Christ Jesus had just made the radical statement that God had sent him to be "the light of the world." Among his listeners, some apparently were ready to accept Jesus' mission. He told them that if they were to continue following his teachings they would, as genuine disciples, "know the truth." And this truth, the Master proclaimed, by its very nature would "make you free."
There were clearly others, however, who didn't want to hear the real meaning of Jesus' message. Only a short time earlier, through his moral suasion and spiritual authority, Jesus had convinced the scribes and Pharisees not to put to death a woman who had been caught in an offense commonly punishable by stoning. Yet now the people were preparing to stone Jesus himself for speaking openly of his eternal relationship to God. But Jesus, as the Bible records, "hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by." (See John, chap. 8.)
Then, another remarkable event took place, for as he "passed by" he happened to see a man who had been born blind. The fact that the man had come into the world in this condition caused Jesus' disciples to question the reason for the blindness. They at first tried to trace it to some sin, either that of the man or of his parents. Jesus, however, refused to accept any such cause and pointed his disciples instead to the opportunity presented—"that the works of God should be made manifest in [the man]."
