John 9: The Most Misunderstood Miracle of The Gospels
We all know the story in John 9: Jesus heals a man born blind.
But the real shocker isn’t the instant sight.
It’s the verse where Jesus seems to suggest the man was born broken on purpose, just so this moment could happen.
Surely God wouldn’t pre-program decades of pain for a single miracle.
Right?
The answer is buried in one tiny Greek word — and once you see it, the whole story flips.
As he went along…
As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, spread it on the man’s eyes, and told him, “Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam.” So the man went, washed, and came home seeing.
Three shocking things immediately stand out:
A lifelong condition healed in an instant.
Jesus uses spit and dirt — not the method anyone expected.
The verse that makes it sound like God orchestrated a disability.
Let’s fix that last one.
1. What did Jesus actually say?
John 9:3 is a theological grenade:
“Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”
Sure sounds like God caused the blindness, right?
Not so fast.
a) Jesus rejects sin-blame theology
The disciples assume what many still assume today:
Bad things happen → someone sinned.
Blindness is a curse.
Therefore, someone is at fault.
It’s the simplistic Deuteronomy logic: obedience = blessing, disobedience = curse.
Job’s friends used it.
They were rebuked for it.
And Jesus rejects it here.
When He says, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” He’s not calling them sinless — He’s saying this suffering is not the result of a specific sin.
He is dismantling the idea that suffering is always a divine payback.
b) The Greek word hina (“so that”) is doing the heavy lifting
Greek didn’t use punctuation the way we do.
So the clause “so that the works of God might be displayed” can grammatically attach forwards or backwards.
Two legitimate readings exist:
1. The traditional reading:
“He was born blind so that God’s works could be displayed.”
2. The alternative (and smoother) reading used by many scholars:
“Neither this man nor his parents sinned. But in order that God’s works might be displayed in him, we must do the works of the One who sent Me.”
See the difference?
Jesus isn’t explaining the cause of the blindness.
He’s explaining the purpose of His response.
He’s not saying, “God did this.”
He’s saying, “Now watch what God will do through it.”
This removes the picture of God scripting disabilities as props and replaces it with a far more biblical truth:
In a broken world, suffering happens — but when Jesus steps into it, He reveals God’s character inside the brokenness, not as the cause of it.
2. OT background: sin, suffering, and “glory”
To understand Jesus’ answer, you have to feel the Old Testament tension beneath it.
a) The default Deuteronomy logic
Deuteronomy 28 teaches:
Obedience → blessing
Disobedience → curse
Blindness even appears in the curse list. So for a first-century Jew:
Blind man = cursed man
Cursed man = someone sinned
No wonder the disciples ask their question.
b) The OT pushback
But the Old Testament isn’t naïve:
Job suffers though he’s righteous.
Psalm 73 laments the wicked prospering and the righteous hurting.
Isaiah 53 describes the Servant as “stricken by God” in the eyes of others — yet He suffers for others.
The Bible itself warns us against simplistic, “suffering = sin” math. Jesus is placing Himself firmly inside that wiser tradition.
c) “Who makes man blind?” (Exodus 4:11)
God tells Moses:
“Who makes man mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?”
This isn’t God boasting about afflicting people. It’s God saying:
“Nothing lies outside My sovereignty. Even what you call disability is not beyond My redemptive reach.”
Which is exactly the tension we’re seeing in John 9.
d) Glory is God’s character made visible
In Scripture, “glory” means God’s presence and character revealed:
Compassion
Faithfulness
Power
Light breaking into darkness
New creation invading old creation
John loves this theme:
“We have seen His glory…” (John 1:14)
Jesus’ first miracle “revealed His glory” (John 2:11)
The cross is His hour of “glory” (John 12, 17)
So when Jesus says this blindness will reveal God’s works, He means:
This man’s life is about to become a canvas for the kingdom.
3. “Born blind so God could be glorified?”
Does this mean God intentionally inflicted blindness on a baby?
No.
Here’s the biblical framework that fits:
We live in a fallen creation where things break.
God is not the author of evil.
But nothing is beyond His ability to redeem.
Jesus reframes the entire conversation:
“Stop asking whose fault it is.
Start watching what God will do.”
The “purpose” of this blindness isn’t at its origin.
The purpose is in the encounter with Jesus.
4. “I am the light of the world”
Right before the miracle, Jesus says:
“While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
That’s not poetic filler. That’s Isaiah who said the Messiah would:
Be “a light to the nations” (Isa 42:6; 49:6)
“Open the eyes of the blind” (Isa 42:7)
Bring “recovery of sight to the blind” (Isa 61:1)
John doesn’t record miracles as spectacle. He records them as signs that reveal who Jesus really is.
This sign screams: The Creator is here, undoing the damage of the fall.
5. Creation and new creation — the mud matters
Look at the details:
Jesus spits
Kneels in the dust
Makes mud
Spreads it on a man born blind
Sends him to wash
This is Genesis 2 on the streets of Jerusalem. God formed Adam from the dust of the ground and now Jesus uses dust to form what was missing.
He’s not just healing; He’s creating.
“What was missing, I can form.
What was broken, I can restore.
What creation lost, I can renew.”
Which brings us to the deeper Greek connections.
6. Understanding John in light of the other Gospels
John consistently uses ophthalmos — the standard Greek word for “eyes.”
But in two other Gospel healings, Matthew and Mark use the rare word omma, a term that often refers to the physical structure of the eye.
In those stories:
Mark 8:23 - Jesus spits and touches the man’s omma, and sight returns in stages.
Matthew 20:34 - Jesus touches the men’s omma, and sight is restored instantly.
Why does this matter?
Because across the Gospels you see two themes:
Jesus has authority over the eye as an organ (omma)
Jesus has authority over the function of sight (ophthalmos)
So when you return to John 9, the theology snaps into focus:
Jesus bends to the dust — Creator
He forms mud — Genesis imagery
He applies it to a man blind from birth — something missing, not just damaged
He gives him sight — Isaiah fulfilled
John is saying: This is the God who forms eyes and the God who opens eyes. Not one or the other — both. Creation and restoration in the same moment.
BOOM.
7. New creation breaking into the old
John’s entire Gospel follows a creation arc:
“In the beginning…”
Genesis
Fall
The Word becomes flesh
New creation breaks into old creation
John 9 fits perfectly:
A man born blind — old creation brokenness
Mud and dust — creation materials
Jesus forming and opening eyes — Creator activity
Light entering darkness — new creation bursting through
Then Jesus says:
“For judgment I came into the world,
that those who do not see may see…” (John 9:39)
John wants you to see what’s happening:
Jesus isn’t just healing a man.
He’s reenacting the creation story.
He’s launching the new creation inside the old.
He’s revealing Himself as the One who can do what only God can do.
This is the only miracle where Jesus creates something missing and then opens what He created.
Which is why the whole chapter is one loud theological announcement:
Jesus is the God of Genesis and the God of Isaiah, the One who forms eyes and the One who opens them.
