Day 297 – Reading – John 9 – 10

Read and believe in Jesus!

John 9.

After nearly being stoned and hiding Himself, Jesus left the temple area.  As He did, he saw a man blind from birth. (How did he know that?)  Well, He’s God, but the disciples seemed to know too.   “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” they asked.  “Neither, but so the works of God might be displayed in him,” Jesus answered.

Jesus spat on the ground and made a bit of mud with his saliva.  He anointed the man’s eyes with it and told him to, “Go, wash it off in the pool of Siloam.“

Now, I wonder if the man had a young helper that led him around.  How else did he get almost a half mile away, through crowds of people in the city down to the pool of Siloam?

 

Imagine him dipping his hands in the water, bringing them up to splash on his eyes.

Then again, and once more. 

And then suddenly SEEING his hands cupping the water! 

Turning his hands over and flexing them in wonder. 

His hands! He’d never see them before. 

Then looking up and around at the pool reflecting the sky so blue and bright.

Squinting. Blinking.  

Then around at all the people so unique and colorful. 

He’d never seem colors before!

Then looking down at his own clothes and feet, and at his friend’s. 

Then leaning over the pool and seeing his reflection.

His own face with it’s dark hair and scraggly beard. 

What joy welling up in him!

“I can see!  I CAN SEE!!“

Then running to look at people, food stalls, animals, the ox carts, the city’s walls.

“I can see! I see that fruit, oh what is it? Is that a donkey?

I see you, and you, and YOU!”

 

And soon, others noticed him.

• “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?”   
• “It IS he!.”
• But others said, “No, but he is like him.”
• “I am the man!  I am the man!”
• “Then how were your eyes opened?” they asked.
• And the formerly blind man voiced his first testimony, “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed and received my sight!”
• “Where is he?“
• “ I don’t know.”

So they took him to the Pharisees, most likely because the miracle happened on a Sabbath. (Traitors!)

• “How did you receive your sight?“
• “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.“
• “This man (Jesus) is NOT from God, for He does not keep the Sabbath.” said some of the Jewish leaders.
• “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” argued other leaders.
• The turned to the former blind man and asked, “What do you say about Him, since He opened your eyes?”
• “He is a prophet.”

The Pharisees called for his parents and when they arrived, they quizzed them.

• “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?   (Did they stare at him in wonder as his gaze took in their faces?)
• “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind.  But HOW he now sees we do not know or do we know who opened his eyes.  He is of age; ask him. He will speak for himself.”

Not satisfied, the Pharisees turned again to the happy, seeing man.

• “Give Glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.”
• The man, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. ONE THING I DO KNOW, that though I was blind, now I see.”
• “What did He do to you?  How did He open your eyes?”
• The man, getting exasperated, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?”
• Infuriated, they answered back, “YOU are his disciple, but WE are disciples of Moses.  WE know that God has spoken through Moses, but as for this man (Jesus), we do not know where He comes from.”
• The ex-blind man, getting bold under the interrogation answers, “Why…this is an amazing thing!  YOU do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes.  NEVER SINCE THE WORLD BEGAN has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not of God, he could do nothing.”
• “YOU were born in utter sin, and would YOU teach US???” 

And they cast him out (excommunicated him) from the synagogue. Did the man go away singing a praise psalm? Was he grinning?  Did he walk smartly as he gazed around at all the sites?  

• Did he see an average looking man with intense eyes approach him and say, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
• “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?”
• “It is He who is speaking to you.”
• And the man recognized the voice of the one who healed him. “Lord, I believe.” and he worshiped Him.
• Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see … and those who see may become blind.
• This infuriated the Pharisees.  “Are You saying that WE are blind??”
• Jesus: “If you WERE blind you would have no guilt.  But you say, ‘We see.’ so your guilt remains.”

 

Then turning to the people around them, but specifically speaking to and about the Pharisees, whom He considered “false shepherds” of Israel, Jesus said. 

• “He who does not enter the sheepfold by the door … but climbs in by another way … that man is a thief and a robber.”
• That probably got their backs up.
• “But He who enters by the door,” continues Jesus, “is the Shepherd of the sheep. The sheep hear his voice – He calls them by name – and leads them out. THEY know his voice.  But a STRANGER they will not follow. They will flee from them.”  

The Pharisees did not understand what Jesus was saying to them.  So He spoke more on this metaphor, comparing the pompous leaders of Israel to uncaring shepherds, thieves and robbers, and hired hands.

• “I AM the (protecting) door of the sheepfold. If any enter by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.”
• “Thieves come to steal, kill, and destroy. But I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
• “I AM the good shepherd. I lay down my life for the sheep.  I know my own and my own knows me.  And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also. There will be one flock and one shepherd.”
• “For THIS reason, the Father loves me – because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. NO ONE TAKES IT FROM ME.  I lay it down of my own accord.
• And I have the authority to take it up again.”

 

There was division among the Jewish leaders. Some thought Him demon-possessed or insane, and asked why they were even listening to Him.  But others said the words Jesus spoke were NOT of a demon or an insane man.

…

The next event takes place two months later in Jerusalem.  It’s winter.  It’s at the “Feast of Dedication” (also called the Festival of Lights, or Hannukah). Jesus was in the Temple, walking along the colonnade of Solomon, when the Jewish leaders approached Him.

• “How long will you keep us in suspense?  If you ARE the Christ, tell us plainly.”
• “I’ve told you, but you do not believe.  The miracles I do in my Father’s name are also a witness about me, but you do not believe them either.”

Then carrying the theme of two months earlier, because it was so important, Jesus tells them,

• “You are not part of MY flock.  My sheep HEAR my voice. I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.
• My Father is greater than me. He is greater than all.   
• “I and the Father are ONE.”  

At that the Jews picked up stones to kill Him.

• “For which of my good works will you stone me?
• “NOT for a good work, but for BLASPHEMY, because YOU, a man, make YOURSELF God.”
• “Oh, because I said I was the Son of God?  Even though you do not believe ME, believe the works, that you may KNOW that the Father is in me and I AM in the Father.”

…

Again they sought to arrest Jesus, but he slipped through their hands and went away across the Jordan River.  THERE, many believed in Him, saying, “Everything that John said about this man was true.” 

 

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