John 9:36Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

What then does the blind man say? "And who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?" This is the voice of a soul that loves and earnestly seeks. He does not know the One whom he had so strongly defended, so that from this you may know his love for the truth. He had not yet seen Him. He recognized the voice and cried out with joy, "And who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?" Why do you believe the One who says to you, "Do you believe in the Son of God?" I know that Your word is true. If I learn anything from You, I shall not hesitate to believe You. "And who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?"

A soul prepared by wise reflection, and searching the doctrine of truth with the free eyes of the mind, enters it unhindered, as into a harbor. It opens an easy entrance to everything profitable. The former blind man will again be proof of what has been said. By many inferences and reasonings he had already come to reverence before the mystery concerning Christ. He was struck by His ineffable power, from what no one else, but he himself, had experienced in himself. Thus he appears ready to believe and proceeds to this without delay. For behold, he asks to whom he must dedicate the faith already prepared in him. This alone was lacking to him, prepared as he was for it, as we have said.

Indeed, God hears sinners. But the one who said this had not yet washed the face of his heart in the pool of Siloam. The mystery had been accomplished with his eyes, but the mercy of grace had not yet been accomplished in his heart. When did this blind man wash the face of his heart? When the Lord received him to Himself after he had been cast out by the Jews. For He found him and said to him, as we have heard, "Do you believe in the Son of God?" And he said, "Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?" He did indeed already see with his eyes. But with his heart? Not yet. Wait. Soon he will see. Jesus said to him, "I who speak with you am He" (Jn 4:26). Did he hesitate? He immediately washed his face. For Siloam was speaking with him, which means "sent." Who was sent, if not Christ?

This man was encouraged, as one ready to believe, and he wants to know who this Son of God is. He did not yet know Who was now speaking with him.

Why does the Lord ask him, already healed and cast out of the synagogue, "Do you believe in the Son of God?" It is so that he should not think it a loss to be deprived of the synagogue, since the confession of faith restores immortality to him. And he, still in doubt, says, "Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?" The Lord did not wish ignorance to persist in one who, after the healing of his eyes, had been granted understanding of such faith. Therefore He said, "You have both seen Him, and He who speaks with you is He." Does the Lord demand a confession of faith from him, as from the others who asked for health, so that he might be counted worthy of healing? By no means. Rather, it was only because he answered, "I believe, Lord." For the faith in his answer was to bring healing not to blindness, but to life.

It is clear, then, that the blind man did not know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He had called Him only a Prophet and a holy man. Therefore he asks Him, “Who is the Son of God, that I may believe in Him?”

The healed man had not yet seen the One who healed him. Consequently, he did not know Him and could not even guess that his Healer was now speaking with him.

Expressing complete readiness to believe in the Son of God, that is, the Messiah, he asks, “And who is He?”

The seeing blind man had still not seen his merciful Physician, who had restored to him the greatest gift in life. Yet with the sensitivity to tones of voice proper to the blind, he recognized that the same One was speaking with him.

This was the One who had anointed his eyes with clay and called Himself the light of the world. To confirm his supposition, he asked, “And who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?”

"Who is He," and so forth. After receiving his sight, the blind man, as is clear from the course of the narrative, had not seen the One who healed him. Therefore he did not know Him personally, although he knew Him by name (Jn 9:11). Consequently he did not know that He Himself was speaking with him. Perhaps he dimly felt that the One who healed him was precisely the Son of God, the Messiah, more than a simple prophet and messenger of God, as he had called Him before. Therefore he asks the One questioning him with eagerness: Who is this Son of God? Where is He, so that I may see Him and express my faith in Him? It is clear that the readiness of faith had already matured in his soul. He is ready to confess his faith in the Messiah as soon as he sees Him.

Heavenly love was pleased to reward with a sign of its own love the man dishonored by human malice. The Savior sought and found the one excommunicated by the unrighteous Sanhedrin. The healed man had acknowledged Jesus as a prophet and an unheard-of wonderworker. He desired to see Him. But first the newness of his own condition held his attention. Then the Sanhedrin tormented him with its interrogations, which ended with such honor for the witness of truth. Heavenly goodness desires to reward his patience. "Do you believe in the Son of God?" the Lord asks him. The whole Gospel of John, and especially Jn 10:33, 36 and Jn 19:7, clearly shows that "Son of God" and "Christ" are by no means synonymous words. The Son of God is a divine person.