13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. 14 Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath. 15 Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. “He put mud on my eyes,” the man replied, “and I washed, and now I see.”
16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.”
But others asked, “How can a sinner do such miraculous signs?” So they were divided.
17 Finally they turned again to the blind man, “What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened.”
The man replied, “He is a prophet.”
18 The Jews still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man’s parents. 19 “Is this your son?” they asked. “Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?”
20 “We know he is our son,” the parents answered, “and we know he was born blind. 21 But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself.” 22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews, for already the Jews had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Christ would be put out of the synagogue. 23 That was why his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”
24 A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.”
25 He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”
26 Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”
27 He answered, “I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?”
28 Then they hurled insults at him and said, “You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! 29 We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.”
30 The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does his will. 32 Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”
34 To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out.
This is a demonstration of complete willful, purposeful, unbelief - with no intention to even try to believe.
Willful unbelief sets false standard (Jesus broke the Sabbath - at least, their twisted and legalistic view of what the Sabbath should be - so He can't be from God), always demands more evidence and yet never has enough, does biased researched that's totally subjective, it rejects the facts, and it's totally egocentric.
They weren't looking for the truth. They were looking to justify their own pre-determined version of the truth. It doesn't matter how much evidence they are shown that 4+4=8, they're insisting it's 9 and nothing will convince them otherwise.
And the blind man's parents give in to cowardice and fear, and not only do they not stand up for their son, they lie about his healing. How sad.
And when, despite his poor parental examples, the blind man not only stands up for Jesus to the Pharisees, he uses their own type of argument in an effort to convince them (God doesn't listen to sinners, since God listened and healed through Jesus, Jesus must be from God).
And they throw him out of the synagogue.
Jesus confronted their unbelief, and they rejected Him.
The blind man stood up for the truth, and they rejected Him too.
Do not be discouraged when you are rejected for speaking the truth. You are not responsible for people's response. But you are responsible to speak the truth.
Tomorrow's scripture focus: John 9:35-49
2 comments:
I appreciate the encouragement in this to not assume logic will convince human thought. We have a relative in our family that proves this truth and I have to remember that unless the Lord builds... We pray and say what we can but these people are bitter and become volitale. They need our prayer.
Great post, Tammy.
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