John 9:13-34 — The Probing of Blindness

John 9:13-34 — The Probing of Blindness

All throughout chapters 7-12 in the Gospel of John we see the Jewish leadership in Jerusalem oppose Jesus at every turn. In chapter 8, they took issue with Jesus calling Himself "the Light of the World" at the heel of the Feast of Tabernacles. Jesus was declaring that He is the fulfillment and the referent of all the symbolism in that Feast. However, they continued in their unbelief. John chapter 9 now tells us the reasons why they did not believe and points to a danger that we can all face in our Christian walk.

The Pharisees were further upset in chapter 9 because Jesus had given sight to the blind-from-birth man on a Sabbath. Some of the Pharisees were emphatic that Jesus "is not from God because He does not keep the Sabbath." Consequently, they interrogated the man and his parents hoping to get something by which they can repudiate Jesus and His miracle. If in John 9:1-12 we see the miracle of sight, in John 9:13-34, we ironically see the probing of blindness. The Pharisees, who saw themselves as the teachers of Israel, were blind to the truth of God, while the man who was born blind has received physical and spiritual sight as we will see in the rest of the chapter. But weren't the Pharisees the sect who was holding firmly to the Scripture? Weren't they just obeying the Law of Moses about observing the Sabbath? If you were in Jerusalem that day would you have recognized the error of the Pharisees and believed that Jesus is the Messiah? How do you recognize whether what a person is saying is from God today?

Here are seven tests to help do that:
1. The Test of Fulfilled Prophecy (The Accuracy Test)

• Deuteronomy 18:21-22

2. The Test of Allegiance to God (The Doctrinal Test)

• Deuteronomy 13:1-3  

3. The Test of Their "Fruit" (The Character Test)

• Matthew 7:15-20  

4. The Test of Their Motivation (The Greed Test)

• 2 Peter 2:3
• Titus 1:10-11  

5. The Test of Their Lifestyle (The Morality Test)

• 2 Peter 2:18-19
• Matthew 24:24  

6. The Test of Their Message About Jesus Christ (The Christological Test)

• 1 John 4:1-3
• 2 Peter 2:1  

7. The Test of Their Source of Authority (The Apostolic Test)

• 2 Peter 3:15-16
• Jude 1:3-4

It is my prayer that you are living with discernment in the midst of a confused world. My exhortation to you is that of Ephesians 4:14 "that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,"