Furthermore…

During discussion within our Small Faith Sharing Group today we were addressing the Gospel about Jesus curing the blind man by the Pool of Siloam. We delved, to some extent, into the account of the confrontation between the Pharisees and the parents of the blind man, who had to attest that the man who was cured was indeed their son and had indeed been born blind.

I speculated that the blind man, while initially pleased that he had been cured, was so browbeaten and harassed by the Pharisees intent on discrediting Jesus that he became more and more anxious to defend Jesus, the wonderful person who had given him his sight, against these mean, peculiar, and overbearing “leaders” of his people.

Likewise, his parents were probably cowed and uncomfortable with their own confrontation with the Pharisees. It seemed they were rather cold and indifferent with regard to their son. Perhaps they had long before written him off as true member of the family, feeling that he had brought them too much grief in light of the common belief that someone like him, born blind or otherwise disfigured, was a sign that the parents had sinned.

Group member Chuck called  attention to the unstated moral that, like Jesus, we should always be ready to do something to help any deprived or miserable person we encounter or know about.

Somewhat related, I wanted to but didn’t get to mention that I had heard a radio report of how archeologistshave now located the actual Pool of Siloam. The report  said that the pool was uniquely constructed with gently sloping steps down leading into the water, so that it would be understandable that a blind man sitting nearby would be able to find his way to it, recognise it, and proceed down into the waters.