I.—THE BLINDNESS OF THE JEWS.
John 9:39-41.
No scripture can be divorced from its context without losing somewhat of its force and beauty. And the well-known passage in the Gospel of John dealing with the Good Shepherd is, like all other inspired writings, only a single link in the chain wrought by the Spirit of God for His own ends and purposes. It may therefore be profitable to meditate upon it with this thought before the mind.
The eighth and ninth chapters of John show in considerable detail both the inability of the Jews to appreciate in any measure the testimony of God which was being given them by the Lord from heaven, and also the enmity of their hearts against the One Who by His words of truth disturbed the serenity of their hypocritical ways. He was among them as the “Light of the world” (John 8:12); but this did not aid their moral perception; for to them noonday was no better than night. The light shone; but alas! they were blind. Had they confessed their true state then, as they will do in a later day, they would have said “We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes; we stumble at noonday as in the night” (Isa. 59:10).
Neither would such blindness then, any more than now or ever, have been a bar to blessing. For the prophets had testified beforehand that it wad a characteristic work of the Messiah to open the eyes of the blind (Psa. 146:8; Isa. 29:18; 35:5; 42:7). And this the Lord did, both in the temple (Matt. 21:14) and by the wayside (Luke 18:35). And what He did for the natural sight was but an earnest of what He would do for the spiritual eyes. Those that saw not should see and their sin be put away; but, in their pride of heart, the nation, by the mouths of their responsible religious leaders, said “We see” and thus their sin remained (John 9:41).
PROOF OF BLINDNESS.
It is important to observe that at the close of chap. 9., according to the teaching of this Gospel, the complete rejection of the Lord by the Jews is definitely marked. This is indeed indicated in a. general way in the first four chapters, but from thence it is shown to increase in intensity. In chap. 5:16 they persecute Him and seek to slay Him because He healed the impotent man on the Sabbath. day. In chap. 6:66 many of His disciples go back and walk no more with Him because of what He was teaching. In chap. 7:32 The Pharisees and chief priests send officers to take Him because many of the people believed on Him. In chap. 8. He argues with the Jews as only that One could Whose words were truth as well as spirit and life. But they do not understand His speech, because they cannot hear His word (ver. 43). Being full of all contumaciousness, they interrupt Him and oppose; failing in argument, as error must in presence of truth, they resort to abuse and say He is a Samaritan and has a demon (ver. 48). When His words still pursue them, piercing and cutting more keenly than a two-edged sword, laying them naked and bare before His very eyes (Heb. 4:12), they take up stones to cast at Him, and thus drive Him from their midst (ver. 59). They could not endure Him because of what He says, because He tells them the truth (ver. 40).
Their blindness is thus proved. Would they but own this, they need not despair; for in chap. 9. the Lord shows that He can open the eyes even of one born blind. This act however provokes the Jews to further hostility. They, first of all, strive to make it appear that there was no miracle at all. Defeated in this, because the man is simple and honest enough to abide by the fact that his eyes had been opened by Jesus, they spitefully cast the poor fellow out of the synagogue as a disciple of Christ.
Thus the Spirit testifies in chaps. 8. and 9. that the Jews would not believe in what He said nor in what He did. His words and His works were alike offensive to them. They want neither Him nor His followers. This miracle would not have created such a stir if any but Jesus had done it.
Herein was the true condition of their hearts made manifest. As the Lord Himself said “For judgment I am come into the world” (chap. 9:39). Not of course to pronounce the sentence of final condemnation as He will do by-and-by (John 5:22, 27, 29); for He was here as a Savior not as a Judge (John 3:17; 12:47.) Nevertheless His presence afforded a very conclusive proof whether they could see or not. He was in their midst as the Light of the world, as the Dayspring from on high to give light to them that sat in darkness and the shadow of death (Luke 1:7S, 79). The Light verily shone in darkness; but instead of being enlightened (Isa. 60:1 margin), the darkness comprehended it not (John 1:5). Indeed this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil (John 3:19).
Willful BLINDNESS.
And this perversity made their state so much the more solemn. They were not only in darkness, but they loved it; they were not only blind but angry with the One Who would have healed them. The Lord had come that they which see not might see. But the Jews declined to own such a thing and gloried in themselves; in fact the dispensation was in its Laodicean stage. They said, like Christendom to-day, We are rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and they knew not they were wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked (Rev. 3:17). Oh! if they had but come down from their loftiness, and cried like the beggars of Jericho “Have mercy upon us, O Lord, Thou Son of David” (Matt. 20:30), their eyes might have been opened and they would have seen beauty in their King that they should desire Him. But no! so infatuated were they, so under the power of the enemy who blinds the minds of the unbelieving (2 Cor. 4:4), that they not only took the ground of being able to see for themselves, but assumed to be guides to the blind and lights to those in darkness (Rom. 2:19).
Inflated assumption! what could they be but blind guides at the best, as the Lord said to them (Matt. 23:16, 17, 26)? And if the blind led the blind, what could they do, but both fall into the ditch (Matt. 15:14)? And this was surely the unhappy result, when the chief priests persuaded the people to ask Barabbas and crucify Jesus, Whose blood rests on them and their children unto this day.
JUDICIAL BLINDNESS.
And this climax of iniquity was reached by the Jewish nation as the inevitable outcome of their persistent refusal to acknowledge the Lord and to own their real state before Him. And in John 9:39 we have His solemn warning of such a thing. Whilst He had come that those which saw not might see, the effect of His presence would also be that those who saw not would be made blind. It was dangerous for them to dally with God's offers of mercy. Grace and truth had come in His Person: to reject Him was to bring down upon them that judicial blindness spoken of by the prophet Isaiah. “Make the heart of this people fat and make their ears heavy and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and convert and be healed” (Isa. 6:10). The Lord was the Great Physician come to heal them. And of His power and readiness so to do, He had given repeated proofs. But they “would not” (Matt. 23:37), and accordingly their blind eyes were more blinded.
ISAIAH'S PROPHECY.
It is instructive to note that in Matthew as also in John we have the above named prophecy from Isaiah quoted. Matt. 13:14. And there, as in John 12:40, it is made to follow the rejection of the Messiah, not being quoted till they had ascribed His power of casting out demons to Beelzebub the prince of demons (Matt. 12:24).
And it may also be helpful in this connection to mark that this order is invariably observed in scripture. It is not till man's will actively opposes God's that He manifests His sovereignty. It is when man will not that he cannot. This is shown clearly enough in this Gospel (John); and, in direct sequence to the scripture before us, we read “But though He had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on Him; that the saying of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled which he spice, Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed”? (John 12:37, 38). Plainly they would not believe (John 5:40), though ample proofs were afforded. Then the passage proceeds, “Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again, He hath blinded their eyes and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes nor understand with their heart and be converted and I should heal them.
These things said Esaias when he saw His glory and spake of Him” (John 12:39-41). So that we see they could: not believe because they would not. However this hardening was but national and was not apart from mercy; for it is immediately added “Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on Him.”
Thus the Lord's words (John 9:39), may be taken as describing the twofold result of His mission here— “that they which see not might see and that those which see might be made blind.” He filled the hungry with good things, but the rich. He sent empty away. And, remembering the glory and worth of His Person, who shall measure the blessedness of the blind who received Him? Or, on the other hand, who shall measure the condemnation of those who rejected Him?
“Jesus said unto them If ye were blind, ye should have no sin; but now ye say we see, therefore your sin remaineth” (chap. 9:41.) Here the Lord states that they were responsible for the profession they were making concerning themselves. If they confessed their blindness, they would have no sin. For penitent sinners there was mercy and forgiveness. But if they said, We see, they were responsible to walk in the light and would be judged accordingly. If they could see as they said they should have recognized the Good Shepherd when He came. This the Lord develops in the parable of the sheepfold at which we may look on another occasion (D.V).
W. J. H.