Pastor John, Volume II

A Practical Interpretation of St. John's Gospel, Chapters 5–9

Brian N. Tebbutt

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781666719413, 9781666719420
• eBook ISBN: 9781666719437
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

John's Gospel can be both inspiring and bewildering. This book enables insight into the Gospel in a fresh way. How is it that we respond to it as we do? Understanding is enhanced by studying the text and by being aware of the kind of responses we make. Reading and working with it will deepen fellowship and skill in pastoral care. John's text is mined for gems of insight into ourselves and as a rich resource of ample illustrative material for preachers and teachers. This book elucidates chapters five to nine of the Gospel, presenting insights that involve us in the story. The content derives from years of teaching John's Gospel in workshops and reflection groups in varying church contexts. Guidance is given in working in this way and in how we can share our insights with each other in the light of the text. This experience of John's Gospel is illuminated using recent ways of reading. What the story means is conveyed in detailed Bible study. It becomes real for us. How this happens is explored by understanding the process of reading and by observing our reactions to the text. John's Christ becomes central to who we are.

John 9

Anonymous Man Sees: A Question of Identity

The eye with which I see God is the very eye with which God sees me.373

We must touch people.

Who Am I?

In this chapter the experience and thought of chapters 7 and 8 become personal. There are the same two strands, recognition of who Jesus is and opposition to who he is, with waverers on the sidelines. There is accord also with the Prologue. The light overcomes the darkness. Brown calls it the “Aftermath of Tabernacles.”374 But do we emphasize continuing conflict, or the illumination that one man rejoices in? If chapter 8 could be entitled “Who is Jesus?,”375 this could be entitled “Who am I?” As readers we also are brought to the point of recognizing who Jesus is and of “making a decision for” him—as the old evangelists used to say. A decision in his favor reflects an awareness that our identity is bound up in meeting him. So it was for the blind man, who:

. . . not only speaks in 13 of 41 verses, but he uses irony and sarcasm, and he even takes the initiative to lecture the religious authorities on some basic theological insights. Unlike any other healing story of the Gospel . . . [he] does not fade into the background. He remains not only in the foreground but as the centre of attention for the entire chapter.376

The readers could have imagined themselves as arguing with the leading figures at Jamnia, where after the fall of Jerusalem the latter gathered and formed an authoritative religious settlement.

Did you hear and respond to an invitation to “make a decision for” him? Or did you decline? Share.

What has happened to you subsequently? Just identify one or two steps in your journey to the point where you are now where you are feeding on John.

Share as precisely as you can how you feel (positively and negatively) when you are the center of attention.

How well do you argue when challenged? How well do you defend your faith? What are your views of yourself in such a situation? Try not to be too blind about yourself. Use the enquiry to shed some light on yourself.

In this chapter the imagery of light and darkness is highlighted (a metaphor!). Chapter 9 is to be read in the light of 8:12–20. As such, the proclamation “I am the light of the world,” in particular, is made personal. Within the description of the recovery of physical sight, there is also the bringing of “sight to the inly blind.”377 John’s writing sits astride the actual and the metaphorical. “Lord, I was blind! I could not see . . .”378 and that is the journey we shall make. “Seeing” bridges two worlds.

The theme of John is seeing Jesus. The old reference points of faith and of decision are superseded by new perceptions. There is a paradigm shift. The new point of reference is Jesus Christ. And seeing Jesus means seeing God. Christ’s life will be poured out as rich as the best wine at a wedding. The place of worship will be where you are, in that empty heart of yours. The Messiah comes to you. I am speaking to you. I am before Abraham. Like the religious leaders, we will also lapse back into blindness, and we shall retrace the steps this man makes.

First you meet and greet your past, neighbors, parents, the past in yourself.

Then you dialogue with your past.

Honor your past. Strangely you are given support and authenticity by your past, your parents, for instance.

You gain a new sense of self.

You consent to a continuing revelation. This will happen through sharing yourself.

Being judged, you walk in the light.

Introduction

The intensity of the experience in previous chapters continues. “The internal construction of the story shows consummate artistry; no other story in the Gospel is so closely knit. We have here Johannine dramatic skill at its best.”379 To get a feel of the intensity of this chapter, what you can do is to set the narrative, often single-line statements, by the margin, and then indent the direct speech.380 This alerts us to the hectic staccato effect of the exchanges.

We start with an individual blind man who gains sight and insight (9:1) and conclude with a group who lack insight and are described as blind (9:41). We witness and share in a growth in insight: “the man they call Jesus” is “a prophet,” “from God,” “son of man.” Jesus sees into the man and he responds by bearing witness. He has a new perception about the world and who Jesus is—this the theme of the Gospel. A saying attributed to Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas is, “The Kingdom of the Father, is spread upon the earth and men do not see it.” This man does see. “He is a presence to be known / In darkness and in light.”381 The Pharisees’ movement is negative: “not from God,” “a sinner.”

For Brown, this man is “one of the most attractive figures in the Gospels,” even though he is a beggar, just like the man lying by the pool; “this clever and voluble blind man is quite different from the obtuse and unimaginative paralytic . . .” It is as if our sympathies are extended to one but not to the other. But thankfully the attention Jesus gives us does not depend on how articulate and imaginative we are. “The blind man’s confutation of the Pharisees in vv. 24–34 is one of the most cleverly written dialogues in the New Testament.”382 However our attention is finally on Jesus. “This short chapter expresses perhaps more vividly and completely th...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Permissions
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• John 5
• John 6
• John 7/8
• John 8
• John 9
• Appendix
• Bibliography