What does John 9:14 mean?

The Pharisees were an extremely orderly, pious sect. They created an entire list of oral traditions and secondary laws, meant to "protect" the laws of Moses. At the time of Jesus' earthly ministry, these traditions were being treated with the same level of authority as the Word of God itself. The most sacred of these rules was that of honoring the Sabbath. In confronting religious hypocrites, Jesus seems to deliberately use their misunderstanding of the Sabbath in order to provoke conversations. This has included performing healings on the Sabbath day (John 5:18).

Jesus' most recent miracle is the sixth of seven "signs" recorded by John in this gospel. In this case, the miracle was to give sight to a man born blind (John 9:1–7). Not only was this done on a Sabbath day, as this verse indicates, it involved something the Pharisees considered taboo. Jesus was described as making clay from mud and saliva. According to traditional Pharisaical laws, this was one of the forms of work explicitly forbidden. Jesus' actions not only challenge their shallow views of spirituality, He highlights their unreasonable legalism.