John 9 & 10
The sun is rising and with it come the shadows. It changes the landscape as it gets higher in the sky. All day this will play out in different ways on the landscape around us. It is like that today with John's gospel story. We usually take this and split it into different lectionary years and times of the year. With this we miss what the story has to bring to us today. Lets take a look at the whole.
First is the background of Johns gospel itself. There are three different writers of John. One is the writer of what we read, another is an editor. You can tell when you are reading from the editor because it explains something about Jewish tradition, or why there is an emphasis on something by the writer. The last writer is the Spirit. Our limited scripture today is the Spirit, but we miss the introduction into this if we don't read the first part of this chapter. Shading one.
Shading two is the fuller story. We have to include the story of the man born blind. If we don't read this we miss that this I am the Good Shepherd is Spirit talk from questions the Pharisees have posed to Jesus regarding the healing of the blind man. This brings us a fuller understanding of this passage. Please read the two chapters to get a fuller picture of this. It will bring new understanding to this response.
Shading three, Psalm 23. We can't hear Jesus response without thinking of this familiar Psalm. We have read it today. It wouldn't have been lost on Jesus audience he was referring to this Psalm when he puts forth he is the Good Shepherd for the sheep. That he is the one who will lay down his life for the sheep and soon will be the gate protecting the sheep by willing going with the authorities when they arrest him in the garden.
Shading spreads throughout this reading the way to see things in a new light. Every day the sun rises and sets, yet the shades through the day are different as the rotation of the earth and path of the sun changes. Taking this gospel story as a whole instead of in part gives us new shades of color in what is happening and what Jesus means. Sometimes we need to do this with any story we encounter. Seeing things in new shades gives us seeds for new growth. Come and see what these stories hold for our life.
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