BibleProject | One Story That Leads to JesusSample

Our reading today in Psalm 107 describes people who experience suffering as a consequence for their own poor decisions. In Jesus’ day, people read passages like this out of context and misunderstood them as implying that sicknesses and disabilities were divine punishments. Some still do this today, and Jesus’ disciples are assuming as much when they say that a blind man’s suffering is either his own fault or that of his parents.

Jesus upends this common assumption when he says neither is true. This is just blindness. But it’s also an opportunity to show how God’s power can illuminate the world and restore sight to the blind. Jesus heals the blind man, and once again, the religious leaders are furious because Jesus did it on the Sabbath, which they call unlawful.

The leaders interrogate the healed man, trying to expose Jesus as a lawbreaking sinner. But their attempt falls flat. Because Jesus does not obey them, they assume he’s working with some evil power. But then an uneducated, poverty-stricken beggar bests them in theological debate. Stumped and irritated, the religious leaders throw him out of the synagogue.

This healing encounter sets up Jesus’ “I am the good shepherd” statements that comprise the first half of John 10, leading to Jesus’ ultimate claim as God’s true Son. Jesus—the good shepherd and the door, who is also God—cares for his sheep, unlike the religious experts and elite who throw them out of the synagogue.

Throughout the Hebrew Bible, shepherd imagery described Israel’s leaders, in both good and bad comparisons. Jesus, through his care of this blind man and his confrontation of poor leadership, demonstrates that true shepherds do not harm their sheep—they lay down their lives for them.

Reflection Questions

• Meditate on Psalm 107. In this poem, what does the poet describe God doing? Where have you seen Jesus do these same things in the gospels, literally or metaphorically?
• As you read Jesus’ description of a good shepherd (John 10:1-18), what hyperlinks can you find to the Hebrew Bible? (Turn to Ezekiel 34 or Zechariah 11 if you need a hint.) What do these hyperlinks tell us about Jesus’ mission?