NEW TESTAMENT CHARACTERS.

MUD ON HIS EYES.
He just would not back down, that was the trouble. They gave him every opportunity but he was too stubborn. In the end they had to excommunicate him.

Which was a pity because he was a poor man. He had not long got his sight back. Being no longer blind he could not beg any more but had not yet learned to read or write or do any skilled work. To be excommunicated from the Synagogue meant, probably, that no one would give him a job.

They first brought him before the authorities (probably a council of local Synagogue leaders in or near Jerusalem) because there was some confusion about his recent experience. He was well known to neighbours as a local figure, born blind, parents too poor to keep him; so licensed to beg.

Now he could see. Neighbours had questioned him - something like, “Is it you or your twin brother?” and he had told them plainly, “It is me. I used to sit here and beg.”

They asked him what happened and he explained that a man called Jesus, whom he had never seen but whose voice he would no doubt recognise, smeared his eyes with clay and told him to go and wash it off in the pool of Siloam.

He could find his way there, knowing every twist and turn of the streets by feel. When he washed off the clay and cleaned up his eyes, they could see. He was still getting used to it.

This was beyond them so they referred it to a higher authority, a council whose members were Pharisees. Here they struck a problem straight away. Pharisees especially were very strict about observing the Sabbath day. And Jesus had healed him on the Sabbath.

It was forbidden to work on the Sabbath and work was taken to include any non-emergency medical treatment - even miracles. Making clay was work, smearing it on eyes was work. Blindness was not an emergency, the healing could have waited until next day. Evidently the healer was not from God - or He would have kept the Sabbath. The implication is that if He possessed supernatural powers which did not come from God they must have come from the Devil.

Not all the council took this view. There were some present, Pharisees, who asked, “How can an evil person do such a miracle?”

“It’s your eyes He opened; what do you say about him?”

“He is a prophet.” No nonsense there - straight question, straight answer.

Next question, was this really the man or some look-alike impostor. So they brought in the blind man’s parents. These were poor people and knew only too well what might happen to anyone who openly sided with the Teacher from Nazareth. To be thrown out of the Synagogue would be ruin. They would lose their standing in the community and with it their livelihood.

“We know this is our son,” they said, “and we know he was born blind. More than that we do not know. Ask him. He is an adult. Let him speak for himself.”

After more deliberation the council called back the formerly blind man.

“You may thank God for your sight, but also give Him the glory by telling the truth. The truth is that this man who healed you is a Sabbath-breaking sinner. Don’t credit Him with your healing and you will be all right.”

That was his first chance to back down.

“I don’t know anything about whether He is a sinner or not - I just know I used to be blind but now I can see.”

With an exasperated sigh they started over again. “Tell us exactly what did He do?”

“I told you. Why do you need to hear it again. Are you thinking of following Him?”

That was the red rag to a bull. “We suppose you are His follower. We follow Moses. We know God spoke to Moses. As for this fellow, we have no idea whether He comes from God or not.”

Now he began to turn sarcastic - dangerous with people in authority.

“Well, well, well. Fancy that. He opens my eyes and you still have no idea whether He comes from God or not. Has anyone ever heard of such a healing? I was born blind. If He did not come from God He could do nothing.”

“How dare you teach us you child of evil. Get out. You are excommunicated.”

And head held high, he walked out, not knowing what the future held. A little later he met Jesus, recognised Him by His voice, and worshipped Him. After that, like so many others he disappears from the record. Did he leave Judea and seek his fortune in Galilee or elsewhere? Did he find someone to employ him? Did he learn to read and write or a skilled craft?

And was he there on the day of Pentecost and in the young church? The only evidence we have is that his story is in John’s Gospel. John no doubt witnessed the actual healing, but the rest of the story could only have come from the man himself.

John 9 whole chapter.