June 2, 2023
A Genuine Experience
“The Jews then did not believe it of him, that he had been blind and had received sight, until they called the parents of the very one who had received his sight, and questioned them, saying, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? Then how does he now see?” His parents answered them and said, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but how he now sees, we do not know; or who opened his eyes, we do not know. Ask him; he is of age he will speak for himself.” John 9:18-21 (NASB)
A while back I was speaking to my daughter about her doctor visit. She had asthma since birth. Now as an adult, she was seeing a new pulmonary doctor. She told me periodically she got angry with the new doctor. She said she he treated her like a child explaining how asthma worked. She told the doctor, “Yeah, I know what asthma is, I have it.” She asked her doctor, “Do you have asthma?” He replied, “No.” She said, “How can you explain what asthma feels like if you don’t have it?” She said, “Let me explain. When someone has an asthma attack, it is like breathing through a coffee stirring straw, breathing in and out. That’s all the air you can take in and let out.” He looked perplexed. She said, “You won’t learn that in a text book doctor, and I experience it each time I have an attack.” In today’s verses, the blind man knew what happened. He had experienced it. He knew blindness. Now he knew sight, but the Pharisees weren’t happy with his response. So they called his parents to give testimony.
“Is this your son, who you say was born blind? Then how does he now see?” His parents answered them and said, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but how he now sees, we do not know; or who opened his eyes, we do not know.” Perhaps in this case, the parents were aware of the potential snare by the Pharisees. They escaped this potential trap by only testifying to what they knew to be true from his birth. They also left the testimony of what transpired in their son’s life to what he and only he could testify. “How he now sees, we do not know; or who opened his eyes, we do not know.” He alone would know the identity of the One who healed him, not the parents. Robertson says the Jews “… called out loud for his parents to throw light on this grave problem to cover up their own stupidity.”[1] Calvin says, “The Evangelist tells us that they did not believe. If the reason be asked, there can be no doubt that their blindness was voluntary. For what prevents them from seeing an obvious work of God placed before their eyes; or, after having been fully convinced, what prevents them from believing what they already know, except that the inward malice of their heart keeps their eyes shut?”[2]
Note the increasing hostility to Jesus. The facts from eyewitness testimony went out the window, even if it came from the person who was healed. They became enraged. Rage clutters the mind. It consumes it. It limits one to narrow focus of the situation. When vision is not clear, direction is misguided. You see, rage brings about blindness and it was the blindness of the Pharisees not the healed man which was the problem. The healed man knew by some divine work he was healed. The Pharisees were too consumed by rage to think straight. Think about this the next time you get this way. Don’t deny God’s work when it happens. Just give Him thanks for what He has done. Remember at this point what Robertson said, “Don’t be stupid.”
[1] A.T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1933), Jn 9:18.
[2] John Calvin and William Pringle, Commentary on the Gospel according to John, vol. 1 (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), 379.