Five-year Bible reading plan for 1 June 2024

King James Version (en)

King James Version (en)

John, Chapter 9, verses 24-41

¹³ They are offended at it, and excommunicate him, ³⁵ but he is received of Jesus, and confesseth him, ³⁹ Who they are whom Christ enlighteneth

²⁴Then again called they the man that was blind, and said unto him, Give God the praise: we know that this man is a sinner.

²⁵He answered and said, Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.

²⁶Then said they to him again, What did he to thee? how opened he thine eyes?

²⁷He answered them, I have told you already, and ye did not hear: wherefore would ye hear it again? will ye also be his disciples?

²⁸Then they reviled him, and said, Thou art his disciple; but we are Moses' disciples.

²⁹We know that God spake unto Moses: as for this fellow, we know not from whence he is.

³⁰The man answered and said unto them, Why herein is a marvellous thing, that ye know not from whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes.

³¹Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth.

³²Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind.

³³If this man were not of God, he could do nothing.

³⁴They answered and said unto him, Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out.

³⁵Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God?

³⁶He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?

³⁷And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee.

³⁸And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him.

³⁹And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.

⁴⁰And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also?

⁴¹Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.

Read more:John, Chapter 10

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9

9:27 Are ye also - As well as I, at length convinced and willing to be his disciples?

9:29 We know not whence he is - By what power and authority he does these things.

9:30 The man answered - Utterly illiterate as he was. And with what strength and clearness of reason! So had God opened the eyes of his understanding, as well as his bodily eyes. Why, herein is a marvellous thing, that ye - The teachers and guides of the people, should not know, that a man who has wrought a miracle, the like of which was never heard of before, must be from heaven, sent by God.

9:31 We - Even we of the populace, know that God heareth not sinners - Not impenitent sinners, so as to answer their prayers in thismanner. The honest courage of this man in adhering to the truth, though he knew the consequence, Joh 9:22, gives him claim to the title of a confessor.

9:33 He could do nothing - Of this kind; nothing miraculous.

9:34 Born in sin - And therefore, they supposed, born blind.They cast him out - Of the synagogue; excommunicated him.

9:35 Having found him - For he had sought him.

9:36 Who is he, that I may believe? - This implies some degree of faith already. He was ready to receive whatever Jesus said.

9:37 Lord, I believe - What an excellent spirit was this man of!Of so deep and strong an understanding; (as he had just shown to the confusion of the Pharisees,) and yet of so teachable a temper!

9:39 For judgment am I come into the world - That is, the consequence of my coming will be, that by the just judgment of God, while the blind in body and soul receive their sight, they who boast they see, will be given up to still greater blindness than before.

9:41 If ye had been blind - Invincibly ignorant; if ye had not had so many means of knowing: ye would have had no sin - Comparatively to what ye have now. But now ye say - Ye yourselves acknowledge, Ye see, therefore your sin remaineth - Without excuse, without remedy.

NOTES

How is faith born, and how does it grow? Today we see a man who gains sight not only physically but spiritually as well—though not all at once. Difficult circumstances help bring this about...

How does spiritual life differ from religious life? Perhaps first of all in its attitude toward miracles. This is not surprising: a miracle is a revelation manifested by God, which is very difficult for a religious person to ignore. Religion finds itself in an ambivalent position with regard to miracles...

How does spiritual life differ from religious life? Perhaps first of all in its attitude toward miracles. This is not surprising: a miracle is a revelation manifested by God, which is very difficult for a religious person to ignore. Religion finds itself in an ambivalent position with regard to miracles: a nonreligious person has no need of miracles at all; he can allow himself to ignore them in principle, simply assigning them to the realm of the (temporarily) unexplained, and rest there. The religious person is different: as a rule, religion needs miracles and relies on them to one degree or another; accordingly, religious consciousness cannot ignore a miracle in the way nonreligious consciousness does.

However, religion accepts not every miracle, but only one that does not contradict its own doctrine, and religious consciousness evaluates every miracle that comes into its field of vision accordingly. If what happened fits within the framework of the relevant religious doctrine, the miracle is judged genuine; if not, it is perceived as false or inauthentic, proceeding, for example, not from God but from dark powers. From the point of view of a person living a full spiritual life, however, a miracle in itself is sufficient testimony to God's intervention.

From the point of view of a person for whom religion is in first place, a miracle must be evaluated for conformity to doctrine - roughly (though not necessarily exactly) as the Pharisees do when considering the question of the healing of the man born blind. They are ready to acknowledge the miracle - but only if an explanation can be found that fits within the framework of their religious and theological concept; otherwise they are ready to thank God for what was done, but in no way ready to acknowledge the rightness of the One through whom He did what He did.

Thus the primacy of religion leads into a spiritual dead end the person who is ready to follow his own religious concepts unconditionally, despite all the testimony received from above.

What does Jesus mean when He speaks of those who came before Him? If we consider the purely historical aspect, the answer is more or less clear: obviously He is speaking of the numerous claimants to messiahship who appeared in Judea then almost every day — appeared in order to...

What does Jesus mean when He speaks of those who came before Him? If we consider the purely historical aspect, the answer is more or less clear: obviously He is speaking of the numerous claimants to messiahship who appeared in Judea then almost every day — appeared in order, in Jesus’ words, “to steal, kill, and destroy.” For all of them ended their preaching with a call to uprising, to a messianic war, a call that was almost always heard, and the consequences were not slow in coming: the Roman army suppressed all such movements harshly and mercilessly. Jesus, however, speaks of Himself as the Shepherd who cares for the sheep and does not want to destroy them needlessly, for He brought into the world the Kingdom, for the establishment of which no uprising is needed.

But this is only one side of the question. For when Jesus speaks of false shepherds, He is also addressing the Pharisees; it is they whom He calls blind, and He tells them that if they acknowledged their blindness, they would not bear sin upon themselves. Yet the Pharisees as a whole, unlike the Zealots, for example, were by no means supporters of holy war, though, of course, they awaited the Messiah no less. Of what, then, does Jesus accuse them? They certainly could not be accused of neglecting pastoral care: in this respect the Pharisaic teachers and rabbis were very zealous. But toward what was their zeal directed? First of all, and unsurprisingly, toward the religious education of their flock.

But religion in itself does not yet guarantee a full spiritual life. It can be either a help or an obstacle on the way into the Kingdom; if one makes it an end in itself, the consequences for spiritual life can be very sad. And the Pharisees were always inclined toward such absolutizing, although, of course, as always in such cases, much depended on concrete people. Unfortunately, however, there were many such mentors who were ready to sacrifice a person for the sake of religious norms and rules, and Jesus’ words applied to them in full measure.

Of course, many of those who were supposed to lead people along the spiritual path were objectively not ready for it. In that case a simple acknowledgment of their unreadiness would have been enough to remove responsibility from themselves: after all, no one would expect guidance from someone who had admitted this. But, as usual, very few were ready for such an acknowledgment. Who wants to sign his own pastoral incompetence?

And then the shepherds turned into those very false shepherds of whom Jesus spoke. And they bore sin upon themselves: for falsehood is always sin, and false shepherding is a double sin. Here the matter concerns the way of righteousness and the way into the Kingdom, and therefore salvation — something with which one must not play.

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