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Such controversy the teachers of the law got embroiled in over whether the man born blind was actually healed by Jesus. The man knew; his parents didn’t like to say; the religious leaders grew more incensed as Jesus exposed their spiritual blindness. What am I – what are you – not seeing today?

Jesus had compassion on those who were limited physically, as we see in his healing the man blind from birth. He doesn’t hold back his grace or love; nor does he amend his answers to the teachers of the law to suit them – as we will see even more tomorrow. “I was blind but…

So much opposition Jesus faced. The teachers of the law misunderstood him, and as time went along, they grew more and more entrenched against him. Several of his key statements about himself come in chapter 8 – that he’s the light of the world, and that he’ll set us free. Freedom! Let’s claim it today.

Not everyone thought this moving story of who has the right to throw stones should be included in the Bible. For centuries it wasn’t, partly, historians think, because of a reticence over including such a story that concerns illicit sex (and note how the teachers of the law didn’t bring the man caught in the act…

I knew that Jesus was persecuted, but spending more time in John’s gospel as I write these poems brings home the thread of attack and bitterness coming from the chief priests and teachers of the law. Have you experienced this sense of being defensive and on edge when your authority is questioned?