Finally, we come to the place where Jesus actually healed a man, who was born blind, physically. In the previous two chapters, we had been discussing the spiritual blindness of the Jewish authorities. Like this man’s physical blindness, they had been born spiritually blind. Every man and woman, since Adam and Eve, have been born spiritually blind. The problem with the Jewish authorities of the first century AD was, they thought they could see and understand matters of the spirit (John 9:40-41). However, according to Jesus’ discussion with Nicodemus, unless a man is born again vis-à-vis having a spiritual rebirth, he can’t even see the Kingdom of God (John 3:3).
The problem stems from differing worldviews. If a person believes he already knows something, he won’t accept testimony to the contrary, unless he realizes his worldview is wrong. What we accept as foundational truth (worldview) is important, because it sets boundaries around what we will accept as true/reality. When Jesus came preaching a different worldview about the Kingdom of God, than what the Jews believed was true, conflict was inevitable, and religious conflicts such as this could only end in violence.
John is noted for his lengthy discourses, some of which we are able to see took place over a period of time (cp. chapter 6). In such cases, however, he records Jesus words and deeds as though it all occurred in a short time. Nevertheless, he does seem to point out that John 8 and 9 occurred on the same day, and John 7 occurred the previous day (as we number days from midnight to midnight). However, the Jews begin and end their days at sunset. So even John 7 occurred on the same day as the other two chapters. Many scholars try to say chapter nine occurred a few days later and at least one of them believes it occurred during Hanukkah. All this is conjecture, of course. Nothing is put forth as proof. It is merely opinion. The text, on the other hand leaves us on the night portion of one day (John 7:53 & John 8:1) and John 8:2 begins the morning portion of the same day as Jews number their days. This is the easiest way to interpret the text.
We are then able to concluded that John 8 ends with the authorities wanting to seize Jesus, but, because of the great multitude in the Temple, he was able to simply pass by out of their reach (John 8:59). John 9 begins with: “As Jesus passed by…” (John 9:1). Therefore, unless one has a bias against chapter nine being the same day as chapter eight, the easiest way to interpret the text is to say it was the same day, namely the Last Great Day of the feast, which was an annual Sabbath. Later in the chapter, the text shows us that the healing of the man born blind in this chapter did indeed occur on a Sabbath (John 9:14).
Notice that, while Jesus was leaving the Temple, where his enemies sought to arrest him (John 8:59), he saw a man born blind, begging near one of the gates (John 9:1). How does the Gospel narrator know the beggar was born blind? How do Jesus’ disciple know (John 9:2)? If Jesus and his disciples knew the man by prior acquaintance, why didn’t Jesus heal him on one of those occasions? He would have not only passed him by on previous occasions, but he would have talked with the man, or perhaps the disciples talked with him. Yet no one asked who sinned, whether he or his parents (John 9:2) until now. Why? Unless I’m missing something, it seems the only good answer to this question is: one of Jesus disciples, most notably the author of this Gospel, knew the man. Perhaps he helped him on a number of occasions, as he entered the Temple to worship. Therefore, if this logic is accurate thus far, the author of the Gospel of John would have been someone local. He lived in or near Jerusalem. Therefore, Jesus and his disciples became acquainted with the man through the author of the Gospel of John. Most likely, he told Jesus and the others that he was born blind, as they paused to contribute to his living.
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