Detail from Christ and the Pauper (2009), by contemporary Russian artist Andrey Mironov.
Part 1 of 2
After waiting as long as he could, Jesus recognised the time had come to leave his native Galilee and face whatever awaited him in Jerusalem. Rumours swirled of plots against his life, but he reached the Mount of Olives unmolested and at once plunged into controversy. St John tells how he prevented a mob from stoning a woman caught in the act of adultery,* and then found himself the centre of a heated argument within the Temple itself, during which he claimed to know Abraham personally.
“You are not even fifty,” laughed the Pharisees, “and you have met Abraham!”*
“Before Abraham was,” replied Jesus seriously, “I AM”. And the way he put it was tantamount to saying he was God.*
A breathless moment later everything was in uproar. The Pharisees picked up stones, but turned to find Jesus gone.
As he slipped quietly out of the Temple, Jesus noticed a blind man, blind it seemed from birth. His disciples sought a theological judgment. “Who sinned?” they inquired, “this man or his parents?” But Jesus told them that it was not a punishment. It was an opportunity to see God’s glory.
He wetted some mud with his own spit, kneaded it to a clay and plastered it over the man’s eyes. Then he told him to wash the poultice out in the Pool of Siloam, which St John tells us means ‘Sent’.
* See The Woman Taken in Adultery. Both stories rely on the unavailability of the witnesses required by Jewish law for a stoning to take place.
* Jesus was in fact in his early thirties. Abraham, whom the Jews regarded as the father of their nation, was a herdsman of the Middle Bronze Age, who probably lived around 2000 BC.
* ‘I AM’ is the name Moses was given to use, when he asked God what he should say when Pharaoh demanded to know who had sent him. “And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.” See Exodus 3:14.
Précis
Jesus gave the gift of sight to a man blind from birth, but in doing so broke the Jewish Sabbath law. The Pharisees pressed the man to testify against Jesus, but he would not cooperate, and was banished from the synagogue for his pains. Fortunately, Jesus sought him out, and took care of him. (54 / 60 words)
Part Two
This kneading caught the attention of the Pharisees, for it seemed to them to be akin to the making of bread, a labour not permitted on the Sabbath day. They were forced to agree that the offending treatment had worked: the blind man could see; nevertheless they scented an opportunity to bring Jesus before the courts, and began making enquiries. They interviewed the man’s parents, who confirmed that he really had been blind from birth; but when asked about the part played by Jesus, they referred the Pharisees back to their son. “He is of age” they said, “ask him.” The man himself was no help. “Why do you want to keep hearing the story?” he broke in; “do you too want to be his disciples?” This enraged them, but they could find no witnesses for their charge of Sabbath-breaking. So they contented themselves with barring the man from the synagogue.
For a moment it seemed as if this story would have a lonely and unhappy ending. But John tells us that Jesus went to find this lost lamb, and took him into his sheepfold; because as he told his disciples, the good shepherd cares for his sheep, and will lay down his life for them.