John Chapter Nine and Ten,  A Contrast between Good and Bad Shepherds










John Chapter Nine, the Bad Shepherds

As a means of introduction, we suggest reading Zechariah chapter Eleven where we are told about Israel's bad Shepherds. As John Chapter seven and chapter eight were one event explained, so are John chapter nine and chapter ten. Hundreds of years before the actual event, Zechariah told about the Shepherds who were to rule over Israel and how God had disdain for them. Yes, even to the point of destroying Israel's leadership and Jerusalem. Zechariah 12 specifically tells of the coming destruction of Jerusalem and it is Jerusalem's Shepherds who are to blame (Zech.11:17). It is in John chapter nine we have a discussion of the "Bad Shepherds" (see 9:35) where the man was “cast out” for believing in Jesus by the Shepherds of Israel and of course, John chapter 10 tells us about the “Good Shepherd.” While the text does not specifically use the term "Bad Shepherds" it must be remembered that all that separates John 9 and John 10 is an arbitrary chapter break and the context is ever so important.  I just ask that the letter be read as so, a letter.  Please see the Outline on this site for the book of Zechariah 11 (here)

First, let's read through Zechariah 11.

Zechariah 11

The Doomed Flock

1 Open your doors, O Lebanon,
That a fire may feed on your cedars.
2Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen,
Because the glorious trees have been destroyed;
Wail, O oaks of Bashan,
For the impenetrable forest has come down.
3There is a sound of the shepherds' wail,
For their glory is ruined;
There is a sound of the young lions' roar,
For the pride of the Jordan is ruined.

5"Those who buy them slay them and go unpunished,

and each of those who sell them says, 'Blessed be the LORD, for I have become rich!' And their own shepherds have no pity on them. 6"For I will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of the land," declares the LORD; "but behold, I will cause the men to fall, each into another's power and into the power of his king; and they will strike the land, and I will not deliver them from their power." 7So I pastured the flock doomed to slaughter, hence the afflicted of the flock And I took for myself two staffs: the one I called Favor and the other I called Union; so I pastured the flock. 8Then I annihilated the three shepherds in one month, for my soul was impatient with them, and their soul also was weary of me. 9Then I said, "I will not pasture you. What is to die, let it die, and what is to be annihilated, let it be annihilated; and let those who are left eat one another's flesh." 10I took my staff Favor and cut it in pieces, to break my covenant which I had made with all the peoples. 11So it was broken on that day, and thus the afflicted of the flock who were watching me realized that it was the word of the LORD. 12I said to them, "If it is good in your sight, give me my wages; but if not, never mind!" So they weighed out thirty shekels of silver as my wages. 13Then the LORD said to me, "Throw it to the potter, that magnificent price at which I was valued by them." So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of the LORD. 14Then I cut in pieces my second staff Union, to break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. 15The LORD said to me, "Take again for yourself the equipment of a foolish shepherd. 16"For behold, I am going to raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for the perishing, seek the scattered, heal the broken, or sustain the one standing, but will devour the flesh of the fat sheep and tear off their hoofs.
17"Woe to the worthless shepherd
Who leaves the flock!
A sword will be on his arm
And on his right eye!
His arm will be totally withered
And his right eye will be blind."



A Blind Man Healed

 1As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2And his disciples asked him, "Rabbi,who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" 3Jesus answered, "It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. 5As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." 6Having said these things, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud 7and said to him, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam" (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.8The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, "Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?" 9Some said, "It is he." Others said, "No, but he is like him." He kept saying, "I am the man." 10So they said to him, "Then how were your eyes opened?" 11He answered, "The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, 'Go to Siloam and wash.' So I went and washed and received my sight." 12They said to him, "Where is he?" He said, "I do not know."

    Chapter Nine is a continuation of of the teachings and works of Jesus during the Feast of Tabernacles. If we look at a larger outline of the book, it might look something like this.

    II. The Word Manifested to the Jews and their rejection of Him. 1:19-12:50

    D. The Public Ministry, Third Year

    2. Later Judean Ministry, 7:1--10:21, The Feast of Tabernacles.

    a. A Blind Man healed 9: 1-12

    b. He is investigated by Authorities, 9:13-23

    c. The Questioned One becomes the Questioner, 9:24-34.

d. Blindness that is blindness indeed! 9:35-41.

I. Verse 1___It seems that this blind man was at the Temple gates begging when Jesus passed by in 8:59. This was a common place for beggars to sit. In fact, in Acts 3:3 we are told about a beggar who was carried daily and placed at the Temple gates.

II. Verses 2 and 3___It is here that the disciples ask if the man was born blind because of someone's sin.

A. First, all sin and suffering is a result of Adam's sin since he brought sin into this world (Rom. 5:12-21).

B. While sin is not inherited (see Ezekiel 18: 18ff), the results of a parents sin may be visited on the children in the form of calamities even to the 4th generation. What I mean by that is  even today we see the government spending massive amounts of money they do not have. The results of this sin will be on our children and grandchildren and possibly even others not yet born. Someone will have to pay in the future for sin committed in the past.  All sin has consequences.

C. Some Jewish Rabbis interpreted Genesis 25:22-26 (Esau trying to 'murder' Jacob while still in the womb) as a prenatal sin. Other Jews believed in a Platonic idea of a Pre-existence soul (a form of re-incarnation). For those of the Platonic worldview, people are often punished in this life for sins they committed in their last life. Whatever the case, in our text, the disciples are looking for a Theological Answer. That is just was Jesus gave them.

III. Verses 3-4___ Jesus states that sin is not inherited in the sense of a man being punished because of the sin of His parents. (On sin being inherited, see Ezekiel 18: 17-20, where sin is not inherited) This man was blind since all men are under the curse of sin and death because of Adam. We then are 'forced' to take Jesus' explanation as to why this man was blind. As Hendrickson says, All Things, have their ultimate purpose in the glorification of God, yes even suffering and calamities. Suffering is a great theme in the Bible. For a complete college level course on suffering and the Wisdom Literature, please visit us here (Suffering user name: lane, and password: sylvia) Jesus makes it plain in verse 4, that He has only a certain amount of alloted time to complete His mission on earth. "When night is coming and no man can work" is a reference to physical death.

IV. Verse 5_ Jesus has a special work to be done while He is here. He is to be "the light of the word." (cf. John 1:4-18). Jesus came to walk among men and to reveal to them the Father (John 14:7-11).

VI. Verse 6__ There are generally two reasons given for Jesus anointing the man's eyes with mud made of spittle:

(1) To Challenge the Pharisaic traditions prohibiting application of medications on the Sabbath.

(2) To give the blind man some concrete action in order that the blind man may know for sure that the healing came from Jesus. This is the desired explanation. Jesus used this method at other times (Mk. 7:33, 8:23) and so did the Prophets (II Kings 4:29; Isa. 8:18).

Verse seven___ Why did Jesus send the man to the pool of Siloam? The pool was a considerable distance from the Temple and there were probably other places much closer. There are generally two reasons given for this.

(1) He sent the man there to test his faith. Faith isn't faith until it finds expression. The Scriptures are full of such examples. Naaman the Syrian captain for example was cured of leprosy by dipping himself in the muddy Jordan river (II Kings 5:10).

(2) The pool probably had a symbolic or Messianic significance (see Isa. 8:6 and comments on the Feast of Tabernacles and the water ceremony, John 7:38).

Verses eight-twelve___The blind man is healed and he tells his neighbors and others of his healing. Someone must have been in cohorts with the Pharisees because in the next section the Pharisees are on the scene.

13They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. 14 Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. 15 So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, "He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see." 16Some of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath." But others said, "How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?" And there was a division among them. 17So they said again to the blind man, "What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?" He said, "He is a prophet."
18 The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight 19and asked them, "Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?" 20His parents answered, "We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. 21But how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself." 22(His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.) 23Therefore his parents said, "He is of age; ask him.


Verse 13___An interesting question is 'who brought the blind man before the Pharisees'? It isn't known. I suspect that the news of the miracle got back to the Pharisees and they sent out agents to find the blind man.

Verse 14___It must not be forgotten that all of this happened on the Sabbath. This seems to be a formal investigation. It was the duty of these religious leaders to investigate such claims of miracle workers and those who professed to have a message from God (Matt. 23:2; John 1:19-24).

Verse 15-16.___The Pharisees are not concerned with the blind man at all. There is no joy that the man who was once blind can now see. All they are concerned with is their Sabbath rules. There is division among these judges about this man Jesus. Jesus is obviously a big sinner since He did miracles on the Sabbath but___if He isn't from God, how did He do those miracles. That seems to be  a paradox they want to skip. 

Verse 17___ This seems to be a statement that goes counter to what the Pharisees think. The beggar calls Jesus a "Prophet." The Pharisees had already concluded that Jesus was a big sinner since He heald a man on the Sabbath. Here we have men who had studied the law and the Prophets all their lives yet they did not recognize Jesus for who Here was  a poor blind beggar that did. But it goes much further than this. The hate for Jesus by the religious leaders was so strong that they would do anything to express that hate. Later in fact they sought to kill the resurrected Lazarus out of their hate for Jesus (John 12:9-11).

Verses 18-23___The Jews did not believe that the blind man was born blind so they sent for his parents. His parents restate the facts of the matter. He indeed was born blind and now he sees. They can't help the Pharisees and simply rest on the testimony of the son.

The Questioned Becomes the Questioner?

"24So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, "Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner." 25He answered, "Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see." 26They said to him, "What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?" 27He answered them, "I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?" 28And they reviled him, saying, "You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. 29We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from." 30The man answered, "Why, this is an amazing thing. You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. 31We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. 32Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing." 34They answered him, "You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?" And they cast him out.

Verse 24___ The beggar is re-called for a second round of questioning. An interesting statement is found here. "Give glory to God." This is probably an admonition to the blind man to give YHWH the glory for the healing rather than Jesus but it could be a ceremony statement. Once again, the Pharisees level the accusation that Jesus is a sinner, they just can't seem to get over this Sabbath thing. 

Verse 25-26___I think the blind man is becoming irritated at the repetitive questioning. They continue to repeat their questions and he tells them that he has already answered them. The man is not philosophical or theological. He deals with concrete facts. What is it that he knows for sure? "I once was blind, but now I see." I think at this point the blind man hits a nerve when he asks the Pharisees if they also want to become a disciple of Jesus.

Verse 28___And they reviled him and rejected him. "You are His disciple" we follow Moses.

Verse 29-30___We rest our case on Moses. We know nothing of this Jesus. The blind man is in disbelief. They knew that Jesus had preformed a miracle. Yet even in the presence of such a witness (sign) they still rejected Jesus.

Verse 31___An often misused passage. This is the Pharisees statement or what they believed. From Acts 10:35, we know that God does hear non-members of the church. God listens to those who seek Him. The Pharisees believed He only listened to them and theirs.

Verses 32-33__The noble confession. The former blind man knows that Jesus is God and believes the sign or miracle as proof. He tells the Pharisees as much. If Jesus was not from God He could do none of these things!

Note the beggar's growing faith.

First..."the man that is called Jesus..." (v.11); next, "he is a prophet..." (v.17); next, "...from God..." (V. 33) ; and last "....Lord, I believe...." (v. 38).

Verse 34___It is here that we reach the crux of our story. If you can't defeat a person in an argument, just attack their character. That is what happened here. The blind man (and his parents) are also big sinners. He is a "bastard." Born by the process of sinful actions. In fact, they infer what Jesus had already denied (verses 2-3). Jesus had already stated that sin was not the reason that the man was born blind, but the Pharisess have their own theology, much like the part of the denominational world today that teaches the inherited sin concept.  

And now they prove to all that they are "bad shepherds." They excommunicate the blind man because He believed in Jesus. This sets us up for the contrast as to what is a "good shepherd."

Blindness Indeed

35Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" 36He answered, "And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?" 37Jesus said to him, "You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you." 38He said, "Lord, I believe," and he worshiped him. 39Jesus said, "For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind." 40Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him,"Are we also blind?" 41Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would have no guilt;but now that you say, 'We see,' your guilt remains

Verse 35__Jesus now hears of the excommunication and seeks the once blind man out.....The NASV has the correct translation.  Jesus refers to Him self as 'the Son of Man." (One after the nature of man). The term "son of man" is used exclusively by Jesus and found in the gospels at least eighty times. Thirteen of those finds are in John. When the beggar heard the term "the son of man" he anticipated beholding the Messiah.

Verses 36-37___This is one of the few times in the New Testament that Jesus reveals Himself in plain language. It is hard to avoid the fact that Jesus is the Messiah based on His own claims.

Verse 38___A simple yet beautiful confession of faith by the blind man.

Verse 39___We have already mentioned this but will speak of it again. Verse 39 seems to contradict John 3:17 and 12:47 where He claims He did not come to judge. But a closer look shows us that is not the case. The ultimate purpose of the mission of Jesus was not the condemn the world. That is not what the Father wanted. God wishes for all people to be saved (II Peter 3:9-11). God's wish is that no-one is lost. But God is righteous and Jesus came to judge sin.

Verses 40-41___ Some of the Pharisees standing near by began to get the message. They knew that Jesus was speaking of them, and in fact, they judged themselves. Once a person is confronted with the gospel of Christ, they can never again be blind. They may not respond, but they do see and because they see their guilt remains.


by Lane Rogers