John 9:3, commentary and pictures

Jesus saw a man blind from birth and healed him, declaring that the blindness was not punishment for a particular sin of the man or of his parents. He did not explain the cause of the affliction but pointed to its purpose, that the works of God would be revealed in the man and give convincing evidence of his divine mission. The giving of sight displayed God's power and mercy working through Christ himself, as God overruled suffering inflicted by Satan to show mercy. Sickness, hardship, and weakness are therefore not always signs of God's anger or retribution for the sufferer's own fault, and it is a distortion to treat every affliction as arbitrary punishment from God. Instead of speculating about guilt and condemning sufferers and adding to their distress, observers are to show tender compassion like the Shepherd who sought the despised outcast, bringing relief that glorifies the Creator.

Setting and Plain Meaning

John 9:3 belongs to the account in which Jesus, the I AM, saw and healed a man blind from birth, blind from his youth. The healing followed His declaration in the temple, Before Abraham was, I AM; the enraged Pharisees would have stoned Him for blasphemy, but as the I AM He blinded their eyes so they could not see Him as He passed through their midst, and as He passed through the multitude He saw the blind man. The healing took place on the Sabbath; the Pharisees called Jesus a sinner for doing it, while others reasoned that such a miracle showed He was more than an ordinary man.

The verse denies that the man's blindness was punishment for a particular sin of his or of his parents. Sickness and distress are not always evidence of God's anger toward the transgressor or righteous retribution for wrongdoing. Jesus did not explain the cause of the blindness; He pointed to its result, that the works of God would be made manifest in the man.

The blindness became the occasion to reveal God's works and to give convincing evidence of Christ's divine mission, which the Pharisees in prejudice and unbelief failed to recognize while the healed man testified to what had been done. The giving of sight displayed God's power and mercy through Christ Himself, not through the clay or the pool. As the history of Job had already taught, Satan inflicts suffering and God overrules it for purposes of mercy.

Compassion and Human Response

It is true that suffering results from transgression, but that truth had been distorted into the belief that every affliction is an arbitrary punishment from God. Jesus rejected the assumption that blindness was punishment for a particular sin of the man or of his parents, and He did not explain its cause but pointed to its result, that the works of God would be made manifest. Instead of speculating about guilt, those who observe affliction are to see God's power and mercy in bringing relief, for the healing came through Christ Himself and not through the clay or the pool. As the history of Job had already taught, Satan inflicts suffering and God overrules it for purposes of mercy.

Sickness, distress, hardship, and physical weakness are not always evidence of God's anger toward the transgressor or righteous retribution for wrongdoing. A person's suffering is not necessarily the result of his own fault or sin, nor of the sin of his parents. To treat affliction as proof of God's judgment and to tell sufferers that they only bear punishment for misdeeds unjustly condemns them and adds to the burdens of those already in distress. The custom of holding aloof from the sick and needy, pronouncing the afflicted incurable, and condemning them is wrong, especially since those who judge in this way are often more corrupt in heart and life than the poor sufferers they condemn.

The healing shows the compassionate Shepherd seeking and saving a man whom the self-righteous Pharisees despised and treated as worthy only of hatred. In this is revealed God's compassion toward those whom others reject, and the restoration points to Christ's saving work. Jesus drew near to the born-blind man with tender compassion even though the man did not yet know who He was, and later revealed Himself to him as the Son of God, whom the man worshiped. Hardship can thus become an occasion for God's work to be made visible, as God brings relief and redemption to people bowed down by sin, sorrow, and pain, and their restoration glorifies the Creator. Even those born with feeble constitutions can glorify God through patient endurance.