The healing of a blind man
This is a long passage, so I have broken it up for you. It is a miracle performed by Jesus, but John includes it to help bring light to deeper truths.
Icebreaker: In your experience has anything ever happened to you that others just don’t believe?
John 9:1-5 The problem of disability
In the time of Jesus, the Jewish view of disability and illness was that it was usually the direct result of sin, either of the person or his parents. This was not a case of someone asking to be healed – it was a regular beggar that Jesus and the disciples would have known.
Q. 1. Why do you think the disciples asked Jesus the question about the blind man (v.2)
Q. 2. What is Jesus’ answer, and would you have been satisfied with this answer? (v.3)
Q. 3. What is Jesus saying in vv4-5? Is He talking about healing or something else?
John 9:6-12 The method of the miracle
Q. 4. Why would Jesus use this method to heal the blind man? He could have just told him he was healed? (v.6)
[Note for Leaders: This is one of two miracles in which Jesus is said to have used spittle to effect a cure. The other is the miracle of the deaf stammerer. (Mark 7:33). The use of spittle seems to us strange and repulsive and unhygienic; but in the ancient world it was quite common. Spittle, and especially the spittle of some distinguished person, was believed to possess certain curative qualities.]
Q. 5. Why did Jesus send the blind man to the Pool of Siloam to complete the Miracle? (v.7)
Q. 6. Why do you think the neighbours reacted the way they did? How would you have reacted? (v. 8-12)
John 9:13-16 The reaction of the Pharisees
Q. 7. What bothered the Pharisees most about this miracle? (v.13-16)
Their reaction revolved around the keeping of the law.
Q. 8. What would be an equivalent reaction today?
John 9: 17-34 The Pharisees defied
Q. 9. When the Pharisees asked the man what he thought what did the blind man say? And what was the reaction of the Pharisees? (vv17-18)
Q. 10. When the man’s parents are asked about it, how do they react?
Q. 11. When the healed man is questioned again, how does he respond, and what does he say about Jesus? (vv.24-33)
Q. 12. What response do the Pharisees make? (v.34)
John 9: 35-41: Jesus’ Reaction
Q. 13. What does Jesus do when he discovers the man has been thrown out? (v.35)
Q. 14. What does Jesus reveal to the man in the rest of the passage? (v.36-41)
Q. 15. Who do you think was really blind in this events? Why were they blind and what couldn’t they see?
[Notes for leader: This passage starts with a question about sin, and as we work through the passage we discover that sin is not determined by disability. The Pharisees call Jesus a sinner – because he has broken a written law. The blind man decides that to receive a healing such as he has had, Jesus cannot be a sinner – God has listened to him. By the end of the passage Jesus makes it clear that sin is demonstrated if you cannot see (recognise) God’s Son and his works. So, he answers the disciples’ question with a definition of what sin is. This may be an area you want to discuss with your group.]