John 9:40Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Therefore, showing that it would have been better for them to be blind than to have sight, Christ says, "If you were blind, you would have no sin" (Jn 9:41). Blindness would have lightened your punishment.

So also now: "But as you say, 'We see'" (Jn 9:41), because in fact you do not see.

Thus what they considered a great boast for themselves He presents here as the occasion of their punishment. At the same time He consoles the man born blind for his former blindness.

Then He speaks concerning their blindness. For they could have said, "We do not come to You because of our blindness. Rather, we flee and turn away from You as a deceiver."

Against this He directs His whole discourse.

The Evangelist did not simply note that the Pharisees who were with Christ heard this and said, "Are we also blind?" (Jn 9:40). He did so to remind you that these were the same men who earlier withdrew from Him and later threw stones at Him.

Some indeed followed Him without firm faith, and therefore easily passed over to the side of His opponents.

They apply them to themselves, as though demanding that He say more plainly whether He also calls them blind. In this way they might again condemn Him as a transgressor of the commandment of the law.

For, being constantly occupied with the writings of Moses, they knew what was written: "You shall not revile the ruler of your people" (Ex 22:28).

They say this either in expectation that He will insult them, so that they may seem to have grounds for attack and indignation. Then, without blame, they might plot against Christ.

Or perhaps they truly had something worse in mind, devising some kind of slander proper to themselves.

For Christ had said, "For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see." By these words He pointed to the blind man's receiving sight.

Unable to endure the reminder of the miracle, they rise up again, stirred by envy. They try to oppose Him, resolving to speak as though in this way:

You boast greatly, though You have done none of the things which You think You have done. Do You also wish to imagine Your miracles upon us ourselves?

Perhaps You can claim that You healed even us, as though we had been blind? Do You wish us to ascribe to You the glory of healer and wonderworker?

Must we be deceived like that blind man, of whom You claim that, though born blind, he received sight? Will You dare to say the same slanderously about us as about him?

Yes, the speech of the Pharisees is malicious and very sharp. They mocked the miracle done upon the blind man and regarded it rather as slander than as fact.

For a fool is ashamed of nothing.

Why? Because, by saying that you see, you do not seek the physician and you remain in your blindness.

This is what we did not understand before in His words: "I came that those who do not see may see" (Jn 9:39).

What does "that those who do not see may see" mean? It means that those who confess that they do not see and seek the physician may see.

And "that those who see may become blind" (Jn 9:39). What does this mean? Let those who think they see and do not seek the physician remain in their blindness.

Therefore He calls this division judgment, saying: "For judgment I came into this world" (Jn 9:39).

Yet He has not yet brought into the world that judgment by which He will judge the living and the dead at the end of the age.

And Jesus said, behold, He is the day dividing light and darkness: "For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind" (Jn 9:39).

What is this, O Lord? You have set a difficult question before the weak. Give us strength, that we may understand what You have said.

You came that those who do not see may see. Rightly, for You are the light. Rightly, for You are the day. Rightly, for You deliver from darkness.

The soul perceives all this. The soul understands all this. But what does the following mean: "and that those who see may become blind"?

Did You come for this, that those who see may become blind? Listen to what follows, and you will understand.

Some of the Pharisees were indignant at these words and said to Him, "Are we also blind?" (cf. Jn 9:40).

Hear what the words that provoked indignation mean: "and that those who see may become blind."

Jesus said to them: "If you were blind, you would have no sin," since blindness itself is sin.

If you were blind, that is, if you considered yourselves blind, if you called yourselves blind, you would hasten to the Physician.

Therefore, if you were blind in this way, you would no longer have sin upon you, since I came to destroy sin.

"But since you now say that you see, your sin remains upon you" (cf. Jn 9:41).

Why? Because, saying "we see," you do not seek the Physician, and you remain in your blindness.

Thus this is what we did not yet understand from what He had just said: "I came that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind" (Jn 9:39).

For what does "that those who do not see may see" mean? It means: I came that those who confess themselves not to see and seek the Healer may receive sight.

And what does "that those who see may become blind" mean? It means: I came that those who consider themselves seeing and do not seek the Physician may remain in their blindness.

Therefore He called this division judgment, when He said: "For judgment I came into this world."

Through this judgment He distinguishes the cause of believers, who confess themselves blind, from the proud. They consider themselves seeing and therefore are still more blind.

It is as if a sinner said to Him: "Judge me, O God, and separate my cause from an ungodly people" (cf. Ps 42:1).

He means, of course, from those who say that they see and on whom their sin remains.

But the judgment which He has already brought into this world is not that in which He will judge the living and the dead at the end of the age.

Concerning that judgment He said: "I judge no one" (Jn 8:15). For the first time He came not to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him (Jn 3:17).

Therefore, when the Pharisees heard His speech and said, "Are we also blind?" they were like the man who entered the temple and said to God: "I thank You that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers" (Lk 18:11).

It was as though he said, "I thank You that I am not blind, but see, unlike other men from the very class of the publican."

What then did they say? "Are we also blind?"

And the Lord said to them: "If you were blind, you would have no sin upon you. But as you say that you see, your sin remains upon you."

He did not say, "sin comes," but "it remains." For it was already there.

If we do not repent, it is not taken away, but remains.

Indeed, those who considered themselves wise were found to be blind. They did not recognize the Messiah in Jesus and were offended at Him.

But the simple people readily opened their hearts to receive His word.

The Pharisees understood from Jesus' words that they were spoken with reference to them, in rebuke of them.

Yet it is not clear whether they rightly understood the meaning of this rebuke. Nor is it clear to which class they counted themselves.

Did they count themselves among those who do not see, that is, the spiritually blind and ignorant, who need enlightenment?

Or did they count themselves among those who see, but who have now been blinded by the appearance of Jesus?

If they rightly understood Jesus Christ's rebuke, then by their question they mean this: Are we blind only because we will not join the ignorant people in recognizing You as the Messiah?

Here one hears both insult and mockery.

To this Jesus Christ answers: If you truly had no religious enlightenment, your unbelief would be a lesser sin. It would be a sin of ignorance and lack of understanding, and therefore could be forgiven.

But now you consider yourselves guides of the people, and in fact you know the word of God better than others.

Therefore your unbelief is the sin of stubborn, conscious opposition to the truth, which is clear and evident to you. This sin will not be forgiven you (Mt 12:31, 32).

When the true Light appeared, enlightening every man, it became clear that precisely those considered dark and unable to see were able to behold Him.

These were all the poor and lowly in spirit who, in simplicity of heart, thirsted for spiritual food.

By contrast, those who in their pride imagined themselves sighted and all-knowing, and from the height of their supposed omniscience pronounced allegedly infallible truths, proved to be pitiable blind men.

They were unable to see even what stood before their eyes, and what one could even, so to speak, touch with one's hands.

This blindness, since it proceeds from deliberate denial of evident truth, is a terrible sin. It is the sin of the darkness resisting the true light that proceeds from the Sun of righteousness.

If you were those who do not see, of whom I speak, glory be to God, because you would have no sin.

That is, your unbelief would be a sin of ignorance and weakness, not of hardness and opposition to the truth.

Those who do not see can receive enlightenment and believe in the truth, and the sin of ignorance will be forgiven them. It would have been forgiven you also, if you were such, and you would have no sin upon you.