Reading: John 9-10, Psalm 107

One of the most devastating misuses of spiritual authority is that of the false teacher. There are numerous examples in the history of the church. Right in the gospel accounts we get Jesus warning against false teachers, and the same warning appears in the epistles. In our time we see cult leaders and morally bankrupt pastors and other Christian leaders embezzling money, abusing their followers, or teaching doctrines that serve only to secure their authority and power base. We know from both the stories in the New Testament and the historical records of the church that this problem never really went away, and was of great concern to the early Christians.

Today’s reading has a great deal to do with bad leadership, false guides, and the one true guide that defines correct teaching. John tells us a story about a man born blind having his sight restored. This is a fairly straightforward story in the gospels- we’ve seen lots of healing- what is different about this one? Most of the story has little to do with the power of Jesus to heal the blind man. It is almost incidental in John’s story. What is really going on is this confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees, teachers of the law, and scribes. When Jesus has made the man well, they call him out for healing on the Sabbath. Now, if we remember back to the books of Moses, we will see that the Sabbath was the sign of the covenant with Israel. It was the thing the people of Israel were to keep, even if they did nothing else. In the days of Jeremiah and Ezekiel the judgment of Israel was rooted in their rejection of the Sabbath. When Ezra and Nehemiah came along, keeping the Sabbath became of paramount concern, because the violation of it was so clearly linked to the exile. So we should not jump to conclusions about the Pharisee’s motives. They were really trying to understand the law as best they could, and what Jesus was doing was a big threat to what they understood as the way to get back into the good graces of their God. Or are they? John also tells us that they had agreed to put anyone out of the Synagogue, effectively shunning them, who confessed Jesus was who he said he was. Perhaps their motives were cloaked under the guise of doing the right thing. Their theology and reading of Scripture was good, but their hearts were doing something else.

That this incident occurs in the context of Jesus healing a man who cannot see helps clue us in to what the story is about. The man cannot see, and Jesus corrects this defect. The Pharisees learn about it, and raise the keeping of the Sabbath above making humans whole. In their questioning of the man and his parents they confess that when it comes to Jesus, we do not know where he comes from. The Pharisees do not understand what is going on with Jesus, and they are just aware enough to realize it. But they do not want to find out, but to keep things as they are. When Jesus finds the formerly blind man again after he is thrown out of the Synagogue, he tells him this is the judgment for which I came into the world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind. Jesus is here to clear up the confusion about who knows what. The Pharisees challenge him, effectively claiming that they do see. Jesus turns this back on them, saying that if you were blind, you would have no guilt; now that you say “We see” your guilt remains. Jesus is not condemning those who are confused or searching. He says he is here to make them see. He has little patience, however, for those who are confused but pretend to have it together.

The following teaching in chapter 10 is about the identity of Jesus over against the identity of the false teachers. If we look back to Ezekiel 34, we will see the last time the idea of the “good shepherd” came up it was in response to the bad guides who had led Israel astray. After blasting the bad guides in chapter 9, Jesus claims to be the good shepherd. I don’t think this is an accident on John’s part. He is making sure his readers understand who exactly Jesus is claiming to be, and that his authority is used to make humans see, not to keep them blind.

Leaders who shape their followers in order to bring glory to themselves are false guides. Jesus has stated over and over in the book of John that he does not seek his own glory, but the glory of the Father. The false guides he opposes work to bring glory to themselves. This is another of the threads that runs through Scripture, and John is writing his gospel at least in part to combat the rising tide of false guides in his own day. As one who experienced the life and teaching of the real master guide, he is able to tell us about what a good shepherd looks like, and how he makes us able to see.