Reader’s Guide: “The Word for Today” Sunday, March 2, 2014 Read John 9:1-12 We have already talked about the setting of this story being in or near Jerusalem in the time between the Feast of Booths in the fall and the Feast of Dedication in the winter. John portrays Jesus remaining in Jerusalem for an extended period of time leading up to his eventual crucifixion just prior to the Feast of Passover in the spring. The whole encounter is, for John, part of the Temple Controversy that unfolded prior to Jesus’ death – the same Temple Controversy that the synoptic gospels following Mark will condense into less than a week. John wants his readers to be recalling the harsh encounter between Jesus and the Pharisees in chapters 7 and 8. While this story has many connections with the story of Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman, there was no controversy in those two similar stories. This story also sounds a lot like the story of the man at the pool of Bethzatha, a story which did result in controversy between Jesus and the Jews – they seek to kill Jesus in the aftermath of the healing at the pool of Bethzatha and the event issues into the brutally harsh controversy between Jesus and the Pharisees in chapters 7 and 8. In both the story of the healing of the man at the pool of Bethzatha and in this story, once the healing has taken place Jesus disappears from the scene. In both cases the man who was healed does not know who it was that healed him. In both cases the healed man then encounters the Pharisees. In both cases Jesus then finds the man who was healed and reveals himself to them. But that is where the similarities stop. The man healed at the pool of Bethzatha promptly goes and informs the Pharisees that the man was Jesus and Jesus is then threatened with death. The man in this story encounters the Pharisees and stand up for Jesus against them, even before he knows who Jesus is. The stories follow a similar pattern but they have radically different outcomes. We noticed how the story of Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus was a lot like his encounter with the Samaritan woman but had contrasting outcomes. The same pattern unfolds in these two stories. John is a skillful master at creating a story that proclaims his message. There are some particulars about this story that we need to pay attention to. While it is not at the center of the meaning of this story, John clearly portrays Jesus to understand the source of illness and the blame for it in a way contrary to most people of that time. The disciples are foils for Jesus in this story. They speak the belief of most people of that time that blindness, in fact all illness, must have resulted because of someone’s sin. Victims are blamed for their illness. Or perhaps it was the fault of the man’s parents. In either case someone is at fault. Jesus rejects this idea. This blindness is not the fault of anyone – yet God can and will work through it. Wanting to blame someone for an illness or a birth defect still lingers in our culture. To be sure there are illnesses that result from sinful behavior, but not every illness, in fact, not most illnesses. It is important that we hear that message in this text. John’s use of symbolism is also highlighted in this story. The man is born blind – Jesus is the light of the world. While physical blindness provides the grist for the story the story is really about spiritual blindness. The punch of the story is recognizing that Jesus is the light of the world which is a claim Jesus made during the Feast of Booths. The symbolic contrast between night and day, light and darkness, is also symbolically emphasized in this story. We have noted earlier that this is really a story about the growth and development of belief and unbelief. At this point in the story the man born blind and the people who are wondering about the meaning of his healing are at the same place. They all understand Jesus as a man. We are given Jesus name but he remains simply a man who put saliva and mud on the blind man’s eyes and healed him. The story will develop as we move forward. The blind man will grow in belief. The Pharisees to whom he is now delivered will grow in unbelief.