Lesson 6: Nature of Light / the Good Shepherd

Gospel of John:  Lesson 6:  Chapters 9, 10

Bible Study, 14 April, 2013

Faith Mennonite Church, Twin Cities, MN

Lesson 6:  Restoring the Light / The Good Shepherd

    J. Vernon McGee opens Chapter 8 with an interesting observation, “The Lord has been giving His discourse on the Light of the World.  Because He claimed that He is Go0d, the Jews wanted to kill Him.  Jesus “hid” Himself as He went out of the temple, going through the midst of them” … It was a miracle that He could escape this angry mob.  His time had not yet come, and so they could not lay their hands on Him.”

    The observation is indirect.  Jesus is the Light of the World, yet, just as God had been forced to hide the full Truth and brilliance of His glory from Moses, so too, we find that Jesus has had to “hide” his light.

    This brings to mind an apocryphal story from the life of Menno Simons.  While journeying between congregations in northern Germany, the Emperor’s guards stopped the coach conveying Simons and his wife Gertrude between towns.  

    “Who is inside the carriage?” demanded the imperial guard.  “We are looking for the meddlesome troublemaker Menno Simons.  Is he inside this coach?”

    In an effort to disguise himself, Simons had taken a seat beside the driver.  In this the Lord’s Will was shown for thusly the driver could turn to the guards and truthfully reply, “In truth, Menno Simons is not inside this coach.”

    Simons was the father and Gertrude the mother of the Mennonite faith.  He was not an evangelist.  God had appointed others such as the Philipps brothers, David Joris and Hans Denck to that task.  Simons was the pastoral head and it was essential at that time that he remain alive and free to maintain the church and thus able to adjudicate the many squabbles and disagreements that were already tattering at the seams of the new faith culture.

    Chapter 8 closes with Christ similarly having to hide himself from the Jewish mob.  The mob had no interest in Truth or God’s plan, the mob had a political agenda all of their own … and their plan was not in accordance with the will of God or an accurate perception of Truth.  So Christ hid himself.

    This story also brings to mind that age-old hymn of Easter – He Could Have Called Ten-Thousand Angels.  We focus at Easter on the fact that Christ could have called forth legions of angels to save Himself from the Cross and the mob.  Similarly, here to Christ could have called forth an angelic bodyguard, but Christ was no Rockstar Diva, he did not require a Heavenly entourage.  Instead of forcing the issue and unmasking His glory and power to the mob, He withdrew and kept quietly to His disciples.  (Similarly, Simons traveled not with an armed guard of his own but rather trusted and accepted that it was God who had blinded the soldiers to his presence beside the driver.)

    In the age of televised Evangelism and the harsh rhetoric of certain teachers from Jerry Falwell and Pat Roberts to Westboro Baptist Church, Christ’s humility is a counterintuitive lesson.  As we learned in Mennonite Bible school, true Faith is not trying to bend God’s Will to our desires, our glory or even our understanding.  Rather, true Faith is bending our will, our desire and even our understanding to God’s Will.  This is a component of galessenheit.

    McGee sees less duplicity on the part of Christ.  To McGee, Christ is not hiding himself so much as he is giving the people over to their blindness.  

    In Chapter 9, despite the need for security, Christ begins to take corrective action.  In Chapter 9, we find Christ blatantly and symbolically healing a blind man.

    McGee’s key verse is verse 9, “For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.”

    Warren Wiersbe points out that “Our Lord performed miracles in order to meet human needs.  But he also used those miracles as a “launching pad” for a message conveying spiritual truth.”(cont...)