“If you were blind, you wouldn’t be guilty,” Jesus replied. “But you remain guilty because you claim you can see.” John 9:41

 

Jesus wasn’t liked by the religious people of His day. Although they had physical sight, Jesus called them spiritually blind.

 

There’s an incredible story in the Bible book of John about a beggar who was blind from birth. When Jesus and His disciples met the man, Jesus did a weird thing: “He spit on the ground, made mud with the saliva and spread the mud over the blind man’s eyes, telling him, “Go wash yourself… So the man went and washed and came back seeing!” (John 9:6-7). The man’s neighbors asked, “Who healed you? What happened?” They took him straight to the religious leaders in the synagogue.

 

The religious leaders were outraged–they said Jesus couldn’t be God because He did this on a day no work was to be done. That made Jesus a sinner! They interrogated the healed man and his parents. Finally, the man exclaimed, “I don’t know whether he is a sinner…But I know this: I was blind and now I see!”

 

The prideful religious elites sat in instant judgment of everyone—the man, his parents, Jesus. Cursing, they condemned Jesus. We don’t even know where He’s from… and we would know, they implied.

 

Jesus told the healed man, “I entered this world…to show those who think they see that they are blind.” To the religious, Jesus said, “If you were blind, you wouldn’t be guilty…But you remain guilty because you claim you can see” (John 9:39-41).

 

God welcomes us in our desire to have our spiritual eyes opened by Him. In the words of the transformed man, “God doesn’t listen to sinners, but he is ready to hear those who worship him and do his will” (John 9:31).