At our Sunday evening communion service we read the whole of the ninth chapter of John's gospel. The story is the encounter between a blind man and Jesus. The healing provokes controversy.
It's striking that in this chapter, one verse in three includes a question - sixteen of them in all. I was fascinated to notice what happened when I extracted the questions from the text. In the service, we went through and worked out who said what. Here they are, coloured according to who asks them: Jesus' disciples, neighbours, Pharisees/ "the Jews", the blind man, Jesus.
- ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’
- ‘Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?’
- ‘Then how were your eyes opened?’
- ‘Where is he?’
- ‘How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?’
- 'What do you say about him?'
- ‘Is this your son, who you say was born blind?’
- ‘How then does he now see?’
- ‘What did he do to you?
- ‘How did he open your eyes?’
- ‘Why do you want to hear it again? ‘
- ‘Do you also want to become his disciples?’
- ‘You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?’
- ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’
- ‘And who is he, sir?
- ‘Surely we are not blind, are we?
We noticed that the motivation for the questions range from genuine interest to hostility. The interrogation gives the healed man a chance to describe his encounter with Jesus. As he tells his story, the narrative's underlying questions shift from the abstract to the personal.
At the outset, the disciples' query points to an underlying philosophical question about the linking of sin and illness. Then the Pharisees point to moral questions about the keeping of the Sabbath. Finally, the key question is about personal commitment to Jesus. This final concern is focussed in the only question Jesus asks, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?"
