John 9 - First Nations Version

WHO IS BLIND AND WHY?

¹ After walking safely away from the lodge, Creator Sets Free (Jesus) saw a man blind from birth sitting by the pathway. They stopped near the man and

² the ones who walked the road with him asked, “Wisdomkeeper, why was this man born blind? Was it his wrongdoings or his parents’ that caused this?”

³ “The wrongdoings of neither he nor his parents caused this,” he told them, “but that the healing power of the Great Spirit would be seen in him,

⁴ for while the sun still shines, we must be doing what he wants. A time of darkness is coming when no one will do what he wants.

⁵ But as long as I am in the world, I will be its light.”

HE HEALS A MAN BORN BLIND

^6-7 After saying this, he spit on the ground. Then he made mud from his spit and rubbed it on the man’s eyes and instructed him to go and wash in the Waters of Sending Village (Pool of Siloam). With the help of others, the man went and washed the mud out of his eyes and returned with his sight restored.

⁸ The people who lived near him, and others who knew he was a blind beggar, saw him and said in amazement, “Could this be the blind man who sat and asked for handouts?”

⁹ Some were saying it was he, others said he only looked like him, but he kept saying, “I am the one!”

¹⁰ So they asked him, “How did your sight return to you?”

¹¹ He said, “A man named Creator Sets Free (Jesus) made some mud and rubbed it on my eyes. He told me to go to the Waters of Sending Village (Pool of Siloam) and wash. So I did what he said, and now I can see.”

¹² “Where is he?” they asked. “I do not know where he is,” the man answered.

HOW WERE YOU HEALED?

^13-14 Since it was on the Day of Resting that Creator Sets Free (Jesus) had healed the man, they decided to take him to the Separated Ones (Pharisees) to see what they would say.

¹⁵ The Separated Ones (Pharisees) asked the man how he was healed. He said to them, “He rubbed mud on my eyes. I washed off the mud, and now I can see.”

¹⁶ Then some of the Separated Ones (Pharisees) said, “This man, who does not honor the Day of Resting, cannot be from the Great Spirit.” But others were saying, “How can someone with a bad heart perform powerful signs such as these?”

¹⁷ The tribal leaders could not agree, so they said to the blind man, “You are the one he healed. What do you have to say about him?” The man answered them, “He must be a prophet from the Great Spirit.”

¹⁸ The tribal leaders could not believe the man had been blind. So they found his parents

¹⁹ and asked them, “Is this your son, whom you say was born blind? How does he now see?”

^20-22 His parents were afraid of the tribal leaders who had said that anyone who says Creator Sets Free (Jesus) is the Chosen One would be put out of the gathering house.

²³ “Yes, this is our son, and he was born blind,” they answered, “but we do not know how he sees, or who opened his eyes. He is a full-grown man. Ask him. He will tell you for himself.”

I WAS BLIND BUT NOW I SEE

²⁴ They went back to the man who was blind and said to him, “Give honor to the Great Spirit for healing you, not to Creator Sets Free (Jesus), for we know he is an outcast with a bad heart.”

²⁵ “I do not know whether this man has a bad heart,” he answered them. “But this I do know—I was blind but now I see.”

²⁶ They asked the man again, “What did he do to open your eyes?”

²⁷ He said to them, “You did not listen the first time I told you. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become one of his followers?” This made the leaders angry, so they tried to insult the man.

²⁸ “You are his follower!” they said with disrespect in their voices. “We follow Drawn from the Water (Moses),

²⁹ for we know the Great Spirit has spoken to him, but we do not know where this man is from.”

³⁰ The man answered them, “This is a strange thing! You, who are tribal leaders, do not know where this man comes from, yet he is the one who opened my eyes.

³¹ The Great Spirit does not listen to people with bad hearts. He listens to the ones who humbly serve him and do what is right.

³² From the creation of the world no one has ever seen a man healed who was born blind.

³³ If he were not from the Great Spirit, he could not have done this.” The Separated Ones (Pharisees) were furious! How could this outcast talk back to them like this?

BANNED FROM THE GATHERING HOUSE

³⁴ They puffed up their chests and said, “You were born an outcast, and you think you can teach us?” Then they threw him out and banned him from his gathering house.

³⁵ When Creator Sets Free (Jesus) heard that they had put the man out of the gathering house, he went to him and said, “Will you put your trust in the True Human Being?”

³⁶ “Honored One, tell me who he is,” the man answered, “and I will put my trust in him.”

³⁷ “Look at me and see the True Human Being,” Creator Sets Free (Jesus) said. “He is talking with you now.”

³⁸ The man bowed down to him and said, “Honored One, I believe!”

³⁹ Creator Sets Free (Jesus) said, “I came to show what is right and wrong about the ways of this world, so that the blind will see—and that the ones who see may become blind.”

BLIND GUIDES

⁴⁰ Some of the Separated Ones (Pharisees) overheard what he said to the man. “Are you saying that we are blind?” they asked.

⁴¹ “If you were truly blind, you would have no guilt,” he answered them. “But since you claim to see, your guilt remains.”