John 8
What wonderful patience and self-control Jesus has. Here he is, God, and here are these termite Pharisee creatures challenging the words that he says. They said things like: “You bear record of yourself, your record is not true.” “Where is your father?” "Will he kill himself because he says he’s going to the Father?” “Are not we correct when we say you are Samaritan and have a devil?” “Who do you make yourself?”
These are unbelievers, yet he takes the time to answer them. This shows the nature of God - -suffering the unbelievers while waiting for those who will believe. Also, he had yet the work on the cross to do. He says to them “If you were blind you would not have sinned, but now you say 'we see' therefore your sin remains."
Maybe the word "seeing" used here is the way someone understands something. This is the way the Pharisees understood all about God - this is the way they "saw" it. If they said inwardly "we do not understand God", they would be "blind" but would have no sin. But they said "We know all there is to know about God - we see" In fact, they did not know all there was, so they were in sin, and blind. It was a continuing attitude of "I know what there is to know and need nothing more."
But we should always be willing and open to learn to be changed by God.
Jesus came to give true understanding of God to those who want it. But he comes to set aside the ones who claim godliness but do not have it. The purpose of this is judgment, the division of one from the other. The division was wide. How far was the blind man was separated from the Pharisees - the blind man's heart was for God, the Pharisees’ hearts were for the religious establishment, their jobs, the "church", the "right way".
