Jesus meets the man born blind in John 9
For the Mothering Sunday gospel of Jesus’ presentation in Luke 2, the written commentary is here and the video discussion is here. The epistle is 2 Cor 1.3–7, and the video discussion of this passage is here (and included below).
The Sunday gospel lectionary reading for Lent 4 in this Year A continues with the third of our four encounters between Jesus and individuals in the Fourth Gospel:
Lent 2: Jesus and Nicodemus (John 3.1–17)
Lent 3: The woman of Samaria (John 4.5–42)
Lent 4: The man born blind (John 9.1-41)
Lent 5: The raising of Lazarus (John 11.1-45)
As we noted, this sequence of passages offered the pattern of study in the early catechumenate, providing a framework for discipleship for those preparing to be baptised at Easter. We find various themes revisited, and the expressions of faith in the person of Jesus develop throughout the sequence.
These four encounters do not particularly stand out as a sequence in the Fourth Gospel (for instance, in connection with the seven signs or the ‘I am’ sayings) but they are highly characteristic of the gospel’s narrative style. Whilst the gospel contains more detail of the names of both places and people than the Synoptics, it also features these close-up one-on-one encounters between Jesus and individuals, in which all the details of place and other people fade into the background, as if we are in a cinematic close-up.
This particular encounter appears to be distinct from the previous chapter, in that the characters involved and nature of the dispute is quite different. In chapter 8, Jesus is debating with ‘Jews who had believed in him’, that is, those who have fallen away on account of his challenging teaching in John 6.66. (Mark Stibbe identifies these as one of four groups antagonistic to Jesus within the overall narrative.) And it includes the suggestion of knowledge of Jesus’ unusual birth, in the accusatory phrase ‘We were not born of sexual immorality…’ (John 8.41).
