Week 5 | John 9-10
Week 5 Day 1: John 9:1-12
Week 5 Day 3: John 9:35-41
Week 5 Day 4: John 10:1-21
Week 5 Day 5: John 10:22-40
SHOW NOTES
DAY 1: John 9:1-12
Stories: The man born blind healed
Curiosities:
1) Why did Jesus’ disciples ask if the blind man sinned or his parents? Did Jesus rebuke them for that thinking?
2) Why did Jesus need the spit mud to heal him? Why the washing in the pool? This harkens back to Naaman’s healing.
3) This man stands out more than any other healing in John because he was born blind. The prevailing theology was that it was sin that caused his blindness and the fact that he was now healed messed with that notion.
Paradoxes: Why would a good God allow a man to live with blindness from birth so that one day decades later he could see so that God could be glorified? Does this seem cruel?
DAY 2: John 9:13-34
Stories: The Blind man questioned
Curiosities:
1) The Pharisees were angry because putting mud on the man’s eyes would break their (not the Bible’s) notion of what constituted work on a Sabbath.
2) It is interesting to note that at this point some of the Pharisees were willing to side with Jesus after this miracle.
3) The blind man’s parents were afraid of being thrown out of the synagogue because of Jesus – it was already well known the prejudice the leaders had against Him at this time.
4) “You were steeped in sin at birth.” This is an amazing statement against this man that reaffirms the prevailing theology of sickness. The leaders knew the man was healed and they were angry about how and why he would have been healed.
Paradoxes: This notion of not knowing where Jesus came from comes up again. Why didn’t Jesus ever set the record straight?
DAY 3: John 9:35-41
Stories: For Judgment I have come into this world
Curiosities:
1) Why did Jesus immediately ask the blind man if he believed in the “Son of Man?” What a strange thing to ask the man. How would the man have known what Jesus was asking?
2) Jesus tells the Pharisees that they would actually be better off if they were blind, but because they say they can see they are now held guilty and to a higher standard.
Paradoxes: One of the greatest ongoing paradoxes of John, Jesus says here that it was for the very specific reason of judgment that He came into the world. Why does Jesus use the idea of judgment in so many different ways in John?
DAY 4: John 10:1-21
Stories: The Good Shepherd
Curiosities:
1) Jesus uses a figure of speech, that John points out in verse 6, as a slight against the Pharisees. They are the thieves and robbers He refers to.
2) Jesus makes the point that He is a shepherd that will stay with His sheep, fight for His sheep and even die for His sheep. He contrasts that with the Pharisees who He says will flee at the first sign of trouble to save their own skin.
3) Jesus makes the point that His sheep know His voice and that if someone doesn’t know Jesus’ voice, they obviously aren’t His sheep.
4) The Pharisees and Jewish leaders are still divided over Jesus because of the healing of the blind man from chapter 9 so that they are open to listening to His teaching.
DAY 5: John 10:22-40
Stories: Jesus does the works of His Father
Curiosities:
1) Jesus again very pointedly tells the Jewish leaders that they are not His sheep and they do not belong to the Father, God.
2) Jesus does not directly answer their question about whether or not He is the Messiah – to the opposite, He says that He and God are one, something very different than the Jewish understanding of Messiah.
3) Jesus appeals to the works and miracles He is doing instead of the teaching He is giving.
4) Why would scripture call us “gods?” Even the Pharisees had earlier said they were children of God alone.
Paradoxes: Even in the midst of such conflict, more and more people began to believe in Jesus.