NOTES for Joh 9:32-34

One phenomenon of religiosity is the prism through which a religious person looks at the world. The Pharisees had such a prism too: they were deeply and in many ways sincerely religious people. That is why they were not satisfied with the simple and fairly obvious explanation of what had happened, the explanation that satisfied the man born blind whom Jesus had healed. The healed man, after all, was not as religious as the Pharisees investigating the case, and in a certain sense it was simpler for him. He reasons without looking back at the Pharisees' religious concepts. This Man healed me? He healed me. Therefore God is with Him. It cannot be otherwise. Especially since such healings had never happened before. The case is unique. What more proof is needed? For the Pharisees, however, everything is not so simple. They have other criteria.

And the main criterion is not the presence or absence of healing. Not the fact of the manifestation and action of God's power. The main thing is conformity to certain criteria taken from the corresponding religious tradition. Such criteria, of course, are invented by people. But to a religious person they usually appear to be given by God, not invented by people. And therefore the conformity of what is happening to these supposedly divinely revealed criteria is the most important thing. Even if there is a miracle before one's eyes, it cannot be considered genuine if it does not correspond to religious criteria.

Then one must seek another explanation even for completely obvious things. The Pharisees investigating the healing are trying to do exactly this, questioning the healed man again and again about what happened to him. They are trying to find at least some clue that would let them obtain an explanation that suits them. But there are no clues. And the healed man cannot understand what they want from him. He has explained everything. Everything is clear to him. The Pharisees assure the healed man that the Man who healed him cannot be from God; their religious criteria say this clearly. How then is the healing possible?

But to the healed man all these arguments seem simply artificial theory that no one needs. He says: I know only that this Man healed me; as for how it happened, who He is, and where He is from, you know better, sort it out yourselves. In the end, unable to find an explanation that suits them, the Pharisees investigating the case drive the healed man away. No person, no problem. Perhaps the matter will be forgotten by itself. But the healed man finds the Savior. He certainly lost nothing.