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THE PHARISEES DEFIED

John 9:17–35

Now the Jews refused to believe that he had been blind and had become able to see, until they called the parents of the man who had become able to see, and asked them: ‘Is this your son? And do you say that he was born blind? How, then, can he now see?’ His parents answered: ‘We know that this is our son; and we know that he was born blind; how he has now come to see we do not know; or who it was who opened his eyes we do not know. Ask himself. He is of age. He can answer his own questions.’ His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone acknowledged Jesus to be the Anointed One of God, he should be excommunicated from the synagogue. That is why his parents said: ‘He is of age. Ask him.’ A second time they called the man who used to be blind. ‘Give the glory to God,’ they said. ‘We know that this man is a sinner.’ ‘Whether he is a sinner or not,’ the man answered, ‘I do not know. One thing I do know – I used to be blind and now I can see.’ ‘What did he do to you?’ they said. ‘How did he open your eyes?’ ‘I have already told you,’ the man said, ‘and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear the story all over again? Surely you can’t want to become his disciples?’ They heaped abuse on him. ‘It is you who are his disciple,’ they said. ‘We are Moses’ disciples. We know that God spoke to Moses; but, as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.’ The man answered: ‘It is an astonishing thing that you do not know where he comes from, when he opened my eyes. It is a fact known to all of us that God does not listen to sinners. But if a man is a reverent man and does his will, God hears him. Since time began no one has ever heard of anyone who opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man was not from God, he could not have done anything.’ ‘You were altogether born in sins,’ they said to him, ‘and are you trying to teach us?’ And they ordered him to get out.

THERE is no more vivid character drawing in all literature than this. With deft and revealing touches, John causes the people involved to live before us.

(1) There was the blind man himself. He began by being irritated at the persistence of the Pharisees. ‘Say what you like’, he said, ‘about this man; I don’t know anything about him except that he made me able to see.’ It is the simple fact of Christian experience that many people may not be able to put into theologically correct language what they believe Jesus to be, but in spite of that they can witness to what Jesus has done for their souls. Even when we cannot understand with our intellect, we can still feel with our hearts. It is better to love Jesus than to love theories about him.

(2) There were the man’s parents. They were obviously uncooperative, but at the same time they were afraid. The synagogue authorities had a powerful weapon, the weapon of excommunication, whereby a man was shut off from the congregation of God’s people. Back in the days of Ezra, we read of a decree that if anyone did not obey the command of the authorities, ‘their property should be forfeited, and they themselves banned from the congregation’ (Ezra 10:8). Jesus warned his disciples that their name would be cast out for evil (Luke 6:22). He told them that they would be put out of the synagogues (John 16:2). Many of the rulers in Jerusalem really believed in Jesus, but were afraid to say so ‘for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue’ (John 12:42).

There were two kinds of excommunication. There was the ban, the cherem, by which a man was banished from the synagogue for life. In such a case he was publicly denounced. He was cursed in the presence of the people, and he was cut off from God and from society. There was sentence of temporary excommunication which might last for a month, or for some other fixed period. The terror of such a situation was that a Jew would regard it as shutting him out not only from the synagogue but also from God. That is why the man’s parents answered that their son was quite old enough to be a legal witness and to answer his own questions. The Pharisees were so venomously embittered against Jesus that they were prepared to do what people in authority at their worst have sometimes done – to use the system and procedure to further their own ends.

(3) There were the Pharisees. They did not believe at first that the man had been blind. That is to say, they suspected that this was a miracle faked between Jesus and him. Further, they were well aware that the law recognized that a false prophet could produce false miracles for his own false purposes (Deuteronomy 13:1–5 warns against the false prophet who produces false signs in order to lead people away after strange gods). So the Pharisees began with suspicion. They went on to try to browbeat the man. ‘Give the glory to God,’ they said. ‘We know that this man is a sinner.’ ‘Give the glory to God’ was a phrase used in cross-examination which really meant: ‘Speak the truth in the presence and the name of God.’ When Joshua was cross-examining Achan about the sin which had brought disaster to Israel, he said to him: ‘Give glory to the Lord God of Israel and make confession to him. Tell me now what you have done; do not hide it from me’ (Joshua 7:19).

They were annoyed because they could not meet the man’s argument, which was based on Scripture. It was: ‘Jesus has done a very wonderful thing; the fact that he has done it means that God hears him; now God never hears the prayers of a bad man; therefore Jesus cannot be a bad man.’ The fact that God did not hear the prayer of a bad man is a basic thought of the Old Testament. When Job is speaking of the hypocrite, he says: ‘Will God hear their cry when trouble comes upon them?’ (Job 27:9). The psalmist says: ‘If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened’ (Psalm 66:18). Isaiah hears God say to the sinning people: ‘When you stretch out your hands [the Jews prayed with the hands stretched out, palms upwards], I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood’ (Isaiah 1:15). Ezekiel says of the disobedient people: ‘Though they cry in my hearing with a loud voice, I will not listen to them’ (Ezekiel 8:18). Conversely, they believed that the prayer of a good person was always heard. ‘The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry’ (Psalm 34:15). ‘He fulfils the desire of all who fear him; he also hears their cry, and saves them’ (Psalm 145:19). ‘The Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous’ (Proverbs 15:29). The man who had been blind presented the Pharisees with an argument which they could not answer.

When they were confronted with such an argument, see what they did. First, they resorted to abuse. ‘They heaped abuse on him.’ Second, they resorted to insult. They accused the man of being born in sin. That is to say, they accused him of pre-natal sin. Third, they resorted to threatened force. They ordered him out of their presence.

Often we have our differences with people, and it is well that it should be so. But the moment insult and abuse and threat enter into an argument, it ceases to be an argument and becomes a contest in bitterness. If we become angry and resort to wild words and hot threats, all we prove is that our case is disturbingly weak.