The Blind Man’s Sight and the P’rushim’s Blindness

Yeshua meets the newly outcast, formerly blind man, who has exchanged exclusion from the world of seeing for exclusion from society, and brings him to faith in Himself as Messiah. Clearly, the man was ready to believe.

9 ³⁵ Yeshua heard that they had thrown the man out. He found him and said, “Do you trust in the Son of Man?”

Yeshua invited the man to put his trust in Him as the One who revealed God to man. Yeshua placed great emphasis on public acknowledgment of who He was and confession of faith in Him.

³⁶ “Sir,” he answered, “tell me who He is, so that I can trust in Him.” ³⁷ Yeshua said to him, “You have seen him. In fact, he’s the one speaking with you now.” ³⁸ “Lord, I trust!” he said, and he kneeled down in front of Him. ³⁹ Yeshua said, “It is to judge that I came into this world, so that those who do not see might see, and those who do see might become blind.” ⁴⁰ Some of the P’rushim nearby heard this and said to Him, “So we’re blind too, are we?” ⁴¹ Yeshua answered them, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin. But since you still say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.

Giving sight to the righteous blind (see Psalm 146:8; Isaiah 29:18; 35:5; 42:7, 18) and blinding unrighteous persons who can see (Isaiah 6:10; 42:19; Jeremiah 5:21; Mathew 13:13–15; John 12:40) are common Tanakh themes. Elsewhere, Yeshua called the P’rushim “blind guides” (Mathew 23:16; 15:14; 23:26).

The Ideal Shepherd

Yeshua changes the metaphor. He is the Good Shepherd (vv. 11–14); compare Yochanon 21:15–17, Messianic Jews 13:20, 1 Kefa 5:4; see also Ezekiel 34:23, 37:24 and Psalm 23.

10¹ “Yes, indeed! I tell you, the person who doesn’t enter the sheep-pen through the door, but climbs in some other way, is a thief and a robber.

The sheep-pen may have been a courtyard (Yochanan 18:15) near a house surrounded by a stone wall where several families kept their sheep. The gate would have been guarded by a hired gatekeeper (10:3). The thief may focus on the covert nature of the entrance to the pen, and the robber on violence (Luke 10:30, 36).

² But the one who goes in through the gate is the sheep’s own shepherd. ³ This is the one the gate-keeper admits, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep, each one by name, and leads them out.

Near Eastern shepherds stand at different locations outside the sheep pen, sounding their unique calls that their sheep recognize. As a result, the sheep gather around the shepherd. He calls his own sheep by name. This shepherd goes even further by calling each sheep by its own special name. Yeshua’s point is that He comes to the fold of Isra’el and calls out His own sheep individually to come into His own Messianic fold. The assumption is that they are already in some way His sheep even before He calls them by name.

⁴ After taking out all that are his own, he goes on ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they recognize his voice. ⁵ They never follow a stranger but will run away from him, because strangers’ voices are unfamiliar to them.”

Unlike Western shepherds, who drive the sheep from the side or behind, often using sheepdogs, Near Eastern shepherds lead their flocks, their voices calling them to move on. This draws a remarkable picture of the master/disciple relationship.

⁶ Yeshua used this indirect manner of speaking with them, but they didn’t understand what He was talking to them about.

This phrase conveys the idea that something cryptic or enigmatic is intended in it. It occurs again in Yochanan 16:25, 29, but not in the synoptics. Having given the illustration (vv. 1–5), Yeshua then began to draw salient spiritual truth from it.

⁷ So Yeshua said to them again, “Yes, indeed! I tell you that I am the gate for the sheep. ⁸ All those who have come before me have been thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn’t listen to them. 9 I am the gate; if someone enters through me, he will be safe and will go in and out and find pasture. ¹⁰ The thief comes only in order to steal, kill, and destroy; I have come so that they may have life, life in its fullest measure.”

This is the third of 7 “I am” statements of Yeshua(see 6:35; 8:12). Here, He changes the metaphor slightly. While in vv. 1–5 He was the shepherd; here He is the gate. While in vv. 1–5, the shepherd led the sheep out of the sheepfold, here He is the entrance to the fold (v. 9) that leads to proper pasture. This section echoes Yeshua’s words in 14:6 that He is the only way to the Father. His point is that He serves as the sole means of approaching the Father and partaking of God’s promised salvation. As some Near Eastern shepherds slept in the gateway to guard the sheep, Yeshua here pictures Himself as the gate.

¹¹ “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. ¹² The hired hand, since he isn’t a shepherd and the sheep aren’t his own, sees the wolf coming, abandons the sheep, and runs away. Then the wolf drags them off and scatters them. ¹³ The hired worker behaves like this because that’s all he is, a hired worker; so it doesn’t matter to him what happens to the sheep. ¹⁴ I am the good shepherd; I know my own, and my own know me – ¹⁵ just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father—and I lay down my life on behalf of the sheep. ¹⁶ Also, I have other sheep which are not from this pen; I need to bring them, and they will hear my voice; and there will be one flock, one shepherd. ¹⁷ “This is why the Father loves me: because I lay down my life – in order to take it up again! ¹⁸ No one takes it away from me; on the contrary, I lay it down of my own free will. I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it up again. This is what my Father commanded me to do.”

Yeshua picked up another expression from vv. 1–5, i.e., He is the “good shepherd” in contrast to the present evil leadership of Isra’el (9:40, 41). This is the fourth of 7 “I am” statements of Yeshua (see vv. 7, 9; 6:35; 8:12). The term “good” has the idea of “noble” and stands in contrast to the “hired hand” who cares only for self-interest.

¹⁹ Again, there was a split among the Judeans because of what he said. ²⁰ Many of them said, “He has a demon!” and “He’s meshugga! Why do you listen to him?” Others said, “These are not the deeds of a man who is demonized—how can a demon open blind people’s eyes?” ^[1]

At social gatherings or community events, you might feel tempted to ignore those who seem different or marginalized, such as the blind man. Make it a point this week to reach out to someone alone or overlooked, perhaps a newcomer or someone sitting by themselves. Introduce yourself and engage in meaningful conversation. By demonstrating acceptance and kindness, you can reflect Yeshua’s teachings and serve as a beacon of hope and love in your community.

In our next post, we will continue to explore the Gospel of Yochanan.

Click here for the PDF version.

[1] Yochanan 9:35-10:20