THE MAN HAD probably lived on the margins of society since childhood. Being born blind had relegated him to a life of begging alms by the side of the road. Passersby would occasionally take pity and give him a coin or two, but most people would act as if he wasn’t there.

One day, Jesus and his disciples happened upon him. John remembers that day, and tells the story in chapter 9 of his gospel. Perhaps the disciples recognized the man, for they already knew he had been blind from day one. They, like many others, believed that the only way something like this could happen was as a punishment for sin. So they asked Jesus a theological question: whose sin was the man being punished for, his own or that of his parents?

I imagine the blind man sitting there and hearing every word the disciples said. He was probably used to sitting there silently while people talked about him instead of to him. He was used to being treated as an item of curiosity, a topic of conversation or debate, rather than as a person. If I had been in his place, I probably would have thought to myself, Hey, people, I’m right here you know. What’s the matter, can’t you see me? I’m blind, not invisible.

But then he heard a voice claiming to be the light of the world. Was that the man someone had called Jesus? And what was that he said about the works of God? The man felt something cool and moist being smeared over his eyes, and the same voice told him to go wash it off in the pool of Siloam. Did he know how to get there? Did anyone help him? We don’t know. But somehow, he did what he was told. And for the first time in his life, he could see.

He returned home, perhaps a bit overwhelmed by all the colors and shapes that flooded in from every side. People who knew him saw him coming and began buzzing with confusion. Wait, is that Blind Beggar Guy?… No, stupid, Blind Beggar Guy is blind, and this guy obviously isn’t… Yeah, but it sure looks like him. Maybe he has a twin brother?

“Yes, it’s me. It’s really me!” the man insisted, excitedly answering their questions, telling them that he had been healed by Jesus. Unsure what to make of it all, the people brought him before the Pharisees, and the man told his story again. But the Pharisees refused to believe that this could be a work of God, because Jesus had dared to heal the man on the Sabbath. Looking for other reasons to discredit the miracle, they called for the parents to come verify that the man had indeed been born blind. “Yes,” they confirmed, “he’s our son, and he was born blind.” The Pharisees pushed. “Then how is it that he can see now?”

The parents were evasive: “How he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself” (John 9:21, NIV). Why so cagey? Why lie about not knowing who had healed him? And why throw their son under the bus? John explains:

His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who already had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. (vs. 22)

The word translated here as “acknowledged” suggests more than just a courteous nod of the head. It literally means “to say the same thing” and is sometimes translated as “confess.” John doesn’t tell us that the parents denied that a miracle had happened. He doesn’t say that they refused to believe that Jesus might be the Messiah. What he tells us is that they refused to confess Jesus as the Messiah because they feared the social consequences of doing so.

Being put out of the synagogue meant more than having to find another church to attend. It meant being cut off from one’s community. People probably already gave them the side-eye for having a blind son. To claim allegiance to Jesus would ostracize them completely.

Did the parents secretly believe that Jesus was the Messiah? It’s possible. Indeed, John tells us that after Jesus had done other miracles, including raising Lazarus from the dead, even some of the Jewish leaders believed. And yet, John says:

…because of the Pharisees they would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved human praise more than praise from God. (John 12:42-43)

They believed, but they would not “acknowledge” or confess their faith openly. Their social standing was more important to them than their standing before God. Not so for the formerly blind man, who not surprisingly became a follower of Jesus. It’s as if John wants to ask his readers who was truly blind.

IN THE WAKE of the controversy that split the community, John’s readers needed reassurance about their status with God. Who really had the kind of relationship with God that Jesus likened to that between a grapevine and its branches? How could one know? One of John’s litmus tests is found in 1 John 4:15:

If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God.

The statement is reminiscent of what he wrote a little earlier in the letter, in verse 2 of the same chapter:

This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God…

There’s that word “acknowledge” again. John isn’t talking about casual statements one might make about Jesus, like checking a box on a multiple-choice test. His social world didn’t have the same kind of religious pluralism that we take for granted in the United States today, in which even spirituality is on a you-do-you basis. In John’s world, it would cost someone to confess Jesus as the Son of God, to confess that Jesus had come in the flesh. Indeed, it had already cost his readers the sense of fellowship they had once taken for granted with the people who left the community.

If, in today’s world, someone spoke the words, “Yes, Jesus is the Son of God,” would that be incontrovertible evidence that they were abiding in God, and God was abiding in them? I wouldn’t guarantee it. The kind of acknowledgment John describes is more than a mere verbal act; it entails the willingness to stand up for the truth about Jesus.

And of course, let’s not forget the most important mark of true discipleship, the one John emphasizes over and over again: living a life of love. That will continue to be his emphasis throughout the remainder of chapter 4.