Hardship and Spiritual Blindness
As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. (John 9:1-3)
My younger brother, Nathan, is red-green color blind which means its quite difficult for him to distinguish between green, red, and similar colors. This is especially so when the colors are side by side. Practically, this means at times he needs help picking out his clothes (especially when a tie is involved). I’m sure Nathan's color-blindness is annoying at times and in a way a hardship for him, but it fails in comparison to the hardship faced by the blind man in John 9.
John tells us that as Jesus and his disciples were leaving the temple they pass by a man who was blind from birth. The fact that this man was blind from birth highlights the severity of his hardship. Not only is he blind, but he has always been blind and has always endured the associated challenges. This is no trivial condition, and way worse than struggling to pick out a tie.
For Jesus it seems that how one thinks, feels, and acts toward the hurting is indicative of one’s own spiritual condition. Towards the end of our passage Jesus learns that the Pharisees kicked the blind man out of the synagogue and this is what Jesus has to say about it: “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind” (v. 39). One of the points Jesus is making here is that the Pharisees may be able to physically see but their treatment of the blind man reveals that they are in fact spiritually blind. Look at how the spiritually blind treat the hurting…
The spiritually blind heartlessly blame the hurting (v. 2, 34). That is, they blame the sufferer for their own suffering. Look at how the disciples pose their question in verse 2, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” They are simply espousing the common view of their day and which, as we can see in verse 34, the Pharisees hold as well. They say, “You were born in utter sin…” The disciples and Pharisees aren’t making a theological argument about the universality of human sin. Rather, they are heartlessly blaming his blindness on his or his parents’s sin. They’re effectively saying, “Its your fault that you were born this way.” This heartlessness indicates a serious underestimation of their own sinfulness.
The spiritually blind underestimate their own sinfulness (v. 2, 16, 24). The disciples and especially the Pharisees are quick to accuse those around them of sin, and yet never once consider the possibility of their own sinfulness. In verse 2 and 24 the disciples and Pharisees accuse the blind man of being a sinner. In verse 16 and 24 the Pharisees even accuse Jesus of being a sinner! Accusations abound, but the disciples nor the Pharisees ever consider their own sin. They persistently minimize their own sin, and their own need for Jesus’s kindness. So the spiritually blind blame and underestimate with fool-hardy confidence.
The spiritually blind are overconfident in their judgment (v. 13-34). In verse 13-34 the Pharisees launch an interrogation of the blind man, his neighbors, and his parents. The next time you read verses 13-34, note the number of times John records the words “we know” or something similar on the lips of the religious leaders. Also note the places they immediately disregard the testimony of the blind man, his parents, and Jesus. They are confident that they have the right assessment of the situation. The blind man is a liar, Jesus is a conman and sinner, and they see everything rightly. They are foolishly overconfident in their evaluation of the situation.
How do we respond to hardship? How do we respond to hardship in our lives or in the lives of those we know? Are we quick to blame? Do we minimize our own sin? Do we claim to know what’s “really going on”? You see, God uses hardship to surface our own spiritual blindness. We are often blind to our own need for Jesus’s kindness, so with hardship God reveals our need. Hardship, in the hands of our gracious God, helps us to see our need for his kindness. There, amid the troubles of this life, is Jesus, who is gentle and lowly, ready to lavish the blind with kindness.
