“Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents? ” Jesus answered: “Neither he nor his parents sinned; it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him.” Blindness or birth defects were thought to be punishment for either the disabled person or the parents. Most disabled people had to beg. In parts of the world they still do. Jesus cured the man’s blindness, which caused fear among the Jewish leaders. They realized Jesus was demonstrating that the man’s blindness was not a sign of his sin or his parents, but that his need to beg was a sign of the sin of the many people, particularly the Jewish leaders, who refused to share God’s gifts to them to help the blind man. Jesus has an unpleasant encounter with the Pharisees and concludes by saying, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see,’ so your sin remains.” They suffered from a self inflicted spiritual and moral blindness. There are none so blind as those who will not see. Now, do we see?????
