Blinded by the Light

John, chapter 9 - Jesus encounters a man blind from birth.

The disciples want to assign blame - who has sinned here, the blind man or his parents? At the end of chapter 9 we see the Pharisees do the same thing, telling the man he was "born in utter sin" and casting him out of the synagogue.

Jesus, on the other hand, seeks not to assign blame, but to glorify the Father and free the man through healing. I don't know about you, but I like this approach much better. At the end of the chapter, Jesus says, "I came into this world that those who do not see may see and those who see may become blind." It is clear from his later statement to the Pharisees that all of us - everyone - is spiritually blind and needs to be healed by Jesus. But the ones who refuse to confess this, and rather say that they can see, exclude themselves from grace and demand judgment.