Two accounts today
- Jesus heals the blind
- The good shepherd
If you go all the way back to the book of Job (seems like a lifetime ago we read that) you will remember one of his friends accused Job of sinning and his circumstance was a “punishment” for it. You can see that false teaching still existed. (still today).
As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
Skip to: 16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.”
The Law was never to be more important than the miracle! Then they called Jesus a sinner for it. Sometimes we can’t see the forest in the trees.
His own parents did not support the healing because they were too afraid of being excommunicated from the Synagogue. The reasons people were kicked out were: insulting a learned man; calling a fellow Jew a ‘slave’; keeping an object or animal that could harm others, like a broken ladder or a rabid dog; taking God’s name in vain. The parents did not want to insult the elders of the Jews. (I want to know why they thought it was even ok to allow him to be a beggar??)
THEN: The best scripture ever (today):
25 He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”
Yes, this is where the Amazing Grace hymn comes from. A terrible man named John Newton, who was a slave trader, became lost at sea. He called out to God and was shipwrecked. When he was rescued God sent another storm at sea. During Newton’s conversion, these words spoke to him. We now have this beautiful song that we can all relate to.
The good Shepherd.
Not sure if you read or remember my post about the “Sheep Gate” (the healing at the pool of water) But ohhhh how this adds to the account! When people came to the Temple, they would bring their sacrifice to the Sheeps Gate. The shepherd could ONLY enter through the sheepfold (a stone fence). If one came in without permission they were a robber. Honestly, I just assumed the sheep were “tagged” so they knew whose were whose 😂. However, when a sheep had a good shepherd, they would make a distinct call, and the sheep knew the sound so well, only his sheep would come to him.
This parable deepens our understanding of Jesus that he is the good Sheperd, and His sheep will recognize His voice BUT we also see here He is the Gate, the Gatekeeper, and the Shepard
Matthew 7:13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
John 10:3. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep…
18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”
Jesus was NOT killed. He gave up His life. He is the gate, the gatekeeper, and the Shepherd.
Reading the Bible - 2021 
I cannot wrap my head around the number of sheep that were led through the sheep gate to the temple during Passover, or even other festivals. I’m thinking thousands. When Jesus entered through the sheep gate I have this picture in my mind that he was just walking among the sheep. It would have been smelly and noisy. When He went to the pool to heal the lame man (from chapter 5) that sound and smell would have been present. The shepherd led the sheep rather than driving them. The pictures of the gate are small, one shepherd leading a large herd of sheep, and the sheep follow because they know his voice. I live on a farm. The idea of leading those sheep through that narrow gate is kinda crazy to me, but it also tugs at my heart. I way over think things. Jesus talks about having 99 sheep and losing one. Even trying to get 100 sheep through that little gate makes me nervous to think about.
I read being excommunicated from the synagogue was not just being shunned from the community but it was also where nearly all business was done, schooling, marketing, court, etc. He was already a beggar, he had nothing to lose by telling the religious leaders who healed him but his parents were afraid they too would be kicked out.
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