John 9:24-34 Then again called they the man that was blind, and said to him, Give God the praise: we know that this man is a sinner.… I. INTIMIDATION. The hostile section sought to overbear the man's judgment by their superior knowledge and position. They, the heaven-appointed leaders of the people and guardians of morality, were satisfied that Christ was a sinner. He had broken the Sabbath by manufacturing clay and spreading it over the man's eyes as an artizan might have plastered it upon a wall. Consequently there could have been no such thing as a miracle; and he had better confess himself a deceiver and Christ an impostor (ver. 24). To all this the man opposes his personal experience (ver 25). II. ENTANGLEMENT. By cross-examination they hoped to make him contradict himself (ver. 26). But the man, too clever to be caught by such an artifice (Proverbs 1:17), declined their invitation, reminding them that he had supplied all the information he possessed, and inquiring, with fine irony, if they desired to become Christ's disciples (ver. 27). III. REPROACH. They reviled Him as the follower, not of Moses, the great commissioner of Jehovah, but of a nameless fellow about whom no one knew anything (ver. 29). To this the man replied with crushing logic how no honest mind could evade the conclusion that Christ must at least be a prophet no less than Moses (vers. 30-33). IV. EXPULSION. They could not answer the man's syllogism, but they could do what foiled controversialists commonly do (ver. 34). Lessons: 1. The danger of approaching religious questions with pro-conceived notions. 2. The power Christianity has to convince all sincere inquirers of its heavenly origin. 3. The duty of standing true to Christ in the face of all opposition. 4. The certainty that Christ's witnesses will suffer persecution. 5. The helplessness of man's wisdom in opposing the truth. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Then again called they the man that was blind, and said unto him, Give God the praise: we know that this man is a sinner. |
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