John
9:30-34 (NIV) The man answered, "Now that is remarkable! You don't know
where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen
to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does his will. 32 Nobody has ever
heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from
God, he could do nothing."
34 To
this they replied, "You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture
us!" And they threw him out.
NOTE: I wondered why
the Pharisees say that they don't know where Jesus came from. A little earlier
they told Nicodemus to look it up that no prophet arises out of Galilee.
Nicodemus had merely mentioned that they ought to question him before determining
who he is. Now they reply that they don't know where he came from, which is a
repeat of some earlier comment from the crowd. I wonder if they dug a little
deeper and found out that he was born in Bethlehem, and rather than admit that
point, they have moved to the position, "we don't know," probably
based on some justification like, "they do not have eyewitnesses to his
birth." Therefore, they don't really know. Which has now gone full circle
and is "we don't know where he came from." Secondly, they say that
the man was steeped in sin from birth. But Jesus made it clear earlier that a
person's birth disabilities are not a result of his sin. He also mentioned it was
not because of a parent's sin either but that may have been a particular
situation or an in-general comment, since it would clearly be possible for a
parent's sin (addictive abusive behavior) to result in a child with birth
defects. Finally, they don't want to be lectured to by an inferior uneducated,
formerly, blind man. The blind man sees the obvious, a man opens the eyes of a
person born blind -- impossible in that day and age, and one of the Messianic
miracles (I believe). The Pharisees do not want to see the obvious even though
it is staring them in the face. Who is blind now?
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