67 Amazing Jesus

Jesus also reminds the crowd that some of them have been trying to get Him killed. It also doesn't help if they want to get in good with God. The people tell Him that Abraham, the Jewish patriarch, is actually their father. Jesus reminds them that if they were really Abraham's children, they wouldn't be trying to have Him killed. The only crime He has committed is telling the truth. Abraham wouldn't be very happy about His children's behavior. The people change their mind. They decide that they're actually children of God. Jesus replies that if God were really their Father, they would love Him, but instead they follow a different father—the father of lies (a.k.a. the devil).

The religious authorities try to insult Jesus by saying that He must be a Samaritan who is possessed by some kind of demon. He isn't possessed by demons. He only wants to honor what God wants, but people keep bullying Him. Jesus tells them again that if they believe in Him, they will not experience death. Now the religious authorities are sure that He's been possessed. After all, everyone dies. Even Abraham died, they tell Him. Jesus doesn't think He's greater than Abraham, does He? Just who does Jesus think He is? Jesus replies that if He is glorious, then it's because God is glorious. Clearly, the religious authorities would know this if they truly knew God. He also tells them that Abraham is overjoyed that He has come. The religious authorities are starting to get annoyed. Jesus isn't old enough to have ever seen or talked to Abraham. But Jesus tells them that He existed before Abraham, echoing God who, in Exodus, calls Himself "I am." This completely sets the religious authorities over the edge. They start hurling rocks at Jesus and He has to run out of the temple and hide from them.

The disciples are walking along with Jesus when they see a man who was born blind. The disciples want to know why God would have punished this man with blindness. Did he commit some terrible sin? Or were his parents sinners? Jesus says that neither is the case. The man was born blind so that God's good works could be shown off. With this, Jesus spits on the ground and mixes the dirt with His saliva to make mud. Then He spreads it on the man's eyes. Then He tells him to go wash the mud off in one of the healing pools—the pool of Siloam—on the south side of the city. When the man washes his eyes, his sight is restored. Afterward, the man's neighbors see him and ask what happened. He explains what Jesus did. When they hear this, his neighbors demand to see Jesus. But the man doesn't know where He is, so they drag him out in front of the religious authorities. The religious authorities question the man and, again, he explains how Jesus healed him. The religious men are divided. Some think that a real man of God wouldn't disobey the Sabbath.

Others think that only a man of God would be able to perform such incredible miracles. To persecute or not to persecute? That is the question. So, they ask the healed man what he thinks about Jesus. The man replies that Jesus must be a prophet. The naysayers among the group refuse to believe the man's story. They think he might be lying about having been blind. But when the religious authorities call the man's parents, they confirm that their son was actually born blind. The religious authorities are frustrated. They demand to know the truth. They know that Jesus couldn't have healed him because Jesus is a terrible sinner. The man says he doesn't know if Jesus is a sinner or not, but what he does know is he's not blind anymore—and that's pretty much all he cares about. The authorities ask him again how Jesus healed him. The religious men start falling all over themselves with disgust.

They are disciples of Moses because they know that Moses has spoken to God, but they don't know that Jesus has come from God. So You don't know where He's been! That's funny, the man says. You don't know where He came from, but yet, He healed me. You say God doesn't listen to sinners, but God listened to Him. No one in the entire world has ever been cured of blindness, and yet this man cured me. If He weren't from God, how could He do this? The religious authorities insult the man and throw him out of the temple. How dare this man try to teach them? He's just a sinner who was born blind anyway. And… the story officially comes full circle. When Jesus finds out that the man has been treated this way, He seeks him out. Jesus asks the man if he believes in Him. The man says that he does. He has regained the power of sight, after all. Jesus explains that He has come because there are those who are blind and those who see. The religious authorities overhear Jesus saying this and ask Him to clarify. Surely, Jesus doesn't mean that they are among the blind? Jesus tells them that though they claim to see, their sin of disbelief remains.