30 The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. 32 Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”
34 To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out.
(William Holman Hunt d. 1910Thoughts; When your argument is weak, become loud and attack the person. That is what the debate coach said. In our day the most common personal attack is the accusation of some kind of prejudice- religious, civil, sexual ("You're a heretic!"' "You're a fundy!"; "You're a bigot!"; "You're narrow!" You're a homophobe!"). So here, this man was said to be "steeped in sin" and therefore not worth hearing. They were blaming his blindness on his karma or sin. Christ does not play a part in the blaming game. He takes people as they are, pours grace and healing upon them, and gives them a second chance. We can blame blindness on many things, but we need to make sure we get the plank out of our own eye before we take the speck out of another's eye.
Prayer: Help me Lord, to focus on you rather than the weakness of others.
John Calvin Abridged: When we see the wicked so energized to do evil, we should be convicted of our own slothfulness to do good. Though they were a hundred times convinced, because of their own prejudice, they would not be convinced. These men wanted to separate the following of the Law (Moses) from the following of Christ. But the law is dead without Christ.
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