, however, exclaimed: “I am he.” Then the blind man was
- ↑ Out of the Temple. Our Lord had come up to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles (John 7, 1 — 14), and had been teaching in the Temple, where many people were gathered together. Once more he came to offer grace to the unbelieving city, and once more it was rejected.
- ↑ Who hath sinned? The Jews believed that every misfortune was the consequence of some particular sin. They believed that a man might be inculpated even before his birth. (See further on, how the Pharisees cast this reproach at the man born blind: “Thou wast wholly born in sins!”) So now the disciples wished to know whether the affliction of the blind man was a consequence of his own sin, or of some sin on the part of his parents before his birth.
- ↑ The works of God. It has been permitted by God’s Providence that this man should have been born blind, so that he might be cured by Me, and that by this cure My Divine Power might be manifested, and the man himself brought to believe and thus be saved.
- ↑ The clay. The natural effect of covering a man’s eyes with clay would be to shut out the light even if he saw already, and so this anointing could of itself have no power to restore the man’s sight. It was therefore from our Lord that the healing power proceeded.
- ↑ Go, and wash. Our Lord imposed this command on the blind man in order to test his faith. The water from the pool (which lay to the south between Mount Moria and Mount Sion) could do no more than wash the clay from his eyes, the sight being given by Jesus, Who sent him to the pool.
- ↑ Seeing. Picture to yourselves the man’s joy and thankfulness, as he now saw for the first time earth, sky, city and Temple!
