John 9:1-12
Background: (NET) In the OT it is God himself who is associated with the giving of sight to the blind (Exod 4:11, Ps 146:8). In a number of passages in Isa (29:18, 35:5, 42:7) it is considered to be a messianic activity.
Repeated phrase:
v.6b he spat on the ground and made some mud with the saliva. He smeared the mud on the blind man’s eyes 9:7 and said to him, “Go wash in the pool of Siloam...So the blind man went away and washed, and came back seeing.
v.10 So they asked him, “How then were you made to see?”9:11 He replied, “The man called Jesus made mud, smeared it on my eyes and told me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’So I went and washed, and was able to see.”
V.13 They brought the man who used to be blind to the Pharisees.9:14 (Now the day on which Jesus made the mud and caused him to see was a Sabbath.)
Note, when people noticed that the blind man was healed they did not recognized Jesus’ Messiahship. Instead, they focus of Jesus’ action of making the mud and seemingly to violate the Pharisee’ Sabbath regulations.
Difficult passage: v.4b Night is coming when no one can work. 9:5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” What does “night” refer to? (PNTC) the darkness of the period when Jesus is first taken from his disciples...It is not just a miracle; it is a sign, the work of the Father, mediated through the sent one, to shed light on those who live in darkness. The Evangelist is thus telling his readers that the long-awaited Messiah really is Jesus (cf. notes on vv. 30, 31), that Jesus’ symbol-laden miracles attest the point, and that his departure brought down a ‘night’ on many Jewish leaders who refused to open their eyes to the light, but also, by implication, that it would be disastrous for people still to disbelieve at the time of writing, compounding the sinful blindness of the original rejection of the Messiah by a continued rejection of the Messiah’s messengers.
Reflection: 像自己是瞎子, 也是討飯的,從出生就已經看不見, 現在已經40歲, 父母也不管我, 鄰舍之間大概知道我的事情,但也沒有人管我, 他們連我長什麼樣子, 也不太記得. 然後有一天, 有一個人, 叫耶穌, 他說他要在我身上顯出神的作為, 然後又說他必須做那差他來者的工. 然後我的眼睛就被医好了！祂正是舊約聖經預言的彌賽亞, 而我就是證明人. 雖然從來不被人重視, 但我居然成為一個活證,其他人可以去爭拗耶穌是否彌賽亞, 但對我而言, 毫無疑問.
我不是一個生來瞎眼的瞎子, 但是耶穌在我身上做的救贖工作那, 就證明他就是彌賽亞, 就是救世主. 帶給我們救恩, 讓我可以從黑暗的權勢, 遷到愛子的国裏, 所以我也應該像瞎子一樣,勇敢地去為耶穌作見證.
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