Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”

He answered, “I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples too?”

Then they hurled insults at him and said, “You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.”

The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”

To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out. John 9:26-34

This former blind man is starting to have “all the right enemies.” They tossed Jesus out; they tossed him out. They hurled insults at Jesus; they hurled insults at him.

It’s obvious that these leaders had no compassion for this man. For many years he was blind; he was blind from birth. They could have at least welcomed him into the Family of Sight! Instead, they insulted him and had no rebuttal for his words.

It’s a pretty good bet that he was feeling rejected at this point. We see later that Jesus found him and encouraged him. But still he was publicly humiliated by the Jewish leaders. It had to sting, even if he was in the right.

You and I could be faced with similar scenarios in the near future. As Darkness increases so will the persecution of Christians worldwide. Stand firm, brothers and sisters for your “redemption is nigh.””

Know that the perfect Son of God was also rejected and abused by the leaders of his day. We his followers should expect no less.