John 9:26-34 (NIV)
Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”
He answered, “I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?”
Then they hurled insults at him and said, “You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.”
The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does his will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”
To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out.
This was turning out badly for the Pharisees. All they wanted to do was to prove that this healing of a man born blind was a sham, a con job or, failing that, to prove the Jesus in healing him had broken the Sabbath laws, and was therefore a sinner and could be denounced. But so far all they had been able to do was to confirm the mighty miracle that Jesus had done, a miracle unprecedented anywhere in the Scriptures.
Still, they knew that Jesus had broken at least two of the accepted rules of the Sabbath in doing the miracle (making medicine from mud, and applying that medicine to the man’s eyes), which in their minds tainted the whole thing. So, to nail it down, they demanded that the now healed man review the steps that Jesus had taken, so that they could note the “sin” involved in each one.
But the man had already told them at least twice what had happened and was tired of the whole process. He simply wanted to go home and celebrate his healing with his family and friends.
The man’s intimation that the Pharisees might be wanting more details so that they could become disciples of Jesus too sent them right over the edge. They were disicples of Moses, meaning that they had devoted their lives to studying the law in fine detail, including the volumes of commentary that had been written over the centuries by respected rabbis, which over time had been elevated to the status of Scripture by many of these men.
Their statement that, whereas they knew that God had spoken to Moss, but they had no idea where Jesus came from or the source of His power, pushed the man himself over the edge. He had two very simple theological points to make about this whole affair, which he spoke clearly and boldly. First, the healing of a man born blind was an unprecedented miracle, one that no one could doubt had to have God’s direct involvement. The second point was that God does not work through sinners, but only through godly people who do His will. His inescapable conclusion was that, whatever Jesus was, He was no sinner, but had to be a godly man.
His logic, simple though it was, was unassailable. So, the Pharisees reacted emotionally, with a pointed ad hominem attack on the man himself. He was steeped in sin at birth,” with his birth defect obviously punishment from God for some evil that he had done even before he was born (which Jesus clearly said was not the case – John 9:3), so he was in no position to lecture them on who was godly and who was a sinner. And they unceremoniously threw him out of the place.
Father, it is overwhelmingly sad that these men, supposedly the godliest people of the day, were so blinded by their own prejudices that they were literally calling Your work evil and Your Son a sinner! Lord, save us from that kind of hardness of heart, that kind of evil that turns people away from Your path, and eats up their souls with anger, pride, resentment and, ultimately, hatred. Amen.