John 9:1-41

The Central Idea of the Text is that Jesus reveals Himself as Messiah by healing a blind man (John 9:1-7; cf. Isa. 29:18; 35:5). Jesus healed a man who had been blind from birth, and this stirred the Pharisees to provide an answer to those who witnessed the miracle.  The Pharisees asked four times how the man came to be healed (John 9:10, 15, 19, 26), but their questions did not originate from an honest inquiry, for they were deeply biased.  The man healed of his blindness was not intimidated by the Pharisees, and demonstrated consistent biblical rationales in his discussion.  Jesus allowed the man to have his confrontation with the Pharisees and came to him after he had been excommunicated from the synagogue.  The man lost the support of the synagogue, but gained Christ.  Religious pride kept the Jewish leaders from seeing/accepting the miracles Jesus performed as signs that He is the Messiah. God controls infirmities as well as healing (see Ex. 4:11; Ps. 146:8).  There are cases in Scripture where God did not heal people and used sickness or hardship to his advantage (1 Sam. 16:14-16; 2 Ki. 13:14; 1 Cor. 11:27-30; 2 Cor. 12:7-10; Phil. 2:25-30; 2 Tim. 4:20).  Sickness and disease are not always about sin or discipline.  We live in a fallen world and we experience sickness and disease because of Adam’s sin.