Jesus heard that they had put him out, and after finding him, He said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered and said, “Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?” Jesus said to him, “You have both seen Him, and He is the one who is talking with you.” And he said, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshiped Him. 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.” Some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these things and said to Him, “Are we blind too?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.”
John 9:35-41
Introduction
All the buildup with the man who was born blind meets its payoff only after he was fully rejected by the Pharisees who sought to judge both him and the Lord. It is then that he meets Jesus once again. And he did not have to go looking for Jesus because, it was Christ who sought out the man born blind. He went from standing outside the Temple, blind, and presumably begging, to fully receiving sight and becoming hand selected by the Messiah.
All of that was the work of Jesus, with none of it from himself. Then Jesus gives him a gift even greater than sight: He tells the man who He is. “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” Upon learning that Jesus was and is the Son of Man, that is the Messiah and God in the flesh, the man makes his confession and bows down before Him.
Jesus received worship
It is easy to miss this when just running through the scripture, but this very moment offers proof that Jesus Himself recognized His own divinity. There are some who will claim that Jesus is not God because He does not claim to be. Those often come from the camps of Muslims or Jehovah’s Witnesses.
But consider for a moment that embedded in the Ten Commandments is one which expressly forbids bowing down and worshiping any who are not God: “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God.” (Exodus 20:5) So it is pertinent to compare this moment to another recorded by John.
The book of Revelation contains fantastic and terrifying visions John saw while exiled to the island of Patmos. An angel shows him these visions, and in chapter 19, it all becomes too much for John.
Then he said to me, “Write ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’” And he said to me, “These are true words of God.” Then I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, “Do not do that! I am a fellow slave with you and your brothers who have the witness of Jesus. Worship God! For the witness of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”
Revelation 19:9-10
“Worship God!” is the command of the angel. Because God alone is worthy of worship. Jesus accepts the worship of the man born blind because He is God.
The terrifying judgment
Having brought one of His own into the fold, Jesus turns His attention to the remaining Pharisees who happened to be there with Him. While His purpose in His first advent was to save rather than judge (John 3:17), judgment remains for those who hear Him but do not believe. He calls this judgment “becoming blind.” That is because the way of the Kingdom does not follow extensive study and tireless debate over the Law.
Instead, the way of the Kingdom is found in the person of Jesus Christ alone. This man who was born blind encountered Jesus and believed. And so along with his physical sight, the man received true sight in knowing truth. But these Pharisees who believed they knew it all were shown to be blind, and are left to their own devices along with their sins.
When we cling to what we think we need rather than leaving it all in the hands of the Lord who loves us, what we are really doing is clinging to the sin of self sufficiency. We are grasping onto the sin that tells God we are enough rather than that He is enough. Let us be more like this man born blind and recognize the eternal goodness of the One who loved us enough to put on flesh and die the death we deserved so that we might have new life in Him.
May the Lord bless you and conform you into the image of His Son.
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