Summary: I believe the man in John 9 is one of the most misunderstood people in the Bible. Apparently his witness was so powerful, the crowds continued to talk about his story in John 10:21 and 11:37, but we don't even get to know his name. To most of his neighbors and to us today, he is simply "the blind man" or "the formerly blind man." Many preachers use this man's story to talk about "darkness and light" or "ignorance and wisdom," and many Bible publishers add the heading "Spiritual Blindness" to this text, as though the man in this story were a symbolic object instead of a real person. I know what it's like to live in the shadow of powerful labels like that, because I myself have been totally blind all my life. Some of my earliest memories of going to church include the awkward whispers of neighbors who quietly asked my parents or grandparents if there might be any hope that I would see someday. I wasn't ashamed of being blind, but I did often feel humiliated by the attitudes of people who were whispering about me as though I weren't really there. Many people are so afraid of the dark they simply cannot get past the word "blind" to see a real person beyond the label. When Jesus and his disciples first encountered the man in John 9, the disciples assumed the man's blindness was some kind of curse or punishment for sin--and unfortunately this belief still exists in some form today--but Jesus clearly rejected this myth in John 9:3, saying, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God's works might be revealed in him." Some preachers interpret this to mean the man was born blind so that Jesus could come along and perform a miracle for all to see, but this interpretation robs the man of his humanity, reducing him to a mere prop in the story. Even the use of the word "healing" to describe this miracle implies that there was originally something "wrong" or "broken" about this man's blindness, which seems quite the opposite of what Jesus was saying in John 9:3. Although it's true that some people do not enjoy being blind--and I have to admit I myself find it annoying when it prevents me from doing useful things like driving a car--still, Jesus made it clear that blindness does not prevent us from doing God's will.
