John 9:18–23

About this episode

This episode reflects on the fear responses of the Jewish leaders and the blind man's parents regarding Jesus' identity as the Messiah.

18 The Jews still did not believe that the man had been blind and had received his sight until they summoned his parents 19 and asked, “Is this your son, the one you say was born blind? So how is it that he can now see?” 20 His parents answered, “We know he is our son, and we know he was born blind. 21 But how he can now see or who opened his eyes, we do not know. Ask him. He is old enough to speak for himself.” 22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews. For the Jews had already determined that anyone who confessed Jesus as the Christ would be put out of the synagogue. 23 That was why his parents said, “He is old enough. Ask him.” REFLECTIONS Written by Stephen Shead Today’s passage gives us a picture of two different fear responses: threats and staying quiet. I suspect the Jewish leaders were afraid of losing their positions of power and influence if people started believing in Jesus. They responded to their fear by threatening to excommunicate anyone who confessed Jesus as the Messiah. You would think that they would have been eager to consider this man Jesus – after all, the Old Testament prophets had said that when God’s…

Topics covered

• fear responses
• faith
• excommunication
• blindness
• Jesus as Messiah

Keywords

• blind man
• parents
• Jewish leaders
• excommunication
• faith
• Jesus
• Messiah

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Jews

Books & works: Isaiah 35:5

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