Jesus heals a blind man
1 As Jesus walked along he noticed someone who had been blind from birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, was it his own or his parents’ fault that this person was born blind?”
3 “Neither,” answered Jesus. “It was so the actions of God can be revealed in him. 4 We must keep performing the actions of the one sending me while it is daytime; the night is coming, when no one can work. 5 But as long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
6 Having said this, he spat on the ground and made mud out of the saliva. He smeared the mud on the person’s eyes 7 and said to him, “Go and wash yourself in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated “Commissioned”). He went and washed, and came back seeing. 8 Then the neighbors and those who had seen him before (since he was a beggar) asked, “Isn’t this the one who used to sit and beg?”
9 Some said, “This is he,” while others said, “It can’t be! It’s only someone who looks like him.” But he said, “I am that one.”
10 Then they said to him, “How were your eyes opened up?”
11 He answered, “The one called Jesus made mud and smeared it on my eyes, then told me to go and wash in the pool of Siloam. I did this and received my sight.”
12 So they asked, “Where is he?” but he replied, “I don’t know.”
The Pharisees challenge the power by which Jesus heals
13 So they took the one who had been blind to the Pharisees. 14 Now it was on a Sabbath day that Jesus made the mud and opened up his eyes. 15 And the Pharisees too asked him how he received his sight. He told them, “He smeared mud on my eyes, I washed, and I see.”
16 Then some of the Pharisees said, “This person is not from God since he does not honor the Sabbath.” Yet others said, “How can a scoundrel do such miracles?” So a rift developed among them. 17 Then once again they say to the blind one, “What do you have to say about him, seeing that he opened up your eyes?” And he replied, “He is a prophet.” 18 Yet the Judeans still didn’t believe he was blind and then received sight till they summoned his parents.
19 And they asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? So how is it that he can see now?”
20 “We know this is our son and that he was born blind,” his parents answered. 21 “But we don’t know how he can see now, or who opened up his eyes. Ask him yourself, since he is of age and can speak for himself.” 22 (His parents said these things because they feared the Judeans, who had already agreed that anyone confirming Jesus as Christ would be put out of the synagogue. 23 That’s why they said, “He is of age, ask him.”)
24 So they summoned the person born blind a second time and said to him, “Swear to tell the truth! We know that this person is a scoundrel.”
25 “If he’s a scoundrel, I certainly don’t know,” he replied. “But one thing I do know is that I was blind and now I see.”
26 But again they asked, “What did he do to you? How did he open up your eyes?”
27 He answered, “I already told you but you don’t listen. Why do you want to hear it again? You don’t want to become his disciples too, do you?”
28 They vilified him and said, “You’re a disciple of his, but we are disciples of Moses! 29 We know that God spoke to Moses, but this one— we don’t know where he comes from.”
30 “How shocking,” the person answered, “that you don’t know where he comes from even though he opened my eyes! 31 We know that God does not listen to scoundrels; he only listens to those who honor him and do as he wills. 32 No one has ever heard of anyone opening up the eyes of the blind, 33 so unless this one was from God he couldn’t do anything.”
34 “You were born saturated in sin, and you dare to lecture us!” they retorted. And they threw him out.
35 Jesus heard that they threw him out, and when he found him he asked, “Do you trust in the Human?”
36 He answered, “Who is he, sir, that I should put my trust in him?”
37 “You have seen him; he’s talking to you!” Jesus replied.
38 Then he declared, “I believe, sir!” And he worshiped him.
Spiritual blindness
39 Then Jesus said, “I have come into the world in judgment, so that those who cannot see may see, and those who see may become blind.”
40 The Pharisees who were with him heard this, and they said to him, “Surely we are not blind too!”
41 “If you were blind,” Jesus replied, “you couldn’t be charged with sin. But now, since you say that you see, your guilt remains.