The Gospel of John 9:1-41

Healing the Man Born Blind

9:1 As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth.
2 And His disciples asked Him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?"
3 Jesus answered, "It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.
4 "We must work the Works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work.
5 "While I am in the world, I am the Light of the world."
6 When He had said this, He spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and applied the clay to his eyes,
7 and said to him, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam" (which is translated Sent). So he went away and washed, and came back seeing.
8 Therefore the neighbors, and those who previously saw him as a beggar, were saying, "Is not this the one who used to sit and beg?"
9 Others were saying, "This is he," still others were saying, "No, but he is like him." He kept saying, "I am the one."
10 So they were saying to him, "How then were your eyes opened?"
11 He answered, "The man who is called Jesus made clay, and anointed my eyes, and said to me, 'Go to Siloam and wash'; so i went away and washed, and I received sight."
12 They said to him, "Where is He?" He said, "I don't know."
13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who was formerly blind.
14 Now it was a Sabbath on the day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes.
15 Then the Pharisees were also asking him again how he received is sight. And he said to them, "He applied clay to my eyes, and I washed, and I see."
16 Therefore some of the Pharisees were saying, "This man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath." But others were saying, "How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?" And there was a division among them.
17 So they said to the blind man again, "What do you say about Him, since He opened your eyes?" And he said, "He is a prophet."
18 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 sight,
19 and questioned them, saying, "I this your son, who you say was born blind? Then how does he now see?"
20 His parents answered them and said, "We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind;
21 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."
22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone confessed Him to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.
23 For this reason his parents said, "He is of age; ask him."
24 So a second time they called the man who had been blind, and said to him, "Give glory to God; we know this man is a sinner."
25 He then answered, "Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see."
26 So they said to him, "What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes?"
27 He answered them, "I told you already and you did not listen; why do you want to hear it again? You do not want to become His disciples too, do you?"
28 They reviled him and said, "You are His disciple, but we are disciples of Moses.
29 "We know that god has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where He is from."
30 The man answered and said to them, "Well, here is an amazing thing, that you do not know where He is from, and yet He opened  eyes.
31 "We know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He hears him.
32 "Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind.
33 "If this man were not from God, He could do nothing."
34 They answered him, "You were born entirely in sins, and are you teaching us?" So they put him out.
35 Jesus heard that they had put him out, and finding him, He said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?"
36 He answered, "Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?"
37 Jesus said to him, "You have both seen Him, and He is the one who is talking with you."
38 And he said, "Lord, I believe." And he worshipped Him.
39 And Jesus said, "For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind."
40 Those of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these things and said to Him, "We are not blind too, are we?"
41 Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, 'We see', your sin remains."
John 9:1-41

Well as soon as it got to line 14 I knew Jesus was in trouble. Why the Sabbath? Either He is just making these miracles happen by accident on a Sunday, or He is purposely testing the Pharisees. If Jesus found the cure for cancer and stopped every child from starving, the Pharisees would be twice as angry that He didn't just do one work, but two...

Then the Pharisees started bothering the man who could see. They said he was lying about being born blind, he was lying about Jesus healing him, his parents were lying that he had been blind, he was lying... And finally he just gives it to them strait, "What do you want from me?! Why are you accusing me of being healed? This is suppose to be a good thing." Then he joked about them secretly wanting to be Jesus's disciples, and then he got bounced from the temple.

But when Jesus found him and had one of the most confusing conversations I've ever heard.

"For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind." Those of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these things and said to Him, "We are not blind too, are we?" Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, 'We see', your sin remains."

-Wait, shouldn't it be: I will make those who are blind able to see, and I will make those who can see, but choose not to, blind. There's that whole thing with the "blind" having dual meanings like: literal blindness and blind ignorance. So I'm confused which He's saying, but that's o.k. I'll just fill in the blanks and assume he means to heal the world that is physically blind and judge those who are ignorant or remain in sin.

You know when I read the title of this story I was wondering why it was 41 lines long. And sure enough, the actual healing takes only 7 lines. And yet the repercussions of that one act caused a stir that led to 34 more lines of he-said-she-said-doubt by the Pharisees. It just had to be on the Sabbath...