Becoming Blind and Gaining Sight…at the same time

Here are some brief notes from last night’s study in John 9 at the youth Bible study.

At the end of a fairly long chapter of dialogue and debate this short interchange between Jesus and some Pharisees takes place:

[Jesus] “For judgment I have come into this world, so that those who do not see may gain their sight, and the ones who see may become blind.”  Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard this and asked him, “We are not blind too, are we?” Jesus replied, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin, but now because you claim that you can see, your guilt remains.” (John 9:39-41)

Working backwards from this (not surprisingly) masterful ending to John 9, through the lens of characterization here’s what I find:

The Disciples –

In this chapter long snapshot the disciples make a brief appearance, affording them just enough time to stick their collective foot in their mouth. “Rabbi, who committed the sin that caused him to be born blind this man or his parents?” (John 9:2).  Essentially, the disciples are flat (one-dimensional), static (unchanging) characters within the pericope.  With no input in the developing story, the disciples provide only a split-second example of the blindness Jesus will close the chapter commenting on.  However, don’t let size of their role fool you on the importance of their statement!

The Blind Man’s Parents

I haven’t quite figured these people out yet, but they seem to be yet more flat, static characters exhibiting blindness, though they seem also to be a foil character for the blind man and his response to Jesus.

The Blind Man

While I think the blind man is still a flat character, having only to do with things relating to blindness and sight.  At the same time, however, the blind man does introduce the first dynamic character in the chapter, as he journeys from physical blindness to spiritual sight.  On top of the blind man’s descriptions of his healing (9:11, 15), here are the blind man’s descriptions of Jesus:

“I don’t know” [where Jesus is] John 9:12

“He is a prophet” John 9:17

“I do not know whether he is a sinner.  I do know one thing – that although I was blind, now I can see.” John 9:25

Jesus is “from God” John 9:30-33,

“Lord, I believe” 35-38

Besides this obvious journey from blindness to sight, the blind man also asks a somewhat ambiguous and overtly sarcastic question of the Pharisees which may be seen as a confession: “You people don’t want to become his disciples too, do you?” (John 9:27).  Which leaves me asking, “Is the blind man not already Jesus’ disciple?”

The Pharisees

Making the opposite journey from sight to spiritual blindness, are the Pharisees.  It could be debated whether or not these characters are flat or round (I lean toward the latter), though they seem to be pretty one-dimensional in this chapter.  Moving through the chapter we see the Pharisees choosing to see less and less, even as their reactions to people become more and more violent (John 9:15, 18, 22, 24, 28, 34)

“the Pharisees asked him again how he had gained his sight” John 9:15

“there was a division among them [about Jesus]” John 9:16

“again they asked  the man, ‘What do you say about him since he caused you to see?'” John 9:17

“Now the Jewish religious leaders refused to believe that he had really been born blind? John 9:18

“The Jewish leaders had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Christ would be put out of the synagogue.” s a John 9:22

“We know that this man is a sinner” John 9:24

“They heaped insults on him saying…” John 9:28

“They replied, ‘You were born completely in sinfulness, and yet you presume to teach us?’  So they threw him out” John 9:34 (finally demonstrating their complete blindness through recapitulating the disciples’ initial blind statement in 9:2)

Finally they end with the statement of blindness which incites Jesus’ concluding statement which makes sense of the rest of the chapter: “We are not blind too, are we?”