Reader’s Guide: “The Word for Today” Monday, March 3, 2014 Read John 9:13-34 It is as the blind man, now healed, is brought to the Pharisees that we learn that the event of his healing happened on the Sabbath. The story follows the pattern of the healing of the man at the Pool of Bethzatha which also happened on the Sabbath. We have already discussed the fact that Jesus certainly healed on the Sabbath and that such healing got him into trouble. John shares this fact with the synoptic writers so we can be certain that Sabbath healing was an issue in the ministry of Jesus. John is also skillfully patterning this story after the prior story. We have noticed the many similar elements. That these two stories mirror one another is not by accident. That the healing happens on the Sabbath is cause for a division among the people. Some contend that Jesus cannot be “from God” because he is a Sabbath breaker. Others wonder how someone who can heal a man blind from birth cannot be “from God.” If we think of the healing as a “sign” in John’s gospel then we notice once again the ambiguity that results. Under questioning the blind man tells the simple facts – Jesus put mud on his eyes, he went and washed, and now he sees. When they finally ask him what he thinks about Jesus, the blind man, who initially identified Jesus as a “man” now moves to a higher level by identifying Jesus as a “prophet” – he was grown in belief. Looking for a way out, the Pharisees now accuse the man of being an imposter. They claim he cannot be the same man who was born blind. But when they question his parents they are stuck with accepting that he is indeed the same man. The parents do not share the belief of their son. They know he is their son and that he was born blind, but they shrink back from saying that Jesus healed the man. They leave their own son out to hang on his own! At this point in the story, John tells his readers that the parents were afraid of the Jews. Their fear results from the claim that the Jews had already decided to put anyone who believes in Jesus out of the synagogue. That price was too much for them to pay and so they abandon their own son. John’s contention that the Jews had already decided to put anyone who believes in Jesus out of the synagogue conflicts with the story that Luke tells in the book of Acts where the Jewish Christians and Jewish non-believers at one time worshiped together and interacted with one another within the Temple. In fact the picture Luke paints in Acts makes it difficult to distinguish between believing and non-believing Jews. It is likely that John’s claim here reflects more the situation at the time of the final editing of John’s gospel than it does of the time of Jesus. To be sure there was hostility but not to the level described here. Likely there had been a painful split between the community of John and the Jewish people who lived around them. The community of John had likely been kicked out of the Jewish synagogue. Christian Jews were no longer welcome. And some Christians wanted to remain within the synagogue because they were Jews. The parents of the blind man represent those who are afraid to leave the “mother church” behind. John is not sympathetic to them. It is difficult to identify with these parents who leave their own son out to hang on his own. John does not have much sympathy for Jewish Christians who want to remain on good terms with non-believing Jews. The point here is that such a situation likely matches the situation of the writer of the final version of John than it does an earlier time. By telling this story in this way, John is making it very relevant for his own readers! Abandoned by his own parents, what will the blind man do? He is questioned again. His remarks betray a great degree of sarcasm and irony. He sticks to his belief. In fact, as John tells the story he grows to an even higher level. Not only is the man who healed him a prophet, he is also “from God” since only someone “from God” could do what Jesus had done! The Pharisees, on the other hand sink to slander calling Jesus a sinner. And so the man is driven out. Readers of John’s gospel are left wondering what will become of him. And the first readers of John can likely feel his pain more than modern readers – they too had been driven out!