In considering John 9
● remember the astonishing opening claim of the chapter when the disciples ask, sounding perhaps a bit like Job’s friends, whose sin accounted for the man’s blindness and Jesus responds that the blindness occurred in order that the “works of God might be displayed in him” (1),
● notice the repetition of “I am the light of the world” (5 and in 8:12) that sets the healing among the works of “him who sent me” (4),
● ponder the elaborate little ritual of spitting, making, anointing, and saying (6, 7), wondering also why the now-seeing man has occasion to twice tell the story of the little process,
● register the puzzlement about who the man is who is able to see and to give witness to what he knows (18-20),
● register the testimony that the once-blind man gives, calling Jesus a “prophet” (17) and boldly and simply declaring “one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see” (25),
● notice that Jesus encounters the same man a second time in order to enable this two-step exchange (35-38): Jesus- “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” Man- Who is he, sir? (implying that he is ready to believe what Jesus says) Jesus, echoing the way he talked to the woman at the well (4:26)- “You have seen him, and he is speaking to you.” Man- “Lord, I believe,” and
● Jesus closes his encounter with the Pharisees by extending the sense of seeing from physical sight to spiritual discernment (39-41).
Thank you,
Randy Tumlinson