John # 9

Here is the latest Bible Study in our series on John's Gospel.
Peace, Linda

As well as the Gospel and letters of John this Bible study uses the book “Written that you may believe: Encountering Jesus in the fourth Gospel” by Sandra M. Schneiders (2003) Crossroad Publishing Co. New York, NY.

Background reading to study # 9- Written that you may believe, chapter 9.

The Gospel of John #9 – The man born blind 07/15/10

The story of the healing of the man born blind in John chapter 9 is probably a Johannine literary creation. It draws from stories of Jesus’ healing ministry (like the one found at Mk 8:22ff.) but, because the account is so highly constructed, it is unlikely to have been an identifiable event in Jesus’ life. It does have a vividness however that makes it seem authentic if not actually historical. John has given the story many layers of meaning and it tells something true on each of these levels.

For example, the “cast of characters” is highly significant. Each character represents a group affecting the Johannine community @ 90CE. The man born blind is “everychristian”, i.e. those in John’s community, who began in the dark, were brought into the light, and then become witnesses to this light. The man does not have a name but is called “the man” (anthropos in Greek). This is the generic word for human being – as opposed to the specific word for male, aner. Anthropos, for example, can be applied to women if a feminine article is used.

The disciples who asked the first question are also Christians – but agonizing over life’s mysteries. The neighbors who ask questions about the man are inquirers, those attracted to the Christian message but not yet committed to it. The Pharisees (who later in story become “the Jews”) represent the officialdom of Judaism persecuting the early church. The parents are crypto-Christians – those fearful of persecution. Jesus in the story is a transcendent figure who incorporates the earthly, historical Jesus, the Easter Jesus and the Jesus worshipped in the early church.

The story has the structure of a trial scene (one of many found in the Gospel). The man born blind is the defendant – but judgment when it comes falls on the reader. The reader is placed in a situation of spiritual crisis and asked to make a choice.

The story begins with a discussion about sin. The disciples ask who sinned – the man or his parents. Jesus replies that human disability is not the result of sin – rather it is an opportunity for God’s work to be revealed. Bad things happen that much greater good can be done. But God’s work must be done “while it is still day” - an announcement of the coming crisis.

Jesus makes mud from earth and saliva and places it on the man’s eyes. The mud is mentioned four times in the story – underscoring its significance. There are different layers of meaning here. Mud on a person’s eyes is counterintuitive as a means for curing blindness. It is as if we have to obscure our vision, make our blindness obvious, in order to see with new eyes. Humans cannot see. It is this blindness (not original sin—a legal penal concept) that we have been born into. Just as the man born blind does not ask for healing, so we have been unaware of our blindness. The mud also evokes the original clay from which human beings were formed by God in Genesis 2:7. Jesus adds his saliva, his “DNA”, to create a new humanity. Generic man is recreated as the new human by Jesus. This newness is recognized by the man’s neighbors who question whether this is the same man. The old and new humanity look the same but there is something different. The healed man asserts that “I am the man”. He uses the Jesus terminology “I am” – the new human takes on the role of Jesus.

Jesus sends the man to the pool of Siloam (a name that means “sent”). The man obeys and is healed. Healing can only come through obeying, through surrender. You cannot see your way to healing – you must surrender to it.

After his healing the man is subjected to a series of interrogations. The neighbors ask how to find Jesus. The man replies that he does not know. Unlike the crippled man healed in chapter 5 who when questioned does not know who his healer is, the man born blind acknowledges Jesus and gradually comes to know him as the story unfolds. The crippled man remains in darkness, while the man born blind begins to see. The man is then questioned by the Pharisees. They accuse Jesus of not being from God because he healed on the Sabbath. The man defends Jesus, saying that he is a prophet.

The Jews question the man’s parents – implying that they lied about their son’s blindness. The parents deflect the questions back to the healed man. Like some would-be Christians at the end of the 1st century they are afraid of being put out of the synagogue.

The man is then questioned by the Jews. They demand that the man “give glory to God” by declaring Jesus a sinner. This is often religion’s way of glorifying God – categorizing sinners and rejecting the evil ones. This is what the disciples were seeking to do at the beginning of the story (“who sinned?”) This is an example of Johannine irony. The Jewish authorities fail to understand the true way of giving glory to God. Jesus heals the man born blind so that “God’s work might be revealed in him” – to reveal God’s glory. God’s glory is revealed when his work is carried out through us and that work is to end the human system based on violent differences and exclusion. In contrast the authorities want to label Jesus as a sinner. They accuse Jesus of being a sinner and demand to know how he opened the man’s eyes.

The Jews revile the healed man by saying that he is Jesus’ disciple while they are disciples of Moses. Jesus has no authority because no one knows where he comes from. (This contrasts with Jn 7:40-52 where Jesus is rejected because he is known to have come from Galilee). The man responds by saying that never since the world began has someone opened the eyes of a man born blind, yet they do not know where he comes from. Such an unprecedented, singular event in human history has to come from God. Jesus cannot be a sinner because God listens to him. The Jews accuse the man of being born in sin, therefore judged by God, and as such has no grounds for argument. He is excluded by the thought of a God who excludes. They drive him away.

It is at this moment, after his persecution and rejection that Jesus seeks him out. Jesus asks him “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” This is the peak moment of the story. The words “Son of Man” have more importance in terms of power and impact than the term “Messiah” in John’s Gospel. Jesus is asking in effect “Do you believe in the child of human beings?”: i.e. the new humanity. Other mentions of the Son of Man in John are found in Ch 3:14 (“Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up”); 8:28 (“When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I am he”) and 12:32-36 (“‘And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.’ He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. The crowd answered him, ‘We have heard from the law that the Messiah remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?’ Jesus said to them ‘The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going. While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light’”).

The Son of Man is the decisive figure of human transformation and judgment. In John 5:26 authority to execute judgment comes through the Son of Man. This authority comes from his having been “lifted up” – through his crucifixion as the end of all systems of violent difference and exclusion. Judgment is understood, not in terms of sin, but in the rejection of this transformation Jesus brings. In Jn 9:41 Jesus says that “If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say ‘we see’, your sin remains”. We return here to the true nature of sin. It is not about human disability or original sin. Paul’s assertion that “Sin came into the world through one man (Adam)” has been interpreted legalistically. In contrast John’s gospel is not talking of original sin, rather our human condition –we are stupid and blind. It is not our fault unless we choose to remain that way when offered enlightenment in the new humanity of Jesus. The sin consists not in the original blindness, but in claiming to see. It is related to our response to Jesus’ call to enlightenment. We can accept or reject. We are called to accept that we need new eyes and receive our new sight from Jesus. We are called from blindness to sight.

This acceptance of a new way of being human leads us to a new understanding of Jesus’ divinity. At the end of John’s Gospel Pilate says “Behold the Man” (Jn 19:5). Jesus is the prototype of the new human. But through his passion and crucifixion the Son of Man is revealed also as the Son of God. Only the Son of God could bring a completely new way of being human which overcomes the generative power of violence. That is why Jesus is God and worthy of worship. The man born blind worships Jesus when he reveals himself to him as the Son of Man. Thus he completes the full trajectory of Christian conversion. Like the Christians in the Johannine community the man born blind believes in Jesus, despite adversity and persecution, and acknowledges him as Lord.