John 9:30 Commentary and Bible Study

He effectively says to them, ‘Here is a great marvel. You are the leaders of the people, and you are ignorant of this great prophet, and who he is, and what he has done.’ It is his way of saying, ‘I do not recognise you anymore.’ He dares to instruct them – a man born blind, a beggar, instructing the most highly educated religious people of the day. But he is right and they are wrong. He has more insight into the ways of God than they do with all their years of study. The priesthood is slipping away; it is already collapsing. It is already being withdrawn, and the priesthood of all believers, light and understanding to believers, is taking its place. They are in darkness and cannot draw the most obvious conclusion that Jesus has come from God. They fight against this conclusion because of their prejudice. The healed man has already learned so much. He had learned that the power to give sight to those born blind can only come from God; that God does not give this power to anyone but only those who he approves and favours; that those who live in habitual sin would never be heard by God and never be given this power to heal. He knows that his case was a particularly sever case for he was born blind and did not just lost his sight during life. He does not know of another case in the whole of history of someone born blind receiving their sight, and furthermore being able to understand what they see, and see as if they had been seeing all their lives. He still has much to learn about who Jesus is, but so far what he says is far more enlightened than the Pharisees.