Today more comments about the story of the blind man in the 9th chapter in the gospel of John - this time it is a story of exclusion. From: The Joy of Being Wrong.
...the former blind man is taken to the Pharisees, and as they investigate the nature of his cure, it becomes more and more apparent that Jesus was involved in the cure. Since such a cure would suggest the messianic nature of Jesus, the Pharisees at first doubt the cure and then become increasingly abusive in their questioning.
i want to stop here. The more Jesus is involved - the more the religious leaders need to be exclusive. The more that the expansive Reign of God becomes available without condition (the only way it is available) religious folks can get antsy. Once Jesus gets involved, we cannot even count on the power of death to define things. If Jesus was involved in this amazing bit of grace that can bring sight to one who had never had sight, then the whole world as we see it and want it can be drawn into question. Drawing something into question is not bad - although if you hold onto a way of defining the world or come to some guarded way of defining what is allowed in nature, Jesus getting involved could be trouble. For now, even the long-lost and blind will be joining in on all of what religious folks thought were meant for religious folks of a certain defined status and condition. So, the way of some religious folk is to exclude. It is as though some would think that it is up to them to define and regulate God's unbounded love and grace. When love is always bound up and no one at all - not every the regulators or gatekeepers - are given full access to its liberating power, it is easy to do nothing but exclude. Therefore everyone is living under the rule of threat rather than having Jesus involved.
Connection: We hear the name of Jesus quite a bit. We really are hearing it in this intense political year. Christians all over the place are throwing the Jesus name and the Christian tag around as though it is a special membership card that will get you in anywhere. But I would submit that the involvement of Jesus in the life of the world - even today - scares people - just like the religious leaders in John's gospel (chapter 9). Just listen to the way the open and gracious and available life of Jesus is perverted into a moralistic word of condemnation, suspicion, and self-righteousness. When the healing and open doors of Jesus' Reign are made available, religious folk today act just as they did back then - exclude - push out - shun.
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