We love to sing Amazing Grace, with lyrics based on this man who said, “I was blind and now I can see!”
This long chapter follows another discussion with Jesus at the centre of things, though it’s a bit unusual in that he’s not present for the main middle part. There are some profound truths here if you’re willing to see them. These words can shed light on your suffering, on your sin, on the world around you. They can help you see beyond the constraints of your upbringing to see truth, hope, meaning, and purpose.
Will you stay in darkness, or step into God’s light?
These notes accompany a sermon on YouTube delivered at Bromborough Evangelical Church Wirral in June 2025. You can find more in the series in our sermon index.
Your suffering has meaning (1-5)
Some people here have suffered greatly. We’ll all suffer one way or another in our lives.
It’s natural to ask, “Why?” We often ask, “What have I done to deserve this?” We seem to have a natural sense of cause and effect, so that suffering must be caused by wrongdoing in some way. Jesus’ disciples certainly thought that: Read John 9:1-2.
Now the Bible absolutely says that sin in general is the cause of suffering and pain in general in the world. It also says that sometimes, suffering can be the direct result of your sin. But you can never look at your suffering and say for certain, “This is because of my sin.” The world is broken. Jesus himself is testimony that an innocent man can suffer unjustly in the perfect plans of God.
So the way the disciples framed their question was flawed. So read John 9:3-5.
Suffering in the scheme of God
That’s an incredibly hard teaching if you’re suffering. The man had been blind from birth. He’d had a hard existence living as a beggar. He didn’t deserve that life; it wasn’t punishment in any way. But God let it happen. In fact, we can go further: God determined that man’s blindness for his own purpose, for this very moment.
And remember, the man wasn’t a believer in Jesus at the time. Whoever you are, whatever you’ve been through, it is known to the Lord.
God has let some people here go through terrible things: You have committed shameful sins; you went to terrible places – physically, emotionally, even spiritually. Why did he let that happen to you?
Remember Job in the Old Testament. He certainly suffered terribly, though he never discovered why. But his knowledge and experience of God enriched him and – crucially – has helped countless others.
This blind man was prepared for the hour that he would be a sign to point you to Jesus – here, today. His suffering was for your good in God’s plan. It’s not always for you to understand how your suffering will be used for the eternal good of others in God’s plan.
How must we respond?
Trust in Jesus’ words (5-12)
Read John 9:5-7.
Jesus’ actions with the mud are odd. It’s very intimate. He could have restored the man’s sight from a distance. He certainly didn’t need to send the man to the pool. So why did Jesus do this sign the way he did?
Well, when the man went to the pool what was he doing? He was exercising faith in Jesus’ words. Going to the pool was the obedience of faith; it was faith in action. Because he had faith, he obeyed.
He was blind. He didn’t see Jesus. All he could do was hear Jesus’ words and obey by faith. And it was life-changing!
I love to speak with people who’ve had cataracts done. Often they’re amazed to be able to see clearly again. Even lovelier, they often speak about how colourful everything is: How green the grass is, how blue the sky!
For a man who had never seen anything in his life, his transformation from Jesus was astonishing.
When he said, “I was blind and now I can see” he must have been grinning from ear to ear. And the next day too!
Faith not sight
You haven’t seen Jesus either, but you have heard his words. There’s nothing you can do but respond in faith, or ignore him. What if that man hadn’t gone to the pool? What if he’d heard Jesus’ words but then didn’t do what Jesus said? He’d have died in his blindness.
What will you do? Will you hear Jesus’ words and obey by faith?
No-one here has seen Jesus. Let that sink in. We all walk by faith, not by sight.
If you will obey his call to go to him for light and life, for forgiveness and hope, he will open your eyes: He will open your eyes to your sin before God. And you’ll see something of God’s wrath against you. Jesus will open your eyes to see God’s grace – his open-armed willingness to receive you, if only you’d go to him.
Jesus will open your eyes to the way of eternal life – the light of the world, to Christ himself. And you must go to him. Faith is not blind. Don’t be blinded:
Don’t be blinded by religion or pride
Often it’s the case that people who are most confirmed in their religious system are hardest to witness to. Their minds are closed to truth; they’re in the dark even while they think they’re in the light.
Prison ministries work with people who know they’ve done wrong. The call to repentance is obvious.
But the Pharisees who were quizzing that man that day had their thinking completely shaped by their laws, and they were blinded.
Blinded by religion
Read John 9:13-16.
Now this is really important: Jesus had done nothing to break any Old Testament law about the Sabbath. So why did they say Jesus didn’t keep the Sabbath?
The Pharisees were genuinely sincere in wanting to keep the Sabbath day holy. So they added new rules to say that you weren’t supposed to heal anyone on a Sabbath – unless it was life-threatening (which blindness obviously wasn’t). And there was a rule about not kneading anything like dough, so maybe making that mudspit was ‘working’?
So in their religious mindset they’d managed to set up an opposition: man-made rules vs the man from God – and they were on the side of man-made rules.
If that sounds ridiculous to you, it’s exactly the practice of Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Roman Catholic Church. They both hold Scripture and Church side-by-side, with equal authority. It’s a bad step, because the Bible is all you need as the full revelation of Christ, of God, of life. You certainly don’t need extra laws or wonky teaching to keep you from simple, saving faith in Christ.
You are saved by faith alone in Christ alone. No works needed. See Jesus truly; don’t be blinded by religion.
Blinded by pride
That man pointed out some things that those Pharisees were choosing to ignore: Obviously, there’s John 9:25 – “I was blind, and now I can see!” And read John 9:30-33.
Over and over they just ask, “how?” But they won’t admit anything remarkable about Jesus. Nothing.
So they see the man as someone to “ridicule” (v28), and in the end he’s just a disreputable, upstart sinner who they throw out (v34). They were the intellectuals; he was just a beggar. They were too proud to be quizzed or taught by a man like that.
Some people like to demand “proof” of this or that before they’d ever lower themselves to the faith of what they see as gullible, weak minds.
But that’s to be blinded by pride.
Those Pharisees should have had the humility to investigate properly.
They might have remembered Isaiah 35:5-6 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing for joy…
But their blindness was the result of another prophecy of Isaiah 6:9-10 (NIV) Go and tell this people: “‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.
Come to Jesus
Don’t let your pride blind you to the truth. You might well know some weird Christians. They might not be perfect. You might look at some Christians and think, “I don’t want to be like that!” But you’re not called to Christianity. Christ calls you to himself.
Don’t confuse religious pomp and show with Christ’s true glory. And don’t measure his glory by what you see in us.
Humble yourself before him, go to him, and he will shine on you.
Then:
Witness what you have seen
The man who had been born blind couldn’t read or write. He had no formal education and had to beg for money. Faced with the intellectual, well-off Pharisees he was no match for a debate.
If he’d wondered about what questions they might ask him, he might have felt intimidated. He might well have feared the ridicule he did get. But he had something they didn’t. John 9:25 One thing I do know: I was blind, and now I can see!
If you’re a Christian, fearing the questions people might throw at you about faith, you can do much worse than learn from that beggar: One thing I do know: I was blind, and now I can see!
His testimony would deepen as he came to Jesus.
Seeing Jesus
Let’s read again what happened when the man actually saw Jesus for the first time, when Jesus sought him out. Read John 9:35-38.
You don’t need to have had a dramatic conversion. Some here had colourful lives before coming to faith. Others became Christian by praying to God as very young children growing up in a Christian home. Whatever your faith story, it’s your story to tell.
You might be asked, “What about this?” or “What about that?” And you can say (from v25), “I don’t know. One thing I do know: I was blind, and now I can see!”
They’ll ask, “What about suffering?” Jesus is the light of the world. He will shine a light on your suffering for you, so that you can see it has purpose for good (though it is still suffering). More, he will shine through your suffering to others.
Jesus is the light of the world. As you walk by faith he will light your path ahead – sometimes by only a few footsteps. When I first knew for sure that he wanted me to leave the corporate world to become a pastor, I had no idea where that would be. He lit the first few steps, and I followed by faith, not knowing where he was leading. That is trust.
Walk in the light
When you walk by faith, you must walk in obedience. They go hand in hand; obedience is only faith in action. Don’t undermine your witness by walking in darkness, in faithless disobedience. So put sin to death. And whatever you do, point people to Christ, not Christianity.
To do that, you need to know him yourself. Come to Jesus daily. Know him more richly, deeply, fully.
Do what that man did: John 9:38 “I believe, Lord!” he said, and he worshipped him. It’s good to gather for worship here, but never ever stop worshipping him one-to-one. The more you do that, then your witness for him – however simple it may sound to you – will be powerful and undeniable.
John 9:25 “One thing I do know: I was blind, and now I can see!”