Jesus heard how the beggar had been persecuted, found him and asked him, 'Do you believe in the Son of Man?' The beggar still did not know Jesus by sight and did not recognize him as the one who had caused him to be given sight (9:36). When Jesus identified himself (9:37), the man knelt before him, demonstrating his belief and calling him 'Lord!' In the saying of Jesus in 9:39, there is a play on the word 'blind.' The beggar had received not only physical sight but spiritual sight in his recognition of Jesus as the Lord, but the Pharisees who had physical sight were spiritually blind, seeing only evil in what Jesus did (9:40-41).

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