March 06, 2026 | Be Connected
Jesus Teaches about Spiritual Blindness
Scripture: John 9:35-41(NIV)
35 Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
36 “Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.”
37 Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”
38 Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.
39 Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”
40 Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?”
41 Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.
Devotional
Jesus’s interactions with people have so many facets to them, none more than the story of the blind man in John 9. In these passages about healing the blind man, we get to the end of the story. The blind man was given sight. Jesus could have settled for that. He could have checked another healing miracle off His list for the day and moved on to the next miracle.
Jesus was not satisfied with that; He goes further. Jesus wanted to heal his spiritual sight as well, so He returns to the man and reveals Himself as “the Son of Man.” The man embraces and worships Jesus as his Messiah and Savior. And even then, Jesus is not satisfied with that. This man was not only healed, but he has also suffered an injustice at the hands of the religious leaders. The man testified about the miracle and the Pharisees threw him out of his synagogue as a result. The man expressed little regret over being kicked out of his synagogue; having the gift of sight is a much better deal. But Jesus cannot allow the injustice to go unnoticed.
It is the perfect opportunity to get a dig on the Pharisees, which is an opportunity Jesus never passed up. Jesus challenged them for their lack of spiritual sight, and the Pharisees objected, saying they were not blind. Perhaps they were confused about which sight Jesus was talking about. They had certainly forgotten the scripture they were taught in Jeremiah 5:21,
“Hear this, you foolish and senseless people,
who have eyes but do not see,
who have ears but do not hear.”
The biggest issue with the Pharisees was not that they were blind. It was that they could not see past the point of their noses. In their self-righteousness, their self-centeredness, they could not see the Messiah standing in front of them. Instead of celebrating the miracle of sight granted to this man, they were jealous that they had not performed the miracle themselves. Instead of embracing the arrival of the Messiah, they recoiled at the threat to their privileged positions.
In yet another facet to this story, Jesus goes even farther. Through John 9 we see that Jesus came to give all of us spiritual sight; that we should not be blind Pharisees. Spiritual sight is not only directed outward to see and accept Jesus as Savior, but also to look within ourselves to see where our lives do not align with his teaching.
Look around at your life. Where do you see Jesus? Are there areas you do not but where you should?
