John 9:35Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

So also we, if we distribute our possessions here, shall find boldness there. If here we give aid to the suffering, we shall receive rest in heaven.

If we endure reproach for God's sake, we shall be deemed worthy of honors both here and there.

When they cast the blind man out of the temple, Jesus found him. The Evangelist shows that Christ was walking precisely in order to meet him.

See with what He rewards him: with the first of blessings. He reveals Himself to the blind man, who previously did not know Him, and includes him among His disciples.

But notice how carefully the Evangelist narrates. When Christ asked, "Do you believe in the Son of God?" the man answered, "And who is He?"

He still did not know Him, though he had received healing from Him. Before he approached his Benefactor, he was blind. After the healing, he was dragged about by those dogs.

Therefore Christ, like a certain judge of the contest, receives him as an athlete who has labored much and has been crowned.

And what does He say? "Do you believe in the Son of God?" What does this mean?

After such a contest with the Jews, after so many words from the blind man, He asks, "Do you believe?"

He asks not from ignorance, but because He wishes to reveal Himself and show that He greatly values the man's faith.

So many people, He says, have reviled Me, but I pay them no attention. I care for one thing: that you believe.

Better is one who does the will of the Lord than thousands of lawless men.

"Do you believe in the Son of God?" He asks in this way to make him understand that He is present and hears the answer. He also awakens love for Himself in him beforehand.

He did not say at once, "Believe," but proposed a question.

But see what happens next. The man had fought the good fight and battled for the glory of God. With complete boldness he confessed the Savior.

Yet when the whole arena had been filled with his contests, the athlete himself was cast outside without receiving the crown. Therefore the director of the contest seeks him outside the arena.

"Jesus, hearing that they had cast him out, and finding him, said to him." These are remarkable words: "finding him."

The one whom error wishes to destroy, Truth finds.

Why then did He find him? The Savior saw that his soul was filled with gratitude. He saw that, while still knowing nothing and considering Him only some prophet, he spoke of Him as of God.

For the discussion concerned Christ. And what did he say of Him? That He is a prophet.

The Savior said to Himself: If now, when he considers Me a prophet and supposes Me an ordinary man, he contends in this way, what will he not do when he learns the glory of the Godhead?

If now, when he sees Me as man and calls Me a prophet, he has so defended the truth and undertaken such a struggle, though not yet initiated, but only enlightened by one benefit. Then consider what will happen when he learns to speak according to the Gospel: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (Jn 1:1).

If he did not fall away from the truth while defending a man, what will he do then?

And so the Savior, accepting his contest and sealing his faith, perfects his knowledge.

The Savior meets the blind man, but he did not know Him by outward appearance.

When He sent him to the pool of Siloam to wash, He sent him while he was blind. When he returned seeing, he did not manage to see the Savior, who had entered the crowd.

Moreover, before he saw the Lord, he was immediately summoned to the Sanhedrin, where he had to endure the struggle.

The Lord made the clay before he washed and anointed his eyes precisely in order to fill up the defect of his nature.

When the healed man was cast out, Christ found him and said to him: "Do you believe in the Son of God?"

You must not believe in Him for whom you are contending as a prophet, but as the Son of God.

The man did not know His face, but he recognized His voice.

"Do you believe in the Son of God?"

Now He asks him so that, when he asks who the Son of God is, He may very fittingly point to Himself. At the same time He shows him that He highly values his faith, speaking as though thus: So many people have insulted Me, but I do not reckon this against them at all. I care for one thing: faith. If men hostile to the truth cast out its confessor and remove him from what is holy and precious to them, that is, from wealth and glory, Jesus will find him. When he has been dishonored by enemies, then he will be especially honored by Christ with knowledge and a more firmly grounded faith.

"And finding him, He said to him: Do you believe in the Son of God?" The former blind man is expelled by the Pharisees. But after a short time Christ finds him, and having "found" him, initiates him into the mystery. This also should serve us as a sign that those who desire to defend Him, and are not afraid to face dangers for faith in Him, are under God's care. Indeed, you hear how, as a kind of good reward, He reveals Himself to him and seeks to plant in him the most perfect teaching of faith. He also adds a question in order to receive assent, for such is the form of faith. Therefore those who approach divine baptism are asked whether they believe. Then, when they declare this and confess it, we admit them to grace as truly believers. Thus this form takes its beginning from here. From our Savior Christ Himself we have learned how one must speak concerning faith. Therefore the divine Paul also affirms that he made his confession in this before many witnesses, that is, the holy Angels (1 Tim 6:12). If it is fearful to speak falsely before the holy Angels, how much more before Christ Himself? But He asks the former blind man not simply whether he wishes "to believe." He also adds "in whom," for faith "in the Son of God" is not faith in a man, one like us, but in God become man. In this lies the fullness of the mystery concerning Christ. When He says, "Do you believe?" He speaks as though saying: Do you wish to rise above their madness? Having parted from their unbelief, receive faith. For this "you" introduces precisely such a contrast with the others.

Who often bore witness, saying, "I do the will of My Father who sent Me" (Jn 4:34). Therefore He Himself was Siloam. He came blind in heart, heard, believed, prayed. He washed his face and saw. Yet, brothers, as I have just said, those men cast out, and the Lord receives. Because he was cast out, he became a Christian all the sooner. "Jesus, hearing that they had cast him out, and finding him, said to him: Do you believe in the Son of God?" (Jn 9:35). Now He washes the face of the heart. He answered and said, still as one anointed, "Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?" Jesus said to him, "You have both seen Him, and He who speaks with you is He" (Jn 9:36-37). He was sent, and this man washes his face in Siloam, which means "sent." And when the face of the heart had already been washed and the conscience cleansed, he acknowledged Him not only as the Son of Man, in whom he had previously believed. He now acknowledged Him as the Son of God who had assumed flesh, and said, "I believe, Lord!" (Jn 9:38). It was not enough to say, "I believe." Do you wish to see how he believed? Falling down, he honored Him (cf. Jn 9:38).

"Finding him." It is unknown when this happened, whether immediately after he had been cast out or later. For the reliability of the account, however, this is all the same. "Do you believe in the Son of God?" The title Son of God, in a special and exclusive sense, was then equivalent to the name Messiah. Compare Jn 1:49; Mt 16:16 and parallels, and likewise all the passages where Christ calls God His Father in the messianic sense. Consequently, the question is equivalent to: do you believe in the Messiah?

Therefore De Wette and others were wrong to give the Savior's question this meaning: do you believe in the Messiah? In that form the question was unnecessary. The man who had received sight already believed in the Messiah as prophet and messenger of God. The Savior wishes to see in the healed man what he still lacked. You, He says, have endured so many troubles for faith in Christ Jesus. Do you wish to believe in the Son of God? The healed man understands the meaning of the question. He senses that the revelation of a lofty mystery is being promised to him. But "Son of God" exceeds his ordinary concepts. With his characteristic openness he says that he does not know the Son of God. He is ready to believe in Him, wondrously exalted and great, but who is He? "You have seen Him. He is speaking with you," said the Lord. "I believe, Lord," the believer says with rapture, and "he worshiped Him," expressing his faith by outward reverence. According to Renan, Jesus is "an incomparable man, to whom the universal consciousness has assigned the title Son of God, and rightly so." One might marvel at this last admission in Renan, if it were not the trick of a learned fraud. In any case, from the Gospel we see that the name Son of God was given to Himself by the Son of God Himself, who knew who He was and whence He came. Universal consciousness has neither the right nor the power to give anyone, on its own authority, the name Son of God. Even after divine revelation pointed out to the world the Son of God in Jesus, that consciousness stubbornly strives to deprive Him of this lofty title. It does so in the persons of Jews, Mohammedans, pagans, and Renans. "And Jesus said: For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind." Righteous Symeon had already said in the temple concerning the Child Jesus: "Behold, this Child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel" (Lk 2:34). The Son of God is light for all people. But when some stubbornly reject this light, the judgment of God is revealed in the unhappy fate of the obstinate. The light of God appeared so that those who feel their poverty and recognize their spiritual blindness might see the heavenly light, to their blessedness. But those who are proud of their knowledge, who consider themselves sighted and keen-sighted, remain with their blindness, content with it, to their misfortune. At another time the Savior said, "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance" (Lk 5:32; Mt 11:25). The Apostle also wrote, "Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own conceits" (Rom 12:16; 1 Cor 1:18, 20). Learning is not harmful, but the learning of the proud Pharisee is harmful. Sciences and knowledge are not harmful, but the abuse of them is. Nor is every simplicity saving, but only the simplicity of sober thought, such as the healed blind man possessed.