Learning Jesus | Week 19
Learning Jesus Week 19
JUDGING THE JUDGE...& DELIVERER
Key Word – See >> Central Passage – John 9
Jesus initiates the healing of the man born blind while He is still training His disciples and calling individuals to faith. Therefore, we need to see Him as strategically choosing this blind man for those purposes and read the story as a live parable. This event also occurs in context with the Feast of Tabernacles, so Jesus is still proclaiming that He is the light of the world and the source of living water, calling those willing to admit they are blind and thirsty to Himself.
Day 1 -- Read John 9:1-12.
Background Information – We can contribute anything less than a human possessing a perfect body to Adam’s fall, for the consequence for sin is death, and physical ailments of any kind are little deaths. The Mosaic Law, however, does also teach that the sins of the fathers are visited upon their descendants (Exodus 34:7), so it is possible this man was born blind due to ancestral sin. The strange question posited by the disciples, though, is whether the man himself sinned because being born blind would mean either he sinned in his mother’s womb or God anticipated a sin he would commit after birth. By their question, the disciples reveal they believe the “dark” Pharisaic teaching in the Mishna. To demonstrate His abhorrence for the Pharisaic teaching contrary to the Mosaic Law, Jesus heals the man using the material of spit and the method of making clay and applying this to the eyes; all these were specifically forbidden in the Talmud for healing on the Sabbath unless a person’s life was at stake.
1. Remember Jesus is still training the apostles. Jesus sees the man. The disciples see a theological point (John 9:1-2). If the apostles are to bring glory to God through the works they shall do after Christ ascends into heaven, then this must be corrected.
o What truth does the man born blind help us to see about our spiritual nature?
o Jesus states the man was born blind to display God’s glory. Then He states “We” must work while the Light of the World is in the world. What does Jesus want the disciples to see about the connection between the glory of God and work?
o How by defying Pharisaic teaching is Jesus bringing glory to God? Consider how the man’s “life was at stake.”
Background Information – We already read a story of a blind man whom Jesus healed in two stages for the purpose of teaching His disciples (Mark 8:22-25). But there are striking differences between these two healings that are important to note in order to understand Jesus’ live parables. This time Jesus sends the man away to wash in the Pool of Siloam. This is in keeping with Jesus’ new policy of faith after He is rejected. The man’s obedience to walk to Siloam to wash his eyes proves his faith; sending the man away also removes the man from Jesus at the time of his healing, so this seems to maintain God’s policy of silence. However...it’s interesting that Jesus sends the man to the most frequented pool in Jerusalem and during the Feast of Tabernacles when even more people would be present to see this man receive his sight.
The name Siloam means “sent.” So Jesus the One sent from God sends a man born blind to this pool. Jesus’ purpose cannot be missed. In Israel’s history no man BORN blind had ever received sight. The teaching of the day was that the Messiah (the sent one) would be the One to heal such a man. Like the healing of the leper and the casting out of a demon of a deaf mute, this healing was a Messianic miracle that Jesus performs based on Israel’s own theology that the Messiah would perform these particular miracles.
2. Sent One
o How is the healed man also a little Christ, a “sent one from God”?
Consider the testimony he would have shared.
o How are the people responding to his testimony?
3. The man took his first step to the Pool of Siloam as a blind man. Another person likely guided him there. How can you relate this to your first steps to Jesus?
Day 2 -- Read John 9:13-17.
Background Information – In this part of the story John reveals that Jesus performed the healing on the Sabbath day. Again, the Pharisaic teaching was that unless a life was at stake healing could not take place on the Sabbath. The Pharisees not only knew their Mishna, they also knew the book of Isaiah which both condemns the spiritually blind and promises the Messiah shall heal the blind (6:10; 42:6-7). Jesus purposefully challenges Pharisaic teaching to reveal who is rebelling against the Word of God and who is trusting Him.
1. What are the two sides to the Pharisees’ debate?
2. How is this healed man’s testimony bringing glory to God already? Note his growth by comparing John 9:11-12 to 17.
3. As you were coming to faith, how did your understanding of the Person of Jesus grow?
Day 3 -- Read John 9:18-23.
Background Information – In Pharisaic Judaism, leaders apply disciplinary steps at three levels of excommunication. At the first level neziphah or neziphut, three rabbis rebuke a person and remove him from the congregation for seven to thirty days. In second level niddui, meaning “to cast out,” ten rabbis rebuke a person and remove him from community for a minimum of thirty days. The third level of cherem originally meant “to be devoted to destruction,” but in New Testament times, it meant to be “unsynagogued.” At this level the person was no longer part of the Jewish community and was treated as dead forever, and this is the level of discipline the Pharisees invoked for those who confessed Christ. Some doubt that this level of excommunication was in effect in New Testament times, but given that Jesus was crucified within a year of this story, it does seem feasible.
1. Remember the Pharisees taught that the man born blind was either blind due to his parents’ sin or his own. How might this teaching have impacted --
o these parents?
o their son?
o their relationship?
2. Why would the Pharisees choose to “un-synagogue” a follower of Jesus?
3. What conflict arose during your community or in your life when God was drawing you to Him?
Day 4 -- Read John 9:24-34.
Background Information – The Pharisees now interrogate the healed blind man a second time. The first thing they say is “Give glory to God” which means “Don’t lie. God is listening.” Notice how they refer to Jesus contemptuously as “this man.” As you read, pay attention to how the healed man is growing in spiritual wisdom, albeit with a cynical and borderline mocking attitude. When it states that they “cast him out,” it means he reached level three of excommunication after this conversation. See Day 3 to review the levels of excommunication. Note, this man is the first story of persecution in the book of John.
1. Remember the Pharisees taught that the man born blind was either blind due to his parents’ sin or his own.
o What is the healed man realizing about his former religious leaders?
o What arguments does the healed man give to counter these false teachers?
2. How is this healed man’s engagement with the Pharisees growing him and bringing glory to God? Consider how he is demonstrating spiritual aliveness.
3. If applicable, what led to your making a decisive break with false teaching or teachers as you began to see the true nature of Jesus?
Dr. Fruchtenbaum sums up the Pharisees’ responses to Jesus’ Messianic miracles by noting this progression: 1) When Jesus healed the leper, the Pharisees began to investigate Jesus. 2) When He cast out the demon from the deaf mute, they rejected Him, claiming He performed His miracles through satanic power. 3) And now after healing the man born blind, they reject His disciples.
Day 5 -- Read John 9:35-41.
Background Information – Jesus asks the blind man if he believes specifically in the Son of Man, a Messianic title used in Daniel 7:13 that points to a Man who is also God. John uses this Messianic title in his gospel to describe the One who reveals God to the people and as such is their judge. Note Jesus’ concluding judgment upon the Pharisees who claim to see.
1. “Jesus heard that they had cast him out...” and then “...found him.” Why do you think Jesus chose to refer to Himself as the Son of Man to this man? Consider verse 39 in your answer.
2. How by waiting until now to find the healed man did Jesus help this man to bring glory to God?
3. Explain what Jesus says to the Pharisees in John 9:41 as if you were explaining it to a fifth grader.
Optional Memory Verse
Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. John 9:37-38
Deep Think (Totally Optional)
In this story we see God’s glory at work as He reveals the glory He decreed before the ages for the man born blind. If you have trusted that Christ died on the cross for your sins, was buried and raised on the third day, then you are born again and you have been baptized by Christ into the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 15:3-4; 1 Cor 12:13). Because He indwells you, you can understand the things freely given you by God, for you have the mind of Christ (Eph 1: 13-14; 1 Cor 2:12, 16).
Read 1 Corinthians 2:6-16.
Using this text, make a list just like I started above of the glory God has given you in Christ and praise God by reading it out loud. Then pray with compassion for those who are in darkness that God would give to them the same Light He has given to you.
REFLECTION Questions
These questions along with the Central Passage will usually be the focus of your group’s discussion each week.
When Moses asked to see the glory of the Lord, God granted his request, but Moses only saw the back of the Lord as He passed before his wondering eyes peering from the cleft of the rock. While Moses saw His glory, the Lord proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.”
And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped (Exodus 34:6-8).
1. We know that visibly the glory of Lord is displayed in blinding light. But what IS the glory of the LORD according to what the LORD proclaims about Himself? What, then, is your glory?
2. Remember the Twelve who saw the man born blind as a theological point (Day 1, Q1)? How did God use the man to multiply His glory in these disciples after Jesus ascended and they continued His work?
3. All our characters acted on what they knew or thought they knew. The healed man stepped into bright and brighter pools of light. His parents counted the cost and refused the next step. The Pharisees didn’t budge.
Share a story about a time you acted or didn’t act on what you knew.
o What were the rewards or consequences in regard to your relationship with God?
o What glory did you bring to God? Or if you acted in rebellion against what you knew, how could God still bring glory to Himself in you?
4. In one sentence share an area of growth you would like to pursue as a faithful disciple in the form of a prayer request.
• My prayer for growth –
• Group Prayer Requests –
COMMUNITY GROUP TIME
• This week is different. You will do each day together this week since we are only focusing on one story. You’ll notice that the Question 3 each day is a personal question that allows them to think about how the Holy Spirit moved them into sight. If time is short when you get to the Reflection Questions, then do question 3 and 4 (the prayer time).
God’s joy & strength to you,
kpaulson@gracelaredo.org