Mensa Otabil - Who Sinned? (10/29/2025)
Welcome to a brand new week and to a new study as we look at the life of Jesus Christ and an encounter he had with a blind man. This week, we’ll be focusing on John chapter 9, starting with the first two verses.
Now, as Jesus passed by, he saw a man who was blind from birth, and his disciples asked him, saying, «Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?» Now, Jesus used this encounter with this visually impaired person, a blind man, to teach about spiritual blindness and the need for us to open up to God and to his grace. This miracle is a lesson in action; Jesus is using the miracle to teach a lesson.
There are a few things we want to start with as we observe these two verses from John chapter 9. The first thing I want you to note is the phrase «Jesus passed by.» It seems like a very casual statement that Jesus is just going on his way. When you read it, it would appear that Jesus doesn’t know what he’s doing, but everything about Jesus was intentional and purposeful. So, although it may seem like a little stroll or a walk, as he moves, the text doesn’t tell us where he is moving from or where he is moving to; he seems to be moving, but there is purpose in this movement. The first thing I want you to know is that even when we think what he’s doing has no purpose, there is a purpose, an intention behind his actions.
The second thing I want you to note is that Jesus saw him. In many of the miracles of Jesus, people reach out to him, but in this particular miracle, the blind person doesn’t reach out to Jesus; Jesus is the one who initiates the recognition. He notices the man is blind. The man is not calling for help; he’s not praying for assistance, but Jesus sees him. There are a couple of lessons we can learn from this. Many times, we teach that until we ask God for help, he doesn’t help us, and that is the general rule. However, there are exceptions to that rule. There are times when God helps us even when we’re not looking for help. There are instances where we pray, and we pray wrongly, and still, God answers. There are occasions where we don’t pray at all, yet God still reaches out to us.
So, Jesus saw him; he took the initiative. He was moving by and saw him. I want you to pay attention to the question the disciples asked him: «Who sinned?» The disciples also saw the blind man, and somehow they knew he had been blind from birth. Perhaps he was a well-known blind man. The question they asked the Lord Jesus was, «Whose problem is it? Is it the man himself or his parents?» The Jewish society believed that when people got into trouble, it’s because they have sinned, or God is punishing them, or something is wrong. Most of us believe that too: when something is wrong in somebody’s life, it must be that they are at fault. That is how Job’s friends thought about Job’s life.
So, they asked Jesus the obvious question: «Whose fault is it?» Many times, when people face trouble, instead of helping them, we want to find out whose fault it is. We want to identify the cause of it, as if finding out who caused it will solve the problem. How will finding the cause of the blindness help the man? It won’t help him. Jesus doesn’t get into that, and we will find out tomorrow how Jesus responded to this question. It is interesting that many times we try to assign blame for people’s situations. Sometimes, people go through hardship not because they’ve done anything wrong, but simply because something has gone wrong in their lives. It is not their fault; it’s not caused by their parents; it’s just something wrong. This is what we learn from Jesus in these opening verses of John chapter 9.
Let’s pray. Say with me, «Heavenly Father, I know you take notice of me. Thank you that you do not pass me by. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.»