Gospel of John

A single pericope takes up the entire sequence of this chapter, having to do with a healing Jesus performs and the controversy that follows. Jesus’s disciples see a man along the side of the road who has been blind from birth, which prompts them to ask Jesus whether the man is blind because of his own sin or because of his parents’ sin. Jesus answers that neither is the case, but that the man’s blindness will result in God’s glory through healing. Then Jesus places some mud on the man’s eyes and sends him to go and wash in the pool of Siloam, and when the man does this, his sight is restored. News of the healing quickly gets around, and it captures the interest of the Pharisees, who look into the matter and interrogate the healed man. The Pharisees wrestle with whether such miraculous power could come from anyone who did not have God’s blessing, but they are predisposed to regard Jesus antagonistically because of their disagreement over the keeping of the Sabbath.

Some of the religious authorities do not believe the miracle account, so they call in the healed man’s parents. The parents are intimidated and decline to speak on the matter, but the healed man happily relates that although he doesn’t know who Jesus is, he can nonetheless say what happened to him: “One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see” (9:25).