John 9:1-12

Hi everyone,
These are some of my favorite verses. I did a paper on this last semester. I thought some of you might want to read it.

I am learning so much that I am humbled at how much I do not know. As I come closer to the Lord, my desire is to know him even more! I am fighting the good fight and running my course to end of this earthly existence! (until I spend my time worshiping Him forever in heaven!!!)
(I put the footnotes at the end and I also have a Bibliography that I did not post for space!)

Christ is the Light!!!!
Nova


John
9:1-12 is set after the church is established and there are several generations
of Christians. It is written later than the Synoptic Gospels. John writes to Christians
who are growing in their faith. During a spiritual need of the church, the gospel
shows “that Jesus [is] supernatural in his origin, powers, and goal.”[1] In John 20, John says He is Israel’s promised
Messiah and that He is the Son of God.[2] In the world of handicapped people, there are many
who do not know why they are cursed with a disability. Is it something they did
or maybe even their parents did? This
passage is special to me because I was one of those handicapped people. I
blamed myself, my parents, and even God. I had no purpose in my life and why
would I have to suffer 12 surgeries and countless medical procedures? After I
accepted the Lord at 18, I soon realized that God created me so His work would
be displayed in me. He is truly the Light apart from the darkness and the
Messiah for this age and the age to come.
Structural Analysis
1 As He passed by,
He saw a man
blind from birth.
2 And His disciples asked
“Rabbi, who
sinned, this man or his parents,
that he would be
born blind?”
3 Jesus answered,
“It was neither
that
this man sinned, nor his parents;
but it was
so that the works of God
might be displayed in him.
4 We must work the works of Him
who sent Me
as long as it is day;
night is coming
when no one can
work.
5 While I am in the world,
I am the Light
of the world.”
6 When He had said this,

He spat on the ground,

and made clay of the
spittle,

and applied the clay to his
eyes,
7 and said to him,

“Go, wash in the pool of Siloam”
(which is translated, Sent).
So he went away
and washed,
and came back seeing.
8 Therefore the neighbors, and
those were saying,

who previously saw him as a
beggar,

“Is not this the one who used
to sit and beg?”
9 Others were saying,

“This
is he,”
still others were
saying,
“No, but he is
like him.”
He kept saying,
“I am the one.”
10 So they were saying to him,

“How then were your eyes opened?”
11 He answered,
“The man made clay,
who is called Jesus
and anointed my eyes,
and said to me,
‘Go to Siloam
and wash’;
so I went
away and washed,
and I received
sight.”
12 They said to him,
“Where is He?”
He *said,
“I do not know.”

In the structural analysis of
John 9:1-12, there is a clear distinction between light and dark, especially
between God’s purpose in using man and in His own character to bring about
man’s redemption. The key phrases or words that one should understand to fully
capture the essence of these verses are blind
from birth, spittle, anointed, who sinned, that the works of God might be manifest in him, we, night and day, Siloam,
and the man called Jesus. Blind
from birth is the first time this phrase is mentioned in the Gospels and
shows God’s “…creative act not just restoration.”[3] Moreover, John’s usage of blind from birth, spittle, and anointed
show God’s creative power from the beginning of time and how God manifests
Himself to all mankind. The works of God that might be made manifest
shows how God uses His power, His light, and man’s difficulties for His glory.
When John uses night and day, he draws a distinction between light
and darkness and they are “…ancient religious symbols used to represent themes
of good and evil.”[4] Also, Jesus wants people
to recognize Him for who He is and as the one who is sent. The phrase who sinned echoes the OT as “… the sins
of parents could be ‘visited’ on children is contained on the Decalogue (Exodus
20:15 and Deut. 5:9).”[5] We is
thought to have included the disciples in His work. However, in verse 4, commentators cannot agree on the
meaning of we. Not only does a word analysis help us to see
the structure of the passage, but also through the characters’ actions as well.
Jesus heals as an opportunity to reveal
himself as the coming Messiah. The
passage reveals seven actions or questions concerning man’s sin, God’s creative
power and His light, Jesus’ faith requirements for man, man’s obedience, the
reliability of Jesus’ miracles, and man’s role as part of God’s purpose, and
man’s disbelief in God. First, Jesus answers a question about generational sin,
but he contrasts the words it was neither
and but it was to affirm God’s
manifesting works rather than man’s sin. He illustrates the difference between night
and day because “the work must be done now, before it is too late” [6] and His death will bring “darkness all too
soon.”[7] Second,
He proves that He is the Light of the world by spitting on the ground, making
clay out of spittle, and applying the clay to the man’s eyes. Third,
Jesus then gives a command to wash in the Pool of Siloam. Fourth, only after
the blind man obeys and washes in the pool, does the blind man see. Fifth, the neighbors question this miracle of
Jesus and they cannot discern if it is actually the blind man. The blind man
must recount his experiences to the neighbors. Sixth, the blind man recognizes
four things as this miracle unfolded: Jesus is the Messiah, He is the Creator
(anointer), that he must obey, and that he must have faith. Finally, the
neighbors ask the blind man where Jesus is located in order to take him to the
Pharisees. This structure analysis should be examined in light of its surrounding
chapters and its meaning in first century Palestine, and today.
Contextual Analysis
John 9:1-12 surrounds chapters 8
and 10, when Jesus declares He is the Light of the world and that He is the
Good Shepherd. In chapter 8, the Pharisees do not understand this testimony and
they are blinded to His light. Also, Jesus affirms that they will die in their
sins unless they believe that He is their Messiah. If they acknowledge their
sins and believe Jesus as their Messiah, it will set them free. Yet in the
later part of chapter 9, the Pharisees focus on whether or not Jesus is able to
perform this miracle on the Sabbath. The blind man sees the light not only
physically, but spiritually as well. In contrast to the blind man’s faith, the
Pharisees “were blinding themselves to the light and plunging into darkness.”[8]
Moreover, the blind man has great faith in Jesus as the Messiah, whereas the Pharisees
believe in themselves. Furthermore, in chapter 10, not only is our God the Good
Shepherd, but He “…is referred to as the one who is sent by God.”[9] Siloam,
which means sent, has the same meaning in both chapters 9 and 10. Not only
should we look at the preceding and later passages but also the immediate
chapter context as well.
This passage is written during
the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem. Jesus heals a blind man at the pool of
Siloam on the Sabbath. To the original audience,
the pool of Siloam is regarded as place for ritual bath of purification capable
of cleansing. Furthermore, they regard the pool as living because of its
associations with the Feast of Tabernacles.[10]
According to Archbishop J. H. Bernard, there is a day or more between verses 7 and
8 because the restoration of blind man’s eyesight is not immediate at the pool
of Siloam.[11] Kim says the setting of the Feast of
Tabernacles, in chapters 7-8, foreshadows the miracle of the blind man because
“He is the Giver of living water (7:37) and He is the Light of the world
(8:12).”[12] Some other times that Jesus
heals a blind man are found in Matt 9:27-31, Mark 8:22-26; 10:46-52 and Luke
18:35-42.[13] Gaebelein says that John writes with a
Jerusalem mindset and the healing sign of the blind man “…illustrates the
origination and development of faith, which is the theme of the Gospel.”[14] Most
Jews at this time cannot imagine how sin and a disability are not interlinked; therefore,
they are blinded in their sin. Our challenge is to look at suffering and how
God uses us differently.


Meaning Analysis
In this world, we expect that if we give ourselves,
our time, our energy, live morally that nothing should happen to us or to our
families. So when something does not make sense and we are forced to suffer, we
begin to ask questions like “Why suffering, under his governance? Why this loss
or agony that has stricken me, or some one dearer even than self to me?”[15] This
passage illustrates that the man’s disability is not result of this sin, but
sometimes we suffer for the works of God to be manifested through us. This
suffering is counterintuitive to our culture today because we do not view suffering
as something that strengthens us, but something we have to endure. We say we do not deserve this pain or this suffering.
Also, Jesus is the light and He is one who gives us a new hope in the midst of
this suffering. It is ultimately for Him and he is “…changing night to day for
them, enriching and beautifying life.”[16]
Like this blind man, sometimes Jesus takes us through a process of healing so
that we may grow in Him. Furthermore,
God shows his creative and powerful miracles in order for his redemptive
promises to be fulfilled and “… as the promised Messiah in whom all
eschatological promises will be realized.”[17]
[1]Frank
E. Gaebelein, ed., John-Acts, The
Expositor’s Bible Commentary, vol. 9 (Grand
Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1981), 4, 11.

[2]
Ibid.
[3]
Barnabas Lindars, The Gospel of John, New
Century Bible Commentary (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company Co.,
1992), 341.

[4]
Gerald L. Borchett, John 1-11, The
New American Commentary, vol. 25A (Broadman and Holman Publishers, 1996) 314.

[5]
George R. Beasley-Murray, John, Word
Biblical Commentary, 2d ed., vol.36
(Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1999), 154.

[6]
Lindars, 343.

[7]
Ibid.
[8]
Raymond E. Brown, S.S., The Gospel
According to John i-xii, The Anchor Bible (Garden City: Doubleday and
Company, Inc., 1966), 377.

[9]Leander
E. Keck, ed., John, The New
Interpreter’s Bible, vol. IX (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995), 654.

[10]
Bruce Grigsby, “Washing in the Pool of Siloam-A Thematic Anticipation of the
Johannine Cross,” Novum Testamentum XXVII,
3( 1985): 228.

[11]
Archbishop J.H. Bernard, A Critical and
Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to St. John, The International
Critical Commentary, vol. 2 (Edinburgh: Morrison and Gibb Limited,
1949), 329.

[12] Steven S. Kim, “The Significance of Jesus’
Healing the Blind Man in John 9,” Bibliotheca
Sacra 167 (July-September 2010): 313.

[13]
Keck, 652.

[14]
Gaebelein, 102.

[15]
George Arthur Buttrick, ed., John, The
Interpreter’s Bible: The Holy Scriptures, vol. 8 (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1952), 611.

[16]
Ibid., 613.

[17]
Kim, 312.