Continued from yesterday. "We know that this is our son, and we know that he was born blind," returned his parents, "but how he can see now, or who made him able to see, we have no idea. Why don't you ask him? He is a grown-up man; he can speak for himself." . . . So, once again they summoned the man who had been born blind and said to him, "You should give God the glory . . . We know that this Man is a sinner."

   "Whether He is a sinner or not, I couldn't tell, but one thing I am sure of," the man replied, "I used to be blind, now I can see!"

   "But what did He do to you?" they continued. "Weren't you listening?" he replied. "Why do you want to hear it all over again? Are you wanting to be His disciples too?" At this, they turned on him furiously. "You're the one who is His disciple! We are disciples of Moses. We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this Man, we don't even know where He came from."

   "Now here's the extraordinary thing," he retorted, "you don't know where He came from and yet He gave me the gift of sight. Everybody knows that God does not listen to sinners. It is the man who has a proper respect for God and does what He wants him to do - he's the one God listens to. Why, since the world began, nobody's ever heard of a man who was born blind being given his sight. If this Man did not come from God, He couldn't do anything!"

   "You misbegotten wretch!" they flung back at him. "Are you trying to teach us?" And they threw him out. Jesus heard that they had expelled him and when He had found him, He said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" The man answered, "Tell me Who He is, Sir, so I can believe in Him." Jesus said to him, "You have already seen Him, and He is the One Who is talking with you now." Then the man said, "Lord, I believe," and he worshiped Him. Then Jesus said, "My coming into this world is itself a judgment - those who cannot see have their eyes opened and those who think they can see become blind." Some of the Pharisees near Him overheard this and said, "So we're blind, too, are we?"

   "If you were blind," returned Jesus, "nobody could blame you, but, as you insist 'We can see,' your guilt remains."

Taken from John 9, The Phillips Translation, Today's English Version and
The New International Version. For free Lifescope book, write to Box 1575,
Carlsbad, NM 88221. Please send $1.00 for postage and handling.