Safe Haven

 Jesus heard that they threw the man out, so he went to meet with him. Jesus must have known how open he was to receiving him, because he asked him, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" Jesus meets us the same way, even if we don't see him with our physical eyes. After all, this man couldn't see Jesus with his eyes, either. Even so, the man's spiritual vision was perfect. Once he knew that he was talking to Jesus, he worshiped him. The Pharisees find out about this, and they ask Jesus if he thinks they are blind. Jesus answers in an interesting way. He says that if they claimed to be blind, they would be innocent, but because they claim to see, they are guilty. God does not judge us for what we do not know, but rather for what we do know, or what we ought to have known. Jesus has a lot of mercy for sinners, but he knows who is honest, and who is not. When we have a relationship of loving trust with God, we can be totally honest with Him about who we really are. Tho...

 By some combination of bad will, and confusion, the Pharisees thought that giving Jesus credit for this miracle would be detracting from God's glory. They accused Jesus of being a sinner, and the man who was healed doesn't know anything about that. But he isn't going to take a good thing, and try to turn it into a bad thing. The leaders couldn't believe the simple nature of the story of what happened, so they asked again. The man said he'd already told them. Why did they want to hear it again? Perhaps the man had figured out that they hated Jesus, so he asked them if they wanted to become his disciples. That didn't go over too well. They return his insults, and he points out generally that God does not listen to sinners, so if Jesus did this miracle, he is someone that God listens to. This enraged the Pharisees, so they call him a sinner, and throw him out. Sometimes, the simple story of God's goodness is the truth of the matter. Perhaps we don't need t...