I Was Blind, Now I See | Frontline Faith

Play This Verse Study

0:00 0:00

Scripture • World English Bible

John 9:35–41

WEB

³⁵Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and finding him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of God?”

³⁶He answered, “Who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him?”

³⁷Jesus said to him, “You have both seen him, and it is he who speaks with you.”

³⁸He said, “Lord, I believe!” and he worshiped him.

³⁹Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment, that those who don’t see may see; and that those who see may become blind.”

⁴⁰Those of the Pharisees who were with him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?”

⁴¹Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see.’ Therefore your sin remains.

World English Bible (WEB) • Public Domain

Reflection

In this closing scene of the healed man's story we see the heart of Jesus' mission and the pattern of true faith. The man who had been physically blind was not only given sight but also a new place in the family of God. He had been expelled by the religious leaders, left outside their circles; yet Jesus went to find him. That tells us something urgent: Jesus seeks those who have been rejected, overlooked, or made to feel unworthy.

Notice the man’s honest question when Jesus asks if he believes in the Son of God. He does not pretend to know everything; he asks for help in identifying the one to whom he should entrust his faith. Jesus doesn’t rebuke the question. He gives the man what he needs — a personal revelation — and the man responds in the only fitting way: belief that becomes worship.

Jesus’ following words about coming into the world for judgment sharpen the lesson. Judgment here is not only condemnation but a dividing of hearts: those who recognize their blindness receive sight; those who insist they already see are left in their condition. The Pharisees’ proud challenge — are we also blind? — exposes their problem. They claim spiritual sight and self-righteousness, so they miss the mercy offered right before them. Jesus' paradox is simple and unsettling: admitting we are blind opens the door to forgiveness and new life; insisting we see keeps us trapped in sin.

This passage is a pastoral mirror. It asks us: Where do we need to own our blindness — pride, assumptions, fears — so that Jesus can reveal himself and we may truly see? It also reminds us that faith often begins in a humble question and results in worship. The same Jesus who found the outcast then and finds the outcast now invites honest seeking. He doesn’t wait for perfect answers; he waits for open hearts.

Take heart: if you feel excluded, unsure, or unworthy, Jesus seeks you out. If you are tempted to defend your sight and look down on others, remember that true sight begins with humility. The healed man’s journey from being thrown out to kneeling in worship points us to the path of grace: encounter, honest question, revelation, belief, and worship.

Putting Faith Into Action

Confess one spiritual blind spot. Quietly name an area of life where you’ve assumed you "see" (pride, judgment of others, a hidden habit). Pray, asking Jesus to show you the truth and to give sight. Then journal what he reveals.
Practice asking like the healed man. In your next prayer time, tell Jesus you don’t have all the answers and ask, Who are you to me? Be ready to listen and to respond in faith with a simple statement like, Lord, I believe.
Find and welcome the excluded. Identify someone who feels on the margins in your church or neighborhood. Reach out with a practical act of kindness or an invitation to coffee, showing the same posture Jesus took toward the man others had cast out.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, you seek the lost and give sight to the blind. Show me where I am blind and give me humble eyes to see your truth. Help me to receive your revelation with belief and to worship you with my life. Use me to reach someone who feels excluded, that they too may meet you. Amen.

Memory Verse

John 9:35 — Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and finding him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of God?” (WEB)

“Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and finding him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of God?””

Keep Going Continue to Part 38 The Door for the Sheep John · John 10:1–10 Read the next devotional →

Bible Context

Read all of John 9

John 9

World English Bible • WEB

¹As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth.

²His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

³Jesus answered, “This man didn’t sin, nor did his parents, but that the works of God might be revealed in him.

⁴I must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. The night is coming, when no one can work.

⁵While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

⁶When he had said this, he spat on the ground, made mud with the saliva, anointed the blind man’s eyes with the mud,

⁷and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means “Sent”). So he went away, washed, and came back seeing.

⁸Therefore the neighbors and those who saw that he was blind before said, “Isn’t this he who sat and begged?”

⁹Others were saying, “It is he.” Still others were saying, “He looks like him.”

¹⁰They therefore were asking him, “How were your eyes opened?”

¹¹He answered, “A man called Jesus made mud, anointed my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam and wash.’ So I went away and washed, and I received sight.”

¹²Then they asked him, “Where is he?”

¹³They brought him who had been blind to the Pharisees.

¹⁴It was a Sabbath when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes.

¹⁵Again therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he received his sight. He said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, I washed, and I see.”

¹⁶Some therefore of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, because he doesn’t keep the Sabbath.”

¹⁷Therefore they asked the blind man again, “What do you say about him, because he opened your eyes?”

¹⁸The Jews therefore didn’t believe concerning him, that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of him who had received his sight,

¹⁹and asked them, “Is this your son, whom you say was born blind? How then does he now see?”

²⁰His parents answered them, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind;

²¹but how he now sees, we don’t know; or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. He is of age. Ask him. He will speak for himself.”

²²His parents said these things because they feared the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that if any man would confess him as Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue.

²³Therefore his parents said, “He is of age. Ask him.”

²⁴So they called the man who was blind a second time, and said to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.”

²⁵He therefore answered, “I don’t know if he is a sinner. One thing I do know: that though I was blind, now I see.”

²⁶They said to him again, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”

²⁷He answered them, “I told you already, and you didn’t listen. Why do you want to hear it again? You don’t also want to become his disciples, do you?”

²⁸They insulted him and said, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses.

²⁹We know that God has spoken to Moses. But as for this man, we don’t know where he comes from.”

³⁰The man answered them, “How amazing! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes.

³¹We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, he listens to him.

³²Since the world began it has never been heard of that anyone opened the eyes of someone born blind.

³³If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”

³⁴They answered him, “You were altogether born in sins, and do you teach us?” Then they threw him out.