Healing a Man Born Blind

In. 9, 1-41

The Feast of Renewal was approaching. Christ and his disciples were in Jerusalem at that time. One day, leaving the temple, the disciples saw a beggar who was blind from birth. Turning to Christ, they asked Him: “Rabbi! Who sinned, he or his parents, that he was born blind?”

Jesus Christ answered: “Neither he nor his parents sinned, but this was so that the works of God might be revealed in him.”

Then Christ approached the beggar, spat on the ground, made clay (dirt) from the spit and anointed his blind eyes with clay. After this He said to the man born blind: “Go and wash in the pool of Siloam...”

Of course, the Lord could heal a blind man with one word. And if He did not do this, but anointed his eyes with mud, then only in order to arouse in him faith in the Savior. The man born blind went to the source with faith, washed his eyes and regained his sight. An extraordinary joy gripped the beggar’s soul when he saw God’s world with healed eyes. His joy knew no bounds. He willingly told everyone about how a man named Jesus gave him sight. Many people rejoiced and gave praise to God along with the healed man, but some Jews saw this as a violation of the day of rest, since it was the Sabbath. They took the healed man for questioning to the Pharisees. Appearing before the lawyers, the former man born blind told them in detail about how he was healed by Jesus, and at the same time confessed his faith in Christ as a prophet. “This is a prophet,” he said to the Pharisees.

Then a dispute broke out between the Pharisees. Some of them argued that the Wonderworker was a sinner because he did not keep the Sabbath; others objected, doubting that a sinner could perform miracles, even on Saturday!

In the end, the Pharisees suspected deception in the very fact of the miracle and summoned the parents of the man born blind for questioning.

“Is this your son... who was born blind? How can he see now?” ¾ The guardians of the law asked the parents of the healed man.

“We know that this is our son and that he was born blind, but how he sees now, we don’t know... perfect years; ask yourself,” ¾ this is how the parents of the man born blind answered the Pharisees, because they were afraid that they would be excommunicated from the synagogue.

Then the lawyers called the healed man a second time and told him to thank God for his healing, and not Jesus the Galilean, since He was a sinner.

“I don’t know whether He is a sinner,” the man born blind answered them, “I know one thing, that I was blind, but now I see.”

“What did He do to you? How did I open your eyes? The Pharisees continued to interrogate.

“I already told you and you didn’t listen; what else do you want to hear? or do you want to become His disciples? The healed man answered them.

“You are His disciple, and we are Moses’ disciples,” cried the annoyed guardians of the law. ¾ We know that God spoke to Moses; But we don’t know where He comes from.”

“It’s amazing that you don’t know where He comes from,” the former blind man answered them, “and He opened my eyes. But we know that God does not listen to sinners; but whoever honors God and does His will listens to him... If He were not from God, He could not do anything.”

These simple and reasonable words, against which nothing could be said, completely angered the Pharisees. They kicked him out with the words: “You were born entirely in sins, and are you teaching us?” This probably meant excommunication from the synagogue.

Having learned about what had happened, Christ found His new confessor and asked him: “Do you believe in the Son of God?”

“And who is He, Lord, that I should believe in Him?” ¾ answered the healed one. Then Christ said to him: “And you have seen Him, and He speaks to you.” “I believe, Lord!” The one who had received his spiritual sight exclaimed with joy and bowed to the Savior.

Our God is great and He works miracles; and there is no end to the story of His miracles. There are no eyes that could see all His miracles; there is no language that can list them; there is no mind that would understand them.

They looked and looked and fell asleep. He listed his tongue and listed it - and became numb. The mind deepened, deepened, and faded. Who can know miracles without first knowing the Wonderworker? And who, having seen the Wonderworker, will remain alive?

All fire on earth originated and originates from the sun, as those who study such things say. Why did the sun not descend to the earth itself, but was incarnated in a unique way: partly in the earth, partly in the water, partly in animals? Why did the sun cover itself with a thick and cold curtain in each of its partial incarnations? Why didn’t all of it descend to earth to do the same thing that its fire and its light do, clothed in bodies, balanced in bodies? Because if it came very close to the ground, the whole earth would melt, turn into steam and disappear.

Which mortal could be near the sun - and remain alive? And the sun is just one of God's creations; it is darkness in comparison with the light of God. So who could see God the Wonderworker and remain alive?

Isn’t it clear to you why our Lord Jesus Christ had to hide His Divine radiance under a thick and dark cover of human flesh? For otherwise, which of the people would remain alive in His presence?

And more than that. If He did not limit the manifestation of His Divinity, which man would be saved by his own will, and not by the power of His Divinity? Truly, if something was difficult for our Lord Jesus Christ, undoubtedly, it was more difficult for Him to restrain and moderate the manifestation of His Divinity than to manifest It.

Precisely because He wisely limited the manifestation of His Divine power, His life on earth was a complete harmony of God and Man.

O brothers! Christ as Man is no less a miracle than Christ as God. And one is a miracle, and the other is a miracle, but both together are a miracle of miracles. However, this miracle is not a miracle of magic, or sorcery, or fairground sleight of hand; this is a miracle of God’s wisdom, God’s power and God’s love for mankind.

The Lord did not perform miracles for human glory. Does any of us go to the hospital among the insane, the deaf and dumb and the lepers in order to gain glory from them? Does the shepherd heal his sheep so that the sheep glorify him with their bleating? The Lord worked miracles only in order to mercifully help the helpless sufferers and at the same time, through this, to show people that God came to them out of mercy and love.

And today's Gospel reading describes one of the many miracles of God, through which the love of Christ for suffering people is revealed and His Divinity is once again revealed.

During the time it is Jesus, passing by, I saw a man blind from birth. Before this, it is told how the Jews took stones to throw at the Lord in the temple itself because He told them the truth. But while the evil Jews thought only about how to harm the Lord, He Himself thought only about how to do good to people. A man, blind from birth, sat at the temple and asked for alms. None of these evil persecutors of Christ, pitiful leaders and elders of the people, wanted to even look at this unfortunate man. And if any of them threw some small coin into his lap, it was more for show to people than out of philanthropy and mercy. Even in the time of Moses, God spoke about these people: they are a corrupt generation; children who lack fidelity(Deut.32:20). The merciful Lord stopped next to this man in order to truly help him.

His disciples asked Him: Rabbi! Who sinned, he or his parents, that he was born blind? Before that, the Lord healed a paralytic near the pool at the Sheep Gate and said to him: sin no more, lest something worse happen to you(John 5:14), from which it is clear: this man, who had been ill for many years, brought upon himself suffering through his own sin. But the case of the man who was blind from birth was incomprehensible, which is why the students asked for an explanation: who sinned? It has always been clear that children often suffer because of the sins of their parents. And the fact that God sometimes allows children to suffer for the sins of their parents is clear from the Holy Scriptures (1 Kings 11:12; 21:29). This may seem unfair only to those who are accustomed to looking at people as fragments of life, completely separated from each other. But to those who look at the human race as a single organism, this will not seem either unfair or unnatural. When one member, being due, hurts, then the others, which should not, suffer. It is much more difficult to explain how and when someone born blind could sin and become the cause of his own blindness. Simple people, the students, assumed this possibility without thinking it through properly, and without knowing about the existence of any other. In this case, it seemed most likely to them that the parents of the man born blind sinned. But remembering the words of Christ spoken to the paralytic: sin no more, - they seem to connect these two cases and want to say: “There it was clear to us from Your words that the sufferer himself was the cause of his suffering; but can this be applied here too? Did this blind man himself sin or, if not he, then of course, his parents? If the Lord at that moment asked the disciples the question: “How do you think he could have sinned that he was born blind?” - the disciples would have been perplexed and could, in extreme cases, refer to the general sinfulness of the human race due to Adam’s sin, as the psalmist says: Behold, I was conceived in iniquity, and my mother gave birth to me in sins. It is much less likely that the disciples would have referred to the opinion of some Pharisees and scribes - an opinion not their own, but borrowed from the distant East - that the human soul lived before this birth in some other body and in that previous life deserved the reward or punishment received in present life. For it is unlikely that such a philosophical assumption was known to the simple-minded and faithful fishermen of Galilee. - To the question of the students, the Wise Rabbi answered this way:

Neither he nor his parents sinned, but this was so that the works of God might be revealed in him. That is, “both he and his parents sinned, but that is not the reason for blindness,” as one of the holy fathers says ( Zlatoust). Behold, neither Job nor his parents are said to have sinned, and yet he suffered an illness so terrible that he was forced to exclaim: My body is covered with worms and dusty scabs; my skin bursts and festers(Job 7:5). In addition to the sins of parents and one’s own sins, there must be other reasons for some human suffering on earth. In the case of a person born blind, the reason is the need to so that the works of God may appear on him. Blessed is the one on whom the works of God appear, and he realizes them and uses them for the salvation of his soul. Blessed is the poor man who, by the grace of God, having become rich and famous, felt gratitude for this mercy of God. Blessed is the hopeless patient who, having received healing from the Lord, lifts up his heart to the Lord as his unexpected and only Benefactor. Oh, how the works of God appear on each of us daily! Oh, how great is the joy of all those whose spiritual eyes have been opened to see God through these works of God! Oh, woe to all those who, with their hands overflowing with God’s gifts, turn their backs on God and blindly continue to walk their dark and vain paths! The works of God appear on all of us daily, for God does not leave us until our death. These works of God revealed to us help our personal salvation. But the work of God, revealed on this man born blind, was supposed to serve the salvation of many, many. This matter truly revealed that God had really come down to people. This case showed that among people there are much more spiritual blindness than physical blindness. And, in addition, it revealed how a wise person, to whom God gives a physical gift, uses it to enrich the soul with his true faith. Anticipating all these fruits of the healing of the man born blind, the Lord, almost in admiration, says to His disciples: neither he nor his parents sinned, but this was so that the works of God might be revealed in him. As if he wants to say: now leave the question of who sinned - he or someone else. It doesn't matter now. Even if both he and his parents had sinned, I could at that moment forgive them in Myself, taking their sin upon Myself, and proclaim forgiveness to them. All this is now secondary next to what is to appear. And the works of God must appear on it - not just one, but several works of God - which will be inscribed in the Gospel for the salvation of many. Truly, the long-term suffering of the man born blind has been rewarded a hundredfold. Truly, those who suffer for the cause of God for at least one day are not deprived of their reward. One wise interpreter of the Gospel says about this blind man: “Whoever was blind and never knew the benefit of sight feels incomparably less sorrow than the one who first saw and then lost his sight. This man was blind, but then accepted the reward for his small and almost imperceptible sadness. For he received two pairs of eyes: physical, with which he saw the world around him, and spiritual, with which he knew the Creator of the world" ( Nikifor).

I must do the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night comes when no one can do anything. This is what the Savior says to his disciples. With these words He explains to them the motives of the matter that is about to appear in the blind. This is the work of God, and not human, He wants to say, but the works God's essence creative and wonderful. He who sent Me - this is what the Lord says out of humility and love for the Father - does such things, and it is only fitting for Me, His Only Begotten Son, to do such things. Violence is a human custom, but not Mine. People are driven by envy and revenge, but I am driven by mercy and truth. Let people take up stones to throw at Me, I will continue to provide people with the bread of life. But how long will it be like this? As long as there is day, that is, while the lifetime continues. Night comes, that is, death, when no one can do. This is said impersonally and does not refer to the Lord. For even after death He did things, descending into hell, destroying it and freeing from it the righteous forefathers and saints of God; and after the Resurrection, from the invisible world He continues to do wonderful things to this day - and will continue until the end of the age. There can never come a night for Him when He cannot do. His day embraces all time and flows through both banks of time into eternity. Truly, as long as His day lasts, He will work without ceasing. This is what people should do, following His example, as long as their day lasts, that is, from birth to death. For he will come to people night, that is, death, when none of the people can do anything of their own free will. True, saints do this even after death, different ways benefiting and helping the Church of God on earth; but this work of theirs now occurs not according to their human will, but according to the will of God - it is God who does His works through them, out of love for them, for they loved God in earthly life. But after death, no one can do anything that could benefit him in another world and at least improve his position there. After death, no one can acquire merit before God in any way; even a saint cannot acquire more merit than he has. For merit can only be acquired in this life. A person achieves spiritual capital or spiritual bankruptcy on earth. Therefore these words of the Savior: the night comes when no one can do, - cannot be used as an explanation of His condition after death or after the Resurrection, but should be understood as a timely and serious warning to people.

As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world- says the Lord about Himself. Through Him, as through the Eternal Word of God, everything that was created was created. Through Him the appearance was given both to the cherubim, which are full of eyes, and to the blind and dead dust, of which all earthly creations received the appearance. He gave light to the sun, He gave sight to all who see. But in addition to physical vision, He gifted man with spiritual vision. The sun shines with its light; His eyes see; The human mind also sees through His vision. He truly is the light of the world, as long as the world existed and as long as it exists. And as the Savior of the world, as God in human flesh, He appeared as a new light to the world, in order to disperse the darkness that had thickened in the world, to illuminate the darkened human mind, to restore sight to those blinded by sin; in a word, to be light for people both in life and in death, both on earth and in heaven, both physically and spiritually. How long am I in the world, - He says this to His contemporaries on earth, so that they will come to know Him as the desired light and not remain in darkness. Walk while there is light, so that darkness does not overtake you(John 12:35). Woe to those who saw Him eye to eye and did not know Him, and rejected Him, and remained in the darkness of their grave! But He also says this to us, because, behold, we too are His contemporaries, for He is alive forever and ever. And now His words are confirmed to us: As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. As long as He is in a person's soul, He is the light of man. As long as He is among the people, He is the light of the people. As long as He is at school, He is the light of the school. As long as He is in the workshop, He is the light of the workshop. And the place from which He departs will be taken over by total darkness: the human soul without Him turns into hell; the people without Him turn into a pack of angry and insatiable animals; a school without Him turns into a poisoner of stupidity; a workshop without Him turns into a house of grumbling and hatred. And what dark caves of despair hospitals and prisons become without Him! Truly, anyone who has ever thought about the days of his life, about the days without Christ and about the days with Christ, finds in himself a witness to the truthfulness of these words of the Lord: As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. Everything that the Lord had said to His disciples until now, He spoke in the presence of the blind man, especially so that the blind man would hear His words. For the Lord's main concern was to give spiritual sight to the blind. It is more difficult to open a person’s spiritual eyes than their physical ones, more difficult and more important. In order to show that bodily sight is easier to bestow, and also that it is less important, the Lord spits on the ground, makes clay from the spit, and anoints the eyes of the blind man. As if he were saying: behold, from despicable spitting and dust, from despicable dirt, he will gain bodily eyes and receive his sight! But how can he receive his spiritual sight? Think about the spiritual more than the physical, for the body is the clothing and instrument of the soul. The Lord also wants to remind the disciples about the creation of man from the dust of the earth. That He was the Creator Who created the human body from dust, He now proves by creating the eyes of a blind man out of clay. The Lord also wants to reveal to the disciples that His Divine power flows from His spirit not only through His words, with which He raised the dead and gave sight to many blind; and not only through His hands, which He laid on the sick and made them healthy; and not only through the hem of His garment, just by touching which, the bleeding woman was healed; - but even through His spitting.

Having said this, He spat on the ground, made clay from the spit, and anointed the eyes of the blind man with clay, and said to him: Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, which means: sent. He went and washed, and came back seeing.

But why does the Lord send a blind man to the pool of Siloam? Why doesn’t he give him sight immediately, but sends him, with his eyes anointed with clay, to the water to wash himself? This is the only case in the Gospel when the Lord uses created things when working miracles. Perhaps the Lord wanted to one day honor created nature. It is not superfluous that people, when sick, seek help in natural medicines and mineral waters. But still, people should know that all natural medicines and all mineral waters are servants of the power of God. Without this power of God, all medicines are nothing, and all baths are stagnant water. How many blind people have previously washed themselves in the pool of Siloam, but without the desired result. How many times, of course, did this man born blind wash himself in it, but without success! It was the power of Christ that healed him, not the pool of Siloam; Without that power, he could wash himself every day in this bath and still return home blind. Siloam, which means: sent, explains the Evangelist. Didn't the mysterious name of this healing water symbolize the Wonderworker, Messenger and Heavenly Physician, our Lord Jesus Christ? If we take the broader spiritual meaning of this whole event, we can say that the man born blind represents the human race, and the pool of Siloam represents the Lord Himself, Who is the One sent from heaven, Sent, so that with the living water of the Holy Spirit through the Sacrament of Baptism, restore spiritual sight to the blinded human race sin.

And how meek and obedient this man born blind is! He not only allows the Lord to anoint his eyes with clay, but even so, with anointed eyes, he immediately fulfills the command and goes to the pool of Siloam to wash. Speaking in his presence: I am the light of the world, - The Lord awakens and opens the spirit of the blind, so that faith is born in his spirit. Now He teaches him obedience, and therefore sends him to the pool of Siloam. For faith is inseparable from obedience. A believer in God quickly and voluntarily obeys the will of God. Oh, my brothers, faith will not help us much if we do the will of God without obedience and with grumbling! Look at this blind man: with faith and obedience he immediately went to Siloam, and washed, and came sighted! “If someone asks: how did he receive his sight after washing himself? - he will hear nothing else from us except that we don’t know how this happened. And what kind of miracle would it be if we knew? I didn’t know this neither the Evangelist nor the healed one himself" ( Zlatoust). However, why ask about this only in this case? If someone wants to ask questions, let him ask about other hundreds and thousands of cases of Christ’s healings. Let the whole world ask, let all centuries ask human history how it all happened - they will not receive any answer. This is a creative secret. Even the Apostle Paul himself, who was undoubtedly more learned and wiser than this blind man, could not explain how he, Saul, was overcome by blindness and how he received his sight when Ananias laid his hands on him in the name of Christ (Acts 9:9-12) and made him Paul.

And that the man born blind himself did not know exactly how he received his sight is clear from his own words. When he returned from Siloam seeing, many asked each other whether it was he or someone else who look like him? And when he said: It's me, - they asked him: How did your eyes open? In response, he briefly described everything that had happened, but was unable to say How received his sight. I went, washed and received my sight. When he was taken to the Pharisees, they asked him, how he regained his sight, he answered them: He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and I see. That's all he could say, describing the event accurately and fearlessly.

The Light of Christ, with which He illuminates the world and enlightens every person, appears before our eyes in its true brilliance only when we compare it with human darkness. And what followed the miraculous healing of the blind man truly represents the thickest and iciest darkness of the human heart and mind, a darkness that in today’s Gospel reading lies like a dark shadow under the bright light of the Sun - Christ. This is the terrible darkness of the blind heart and mind of the Pharisee. The Pharisees were not only not happy that the blind beggar sitting near their temple received his sight, but they even felt insulted and became angry. After all, their temple had long ago turned into a guardhouse for the Sabbath, just as their entire faith had turned into the worship of the goddess Sabbath. They do not ask the healed blind man with complicity: “How did you manage to live so many years blind?” - they rudely attack him, asking, like guards: “How did you dare to receive your sight on Saturday? And how did the One who healed you dare to do this on Saturday?” This Man Is Not From God, they say, because he doesn't keep the Sabbath. For them, therefore, from God is that person who sleeps all Saturday, never leaving his room, so as not to be defiled by some step, deed or touch; and not the One who gave sight to the man born blind on Saturday! And according to their midnight logic, the First sanctifies the Sabbath, but the Second does not!

But since there was a dispute between them about Christ, they asked the man born blind what he thought. He said: this is a prophet. They probably asked him not at all in order to find out the truth, but in order to get him to condemn Christ as a Sabbath breaker. But the man born blind bravely testified about Christ, saying about Him what he himself considered the best and strongest in the world. The best and strongest among people were the prophets, about whom he could not help but hear and know. That’s what he thought until then, and that’s why he answered: this is a prophet.

When the Jews received such an unexpected and unwanted answer from the man born blind, they, in their angry weakness, had no choice but to deny the miracle and declare that they did not believe that this man had been blind and received his sight at all. Then the Jews did not believe that he was blind and received his sight. That is, they could not help but believe such an obvious thing, but they pretended that they did not believe, so as not to attach significance to this event and in order to at least somehow diminish the spread of the glory of Christ the Wonderworker. And that they only hypocritically and calculatingly pretended that they did not believe, is clear from the fact that they called the parents of the man who had received his sight to ask them. However, they called his parents not with the intention of sorting out the issue and getting to the bottom of the undoubted truth, but with the hope that they would somehow refute the miracle, or cast doubt on it, or diminish its significance. But the parents, although very carefully, because they were afraid of the elders of the Jews, confirmed that this was their son and that he was born blind. But we don’t know how he sees now, or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. He himself is of advanced years; ask yourself; let him speak about himself. Another disappointment for the God-fighting Jewish elders! So what's now? What can one who walks in underground darkness and does not want to go out into the sun do, if not run from one dark corridor to another?

Having received such an unexpected and unwanted answer from their parents, the evil Pharisees now resort to the extreme and lowest means, the destruction of human conscience. So, they called the man who was blind a second time and made him a mean and dishonest offer. Give glory to God; we know that Man is a sinner. That is: we, they say, have fully studied the issue and found out that we are all right, both you and us. Namely: you told the truth that you were blind and received your sight. But we were also right in doubting that that sinner opened your eyes. We know that He is a sinner and that He could not do this. But since this has already been done, we have come to the conclusion that only God could have done this. And that's why: give glory to God, and renounce this sinner and have no more dealings with Him.

Crazy Jews! In their blindness, they could not see that, without recognizing Christ, they, in fact, confessed Him as God. Give glory to God- only God could do this. But our Lord Jesus Christ did this. This means that our Lord Jesus Christ is God!

The man born blind answers the hypocritical Pharisees very wisely: whether He is a sinner, I don’t know; one thing I know is that I was blind, but now I see. He wants to say: I am a simple and unlearned person, and you are learned people and skilled in arguing about sinfulness and sinlessness. You measure my Healer by the Sabbath, and I by a miracle. Whether He is a sinner and to what extent, according to your Sabbatarian standard, I don’t know. I only know about the miracle that He showed me and which means as much to me as the creation of the world. For until He opened my eyes, this world seemed to not exist for me.

After the Pharisees had run through all their dark underground corridors, they had nowhere else to turn; and they, standing in one place, asked the man born blind: what did He do to you? How did I open your eyes? But they also posed these questions with insidious slyness, hoping to hear from a person who had seen something new, something that could help them belittle the miracle or accuse Christ. But this man, simple and sincere in his judgments, could not help but finally be disgusted by this low intrigue of the people's elders, for whom he had previously, without having come into close contact with them, must have felt a certain respect. And therefore he answers them with annoyance: I already told you and you did not listen; what else do you want to hear? Or do you also want to become His disciples? He really could not have given a sharper and more decisive answer. After this response, the attackers took a defensive position:

They reproached him and said: You are His disciple, and we are Moses’ disciples. We know that God spoke to Moses; We don’t know where He comes from. They justify themselves by referring to Moses; they boast about Moses. He is supposedly their teacher, and they are his students. But the Lord spoke quite clearly on this issue earlier. The scribes and Pharisees sat on Moses' seat, which love to sit at banquets and preside over synagogues, which eat widows' houses and hypocritically pray for a long time(Matthew 23; Luke 11:40-54). That's what Moses' disciples are like! And the Lord also said to them: Didn't Moses give you the law? and none of you act according to the law(John 7:19). By not fulfilling the law of Moses and violating it with their hypocrisy and robbery, they not only ceased to be Moses’ disciples, but also precisely in relation to Moses himself they became traitors and criminals. Therefore, Moses ceased to be their teacher and became their accuser before God. Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father: you have an accuser, Moses, in whom you trust(John 5:45). It is in vain that you trust in Moses, while at the same time you destroy the very foundations of his law. But your hope in Moses is false; in fact, you rely only on your power and wealth, and nothing else. For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, because he wrote about Me(John 5:46; Deut. 18:15-19). But since the souls of the Pharisees, clinging to the earth, could no longer believe even Moses, much less could they believe our Lord Jesus Christ. Look how these Pharisees, the supposed disciples of Moses, use lies. To a simple and naive beggar they speak about the Lord: We don’t know where He comes from. They knew very well where the Lord was from. If all the other inhabitants of Jerusalem knew where the Lord came from, then how much more these persecutors of Him, the rulers and leaders of the people, could not help but know this. Behold, the inhabitants of Jerusalem said: But we know Him where He comes from; When Christ comes, no one will know where He comes from(John 7:23). So, the Pharisees either knew where the Lord came from, or they did not know. If they knew - as others in Jerusalem knew - then they deceived the man born blind, saying to him: We don’t know where He comes from. If they did not know, if after such espionage, such disputes, such persecutions, such noise around Him, His origin, His speeches and His deeds, they still could not find out where He was from, then, therefore, He is the Christ. For there was a belief that came from somewhere: When Christ comes, no one will know where He comes from. See how the prophetic word is again confirmed: Sinners will fall into their death.

Meanwhile, the beggar, at the sight of all this, could not help but discover the desperate moral weakness and insignificance of these pitiful people's elders. Therefore, he becomes more and more decisive in his conversation with them and more and more freely in confessing the Lord. To their last words, he answers them like this: It’s amazing that you don’t know where He comes from, but He opened my eyes. That is: what kind of leaders and elders of the people are you if you know all the ritual details, but you don’t know about the Man who performed such a great miracle with me? Who should know if not you who sit in Moses' seat? Who can explain to people the appearance of This Man, if not you, who explain Moses and the prophets to the people every Saturday? - And then this unbookish man continues to teach the imaginary teachers of the people, saying:

But we know that God does not listen to sinners; but whoever honors God and does His will listens to him. With these words a simple man responds to the words of the Pharisees: we know that Man That Man is a sinner. Now the man who has regained his sight says to them: But we know that God does not listen to sinners. There are no examples in the Holy Scriptures of God listening to any sinner and, through his prayer, performing even the smallest miracle. And when you stretch out your hands, I close My eyes from you; and when you multiply your prayers, I do not hear: your hands are full of blood(Isaiah 1:15). And Saul, in his sins, prayed to God in vain: God did not want to hear him. God does not listen to sinners, much less does he perform miracles through them, except in those cases when sinners truly repent, and wash away their sin with tears, and hate their iniquities, and decide to do the will of God - and so, in repentance and with determination, they fall down to God in heartfelt prayer. Then God forgives them - just as He forgave the sinful woman, and the tax collector Zacchaeus, and the thief on the cross - and then they cease to be sinners. But even then the Lord listens to them not as sinners, but as repentants. But God does not listen to sinners who pray to God while remaining in their sins. The Lord is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayer of the righteous(Prov. 15:29).

And then, after this unbookish man taught the imaginary teachers: whom God listens to and who does not, he calls Christ the Greatest Wonderworker in the history of the world: Since the beginning of time it has not been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If He were not from God, He could not create anything. This is how a healed person extols his Healer. In this way he resolutely reveals himself to be His follower. And thus he makes it clear to the Pharisees that all their intriguing attempts not to recognize or belittle the miracle and to convince him of their opinion that the Lord is a sinner are in vain.

In response to last words the healed beggar, the Pharisees said to him:

You were born entirely in sins, and are you teaching us? And they kicked him out. In their evil weakness, hypocrisy and lies always end up resorting to violence. The Pharisees, seeing that they were defeated in all respects and that all their attempts were unsuccessful, now, enraged and disgraced, scold this simple-minded and truthful man, call him a terrible sinner and drive him out.

Until now, the Evangelist describes that thick and dark shadow that appeared in the face of the Pharisees immediately after the appearance of the wondrous light of Christ the Savior and His Divine work. Light is truth, shadow is darkness; light is philanthropy, shadow is hatred; light is power, shadow is powerlessness.

But, having begun today's Gospel reading with light, the Evangelist ends it with light, light, and not shadow. Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who, after performing a miracle, withdrew, leaving the healed man alone for a while, so that he could overcome temptations from the Pharisees and stand for the truth against lies, now appears again and goes to meet the one whom He wants to save to the end.

When Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and found him, he said to him, “Do you believe in the Son of God?” The healed blind man passed the first test well, that is, he showed his meekness and obedience when the Lord sent him with anointed eyes to wash in the pool of Siloam. It was a test of obedience. Then he passed the second test well, showing his steadfastness in temptation and not wanting to betray the Lord because of the lies of the Pharisees. This is a test of temptation. Now the Lord subjects him to the third and final test, the most important test right faith. Do you believe in the Son of God? He came to know Christ as a Wonderworker. He called Him a prophet before the Pharisees, for He did not know a greater name by which He could call Him. He still does not know how to call Him the Son of God. Obedient to the Lord in everything, as his Greatest Benefactor under the sun, he wants to hear from Him who the Son of God is, in order to believe in Him.

He answered and said: Who is He, Lord, that I should believe in Him?

Jesus said to him: And you have seen Him, and He speaks to you. He said: I believe, Lord! And he bowed to Him. The Lord speaks meekly and tenderly to those whom He saves, like a good doctor to a recovering patient. That is why he does not command him: “Believe in Me!” - and does not impose itself on him with the words: “I am the Son of God!”; but says to him: and you have seen Him, and He speaks to you. The Lord gives time to man, a free and rational being, to think for himself and decide for himself. And as soon as the healed man heard about this dignity of his Healer, a dignity higher than the prophetic, he immediately joyfully exclaimed: I believe, Lord! And he not only exclaimed with his tongue, but also bowed to Him, as if in order to further testify to his faith. (“Hereby he confessed His Divine power: so that they would not think that he only said this in words, he added deeds” (that is, he bows to the Lord). Zlatoust.) And just as before his bodily eyes were opened, so now his spiritual eyes were opened. And now he looked with both spiritual and physical eyes and saw before him the God-Man, God in human flesh.

Truly our God is great, and He works wonders; and there is no end to the story of His miracles. We also believe, Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior; We believe that You are the Son of the living God and the light of the world. And we worship You, Sweetest Jesus, together with the councils of angels and saints in heaven and with all Your Church on earth, to You and Your Father and the Holy Spirit - the Trinity, Consubstantial and Indivisible, now and ever, at all times and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

After washing himself in the waters of Siloam, the man born blind received his sight. His neighbors and those who knew him before as a blind man were perplexed when they saw Him seeing; some of them said that this was the same one who sat near the temple and asked for alms; others, without denying this on their part, found in him a great resemblance to the former blind man. The healed man himself resolved this misunderstanding, and to the question - how your eyes opened? - answered: A man called Jesus made clay, anointed my eyes and said to me: go to the pool of Siloam and wash. I went, washed and received my sight. Having clearly described everything that happened to him, he could not, however, point to his Healer, since he did not see Him, could not even say where He was, but called Him by name, which he probably heard from others. Those who listened to the explanation of the former blind man took him to the Pharisees, since the healing took place on Saturday, when, according to the teaching of the Pharisees, one should not even heal. The healed man also told the Pharisees what he knew about his healing; There was a dispute between the Pharisees about this story. Some (probably the vast majority) brazenly asserted that This Man is not from God because he does not keep the Sabbath. Others, in all likelihood, who had just believed in Jesus during His conversation in the temple, did not agree with this opinion and said: how can a sinful man perform such miracles?(). This dispute has passed into strife, and the embittered enemies of Christ, defeated by their comrades, turn to the healed one, hoping in him to find support for their opinion. They hoped that he would not dare to object to them, since, according to the decree of the Sanhedrin, anyone who recognized Jesus as the Christ the Messiah should be excommunicated from the synagogue. What can you say about Him? - this is a prophet, - answered the healed one (). Finding no support for their opinion in the healed man, the evil Jews raised the question: was he still blind? And calling his parents, they asked: Is this your son, of whom you say that he was born blind? How can he see now?(). Fearing excommunication from the synagogue and the vengeance of the Pharisees, the parents of the healed man gave an evasive answer; They confirmed that this was their son, who was born blind, but why now he sees, they responded with ignorance. They replied that they had not been at this healing and therefore did not know who opened his eyes; ask him; he is of advanced age and therefore can answer for himself.

Having thus made sure that the healed man was truly blind from birth, the Jews summon him a second time. He was removed while his parents were interrogating him. The enemies of Christ are now trying to convince the former blind man that they have carried out a thorough investigation about That Man, Whom he does not know and has not even seen, and have come to the undoubted conviction that That Man is a sinner(). Their hatred of Jesus was so great that they did not even call Him by name. Trust us, they said, give glory to God and recognize Him for your part as a sinner, violating the law of the Sabbath rest.

Give glory to God- this is the usual form of a spell to speak the truth under an oath (Bishop Michael. Explanatory Gospel. 3, 299).

The healed man did not pronounce the oath desired by the Pharisees, but not without mocking them he said: whether He is a sinner, I don’t know; One thing I know is that I was blind, but now I see.

What or what did He do to you? how I opened your eyes? – the Pharisees asked him again. This question irritates the healed man. “You already asked me about this, and I answered you (he says), and if you didn’t want to listen to me then, then what do you want from me now? “You are so carefully examining the details of the miracle that was performed on me, you are so interested in them, that one might think that you too would like to become His disciples?”

To this obvious mockery the Pharisees proudly replied: “Perhaps you are His disciple, This Sabbath law breaker, and we are disciples of him who gave us this law, we are Moses' disciples... God spoke to Moses; We don’t know where He comes from()».

The leaders and teachers of the Jewish people obviously had to find out where Jesus came from, who is followed by crowds of people and whom many consider to be Christ, but they say that they do not know Him, that is, they are obviously lying. The healed man reproaches them for this lie, saying: “ It's amazing that you don't know where He comes from(), who opened my eyes, performed a miracle unheard of since the beginning of the century; We know that he does not listen to sinners, but listens only to those who honor Him and do his will, and if He were not from God, He could not have performed such a miracle.”

Ashamed of a simple, ingenuous man, the learned Pharisees are unable to continue the dispute with him and, in order to somehow get out of the awkward situation in which the former blind man put them, resort to the usual method in such cases: they point out the impossibility of continuing the dispute due to the inequality of the disputing parties . “You (they say) are a sinner, born full of sins, and for that punished with blindness; Are you teaching us, the teachers of the people, to be precise executors of the law?” And they kicked him out() from the meeting in which the interrogation of him and his parents took place.

Jesus was told about all this, and He found it necessary to strengthen in the healed man the faith he had so boldly confessed. Having found him, Jesus asked : Do you believe in the Son of God?(). The healed man had not yet seen the One who healed him, therefore, he did not know Him, and therefore could not even guess that his Healer was now speaking to him. Expressing complete readiness to believe in the Son of God, that is, the Messiah, he asks: who is he?(). And when Jesus revealed himself to him, he fell down before Him, bowed to Him and exclaimed in tenderness: I believe, Lord! ().

The spiritual blindness of the learned Pharisees and scribes and the enlightenment of the man born blind gave Jesus Christ a reason to say a few words about the consequences of His appearance into the world.

Convicting the Pharisees of blindness

Simeon, holding the Baby Jesus in his arms, said: behold, this One lies for the fall and uprising of many in Israel and for the subject of controversy... so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed (). It is about this division of people into followers and opponents of Him, as a consequence of His appearance into this world, that Christ now speaks: I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind. ().

Contemporaries of Jesus' earthly life, seeing Him and hearing His teaching, and subsequent generations studying His teaching, judge Him, and these judgments lead them to the fact that those who extol themselves with their learning, the ability to see and understand everything, sometimes find themselves not understanding the most important thing - the truth of God, become blind to it; and those who seemed unenlightened by science and, as it were, blind, felt this truth in their hearts and accepted it. This justified the words of Jesus that seers, that is, capable of seeing and understanding what they see, became blind, and those who did not have the ability to immediately see everything and cognize what they saw, that is, as if they were blind, saw.

When some of the Pharisees heard this, not all those present in the temple, but only a few who appeared here by chance, or who appeared on purpose, said to Jesus: “Are we, the learned Pharisees, experts in the law, Are we really blind too?

“No, you are not blind,” Christ told them, “but it is so much worse for you that you, not being blind, do not want to see what is happening in front of you: if you were truly blind, then your unbelief, as a consequence of blindness, would not be imputed to you, and you would have no sin; but how do you say that you are not blind, that you can see, it's a sin your disbelief remains on you for what you look and do not see.”

These words of the Lord should be remembered more often by all those enlightened by the light of His teachings. Those who through Him knew the will of God, that is, truth, truth, thereby acquired the opportunity to become free from error, from sin, and therefore can no longer excuse themselves by ignorance of this truth; they are not blind, they see everything perfectly, understand everything; and if, despite this, they still do not live according to the truth of God, then there is no excuse for them for their sin unless they atone for it through repentance and good deeds.

Parable of the Good Shepherd

The Pharisees considered themselves the infallible leaders of the Jewish people and the interpreters of the God-given law; That’s why they mockingly asked Jesus: are we really blind?? Having explained to them their responsibility for what they see but do not see, Christ, in an allegorical form that was not immediately understood by them, explains to them that they cannot be considered good shepherds of the people, since they think more about their personal benefits than about the good of those they flock, and therefore they are led not to salvation, but to destruction. For clarity, He compares the people to a flock of sheep, and the leaders of the people to the shepherds of this flock. In eastern countries, flocks of sheep were driven at night for protection from thieves and wolves into caves or courtyards specially built for this purpose, and flocks belonging to different owners were often driven into one courtyard; in the morning, the gatekeepers opened the doors of the courtyard to the shepherds, the shepherds entered them, separated their flocks from strangers, calling their sheep by name, and went out to the pastures; the sheep recognized their shepherds by voice and appearance, obeyed them and followed them. Thieves and robbers did not dare to enter the courtyard doors guarded by guards, but secretly climbed over the fence. All this was well known to the Pharisees. And so, taking such a well-known example, Christ says: whoever does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs elsewhere, is a thief and a robber; and he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. The doorkeeper opens for him, and the sheep obey his voice, and he calls his sheep by name and leads them out. And when he has brought out his sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, because they know his voice. They don’t follow a stranger, but run from him because they don’t know someone else’s voice ().

The Pharisees did not understand Jesus; however, the thought underlying this allegory had not yet been fully expressed by Him, and therefore He, continuing His speech, said: Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep... whoever enters through Me will be saved. ().

Now it has become clear that He is talking about the Kingdom of God founded by Him on earth, the Kingdom of people united by faith in Him and love for their neighbors. This Kingdom He likens to a sheepfold; but since you have to go through the doors into the courtyard, and you can enter the Kingdom of God only by believing in Him, He calls Himself the door that leads to this Kingdom.

But He is not only a door, He is a Shepherd. He has brought His sheep out of the old enclosure of the Mosaic law and is calling them to Himself; they follow Him, and He, as the Good Shepherd, leads them to the bliss of eternal life, and proves His love for them by sacrificing His life for them. Jesus contrasts the good shepherd with thieves and robbers who think only about how to make money at the expense of the sheep, as well as a hired hand to whom the sheep are not dear, who does not love them and thinks only about his personal well-being. He calls all false prophets, false messiahs thieves and robbers, mercenaries - the Pharisees and similar imaginary leaders of the people, and the devil - the wolf.

But Christ came not only to lead the Jews out of the fence of the Mosaic Law and bring them into the Kingdom of God; He came to save the whole world, all people who are ready to believe, no matter what nationality they belong to, and unite them all with the new law of love. That is why, speaking of Himself as the Good Shepherd, He immediately considered it necessary to once again dispel the false notions of the Jews about the Messiah as the exclusive King of Israel. I have other sheep that are not of this fold, and these I must bring: and they will hear My voice, and there will be one flock and one Shepherd ().

Before the coming of Christ, it was possible to divide all the nations inhabiting the earth into Jews, who worshiped the True God and therefore constituted the chosen flock, and pagans, who worshiped idols. Jesus' words, what will happen one flock and one shepherd, prove that from now on Jews will cease to be the exclusive, chosen flock of God - that pagans will also be drawn into this chosen flock, sheep... not of this yard, and thus there will be one diverse flock under the leadership of one Shepherd - Christ. This idea, contained in the quoted words of Jesus Christ, is clear and does not cause any objections.

But, one wonders, is it possible to develop this idea more broadly? Should we assume that over time, all of humanity without exception, which includes all the peoples of the earth, will enter this one flock - that outside this flock there will be no other flocks, and that, therefore, all people will recognize Jesus Christ as their Shepherd?

The answer to this question must be sought in the Gospel, in the sayings of Jesus Christ. Speaking about the end of the world and His upcoming second coming, Christ said: And this Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations; and then the end will come (; cf.). This saying of Jesus Christ leads to the conclusion that before the end of the world, the Gospel will be preached to all nations inhabiting the earth, that is, the opportunity will be given to know the true God and His will, but will they all love God and will they all do His will, that is whether everyone will unite into one friendly family, animated by love for God and each other - this (according to some interpreters) cannot be deduced from the above words of Jesus; the upcoming division at the final Judgment into righteous and sinners, not only of all those resurrected for this purpose, but also of those who will survive until that time, leads these interpreters to the idea that even by the end of the world all humanity will not form a single flock, the sheep of which would be obedient the voice of your Shepherd.

However, we cannot agree with this opinion. The idea of ​​a single flock and a single Shepherd was implanted, so to speak, in the hearts of people at their very creation and was supported in the consciousness of the best representatives of the human race throughout the very long time of its existence. The idea that God Himself reigns over people, whose will they must fulfill as an unconditionally binding law, illuminates the entire Old Testament history. The basic laws of God (love God, love your neighbor and work!) were given to the first people; in them is the whole truth of God, and they were to determine all mutual relations between people. And if people were really governed by these laws, they would have long ago drawn up one flock with one Shepherd, that is, that earthly paradise, that Kingdom of God, which is the purpose of the earthly life of mankind. But people are created as free beings; they could obey the will of God expressed in these laws, or they could resist it. Having understood the freedom granted to them in the sense of resistance to any foreign will, and, consequently, to the will of God, people, without noticing it, began to blindly fulfill another will, an evil will, pitting them against each other, separating them and thereby preventing them from uniting into a single friendly herd with one Shepherd. Without noticing this subordination, man thought that he was doing his own will, doing what he himself wanted, and therefore began to consider his desires as the highest law for himself, and their satisfaction as the meaning of his life. And so many years passed, and people fell morally lower and lower. Having forgotten the will of God, expressed in His eternal and unchangeable laws, they did not understand the purpose of human life and did not see any meaning in it; the best representatives of paganism reached despair and believed that the only happiness of a person lies in the opportunity to end his aimless and meaningless life by suicide. But a vague memory of that happy time when people were blissful, not needing anything (inherent in almost all peoples inhabiting the earth), grief over the loss of this bliss and dreams of the advent of a golden age, of the return of a lost paradise - all this brought people with a soul that is not bogged down in the trifles of everyday life, to the consciousness that it is impossible to live like this any longer and that a Man must appear who will renew the fallen world; and were waiting for This Man from the east. The Jewish prophets, inspired by God, prophesied the imminent arrival of this happy future. The Prophet Isaiah, thundering in his fiery speeches the iniquities of his contemporaries, consoled them, however, that that blessed time would come when “the wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie with the kid; and the calf, and the young lion, and the ox will be together, and a little child will lead them; and the baby will play over the asp's hole, and the child will stretch out his hand into the snake's nest; They will not do evil or harm on the holy mountain" (). The Prophet Micah, speaking about the same happy time, predicted that when people “beat their swords into plows, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation will not raise sword against nation, and will no longer learn to fight; but each one will sit under his own vine and under his own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid” (). And generally speaking the best people of that time they believed that happiness would be possible only when the swords were rusty and the plows were shiny; when the granaries are full, and the hospitals and prisons are empty; when the steps of temples and schools are erased, and the road to the courts is overgrown with grass.

And so, Christ came with the good news that man is immortal, that his short earthly life is a preparation for Eternal Life, that for this Eternal Life people will be resurrected and after the final Judgment over them, some will be blissful, while others will suffer, which will be worthy of the bliss of Eternal Life is possible only by fulfilling the will of God, which requires people to love Him, the Creator, and all people, that the good of man is not in oppressing his neighbors, but in constantly helping them, in love even for those whom we mistakenly consider enemies our own, for there should be no enemies, everyone should be brothers, friends...

Bringing such news, Christ realized that “he did not bring peace to earth, but a sword,” and that His teaching would give rise to terrible discord between people, even members of the same family; but at the same time, He spoke to His Apostles in His farewell conversation, so that they would not be embarrassed by this, since victory was assured for Him: take heart: I have conquered the world ().

Previously, He said that all the nations of the earth would hear His voice (that is, His teaching), and then that happy time would come, about which the prophets spoke and the pagans dreamed - then there will be one flock and one Shepherd.

The question is: is it possible to doubt the truth of what the Lord said about a single flock with a single Shepherd after He said that He conquered the world? In what other way could this victory be expressed, if not in the unification of all people inhabiting the earth into one flock, into one Kingdom of God, in which God Himself reigns, and which Christ came to restore? Of course, such a unification of people into one Kingdom of God will happen very slowly, but it is already happening and, according to the word of the Lord, will certainly happen. Many tares are still growing in the field of Christ, but, with the concerted efforts of all the true disciples of Christ, these tares will become less and less. Much land is not yet occupied by this field; but the Word of God is now sown even where there are no favorable conditions, and it gives shoots. And let them not say that the tares will choke the wheat! Although at times the tares can grow vigorously and oppress the wheat with their growth, we must not forget that the Word of God, like a mustard seed, has the miraculous power to grow into a luxurious tree, under whose branches there will be no place for the tares. Of course, if we preach that people will never unite into one friendly family that loves God and each other, then we will delay the return of the lost paradise to people; we will put it away, but we will not hinder the fulfillment of the will of God and the implementation of what Christ said. Let us not doubt the truth of the Lord’s words; Let us try to warm our hearts and those of our neighbors with love, so that peace and love may reign in us; Let us, to the best of our ability, expand the boundaries of the Kingdom of God; Let us all unite in prayer and pray to the merciful Creator: may the spirit of malice, enmity and misanthropy, which is now reaping a bountiful harvest, be silent! May our hearts be inflamed with love for Him, the Heavenly Father, and for each other! May He help us realize our spiritual poverty, our moral impotence and insignificance in comparison with the perfection to which we should strive! May He grant us the strength to expand the boundaries of His Kingdom! May we all be one, and may we be one with Him! Yes, we will one flock with one Shepherd!

Speaking of Himself as the Shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep, Jesus said that He gives His life voluntarily, that no one takes it from Him and cannot take it away, that He has the power to give it up and to take it up again, and that He received this power from His Father. With these words He pointed to His impending death, and so that His disciples could not fall away from Him, seeing Him on the Cross, He explained to them in advance that without His will no one could take His life and that by giving it voluntarily, He has power again accept it. He told His Apostles more than once that He would rise again; With the same words, He explained that He would not be resurrected, but He Himself would be resurrected, by virtue of His power to again accept the life given for His sheep.

From these words a quarrel arose again between Jews, that is, between the Pharisees, from among whom, as stated above, some believed in Jesus as the Messiah. The embittered enemies of Christ said: He is possessed by a demon and goes mad; Why are you listening to Him?(). The Pharisees, who believed in Jesus, did not agree with their comrades: these are not the words of a demoniac(they said); Can a demon open the eyes of the blind? ().

With this, Evangelist John ends his story about Jesus’ stay in Jerusalem at the Feast of Tabernacles.

Archpriest Seraphim Slobodskoy
God's law

New Testament

Healing a Man Born Blind

Having visited the Jerusalem temple on the occasion of one holiday, the Savior, after His sermon, left the temple and, walking along the street, saw a person blind from birth(born blind).

The Jews thought that every misfortune that happens to a person is a punishment for his sins. If misfortune befell the baby, they considered it a punishment for the sins of the parents.

Therefore, the disciples of Jesus asked Him: “Rabbi (teacher)! Who sinned, he or his parents, that he was born blind?”

Jesus Christ answered: " neither he nor his parents sinned, but this was so that the works of God might be revealed in him".

Having said this, He spat on the ground, made clay (dirt) from the spit, and anointed the eyes of the blind man with clay.

Then the Savior said to the blind man: “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam (that was the name of one source of water located outside the city; the word Siloam means “sent”).

To heal a man born blind, the Savior could only say a word, and the blind man would begin to see. Therefore, if He now anointed the blind man’s eyes, he did this not because this ointment contained healing power, but in order to arouse faith in him by such a touch to his eyes and show people that the blind man accepts the words of the Savior with faith.

The man born blind went to the pool of Siloam, washed himself and began to see; and returned sighted.

Then all the neighbors and those who had seen him before were surprised and asked: “Isn’t this the blind beggar who sat and begged?”

Some said: “It’s him.” Others said: “Only similar to him.” He himself said: “It’s me, the one who was blind.”

Then everyone began to ask him: “How did your eyes open?”

The healed man replied: “The man called Jesus made clay, anointed my eyes and said to me: go to the pool of Siloam and wash. I went, washed and received my sight.”

He was asked: “Where is this Man?”

The healed one answered: “I don’t know.”

Then they took the former blind man to the Pharisees; and it was Saturday when Jesus Christ healed him.

The Pharisees also began to ask the healed man how he regained his sight.

The healed one said to them: “He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.”

Some of the Pharisees began to say: “This Man is not from God, because he does not keep the Sabbath.”

Others said: “How can a sinful man perform such miracles?”

And there was a quarrel between them.

Then they asked the healed man again: “What will you say about Him, because He opened your eyes?”

The healed one said to them: " This is the Prophet".

Then the Pharisees did not believe that he was blind and received his sight. They called their parents and asked them: “Is this your son, about whom you say that he was born blind? How can he see now?”

The parents of the healed man answered them: “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind. But how he sees now, we don’t know, and who opened his eyes, we don’t know. Our son is of age (an adult), ask yourself Let him speak about himself."

This is how his parents answered, because they were afraid of the Pharisees, who had already agreed earlier and decided that anyone who recognizes Jesus of Nazareth as Christ the Messiah, the Savior of the world, will be excommunicated from the synagogue, that is, considered an apostate from their faith and law. That is why the parents, out of fear of the Pharisees, said: he is of advanced age, ask yourself.

Then the Pharisees called the healed man a second time and said to him: “Give glory to God! We know that that Man is a sinner (i.e., thank God for your healing, and not this Man, He is a sinner).”

The healed one said to them: “Whether He is a sinner, I don’t know; one thing I know is that I was blind, but now I see.”

The Pharisees began to ask him again: “What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes?”

The healed man replied: “I have already told you, and you did not listen; what else do you want to hear? Or do you also want to become His disciples?”

The Pharisees got angry, reproached him and said: “You are His disciple, and we are Moses’ disciples. We know that God spoke to Moses, but this (Jesus) we do not know where He comes from.”

Then the healed man answered them: “It’s amazing that you don’t know where He comes from, but He opened my eyes. But we know that God does not listen to sinners; but whoever honors God and does His will, he listens. "It has not been heard that any man opened the eyes of a man born blind. If He had not been from God, He could not have done anything."

These simple and reasonable words, against which nothing could be said, angered the Pharisees. They said to him: “You were born entirely in sins, and are you teaching us?”

And they kicked him out.

Jesus Christ, hearing that the Pharisees had thrown out the healed man, found him and said to him: "Do you believe in the Son of God?"

The healed one asked: “Who is He, Lord, that I should believe in Him?”

Jesus Christ told him: "And you have seen Him, and He speaks to you."

Then the healed man said with great joy: "I believe, Lord!" and bowed to Him.

NOTE: See the Gospel of John, ch. 9 , 1-38.