John 9:39Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Those who accused Him as a sinner are themselves accused. Here He speaks of two kinds of sight and blindness, bodily and spiritual. The particle ίνα, "that," indicates not the cause but the result, just as in another place it is said: "For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind" (Jn 9:39). Christ certainly did not come so that those who see should become blind. In the same way Paul says, "What can be known about God is manifest to them, so that they are without excuse" (Rom 1:19-20). Yet the Lord did not reveal this to them so that they might be deprived of justification, but so that they might receive justification.

He came in order to accomplish the purpose set forth in mercy toward us, that is, to enlighten all with the lamp of the Spirit. But the Jews, being inclined toward unbelief, did not receive the grace shining upon them. They called down darkness upon themselves as if by their own summons. Thus it is written about them in the prophetic sayings: "When they waited for light, darkness came upon them. Waiting for brightness, they walked in gloom" (Is 59:9). Regarding the preaching of the law, the Jews awaited brightness and light, that is, Christ. For they acknowledged that He would come and awaited Him. Yet though they seemed pious in this respect, they walked in darkness, that is, in deep gloom. No one else was the cause of their subjection to darkness. They themselves, by their unbelief, brought this calamity upon themselves. Therefore, He says, I came to give sight to the blind through faith. But the unfeeling disposition of those who refuse guidance and disobey, being directed rather toward unbelief, turned the coming of the Enlightener into condemnation for them. Since they do not believe, they are subject to condemnation. The Savior expressed this more clearly to you elsewhere: "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in the Son is not judged. But he who does not believe the Son is judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the Son of God" (Jn 3:18, 36). Thus with great skill He begins His reasoning from the present matter at hand. He makes the miracle performed upon the former blind man, as it were, the root of His discourse. For He affirms that he received sight not only in body but also in mind, since he accepted faith. The Pharisees were in the opposite condition. They did not see His glory, although it shone forth very clearly in this exceedingly great and new miracle.

It indicates what will occur, namely, that those who do not see will be able to see, while those who see will become blind, as was said above. Or, "For judgment I came into this world" is said instead of: for discernment, for the separation of one from another. Thus the enlightenment of some through good will, and the blindness of others through evil will, might become manifest to all.

Therefore He says: although My coming took place for the salvation of the world, those who maliciously and boldly rise up against their own benefit have made My coming a condemnation for themselves.

Why then do You not bring fire down upon them? Why do You not shake the earth and open the floodgates of heaven, so as to drown their madness?

Because, He says, "I came not to judge the world, but to save it," and to bring it back. Therefore I am long-suffering. Therefore I defer judgment.

For the time of My first coming is not a time of judgment (krisis), but of love for mankind, compassion, favor, and return.

Thus the divine utterances before us do not oppose each other in any way. As you see, they preserve full agreement.

On the other hand, sentence (krima) and judgment (krisis) are in many ways similar to one another, yet they also differ. Sentence more readily means condemnation, while judgment indicates the allotment of what is due.

Thus the Savior came into the world as a sentence. That is, He became a condemnation to those who did not wish to discern their own benefit, and had no understanding to recognize their own redemption.

Therefore, for such people our universal Savior became a sentence. He was not Himself the cause of their deserving punishment. Rather, they themselves turned the saving medicine into a deadly drug.

For "that those who see," and what follows (Jn 9:39), does not indicate the cause. It announces those who, by malicious choice, preferred the worse to the better.

Therefore, the fact that they showed themselves subject to judgment and did not receive the universal Savior is proof of their wickedness. It does not contradict the One who said that He came not to judge the world, but to save it.

On the contrary, it is testimony to the boundless sea of His love for mankind. He turned many away from error.

As for those who disobeyed and subjected themselves to condemnation, He does not call them to account. He does not punish or condemn them, but deals kindly even with the disobedient.

For He says: "All day long I have stretched out My hands to a disobedient and contrary people" (Rom 10:21; cf. Is 65:2).

Therefore, in His coming the Savior becomes condemnation for those who did not receive Him through their own wickedness. Yet He does not judge them or avenge Himself on them.

This is because of His utmost love for mankind and His desire to show that His first coming is not a time of judgment, but of condescension and compassion.

If someone wishes to interpret with greater strain and understand "judgment" as division and separation, I think he will not find that the word has this meaning in the faithful usage of Sacred Scripture.

Yet perhaps he will find statements not different in sense, such as: "Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth. I came not to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man at variance with his father, and a daughter with her mother, and a daughter-in-law with her mother-in-law" (Mt 10:34-35).

And again: "His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will cleanse His threshing floor. He will gather His wheat into the granary, but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire" (Mt 3:12).

There are also some other sayings of the same kind.

Yet even in that case, the one who attempts this will in no way succeed in setting the sacred sayings against each other. I mean, "For judgment I came into this world," and, "I came not to judge the world, but to save the world."

The Savior arrived to bring peace to the world and to reconcile to the Father those who had long been at enmity with Him.

Having broken down the middle wall of partition (Eph 2:14), He united and reconciled the things above with the things below.

If someone turned peace into enmity for himself, and made strife out of reconciliation, the fault lies not with the Giver of peace and Reconciler.

It lies with those who tore and cut themselves away from those reconciled to the Father and from those who tasted the good of peace.

This distinction is rendered conditionally, since both krima and krisis often correspond to the same word, "judgment."

That those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind." The contemporaries of Jesus' earthly life judged Him when they saw Him and heard His teaching. Later generations judge Him when they study His teaching. These judgments lead them to the fact that those who exalt themselves by their learning and by their ability to see and understand everything sometimes prove unable to understand the most essential thing, the truth of God. They become blind with regard to it. But those who seemed unenlightened by learning, and as though blind, felt this truth with their hearts and accepted it. In this way the words of Jesus were justified. Those who see, that is, those capable of seeing and understanding what was seen, became blind. Those who did not have the ability to see everything at once and know what they saw, that is, those who were as though not seeing, came to see.

Such a view of humanity makes the thought of the Redeemer entirely unnecessary and alien. The sight of the proud is terrible blindness. The not seeing of the humble is the capacity to see the Truth. To this the Lord's words refer: "For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind." The humble received the Lord and were enlightened by the divine Light. The proud, satisfied with themselves, rejected Him and were darkened still more by rejection and blasphemy against God.

The image of speech is obviously taken from the healing of the man blind from birth and from the spiritual blindness shown on this occasion by the Pharisees. "Those who do not see" means those who do not understand divine truth. They recognize in themselves a lack of spiritual enlightenment by the truth. They are the poor in spirit (Mt 5:3), infants in spirit (Lk 10:22). They are those of whom the Pharisees spoke with pride and contempt: "This crowd, ignorant of the law" (Jn 7:49). "May see" means that divine truth would enlighten their spiritual eyes. Having received sight, they would see it, and having seen it, would believe in it. "And those who see" means those who thought themselves enlightened by divine truth. These are the lawyers, the supposed wise men and guides of the people, who constantly cried, "We know, we know" (Jn 9:24, 29; Jn 8:52 and parallels). Of them the Lord said that God hid His mysteries from the wise and understanding and revealed them to infants (Lk 10:22). "May become blind" means that they became spiritually blind. They would not see divine truth and would be hardened against it, as the Pharisees were against Christ, the Truth. The difference here between "those who do not see" and "the blind" is that the latter word denotes complete blindness, while the former denotes a lesser degree of it.

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.

There they are in their own element. However obvious this may be, they are still ready to ask, "Are we blind also?" There is nothing to hide: you are blind. And since you are blind through your own fault, the sin of blindness and of not seeing the light rests upon you. You can see, but you do not wish to, having loved deceptive but alluring falsehood.