Day 297—We are in the TENTH month of Bible reading and studying the New Testament Gospels.

    Day 297 – John 9 – 10 (Jesus heals a blind man, the Good Shepherd, the Son of God)

John 9.  Jesus, still in the temple crowds, passes by a blind man begging. His disciples ask if the man or his parents sinned, which resulted in his blindness. (Seeing he’d been blind from birth, it’s hard to think how his own sin might have caused blindness.)

But Jesus, confronted with their two choices, promptly tells them that the man’s life-long blindness was for another reason, that God’s glory might be seen.  Then he spit on the ground, made some mud, and put it on the man’s eyes. “Go and wash in the pool of Siloam.”

The man must have been startled, but he obeyed Jesus’ voice. He went and washed off the mud. Lo and behold, he could see perfectly.  As he was looking around wide-eyed, the people started exclaiming.

“Isn’t this the man who used to sit and beg?

“No, but he is like him.”

“I am the man!” he finally said.

“How were your eyes opened?”

“The man called Jesus made mud, anointed my eyes, and told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed and received my sight.”

“Where is he?” they asked.

“I don’t know.” 

They brought him to the Pharisees to show them the miracle. (Ah-oh. It was the Sabbath)  “How did you receive your sight?”

“He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.”

“This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath,” they said with disdain.

“How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” some argued.

“What do YOU say about Him since He has opened your eyes?” The Pharisees asked the man.

“He is a prophet.”

“Is this your son, who you say was born blind?” They asked his parents. “How then does he now see?”

“We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. But how he now sees, we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him. He’s of age. He will speak for himself.”  The parents were gutsy!

“Give glory to God. We know this Man is a sinner,” the Pharisees said to the formerly blind man. 

“Whether he is is or not. One thing I know — that though I was blind, now I see.”

When the Pharisees started quizzing him again, he asked brashly, “Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become His disciples?” Then, the man preaches a little sermon to these exalted leaders about what they know and don’t know.

“You were born in utter sin, and you would teach us???”  Then, they promptly kick him out of the temple.

But Jesus finds him, and the man believes in Jesus and worships Him.  (And the Pharisees go away blind as ever.)

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John 10. Teaching again, Jesus says he is The Good Shepherd.  His sheep hear his voice as he leads them, and they follow Him. (It’s just as the Father knows him, and He knows the Father.)

He also says he is The Door of the Sheepfold.  He will not let thieves or robbers or wolves harm His sheep.  In fact, as Good Shepherd, He will lay down His own life for His sheep. He also claims that He has “other sheep, not of this fold, that He must bring, speaking of the non-Jews who will join saved Israel.

Jesus stresses that NO ONE TAKES MY LIFE FROM ME, BUT I LAY IT DOWN OF MY OWN ACCORD. I HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO LAY IT DOWN, AND I HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO TAKE IT UP AGAIN. (Speaking of his death and resurrection.)

Arguments abound about Jesus.  He’s insane. He has a demon. No, how can a demon open the eyes of the blind?

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At the Feast of the Dedication (Chanukkah), while Jesus was walking in the temple in Solomon’s Colonnade, the religious leaders approached Him with a Question: “Tell us plainly. Are you the Christ (Messiah)?”

“I told you, and you don’t believe. But that’s because you are not a part of my flock. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them. They follow me.  I have eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand…or the Father’s hand.  I AND THE FATHER ARE ONE.”

Again, with the stones to kill Him!  “I’ve shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?”

Not for good works, they claim, but for blasphemy, because you – a man – make yourself to be God!

But, once again, Jesus escaped from their hands. He went across the Jordan River to where John had been baptizing and stayed there.  Many came to Him, remembering what the Baptist had said about Jesus.  And many believed in Him there.