Sermon Tone Analysis

SR

We’ve all had the experience of a light shining so brightly in our eyes that we can’t see.

Turn that light off!

Movie theater, Pepperdine plaza, etc. John tells the story of a man who has literally walked in darkness all of his life.

Like most Jews of the day, the disciples assume that sin is the culprit for this man’s condition.

(e.g. when a pregnant woman worships in a pagan temple her unborn fetus was regarded as participating in the pagan rite, Canticles Rabbah 1, 6, § 3).

Not entirely untrue.

Sin and guilt’s effects are suffering and death.

This world is fallen.

We don’t live in paradise yet.

Yet scripture doesn’t teach a direct correlation between an individual’s sin and that person’s physical condition.

Jesus explains that works of God will be displayed in the blind man’s life.

judging by the Old Testament and by later Jewish tradition, Palestinian Jews, like people in many other cultures around the world, believed that human excreta (including urine, breast milk, saliva, menstrual flow, etc.).

were all forms of (ceremonial) pollutant, ‘dirt’

judging by the Old Testament and by later Jewish tradition, Palestinian Jews, like people in many other cultures around the world, believed that human excreta (including urine, breast milk, saliva, menstrual flow, etc.).

were all forms of (ceremonial) pollutant, ‘dirt’.

In such tribes, under certain conditions that same ‘dirt’, in the hands of people authorized with the appropriate power, could be transformed into an instrument of blessing.

Thus blood and saliva pollute, but in the right context blood cleanses and saliva cures.

Certainly uncleanness in the Old Testament can be conveyed by saliva (Lv.

15:8).

If the reversal of the taboos also applies (and here the evidence is admittedly scanty), then by using spittle as part of his treatment Jesus is making a claim to have religious authority.

The situation is not entirely unlike the healing of a man with leprosy: by touching him Jesus does not contract the leper’s uncleanness, but heals the leper of his disease (Mt.

8:1–4).

Not entirely untrue.

Sin and guilt’s effects are suffering and death.

This world is fallen.

We don’t live in paradise yet.

Yet scripture doesn’t teach a direct correlation between an individual’s sin and that person’s physical condition.

Jesus explains that works of God will be displayed in the blind man’s life.

and both contain references to spit causing uncleanliness.

Could it be that as in so many other areas of his life (talking with women openly, hanging out with tax collectors, “eating and drinking,” touching lepers) that Jesus is merely breaking another social/cultural/religious taboo?

Not sure, but the Pharisees certainly are interested in “how” the blind man was healed (vs.

15, 19).

Jesus tells the man to wash in the waters of the pool of Siloam, the same pool from which they would draw water for the pouring rituals for the Feast of Tabernacles which is the feast that serves as the setting for this story (ch.

8).

John wants his readers to understand that Siloam means “sent.”

Earlier, in his answer to the disciples about who sinned, Jesus tells his disciples now is the time (still day) to do the works of him who sent me.

Jesus is the sent one.

Sent to do God’s works, fulfill God’s plans, represent God in the fullest and most complete way.

And Jesus sends:

Jesus is sent by God, sends the Spirit, sends the disciples and now sends the blind man to go wash and be healed.

He went back to his home with his sight restored.

When he gets all the gossip starts, “hey is that the guy”?

So begins a process of understanding or seeing who Jesus actually is.

Isn’t that the guy?

Yeah, that’s the guy.

No, it only looks like the guy.

“I’m the guy.”

Yeah,

Well then how can you see?

The guys narrates exactly what happened.

“Well where is this guy Jesus”?

“I don’t know.”

Yeah,

We see in this discourse and in the conversations to come a similar pattern of conversations in John’s Gospel between Jesus and people who are trying to figure out who he is or what he’s talking about.

Nicodemus, Woman at the Well

Not entirely untrue.

Sin and guilt’s effects are suffering and death.

This world is fallen.

We don’t live in paradise yet.

Yet scripture doesn’t teach a direct correlation between an individual’s sin and that person’s physical condition.

Jesus explains that works of God will be displayed in the blind man’s life.

Our story continues

Now the Big Guns get involved.

This whole healing thing needs to be inspected closer, verified and vetted by the religious standards committee.

There’s an orthodoxy that needs to be followed closely, and only those approved regulators are able to give their stamp of approval on God’s work, ensuring its legitimacy.

So a discussion ensues about who Jesus is whether he’s from God or a sinner.

The formerly blind man describes him this way” “prophet.”

The religious referees aren’t convinced.

The whole thing is too unbelievable.

More investigation is necessary.

Let’s get the parents in here.

Now Johns says the parents are scared of the head honchos of religion so they wash their hands of the whole deal.

Yep, that’s our son, yep he was born blind, but we don’t know who, what and where.

No clue how this all happened.

He’s old enough to speak for himself.

Back to the man: tell us the truth this time, we know this guy is a sinner.

Man: “Sinner or not I know one thing.

I was blind but now I see.”

Pharisees: What did he do?

How did he open your eyes?

Man: I told you the story already!

You didn’t listen the first time!

Do you want to follow him too?

Oh now this is too far.

What an insult.

Us follow him?

“We don’t even know where he comes from.”

Remember how we opened this study of John’s Gospel?

Can you recall a few weeks back?

10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.

11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.

12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God

From my notes a few weeks ago:

“Knowing” is a better term likely than “recognize” that the NIV uses.

The sad irony John is telling us is that people don’t have a relationship with their creator.

Not that they don’t recognize someone that they do know.

We’re going to see this throughout John’s Gospel.

People who know him and receive him, believe in him, obey him and people who don’t know him, don’t understand him, reject him.

The very people who should know who Jesus is don’t, but to anyone who receives him God will empower to become his child.

Here in our story the Pharisees come right out and say it.

“We don’t even know where this guy comes from” ()

30 The man answered, “Now that is remarkable!

You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes.