Participants: Deyvy Rodriguez & Jon Paulien
Series Code: JBOTB
Program Code: JBOTB00014A
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00:20 Hello, friends, and welcome to "Books of the Book."
00:23 We're so glad that you can join us in this Bible study. 00:26 My name is Deyvy Rodriguez 00:27 and we're studying the Gospel of John. 00:30 And today, we are on chapter 9 00:33 and we're talking about a blind man. 00:36 And with us is Dr. Jon Paulien. 00:39 He is the dean of Religion at Loma Linda University 00:42 in Loma Linda, California. 00:44 Dr. Paulien, welcome back again. 00:46 Thank you. It's good to be here. 00:47 All right, we're going to talk about 00:50 the story of a blind man in chapter 9. 00:53 And by the way, this story is all of chapter 9, isn't it? 00:58 The whole chapter is this one story. 01:01 And it's very interesting and you're pointing out 01:04 earlier you said this is quite a funny story. 01:06 It is. It's hilarious. 01:07 Okay, I want to see 01:09 where the hilarious, funny part about it is. 01:11 But basically the story goes on 01:14 to say that Jesus was passing by. 01:16 He sees a blind man and His disciples 01:19 ask Him a few questions say "Rabbi. 01:22 You know, who sinned is this man 01:23 or his parents that he was born blind?" 01:27 And so Jesus take this opportunity 01:30 and He gives a few words 01:32 and then He does something quite interesting. 01:35 He spits on the ground. 01:37 He makes clay with His saliva 01:40 and then He anoints the eyes of this blind man. 01:43 And then He gives him a command to go wash into this one pool. 01:49 And so he does and he receives his sight. 01:52 And the neighbors are very confused, 01:55 you know, is this the man who used to be blind? 01:58 They start asking him questions 02:00 and after that they send him to the Pharisees 02:03 and the Pharisees-- 02:04 I think it's him or no maybe it only looks like him. Yeah. 02:07 They called the Pharisees 02:10 or the Pharisees called the parents just to confirm 02:12 because apparently they don't believe his testimony 02:15 and he keeps repeating himself. 02:17 Yeah. This is what happened. 02:18 And the Pharisees just don't want to believe 02:21 or at least just want him to lie whatever the case might be. 02:25 So tell us more about this story and perhaps, 02:29 what will be eventually the spiritual outside of this. 02:33 I think its part of the irony in the Gospel of John. 02:37 One of the key elements of this book 02:39 is that it shows those who opposed to Jesus 02:42 as being down right stupid. 02:44 I mean, they just-- what's obvious to the reader 02:48 they just can't see, you know. 02:50 Well, this must not be the same guy 02:51 who was begging on the streets blind, you know. 02:54 Well, if it is the same guy, 02:57 must be the devil did this or something. 02:59 And then they keep asking him questions. 03:01 For instance, how come you keep asking me? 03:03 Do you want to be His disciples too? 03:05 And so it's really, it's about as funny 03:08 I think as any story, you'll find in the whole Bible. 03:11 But what we want to understand when we start, 03:14 it's not an isolated story. 03:16 It's all part of the Feast of Tabernacles scene. 03:20 The previous program chapter 7 and 8, 03:22 Jesus was in the temple on the Feast of Tabernacles 03:26 and this story is connected to that. 03:29 Why don't you take a look 03:30 at the last verse of chapter 8, verse 59. 03:34 "Then they took up stones to throw at Him 03:37 but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple, 03:41 going through the midst of them, and so passed by." 03:44 Okay. 03:45 So Jesus is in the temple, 03:47 He's having this argument with the leaders there 03:50 and when they pick up stones to throw at Him, 03:53 He just sort of slips away into the crowd. 03:55 Now notice the first verse. 03:57 "Now as Jesus passed by, 03:58 He saw a man who was blind from birth." 04:01 You see, this comes right in on the other scene. 04:03 It's the same day. It's the same hour. 04:07 As Jesus encounter, 04:09 you know, with the woman taking in adultery 04:11 with the engagement with the Pharisees, 04:14 how, you know, you're son of the devil, 04:17 now I want to make you free and so forth. 04:20 So He comes right out of the temple 04:23 and runs into this blind guy. 04:24 So this story connects immediately upon the previous. 04:30 Now what do you suspect John is doing here? 04:34 This is John choosing what he's going to tell. 04:37 Why does the story come right on here? 04:40 Besides the fact that it happened that way, 04:41 but why does he use it? 04:43 I don't know. That's a good question. 04:45 But what does John do? 04:47 The stories in John are what? 04:50 Spiritual. They're spiritual. 04:51 They're like parables. 04:54 They have a deeper meaning. 04:56 Well, what was the central theme 04:58 that Jesus was bringing out 05:01 at the Feast of Tabernacles in the temple? 05:03 Remember the Feast of Tabernacles 05:05 is about water and about light. 05:08 So read from verses 1-5 05:11 and we'll see where he's going with us. 05:13 All right, picking up in verse 2. 05:15 "And his disciples asked him, saying, 05:17 'Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, 05:20 that he was born blind?' 05:22 Jesus answered, neither this man, nor his parents sinned 05:26 but that the works of God should be revealed in him. 05:29 I must work the works of him who sent me, 05:32 while it is day, the night is coming, 05:35 when no one can work. 05:36 As long as I am in the world, 05:38 I am the light of the world." 05:41 All right. 05:42 This phrase was repeated 05:44 from something that's said in chapter 8. 05:47 Go to 8:12. 05:50 Okay, it says, "Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, 05:54 I am the light of the world. He who follows me..." 05:56 Okay, that's fine. 05:58 You see, this story is introduced 06:01 by the light of the world. 06:03 This is going to be an acted parable 06:06 of Jesus is the light of the world. 06:07 How was He the light of the world to this blind man? 06:12 It was kind of like a follow up. 06:13 The blind man received sight. 06:17 So Jesus physically opens his eyes. 06:21 But in John, it isn't only about the surface. 06:25 John turns this whole story into a spiritual parable. 06:30 Some people are blind. 06:31 When Jesus comes along they see. 06:33 Other people are blind spiritually. 06:37 Now when Jesus comes along they gain spiritual insight. 06:40 They come to see spiritually. 06:43 So the story of the blind man 06:46 also is the story of spiritual sight 06:50 that comes to people who are formally blind. 06:54 Go back to chapter 7:37-39, 06:59 because there's another major theme 07:02 in the Feast of Tabernacles story. 07:05 And we are reading verses-- 07:07 Verses 37-39, chapter 7. 07:10 "On the last day, that great day of the feast, 07:12 Jesus stood and cried out, saying, 07:14 if any man thirsts, let him come to me, and drink. 07:18 He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, 07:21 out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. 07:25 But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, 07:27 whom those believing in Him will receive 07:30 for the Holy Spirit was not yet given 07:32 because Jesus was not yet glorified." 07:35 Okay. 07:36 So you have two themes in the Feast of Tabernacles story. 07:40 You have the theme of the water, the pouring of the water, 07:43 and where did that water come from? 07:46 That water came from the Pool of Siloam. 07:49 That's the same place that Jesus sends this man too. 07:54 His whole message was the Feast of Tabernacles 07:56 has this water here for you. 07:59 But there's a better water, there's the spiritual water. 08:03 And when Jesus says, "Anyone comes to me, 08:06 He won't ever get thirsty again." 08:08 And meaning, spiritually when you come to Jesus 08:11 you will be filled with water that will never run dry. 08:14 So you have the water theme, you have the light theme. 08:16 Jesus is the water and the light. 08:19 In this story the two come together. 08:22 The man is blind, he comes to see. 08:24 How does he see? 08:25 Jesus sent him to the water. 08:27 But the waters of the pool 08:29 from which the Feast of Tabernacle water came, 08:33 doesn't heal him until Jesus gives the command. 08:37 So Jesus is the true water giver 08:40 and He is the true light giver. 08:43 So this story just builds on 08:46 the other story to illustrate it, 08:48 to give a living representation, a parable. 08:54 Now in the Feast of Tabernacles story, 08:57 while Jesus is exhibiting Himself 08:59 as the true light and as the true water, 09:03 He's resisted all the way through, 09:05 by the leaders of the people, by the priests, 09:09 by the Pharisees and so on. 09:12 That opposition continues here, 09:15 but now it's focused not on Jesus, but on the blind man. 09:20 The one that Jesus heals now takes the brunt of it. 09:24 So in this story, 09:26 it's the Pharisees that are leaning in. 09:31 And here's the amazing thing in the story, 09:34 I wish we had time to read it through in detail 09:36 but you've already shared it with us in a nutshell. 09:40 In this story, first of all, 09:42 the man starts out not knowing anything. 09:46 You know, who opened your eyes? 09:48 Oh, He's the man called Jesus. 09:50 Now who is this man? 09:51 Well, I think He's a prophet. 09:53 Oh, why do you think He's a prophet? 09:55 You know, I mean, you know, He's just an ordinary man. 10:00 Well, no, I think He's from God, you know. 10:04 Nobody's ever opened eyes like this man has so. 10:07 You can see the man's faith growing as he talks. 10:12 The more they ask him about Jesus, 10:14 the more that he believes. 10:16 In contrast, the Pharisees grow in opposition. 10:21 They started out saying, okay, you know. 10:23 He was blind, now he sees, it must have happened, 10:25 how do we explain this? 10:27 And then they're uncertain. 10:29 Well, you know, could He really be? 10:31 Let's call the parents. 10:33 Let's find out if it's really the same guy. 10:35 And then they try to trap him, 10:38 to say, what they want him to say. 10:40 And then they start to reject him. 10:43 Oh, you know, you're not-- 10:46 you're from the devil and so on. 10:47 And in the end, they vilify Him 10:49 and throw Him out of the synagogue. 10:51 So the man's faith grows 10:55 and as it grows the opposition grows to meet it. 10:59 So as He receives more light, they receive more darkness. 11:02 Exactly, you see and that goes to show 11:06 that if a person makes 11:08 an executive decision to reject the light, 11:12 God will give them plenty of evidence. 11:15 You see, they in a sense chose, 11:17 they did not want Jesus to be glorified by this. 11:21 So they chose to twist the facts and change the whole thing. 11:26 You know, why do people reject? 11:28 And it reminds us back in Chapter 3 of John. 11:32 It says, "They reject the light because their deeds are evil." 11:36 And they don't want their deeds to be exposed. 11:39 We're very, very protective of our reputations. 11:43 We're very protective of what people think of us. 11:47 And when that's under threat, people will lie, 11:50 will cheat, will steal, will do almost any thing 11:53 to protect what they think belongs to them. 11:56 Now we see this story playing out here with this blind man. 12:02 So the Pharisees had a problem going into the story. 12:08 The healings suggest that Jesus is from God. 12:13 But the fact that He healed on the Sabbath 12:17 suggested them that He's not from God. 12:21 So they didn't know what to do with this. 12:23 You know, nobody could heal a man like this 12:27 unless God was with him. 12:28 But, yeah, it's on the Sabbath, so God must not be with Him. 12:31 So they used the circumstances to twist themselves in a knot 12:35 and avoid the truth of the situation. 12:39 So I think this story illustrates to us 12:43 that spiritual blindness is often chosen. 12:46 I remember once, I had a friend that says 12:49 I want you to come visit a friend of mine, 12:52 he's an atheist. 12:53 He used to work with me and he used to believe in God, 12:57 he was a good elder in the church, now he's an atheist. 13:00 I thought wow, okay, well, let's go visit him. 13:04 We went and visited the guy. 13:07 And I did something I wouldn't normally do. 13:10 You know, in the first visit, 13:11 but I only was going to see the guy once. 13:12 So I just said to him, you know, 13:14 he kept asking me question after question. 13:17 And I'd answer questions and he'd asked more 13:20 and I'd answer them and he'd asked more. 13:22 And I could just see there was no end to this. 13:25 If he answered a 100 questions, 13:26 came back he'd have 100 more the next day 13:28 because the questions were keeping a distance. 13:32 And I said, you know, in my experience 13:34 when people asks a million questions like this 13:37 it usually means at some point in their life, 13:41 they have transgressed their own moral code 13:43 and have never made it right. 13:47 And while I'm saying this to him, 13:48 his wife is sitting behind him 13:50 and she's going like this, you know. 13:54 And he said, wow, and he says, 13:57 "I really have to think about that." 14:00 You see, somewhere in his life he had, 14:03 had a moral fall of some kind. 14:05 He hadn't made it right. He hadn't confessed it. 14:07 He kept it secret. 14:09 And it was driving him to deny any evidence 14:13 that would bring that sin backup into play. 14:17 Now this blind man who received the light 14:19 did not keep that light to himself, 14:21 meaning that he expressed it, 14:25 he could not hold on to it 14:29 because, you know, they bring even his parents 14:32 and they forced him almost to lie 14:34 but he says, you know, I've told you already 14:36 it was this man named Jesus, 14:39 this is what He did and now I can see, it is me. 14:41 And so although they are 14:45 those as you said those who reject the light 14:50 and then they are those who will-- 14:53 shed that light to others that you can't just hold it on. 14:57 So this story is an acted parable in two ways. 15:00 First of all, it's an acted parable 15:02 of how Jesus is the light of the world. 15:04 But second of all, it's an acted parable 15:07 how everyone who follows Jesus will face opposition. 15:10 And this man becomes a representative character 15:14 for the true second generation believers. 15:16 All right. 15:17 And we're going to continue on this gospel 15:20 on the blind man in chapter 9 of the Gospel of John. 15:24 So stay with us after this break. |
Revised 2014-12-17