Priests View the Cross 4

John 9:28-34

One of my favorite stories is of my father who was fixing a boat motor for a friend. My dad told him to get a certain part to replace what wasn’t working. But the man at the dealership said that such a part was not available since no one could remove it from the motor. But my dad removed the part from the motor, handed it to the man, and said, “This is what we need.” He had done what everyone said couldn’t be done.

The passage today is just a small section from John 9. The entire chapter of John 9 is the very involved story of Jesus healing a blind man and the reactions that the healing receives. I recommend reading the whole chapter if you have time.

The priests have interrogated the man healed of blindness and ask him to repeat the story, but he refuses. How do the Pharisees respond to this in verses 28 and 29? What logical argument does the man give in verses 30 to 33? What is the solution for the Pharisees?

I have always found this story to be amusing. Jesus heals a blind man and no one, it seems, can accept that it happened. Who did it? How did he do it? Why did he do it? Are we sure this man really was blind?

Instead of celebrating the miracle, instead of rejoicing in the goodness of God, the religious leaders got caught up in trying to understand what went on. And a large part of their frustration and anger was that this was something out of their control.

The final solution was to simply get rid of the problem. Throw the man out!

Don’t we do that in our own worship communities? Sometimes it seems more important to us that we sing properly, sit properly, and dress properly. If God performed a miracle we would complain that there was too much noise or that the carpet got dirty. We would miss the joy of God’s work.

When a new believer comes to God we should celebrate this change of heart, and not get bogged down in the “who is this?” and “why are you here?” of the matter. Let’s be careful to watch for the amazing work of God and not simply throw out what we do not understand.

DAILY CHALLENGE: How do you react to the impossible?