John

I recently finished reading and studying the Gospel of John, which doesn’t really fit the bill of my blog, as it is neither pastry nor poppycock, but a seriously written account of a luminous and infinite person. However, as it was terribly meaningful to me and the ability it would take to distill it for a blog seems daunting, here I am.

As a writer I do not really take too many challenges. Therefore, rather than tackle the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth, as John was quite effective at, I am going to take the one story that once I read it in John’s Gospel, I was really unable to think of anything else. (Slight exaggeration; I thought of minimal other things, too.)

The story of Jesus being called into the already long and difficult life and judgment of the Man Born Blind was absolutely breathtaking. Now, the thing about reading Bible stories, chapters, or even whole Gospels, is that they are fairly familiar. I already knew going into the Gospel of John that the Light of the World was going to appear. I already knew I was going to encounter the Woman at the Well. I was even familiar with how the book reaches its climax, including the Three Crows, The Empty Tomb, and a Large Catch of Fish.

But there’s nothing like a good shudder and case of massive stereotype to bring to light that Jesus’ ways are not only incredibly different than those of world leaders, they’re not necessarily story-book ending inducing. Let’s look at the Man Born Blind. This story takes place in Chapter 9, it involves a man, his parents, Jesus, his disciples, religious leaders, and townspeople. If I were to write a novel that would be plenty of characters, but this, for Jesus, is just another day in the life.

Our introduction is brief. Jesus sees the man. Jesus’ disciples asked who sinned. (Blimey, people.) Jesus tells them that nobody sinned; it’s just another way for God’s glory to be revealed. Jesus heals the man! What a great story! The man’s not condemned, Jesus saves the day, and the disciples learn another talking point.

But, enter townspeople. They question: is this the man born blind now seeing? Some say yes, others no. But the MBB himself kept saying, “It is me!” (But how should he know, right?) So the townspeople take him to the Pharisees. The Pharisees don’t believe this crazy story. They demand the parents come. The parents say they don’t know what happened to their blind son, ask the man, he is an adult, you know.

Then the Pharisees get the Man Born Blind back and tell him to renounce Jesus, who must be a sinner to have given the MBB sight. The MBB says he only knows the good things Jesus did, and not all this add on. The Pharisees mock the MBB. The MBB gives them a piece of his mind (which happens to be a beautiful understanding of God, worship, and world history). The Pharisees get pissed.

Now we’re heading for closure, and guess who’s back! Jesus hears about the man. Jesus goes to the MBB and gets a confession. The MBB and Jesus are BFF! The lurking Pharisees pull down the curtains by being the only ones told by Jesus that they are in sin.

So, is this really happy? Not by my standards, but mine may be too elevated. The MBB was in a very sad state before Jesus, then meets Jesus, gets sight, but ends up in an even harsher drama. The townspeople who maybe before gave him bread refuse to believe he is himself, the Pharisees throw the book at him and toss him out, his own parents were unwilling to risk association with him. See, in a real happy ending the guy gets the girl, the car, and the job. Here, the MBB only gets Jesus. But he can see, so the MBB knows that this is truly a very good ending.