Born blind and born again

Sometimes chapter divisions get in the way of the story. We tend to think of them as discrete units and lose the flow of the story. The Good Shepherd in John 10 should be connected with the healing of the man born blind in chapter 9. After his healing, the Pharisees conduct an investigation for one purpose, to determine if Jesus gets credit because they have already agreed that if anyone confesses Jesus as the Christ (Anointed One, Messiah) they will be put out of the synagogue. This is a severe punishment to be kept out of the communal gathering and worship and the man's parents are careful to avoid the trap set for them: "We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. But how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself."

They weren't there so they have no first hand knowledge of how this happened. They do, however, know what they have undoubtedly heard about the healing but the punishment is more severe than they are willing to bear. The man himself, though, knows and isn't afraid of what they can do to him for confessing Jesus as the healer. He has already lived in a type of prison of blindness and as such has more or less nothing to lose. His blindness has already made him unclean and unfit for public worship, thus the disciples question that begins the chapter, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" He knows that in forty years none of these have healed him so he knows the difference between these men and Jesus and isn't afraid of them.

In Luke 12 Jesus tells them not to fear those who have power over only the body, but to fear the one who has power over the soul as well. This man has already experienced the power of Jesus and seen that it is greater than the power these men wield, he is unafraid to stand up to them. His logic is irrefutable, I was blind but now I see, sound familiar? He has received amazing grace and now he is receiving the opposite of grace from those who had nothing to do with the healing, I think I will follow the healer, whatever the consequences.

The Pharisees' summary judgment on the matter, They answered him, "You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?" And they cast him out. They didn't have to ask the question the disciples asked about who sinned, they had already decided the answer to that question and they were unteachable. He has been born again, and indeed he does have something to teach them.

Who's the Good Shepherd?

On Sunday our readings included the 23rd Psalm and John 10 - I am the Good Shepherd. I had some other things I was preaching but this image of Jesus as Good Shepherd is one that is particularly powerful when we consider the kind of claims He made for Himself.

In Ezekiel 34 God says:
"For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. ¹²As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. ¹³And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country. ¹⁴ I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel. ¹⁵ I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord GOD. ¹⁶ I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice.

Does all that sound familiar? These are the kinds of things Jesus says about his ministry. Do you think maybe when He said these things the people who heard them knew how radical His claims were to equality with God? These are incredibly clear comparisons. Ezekiel uses many of the same images here that David used in the Psalm and Jesus then picked them up and said He was here to do those things. Let's be clear, He knew what He was saying, there was only one Good Shepherd and it was Yahweh.