47-ParentsBlindMan-A

And We Thought We Knew You:
Soul Journey With the Real Jesus

Blind Man's Parents
FLYING BLIND

AD 5
Jerusalem, Judea

�� Mr. and Mrs. Religion.� That's Jonathan and Judith.� Just ask them.� How Jesus missed recruiting these two is a complete mystery.� He would have had an insider right here in Jerusalem and would have avoided the whole mess he's in.

�� "It's time!� Call the midwife!"

�� Jonathan runs through the street trying not to collide with other people.� "Lord, I'm trying," he prays under his breath several times when held back by crowds blocking the whole street or a slow cart loaded with merchandise for the market.� He arrives at the midwife's house.

�� "Hurry!� My wife is going to deliver soon!� Hurry!"

�� "I'm all ready for you.� Let's go."�

�� But the midwife arrives before him.

�� "Don't forget to stop by the synagogue and tell the rabbi.� And stop by every one of the elders' homes to tell them.� They all promised to pray for me."� How many times had Judith reminded him to do this?

�� Judith perspires.� Judith agonizes.� Judith smiles and calls out "Praise the Lord!" in between.� The midwife wipes her brow and supports her on the birthing stool.

�� Several hours later Judith is in her room resting.� In the arms of her husband sitting next to her�is a precious baby boy.

�� "I knew it!� I knew he'd be a boy!� Knew it all along!"

�� "How did you know it?"Judith teases.

�� "Because I secretly prayed for one.� I just didn't want to hurt your feelings.� I knew God would answer my prayer."

�� "Well, secretly I was praying for a boy too," she giggles.

�� But what about Satan?� He's out there too.� Have you taken into account what Satan might do to your world?

�� "So he gets the boy's name we picked out:� Elam.� Hey there, little Elam," he whispers, tickling his newborn son's chin, "welcome to our world."

�� Judith and Jonathan and baby Elam settle in.� They are now a family.� A proud family.

�� At the synagogue on the eighth day they have a circumcision ceremony.� Then they all go together to dedicate him to the Lord.� Everyone is proud of him.� Everyone knows he will be a soldier of the Lord some day, just like his father. [1]

�� After the ceremonies, everyone in their synagogue is invited to their home for feasting and celebration.� The men are on the roof.� The women are in the courtyard.

�� "You know, I left too many people out of our celebration.� There are synagogues over in Bethany, Jericho, Emmaus and Bethlehem.� I'm sure they wanted to celebrate with us too," Judith says the next day.� "We shall have another feast next week." So they do.� And the attention is exhilarating.

�� "What's wrong, Judith?" Jonathan asks several weeks later.� "You look worried."

�� "Jonathan, I just don't know.� I'm not sure."

�� "About what?"

�� "His eyes.� Little Elam's eyes.� He doesn't seem to be looking at anything."

�� "He is still young.� Tiny babies like that can't focus like we can."

�� "But Zipporah's baby is two weeks younger than Elam, and I noticed today when we went shopping together that he is watching people move around him.� Little Elam doesn't do that."

�� "All babies are different," Jonathan had encouraged with a slight hesitancy.

�� Another week goes by.�

�� "Jonathan.� Something's wrong with our baby."

�� "Nothing's wrong with him, I keep telling you.� He is healthy and whole, just like we prayed."

�� "But watch this."

�� Jonathan does not want to watch.� Judith insists.�

�� She moves her finger from one side of little Elam's face to the other.� But Elam isn't following it with his eyes.� He is just staring blankly ahead.

�� Jonathan looks away.� He gets up and walks to the other side of the room.� Away from the confusion.� Away from the growing evidence.� Away from challenges to his faith.

�� "I am making an appointment with a physician tomorrow," Judith says.

�� "We don't need a physician," Jonathan said angrily.� "There is nothing wrong that prayer can't fix.� You know that."

�� "I want to know.� I need to know."� Judith refuses to cry.� Crying is for weaklings and losers.� She is neither.� "And do not tell me about all your prayers.� We cannot hide from it if something is wrong.� It just would not be fair to Elam."

�� The appointment is made.� Judith's suspicions are confirmed.� Elam is blind.

�� "No!� He's wrong!" Jonathan had shouts that night after work.� "Get a second opinion!� He's wrong.� Not my son!� Never!"

�� So another opinion is obtained.� Same diagnosis.� Blindness.� But how much blindness?

�� Their baby is one hundred percent blind.� He will grow old and die that way.

�� That afternoon, Judith and Jonathan take their baby home, lay him on their bed, then cry unto the Lord.

�� "Lord!� What is going on here?� We are not sinners.� We go to synagogue all the time.� We're there every time the doors are open.� We can recite the scriptures better than anyone in our congregation.� We give one-third of our income.� Remember the special contribution we made to the Temple ~ your Temple, God ~ to replace some of the priests' garments?� You saw how grateful they were at the dedication ceremony.� There has been a terrible mistake!"��

�� But God is silent.� Or so it seems.

�� The following week Jonathan and Judith take their baby to synagogue as usual.� They had kept others from holding their baby.� But this week an elderly woman insists.� It does not take her long.

�� "This baby is blind," she announces to the parents.� "This baby is blind," she repeats to everyone around her.� How could she?

�� "What could they have done to deserve this?" someone says.� "The poor parents."

�� Several gather around them.� The parents are angry that a weakness in them has been exposed.� Someone gives Judith a hug and assures her she will pray for her.

�� How she hates it ~ the show of weakness. �How they both do.� But Jonathan and Judith rally.� They smile broadly.� "Oh, this is just temporary.� He's going to be perfectly fine.� We talked to God about it.� Just wait and see."

�� And quickly they whisk baby Elam ~ blind baby Elam ~ off to their hiding place.� Home.

AD 6

�� But things are never the same after that.� People quit coming around and telling them how cute their baby is.�

�� "I'm sorry, Jonathan, but you'll have to drop out of the finance committee."� It is Ahab from the synagogue.

�� "Well, I guess my chairmanship was about done," Jonathan says quickly so that he is in charge of the conversation.� "Who should we appoint as the next chairman?"

�� "I'm sorry, but that is not for you to be concerned with.� The committee felt you have too much to worry about now with your ~ uh, son.� We do not know what you did to deserve a blind baby, but God knows and we will leave it in his hands."� Ahab clears his throat.� "Since they voted me the next chairman ~ against my will ~ it fell my lot to come tell you.� This is one of the hardest things I have ever done.� I am truly sorry."

�� "Sorry?� Sorry?" Judith responds after Ahab leaves.� "He's going to be sorry."

�� The next day Judith arranges for a maid to come watch baby Elam.� She has no time to waste.� She begins to make the rounds.

�� "Did you know what's going on at the synagogue?" she tells a woman who does not attend synagogue much but who is easily influenced by such an important member as Judith.

�� "No, what's going on?"

�� "It's Ahab.� We're going to have to pray for him."

�� "What do you mean?"

�� "He is imagining things about my family.� If he doesn't quit spreading those things about us, he will destroy himself."

�� "Destroy himself?� What things?"

�� "He's bad for our congregation.� He must be dealt with and gotten under control.� For the sake of the congregation."

�� "Oh, I thought Ahab was a good Jew.� I never dreamed...."

�� "I'm just telling you what I know."

�� And so it goes.� During the day Judith spreads the news.� During the evening Jonathan does.� Jonathan is Judith's henchman, albeit a holy henchman.�

�� In the meantime, at home one day, "Jonathan, I'm just exhausted," she often says when he gets home from work.�

�� "What do you want me to do about it?" Jonathan replies.

�� "Little Elam is crawling now and I have to watch him all the time.� What if he hurt himself?"

�� "Well, if it happens, it happens," Jonathan says while throwing his robe over in a corner.

�� "You've got to make a pen for him.&"

�� "A what?"

�� "A pen."

�� "Like for animals?"

�� "Well, kind of."

�� "My son is not going to be treated like an animal!"

�� "But, Jonathan...."

�� "That's final."

�� But as little Elam begins to walk, things get worse.�

�� "Elam burned himself today."

�� "You need to watch him closer."

�� "But I can't cook and watch him both.� Not every minute."

�� "I'll make the pen."� Jonathan can hardly believe what he is now forced to do.� But there is no other choice.� He knows that.

�� "Oh, God.� Why don't you answer our prayers any more?"

�� Sometimes Judith puts Elam in the pen just to have some time for herself.� She can't just shrivel up and disappear.� Sometimes she fights off the wish that her son would though.� Disappear.

�� By now Ahab has left the congregation in shame.� He has escaped the web spun around him.� How dare he spread gossip about Jonathan?� He has not been able to explain sufficiently that he had only good will for Jonathan.� The synagogue has been convinced that, if Ahab did this terrible thing to Jonathan, he would strike again.�

�� Hesitantly Ahab has been taken in by another synagogue at the other end of Jerusalem.� But they do not completely trust him, what with the malicious way he treated Jonathan.� Jonathan now has his position back as chairman of the finance committee.

AD 11

�� "Father, I want to go to school like everyone else."

�� "What would you do?� You can't read."

�� Of course Elam knows that is true.� "Well, would you read to me again?"

�� "All right.� If you will promise to memorize the life of Abraham."

�� Jonathan is hard on his son.� But Elam is intelligent.� If Jonathan could only be proud of his son.� Elam is trying to ruin them.

�� The boy agrees to memorize the life of Abraham.� Then an idea hits his father.�

�� "Do me proud, son, and I'll make arrangements for you to recite before the entire synagogue.� But you'll have to be better than other six-year-old boys.� That means every day your mother will have to work with your memorization, and every night I will check on yo"

�� "Thank you, Father.� I'll sure do it.":� Elam turns and dances around the room and knocks over a pitcher.

�� By harvest time, Elam has memorized the entire first book of the scriptures called Genesis, the book explaining the beginning of the Jewish nation.

�� Also by harvest time, Jonathan and Judith have been able to warn the congregation of yet another person who bears watching.

�� "She is teaching the little girls at synagogue school.� She is not using the right methods.� The girls are not learning anything, I am positive."

�� Once more Judith makes the rounds during the day and Jonathan at night.

�� "If we value the next generation of our synagogue and the influence our future mothers will be on their sons, we must do something about Zippora.� I don't think she really cares about those girls.� She just cares about herself.� We cannot tolerate someone like her teaching our children."

�� And so, by harvest time, Judith has been put in charge of teaching the little girls at synagogue school.� Zippora sometimes sits in the back in synagogue and softly cries.� She does not want to, but when she sits and watches all the little girls on Sabbath morning, she longs for them.� What a loser.

AD 15

�� "Father, what do you think of the new family at synagogue"

�� "What new family?"

�� "You know.� The ones with the little boy my age and the little baby?� You know they started coming when I turned nine last year."

�� "Oh, them."

�� "Don't you think they're nice?� Cain's mother brought all the children raisin cakes this morning.� She's so nice."

�� "Raisin cakes?" Judith interrupts.� 'You haven't eaten them, have you?� You can't trust people."

�� "Well, I ate one, but I have two left"

�� "Where are they?� Give them to me at once."

�� "But, Mother...."

�� "What did I tell you, Elam?� You obey me right now."

�� The remaining two raisin cakes are duly delivered to Judith.� Judith smiles.� "Thank you, sweetheart.� You did the right thing.� Now go play."

�� "Jonathan, what are these people trying to do?� Take over?" she continues.� "The next thing we know she will have the chairmanship of the benevolent committee.� Or she'll start a new committee for orphans or something."

�� "Mother, why don't you start a committee for orphans?"

�� "That'll be enough out of you, young man.� She can't just come in here and start bribing people.� The next thing you know, she'll have her way about everything.� What have you heard about her husband?"

�� "Methuselah?� You heard him read from the prophets last Sabbath"

��"Yes, and I think he has been asked too many times to read the prophets.� He's just a new member," Judith explains.� "It's not proper"

�� "Well, if you ask me," Jonathan adds, "he smiles too much.� Can't trust a man who smiles all the time.� He's got something to hide.

�� "So, what are we going to do about it?� We cannot allow these new people to jeopardize our congregation."

�� "Brothers," Jonathan says at a meeting with the elders the following week.� "As you know we have a new family"

�� "Yes, fine people.� Fine people."

�� "Well, I'm not so sure.� Just what do we know about him?"

�� "We have their letter of recommendation from their synagogue up in Galilee."

�� "You know those Galileans cannot be trusted.� How do we know whether he has been influenced by all those Romans up there?� How do we know whether he also worships Jupiter or Mercury at home in private?"

�� "Well...."

�� "Brothers, for the sake of the congregation, we had better use extreme caution," Jonathan continues.� "It is far too early for him to be reading the scriptures during our worship on Sabbath days.� What if someone comes in from Galilee and knows all the evil things he did up there?� Then what happens to our synagogue?"

�� "You know, you might be right."

�� "You have saved us from other undesirables in the past.� We are so lucky to have you and Judith among our members."

�� "Not only among our members, but among our leaders"

�� By the time Elam's tenth birthday comes along, the new couple has moved from the front of the sanctuary to the back row.� They are talking about moving back to Galilee.� ��

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