Life Project Blog

John 9:35-41

Jesus heard that the Pharisees had thrown the man out who was blind from birth, for he wasn’t going along with what the Pharisees wanted. When He caught up with the man, the man came to believe in Him and worshipped Him. This brings us to verse 39; why doesn’t anyone ever quote it?

Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”

John 9:39

I would expect that if my next post was titled “Jesus Came to Judge the World” many, probably most, of you would object, but there you are in His own words! Of course He also said that He had not come to judge, as the atheists like to point out as they search for something to claim is a contradiction.

What shall we say then?

This is an unusual context, isn’t it? Jesus is playing on these words to show that the Pharisees have condemned themselves by their ruthless arrogance, for they claim to know all and see all, and yet when confronted with an amazing manifestation of the power and glory of God, as they were when this poor man received his sight, all they can think of is how to downplay the whole thing so they can keep their influence. So they conjure up their little investigation into the facts of the case, but not before they have already determined its outcome, and in the end, they have kicked the once blind man out of the assembly because he had the audacity to tell the truth.

There were some Pharisees present who overheard this exchange; look at their condescension:

Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?” (v. 40)

Can you imagine having that much attitude at that precise moment? Jesus explained:

Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains. (v. 41)

In a simple one-liner Jesus smashes any hope they might have of saving the situation. Have you ever noticed that often it is the very person or persons who should know best, who refuse to accept the obvious if it proves a threat to their position and influence? Since they admit they have the knowledge, that they should know better, they cannot claim innocence, no, not ever.

John 9:13-34

Jesus healed a man who had been born blind with a curious mixture of dirt and spit in John 9:1-112, and now we reach the time when this has come to the attention of the Pharisees; an official investigation of this lawlessness has been opened.

What’s that you say- what’s lawless about healing a blind man?

Oh sorry, didn’t I mention it? Jesus healed the guy on the Sabbath, and we know how they feel about that don’t we?

Look at this text; can’t you just see these Pharisees who have already decided the outcome, trying to get the answers they need to justify what they have already decided they are going to do? Those Pharisees might even make a Congressman blush!

They question the man, but not satisfied, they question his parents, after all how can they be sure he was ever really blind? The parents say he was blind and he is their son; they should know.  Yet when asked who had healed their son, they are afraid to be associated with Jesus, for the corruption of their leaders is well known; they throw the question back to their son. The Pharisees question him a second time.

They ask him again to tell them who did this, only this time, they want the truth:

He answered, “I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples too?” (v. 27)

This is one of those times I wish I could see their faces; would you like to become His disciple too?

Then they hurled insults at him and said, “You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.” (vv. 28-29)

If you have been following along, then you will remember that it was only a couple of chapters back that the Pharisees were sure Jesus wasn’t the Messiah because they knew where He came from; a tangled web indeed!

The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” (vv. 30-33)

The parents might have been afraid of the Pharisees, but this guy is on fire! If I were advising the Pharisees, I would tell them to end this interview in a hurry before they screw it up even further… and they did:

To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out.

Like any other group of mediocre politicians, they avoided the truth by calling the guy some names and having him tossed out. After all, isn’t that what you do when the issue becomes too hot to handle?

We’ve already seen the way that the issue of healing on the Sabbath plays out between the Pharisees and Jesus, yet the Pharisees just know they can trip Jesus up so they will have an excuse to murder Him. Their minds are closed, their hearts are hardened and their backs are turned on God, now it’s just the small matter of doing away with the inconvenient truth. Does this remind you of anything today?

Next time, we’ll see what Jesus has to say on all of this…

John 9:1-12

There was a man who was born blind, reduced to beggary, and walking along one day; the disciples ask Jesus who sinned that he should be blind, he or his parents. Jesus corrects their false premise telling them that no one sinned, but this man would give glory to God through his condition. Then Jesus did an odd thing; He spit into the dirt and made a muddy paste which He rubbed on the man’s eyes, then He told the man to wash his eyes off in the Pool of Siloam and he would be able to see.

Yet just before doing this odd thing, He had something else to say to the disciples:

As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

John 9:4-5

As we will see, John will use day and night, light and dark, to illustrate Jesus’ presence or absence. As we continue to move closer and closer to the time of His arrest, Jesus will continue to say things like “while it is still day” and “the night is approaching.” In fact, as we will see later in the book, Jesus describes the period from His arrest up until His resurrection as “night” or “darkness”. So, at the point of this story, it is still day and there is work to be done to glorify God.

There is some very interesting imagery in this account, there must be since spit and dirt are seldom known as a restorative for sight; if they were I’d have tried them myself! When Jesus spit into the dirt, that saliva came from His mouth, as does His Word. Recall the Word in the beginning that was with God, and which was God, and then which became flesh and made its dwelling among us? That is what is being pictured here. As for the dirt, do you recall what God made Adam from? Ah yes, it was dirt! So the Word comes from the mouth of Jesus and is combined with the soil which represents humanity and is applied directly to the part of the man that isn’t whole. Then the man, who has never seen Jesus, does what Jesus has commanded him in perfect obedience and is made whole again, in this instance receiving his sight for the first time. In fact, we wouldn’t be far off track if we said here that the man had seen the light.

Did you notice verse 7? The Pool of Siloam “which means sent.” Think about this for just a moment: Jesus combined His Word with humanity and then they are sent out on a mission.  What happens when we receive Christ? His Word combines with our humanity and we are sent to make disciples, and when we respond in obedience, we are made whole. Now in saying this, I don’t mean just that our sins have been forgiven, for that is only the first step in life’s adventure with Christ. For it is within the adventure of following Him, over time you might say, that we are made entirely whole, as we see the light of His Truth at work within us… and so it was with this man.

What an amazing little story this is!

The man’s neighbors had lots of questions, and so do our neighbors when they see Jesus at work in us, but unfortunately, the Pharisees are about to weigh in on this, and that is a whole different story, just as it is for us when the modern-day Pharisees get involved…

John 8:31-59

To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

John 8:31-32

This section opens with Jesus turning to address those among the crowd who have believed in Him.  In speaking to them, Jesus issues a new challenge: discipleship.  To become His disciple, they must “hold to my teachings.”  The meaning of the original text is more like the rendering of the NASV: “continue in my word.”  This is much more than being a good Bible student, for John introduced Jesus as the Living Word (1:14) so that to “continue in my word” would require that they have a relationship with Him. In the following sentence, Jesus goes on to tell these people that they will know the truth (Jesus Himself) and that the truth will set them free.  This is not a freedom from political or worldly oppression, but a freedom from spiritual oppression; freedom from slavery to sin.  This is where His opponents resume their attack…

In 8:34-38 His opponents ask Jesus a question with a false premise: We have never been slaves.  Jesus in His reply does not take the bait; He is talking about slavery to sin and they are all slaves to sin.  He uses the metaphor of a slave’s position in the family of the master to illustrate the fact that if He, God’s Son sets them free from bondage to sin, He is doing something that it is His place to do.  He goes on to mention that they have refused to “have room for my word.”  Notice that this is the complete opposite of the disciple who continues in His word.  He ends this reply with a set-up of His own…

I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father.

John 8:38

They object to this saying that they are not “illegitimate” being Abraham’s descendants, and Jesus continues by pointing out that they are not acting like Abraham would act, instead they are following not Abraham but their own father. Now they say that their only father is God; they have fallen into His trap.  Jesus tells them that if this were true they would love Him, not be plotting to murder Him.  They are doing the work of their father the devil, who was a murderer and a liar from the beginning.  They hate hearing the truth from Him because they are following the lead of their father “master” because they are slaves to sin (the devil). Jesus finishes this comment by telling them the obvious:  If they belonged to God they would hear and comprehend His Word, but since they belong to the devil they cannot hear or comprehend.

Once again the Jews respond in a way that seeks to marginalize His words, calling Him a Samaritan and demon-possessed. Jesus calmly tells them that He is neither and says that He is honoring God, and that anyone who keeps His Word will never see death( v. 51).

This section begins with the Jews asking Him more or less just exactly who He thinks He is, and Jesus is quick to tell them in vv. 54-55 that He is God’s Son.  In the next verse He tells them that He knows Abraham’s thoughts as well when He says that Abraham looked forward to this day and rejoices in it, It is important to note that Jesus did not say this so as to speculate on what Abraham would have thought, but instead He is stating it as a fact; He is acting as a witness to it.

This completely blows their minds.

Their response in verse 57 is not one of amazement but is instead ridicule; they are marginalizing Him again so as to reduce or eliminate His credibility with the rest of the people.  Verse 58 is the tipping point in the discourse:  Jesus claims to be God.  To make the statement that Jesus made here is one that is direct, to the point and undeniable in its meaning.  “Before Abraham was born, I am!”  Jesus is telling them two things, first that He has been around since before Abraham; He isn’t thirty-something, He’s at least 2,000 years old.  Second, notice that Jesus didn’t say “before Abraham was born, I was alive” no, He said “I am”.  I Am is the name God used to identify Himself to Abraham, thus Jesus is telling them that He is none other than God in the flesh.  They understood this, and since they knew blasphemy when they heard it, they proceeded to grab for stones with which to execute Him.  Jesus slips away, for His time had not yet come to die.  It is worth pointing out that for all of the reasons Jesus cited, these people did not stop to consider the possibility that He might be telling the truth.  These great men of God, these teachers, lawyers and scholars were actually following the devil, and their haste to shut Jesus up when He states the greatest truth of all is a poignant reminder to all of us that we must “continue in His word” to ensure that we are recognizing the truth when it is spoken in this difficult and dark age in which we live.

John 8:12-30

If we moved directly from 7:52 to this point, leaving out the story of the adulterous woman, we would have a scene change for sure, but we would still be within the context of Jesus at the Feast of Tabernacles.  In this passage, Jesus states that He is the light of the world, which is a reference to a portion of the Tabernacles festivities in which four great torches are erected in the court of women on the last night of the Feast.  It was said that they could be seen all over the city.  This makes sense when we recall that the Temple was built on top of a mountain.  By doing this, Jesus had tied His claims to the two great ceremonies of the Feast, the water ceremony (7:37-38) and the light ceremony (8:12).  It would also appear that Jesus was speaking either just before nightfall or after dark on the last day of the Feast.

In saying that He is “the light of the world” Jesus was making His second “I Am” statement in John’s Gospel.  Light has already been used by John to signify the Word that is the true and living light in chapter 1, and again in chapter 3 as God’s truth that reveals human sinfulness and evil, things more conveniently done in darkness. Jesus here is telling the people that His followers will be freed from lives of sin with Him as the unquenchable source of God’s truth.

The scene change is complete here with the revealing that His public opponents are the Pharisees who have failed in having Him arrested and now move on to a public confrontation in which they attempt to marginalize His message by pointing out that He has no one to verify what He is teaching…

The Pharisees having made their move, Jesus now replies by going to a higher, spiritual level.  His testimony is valid because He has come from the Father in Heaven.  His judgments are made without human frailty because He stands with the Father who also testifies for Him. The Law allows truth to be determined by the testimony of two men.  Jesus has His own testimony (1) and God’s also (2).

The exact identity of Jesus’ father will be the central point of the rest of the discussion.  Jesus’ statement that they know neither He nor His Father in verse 19 is an interesting insight for it indicates that to know one of them is to know the other.  Verse 20 is inserted into the dialogue to indicate that they were apparently near the Temple treasury where many guards would be stationed, yet no one moved to grab Him and silence what the Pharisees would consider blasphemy, for the time for His arrest had not yet come.  John’s continual reference to His time coming or not yet having come is a reference to the fact that Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion were an integral part of God’s plan of salvation and no accident.

The discussion resumes in verses 21-24 with Jesus pointing out the difference between He and His antagonists: Jesus is from above (God/Heaven) and they are from below (world).  They cannot go where He is going because of their sin.  To follow Jesus is to overcome the sin of unbelief and to remain in unbelief is to die in our sins. At the end of the passage, the “I am” focus emerges more clearly.

“Who are you?” they asked.

“Just what I have been telling you from the beginning,” Jesus replied. “I have much to say in judgment of you. But he who sent me is trustworthy, and what I have heard from him I tell the world.”

They did not understand that he was telling them about his Father. So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me. The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.” Even as he spoke, many believed in him.

John 8:25-30

Jesus’ answer to their question as to His identity is classic; He tells them that He hasn’t been hiding anything.  As we have noted previously, they had no excuse for not knowing exactly who they were addressing.  His identity would be entirely unavoidable upon His resurrection after they had Him “lifted up” and at that point John informs us that many who heard this exchange came to believe in Him.  Note that the Pharisees had asked John the same question in 1:19 and that John’s answer was “I am not…” in stark contrast to the claim of Jesus in this passage “I am”.

Next time, we’ll continue this discussion of just who is Jesus’ Father.

John 8:1-11

First, An Important Note: This section is not included in the earliest and most reliable manuscripts of this Gospel, and thus is often not covered by commentators in their works.  The reasons for this are several, and although we will not take the time to analyze them, the truth is that this probably doesn’t belong in John.  However, it does appear to be consistent with Jesus’ ministry with parallels in the Synoptics and thus it would seem to be “authentic Jesus”.  It is certainly instructive for our purposes in wishing to know Him better and to understand His teachings. Clearly it was highly enough regarded to have been preserved by the early church as authentic Jesus.

One day, Jesus was in the vicinity of the Temple, prepared to teach. There was a crowd of people there who were ready to hear Him, so He sat down and prepared to speak, when suddenly a bunch of teachers of the law and Pharisees burst in dragging along a woman.  “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.  In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” (vv. 4-5)

A witness to this event who was sharp might quickly wonder about this surprising turn of events. Since these men mentioned the Law of Moses, and they are the authorities in such cases, why would they bring her to this “teacher” whom they despise to render sentence upon this woman? Hold on, the Law prescribes procedures for the determination for guilt: Who saw her commit this act? Were these high and mighty leaders of the people sneaking around and peering in through her windows? How do we know she’s married; who is her husband? Oh, and while we’re at it, who is the witness to her supposed acts? Oh yes, and one other thing, the Law requires that her partner in crime be executed too; who is he and why haven’t they brought him along for judgment as well?

Jesus, now the judge, didn’t ask these questions, instead He bent down and wrote something in the dirt; He doesn’t seem all that concerned, but to our sharp observer of these events, it seems that there might be more afoot than an adultery case… but what?

Then Jesus renders a sentence of sorts, when He stops writing, stands up and says, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Silence fell upon the scene; Jesus bent down again and resumed writing in the dirt with his finger.

People began to leave, slowly at first, beginning with the older ones until Jesus was left alone with the woman. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

 “No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin” (vv. 10-11).

Oh wait, I forget to mention something from the text:

They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him (v. 6).

Those men didn’t care about the woman; they were trying to attack Jesus.

By the standard He set, Jesus was the only one qualified to cast a stone, but He lets the woman go.  He does not send her off to continue her sinful ways, but rather He admonishes her to sin no more.  What we see here is Jesus forgiving the woman for what she had done and calling her to repentance, which is also what He has done for us.

People are frequently quick to condemn others, but who among us is without sin?  Can we look around and condemn our brother when we too are sinners?  Condemnation is God’s job; our job is to forgive and to encourage and correct with “patient endurance,” not to condemn.  Second, as sinners, we too deserve to die but God has forgiven us through Christ.  You and I are commanded to repent of our old ways and walk in newness of life with Christ… and yet we still stumble and need forgiveness again.  With that being the case, we are hardly qualified to cast stones at others. Forgiveness and repentance are key qualities in Christ’s teaching for our behavior in life, and are key qualities that some seem to lack entirely.