"Hanukkah - Part 2"
How does the celebration of Hanukkah, a festival NOT found in the Old Testament, provide greater insight into biblical themes such as the Messiah? How is Hanukkah handled in the New Testament?
Go to "Hanukkah - Part 2".
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The Rejection of the Saved by the Unsaved
He continued to develop this theme. The boy must have been bar mitzvah age, because his parents say he’s of age.
His parents answered them and said, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but how he now sees, we do not know who opened his eyes, we do not know. Ask him; he is of age, he will speak for himself” (John 9:20-21).
Notice that his family rejected him.
Therefore the neighbors, and those who previously saw him as a beggar, were saying, “Is not this the one who used to sit and beg?” Others were saying, “This is he,” still others were saying, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the one” (John 9:8-9).
They said, “Well, we thought it was him, but it can’t be him, it must be somebody who looks like him.” The people who knew him couldn’t recognize him. Some said it was him, and others said no it was not him, it was somebody who only looked like him. And he kept saying, “I am the one”.
That’s the way unsaved people will always react when somebody gets born again. You’re not the same person to them. “That can’t be him. Jacob Prasch? He used to be a cocaine addict. I used to score coke from that guy! He dealt drugs in high school. That’s not him. It just looks like him.” Unsaved people always think that way, that it’s not us. It’s us, but it’s not us. They’ll always be confused about our identity once we come to know Jesus.
But even the family couldn’t handle it. Now remember, this is a Jewish setting. In verse 22, his parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews.
His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone confessed Him to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue . For this reason his parents said, “He is of age; ask him” (John 9:22-23).
As I always point out in John, there is a major translation problem with the word “Jew”, “Ioudaios”. It doesn’t mean people who were “Jewish” – they were ALL “Jewish”, Jesus was “Jewish” – it meant the religious establishment in and around Jerusalem and the Judeans, the people they controlled. Even in modern Israel you’ll see a lot more religious Jews and a lot more religious influence in Jerusalem than you will in Haifa or Tel Aviv. It meant the “Judeans”, the religious establishment – the Sanhedrin and the people they controlled.
And so, Jesus opened his eyes and we’re told Jesus found this guy wandering around.
Jesus heard that they had put him out, and finding him, He said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
We had a joke in Israel, but it is no joke: When a “frum” (an Orthodox Jew) gets saved, the family has a funeral for him, but when a Muslim gets saved they also have a funeral for him, only it’s his own funeral.
Well, what does it say? Jesus found him. “Your family might reject you, but Jesus will find you, too.”
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Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.