John 9:8-17 The legalists (again)

John 9:8-17 First there is some dispute about the facts of the miraculous healing. Was this indeed the same man who used to be blind and beg? How was it that he was no longer blind? They got the facts sorted out, then started looking for Jesus. Evidently they didn't find Jesus so they brought the formerly blind beggar to the Pharisees. It is not clear, but the conversation suggests that the Pharisees wanted to question him about what happened. Of course, the Pharisees immediately rejected the possibility that the healing could be from God, because it happened on the Sabbath, just as in other Sabbath miracles. Matthew 12:10-12, Mark 3:-4, Luke 6:6-9 all record Jesus' healing of a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath. Luke 13:10-16 records the woman being healed of the issue of blood on the Sabbath. Luke 14:1-5 records Jesus healing a man of dropsy on the Sabbath. John 5:1-16 records Jesus healing a lame man on the Sabbath.

         Why did the Pharisees have such a strong reaction to Jesus healing people on the Sabbath? This must be a warning to us about the dangers inherent in becoming legalistic. Keeping the Sabbath was one of the Ten Commandments, just as the prohibition of adultery. (Exodus 20:8-11; 31:12-16; 35:1-3) Leviticus 23 extends the concept of the Sabbath rest to include sabbatical years in which the land would rest, and years of Jubilee in which seven sabbatical years were celebrated by an additional year of rest. But what the Pharisees missed was the underlying intention of God to grant rest to His people. When Jesus healed people, He was granting them divine rest from their suffering. But even more important, He was asserting the authority of God over the law He had given. The man who had been healed saw this authority. Even if Jesus was only a prophet, God had granted Him the authority to speak on His behalf.

         Underlying this conflict in propositional discourse with the Pharisees is a spiritual realm. In this realm, to which all humans have access, some are in contact with God and some have rejected this contact. Adam initially hid from God after eating the forbidden fruit, but he came out and fessed up when God came looking for Him and called him. The gospels suggest that the Pharisees had not, but had remained hidden from God's immanent presence in their prison of rules. We would do well to avoid a similar hiding place, even if we use a different set of rules. Which set of rules we choose does not matter if we are hiding from God.

         Why did John spend so much of His record of Jesus' life on the disputes and discussions between the Pharisees and Jesus? One possibility is that we the readers need to understand how people could take something that is pure and true and good like the Law of Moses, and use it to do evil. The Pharisees believed themselves to be disciples of Moses, but they rejected Christ when He appeared. How was this possible? The conversations that are recorded here chronicle in detail the innumerable deceptions of the heart that led them astray.