Saturday 29 July 2023

Psalm 100

Background

This week we have been reading John's Gospel and chapter 9 brings a change of mood. Chapter 8 was full of intense, controversial dialogue between Jesus and prominent members of the Jewish community at Jerusalem, mainly Pharisees, the leading lay Jewish party, some of whom, like Nicodemus (see John 3), were sympathetic to Jesus. The disciples have been nowhere to be seen, let alone heard.

But now we’re on the move again after the debates in the Temple courtyard. Jesus, now accompanied by his disciples, encounters a man blind since birth, and a timeless question arises: why? One theory is that it’s a punishment for sin, but Jesus dismisses that superstition, and substitutes another idea, that the man was born without sight so that God’s good works might be revealed through him recovering it, which is what happens.

The strange ritual with Jesus making mud with his spit and sending the man to wash in a particular pond smacks of folk religion and village healers. Maybe it was a practice at the time in that locality which Jesus used to signpost what was happening. But the real point here is that the miracle is a sign of Jesus being 'the light of the world', a claim already announced before chapter 9, but now reinforced with the sign of restored sight.

There are nice realistic touches in the narrative. Of course people didn’t believe it had happened and thought that the man who could see must be someone else.

There aren’t many laugh-out-loud moments in John’s Gospel, but here’s one: when the man is asked where Jesus is, he replies “How should I know?”

These themes are developed with dramatic skill as the chapter proceeds, although this wonderful event leads to more controversy.

To Ponder:

• How do you feel about the idea that the man endured blindness for many years so that God’s work could be revealed, eventually?
• Can people of faith accept that bad things, like blindness, might just happen randomly, to good and bad people alike?
  
  

Prayer

Lord of light, shine in dark places through your people, bringing healing, sight, reconciliation and hope. Amen.