Not only does this
remind the observer of the fact that the setting in which Jesus is presented as
speaking is the same setting in which He has given sight and standing within
the covenant community (no longer ostracized) to the man blind from birth (who
was looked upon as cursed---much like a Gentile), but it also informs the same
observer that the author is reaching back even further, tying this event to the
events recorded in the seventh chapter of the Gospel, which is the point of
commencement of this particular portion of John’s wider narrative.
There, Jesus is
reported to have said “My teaching is not from Me, but from the one who sent
Me. If anyone wants to do God’s will, He will know about My teaching,
whether it is from God or whether I speak from My own authority”
(7:16b-17). This dovetails quite nicely with the Father language of the
tenth chapter. In the seventh chapter, in conjunction with His words
about God, Jesus says “Hasn’t Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you
keeps the law! Why do you want to kill me?” (7:19) In the tenth
chapter, Jesus speaks of laying down His life.
Following His
accusation that there are those that want to kill Him in chapter seven, the
crowd responds by saying “You’re possessed by a demon!” (7:20b). In
chapter ten, the author presents the conclusion of a similar pattern, with the
aforementioned reference to accusations that Jesus is possessed by a
demon. Back to the seventh chapter, one finds “Then some of the residents
of Jerusalem began to say, ‘Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill?’”
(7:25), which will ultimately, within this story, culminate with Jesus’
declaration that He is willing to lay down His own life---no man takes it from
Him. From that point, an interesting exchange commences, with a back and
forth between and amongst Jesus, the Pharisees, and the Jewish leaders.
Keeping in mind the
close of the scene in chapter ten, questions are raised about the geographic
location from which Jesus has sprung. Questions about His pedigree are
raised because He is believed to be from Galilee, and it is said that “no
prophet comes from Galilee” (7:52b). When this is considered, one must
not forget this use of “prophet” in John and its connection to Moses.
Jesus responds to this challenge by speaking of Himself as “the light of the
world” (8:12b), apparently contrasting following Him with living a life of
darkness. Darkness, of course, could easily be a euphemism for
blindness.
Shortly thereafter,
Jesus begins making repeated references to His “Father,” which will set the
tone for its use in the tenth chapter, which forms part of this same extended
story. Also, the issue of the possibility of Jesus killing Himself is
raised (8:22), which is answered by Jesus’ firm declaration in the tenth chapter
that He will lay down His own life, with the ability to lay it down and take it
up again. Because of what precedes that statement, which was His
referencing false messiahs, which would remind His hearers of those who had had
their lives snuffed out by the enemies of the Creator God’s people, the issue
of whether or not Jesus may take His own life is put to rest.
In the forty-eighth
and fifty-second verses of the eighth chapter, Jesus is once again accused of
being possessed by a demon, which adequately continues the narrative flow,
reminding the hearer of John’s story about what has been heard to this
point. Though He leaves the Temple area, the events of the ninth chapter,
in which the man born blind is healed, informs the reader that the story begun
in the seventh chapter is continuing. The query of “A demon cannot cause
the blind to see, can it?” is an overt reminder of the healing of the blind
man, along with being a reminder of the exchange between Jesus and some of the
Pharisees in which sight and blindness are discussed (9:39-41).
This also serves as a
reminder (along with the other things that have been pointed out in these
recent paragraphs) that these several chapters are designed to hang together to
form a unified treatment within a larger unified treatment, with the exaltation
of the ethic of love as displayed by the Christ and by Israel’s God through His
Christ (the mentions of miraculous signs come to mind) as that which is
intended to predominate the inter-personal relationships of the covenant
bearers, as well as their relationships with the wider world (those whom the
Creator God also loves and seeks to bring in to His covenant family as part of
His restoration of His once good creation).
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