The investigation of the miracle.
This was prompted by the unfriendly questioners first referred to.
I. THE INQUIRY OF THE PHARISEES.
1. They first examined the beggar as to the facts of his cure. These it was as impossible to ignore as it was difficult to explain.
2. The performance of the cure on the sabbath day was the pivot upon which the question turned. "Now it was the sabbath day that Jesus made the clay, and opened the eyes of this man." Of the three and thirty miracles of our Lord recorded in the Gospels, no less than seven were performed on the sabbath day, as if to show, in opposition to Pharisaic perversions, that works of mercy were essentially included in the sabbath law.
II. THE DIVISION AMONG THE PHARISEES. "Therefore said some of the Pharisees, This Man is not of God, because he keepeth not the sabbath day. Others said, How can a bad man do such miracles? And there was a division among them."
1. The ill-conditioned party concede the truth of the miracle, but imply that it must have been done by the power of the evil one. They take their stand upon a false idea of the sabbath.
2. The friendly party, including men like Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathaea, feel the difficulty of a bad man doing works of mercy and love through Divine power. The difficulty is ethical as well as theological.
III. THE WITNESS OF THE BEGGAR HIMSELF. "They say unto the blind man again, What sayest thou of him, that he hath opened thine eyes? He said, He is a Prophet."
1. He does not hesitate to oppose the judgment of the Pharisees in words that bespeak the firmest conviction.
2. He recognizes in the miracle the energy of Divine Tower, and in Jesus the character of a Representative of God.
3. How often a simple, unlettered believer sees what learned rabbis, or doctors, or synods, cannot see!
IV. THE APPEAL OF THE PHARISEES TO THE BEGGAR'S PARENTS.
1. It was the suggestion of their unbelief. "But the Jews did not believe concerning him that he had been blind." Unbelief always seeks to justify itself in some way. None are so blind as those who will not see.
2. They expected that the parents, through fear of excommunication, would either deny the identity of their son, or the fact of his blindness from birth.
3. Mark the wariness, yet the cowardice, of the parents.
V. A FRESH APPEAL TO THE BLIND BEGGAR. "Then again called they the man that was blind, and said unto him, Give God the glory: we know that this Man is a sinner."
1. They demand a denial of the miracle as in some sense essential to a right view of God's glory.
2. The answer to their appeal brings further discomfiture. "Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see."
3. The anger of the Pharisees. "Then they reviled him, and said, Thou art his disciple; but we are Moses' disciples."
(a) The Pharisees claimed special knowledge to decide upon the authority of any one professing to be a prophet, yet they failed to give account of all the facts of the case.
(b) The man asserts a fact of great theological import to settle the claims of Jesus: "Now we know that God heareth not sinners."
( α) It is a fact based on Scripture teaching (Isaiah 1:11-15; Psalms 66:18; Psalms 119:7). All men, no doubt, are sinners, but the Scripture statement applies specially to men living in habitual sin and without faith in God.
( β) The privileges of believers are fully asserted. "But if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth." God hears the prayer of the man whose religion is both speculatively and practically true.
( γ) The miracle wrought in the present case was without parallel. "Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind." No science or skill had ever effected a cure of this sort. Therefore there must have been superhuman and Divine power exercised in the operation. "If this Man were not of God, he could do nothing." Thus his general argument from Scripture and his conclusion alike deny the assertion of the Pharisees that Jesus was a sinner.
(a) The Pharisees cast in his teeth the calamity of his birth as a sign of special sin. They forget that they are only, by their act, acknowledging the reality of a miracle they had all along tried to evade or deny.
(b) They are aghast at the assumption of a person under God's curse undertaking to teach theology to the recognized guides of Israel.
(c) They expel him with an impatient contempt from their presence.