Jesus on the Sabbath – Part 10 – A Simple Witness

jesus-the-grain-field Recently I penned a series of post on the Ten Commandments and as I was writing it, found that the Sabbath day was the only commandment not reapplied to believers in the New Testament.

In writing that series of posts, I was reminded that the Sabbath day was one of the main irritants between the Lord Jesus and the Pharisees.

In our last post, we were looking at the miracle of the blind man seeing. In this post, the message of the healing is not lost on the Jewish leadership. Things are heating up between the Pharisees and the Lord.

First off, let’s see how this seeing man handles himself with his neighbors

Discussions and Questions

8 The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?”

This formerly blind man was well known in the neighborhood. He had been a fixture in the area, and was recognized by many, but not all, which is kinda curious. He had his sight given to him, not a tummy tuck and a nose job!

9 Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.”

Division. Someone has brought division amongst the religious – Hummm. I wonder Who?

The Pharisees were divided. The neighborhood was divided. A little later in the text, the parents were divided. Not with each other, but divided from this new disciple of Jesus. They would not commit any answer to the Jewish leadership.

How sad!

How unnecessary.

And yet, how common, though for the Master to be the source of division. He claimed that He was sent yielding a sword and there would be division within families due to Him

10 So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?”

The buzz was everywhere. Everyone had heard of the miracle. It was obvious to all that this man had been healed. The issue was who performed the miracle! This initial test was passed with flying colors by the blind man because he simply told of what he knew. This is the perfect description of a witness. Tell what you know. Don’t exaggerate, or flagellate, expand or deflate the story. Tell the truth.

These neighbors were the first court of public opinion that the blind man had to venture through. It turns out to be the easiest, since the neighbors seemed (in comparison to the Pharisees below) to be without much of any agenda.

11 He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.”

12 They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”

The blind man knew it was “a man named Jesus”. Fair enough. He is telling the truth of his story. He knew of Jesus as a man only. He didn’t know where He was.

This discussion with the blind man was going no where. The neighbors started to get a bit peeved, and decided to deliver the man to the Pharisees.

Bringing him to the professionals!

Join me in my next post to see how this seeing man blinds the Pharisees with his witness. Hope to see you there – no pun intended!