47-ParentsBlindMan-A2

AD 20

�� "Elam, you're going with me tonight."

�� "That's wonderful, Father."� Elam is excited.� "What will we be doing?"

�� "We won't be doing anything.� You'll sit in the corner and listen.� I'm going to be talking to the other men about a project.� I want you to learn how to become a team player.�"��

�� He does like to listen.� Still, sometimes his cane drops on the floor and interrupts them.� Sometimes he gets up to get a drink and trips loudly over something someone has left in the floor.� Sometimes he leans too far back in his bench and it capsizes with a crash, right in the middle of a prayer.

�� "Uh, sirs, may I say something?"

�� The men are startled.� Jonathan bristles.� But in front of the others, he cannot say anything.�

�� "Well, I guess if it's okay with Brother Jonathan, it's okay with us.� Brother Jonathan, do you have any objections."

�� Jonathan has no choice.

�� "I was wondering about our visitors.� The people who are traveling and come in from out of town."

�� This piques the men's interest.� "Yes, Elam.� Go ahead."

�� "Some of them are visiting relatives who have become Essenes and Sadducees, and even those terrorist Zealots." [2]

�� "How do you know this?" Jonathan interrupts, trying to dampen continued interest the other men have shown in Jonathan.

�� "Couldn't we invite their relatives to come to synagogue?� Once they were exposed to the Pharisaical teachings and some friendliness, maybe they would change their ways and join us."

�� "Excellent idea, Elam!� Jonathan, how did you raise such a bright boy?"

�� "He takes after his father!" Jonathan says with a large grin on his face."

�� "Just what do you think you were doing?" Jonathan says, scolding his son on the way home.

�� Why hasn't Elam gotten used to his father saying things like this?

�� "You're just trying to show me up.� That's all.� Well, I'm on to your tricks and it's not going to work."

�� "Father, there was no trick involved.� I just thought...."

�� "Thought.� That was your first mistake.� You do not think, you do not breathe, you do not move in that synagogue without my permission."

�� Several weeks later the plan has been put into operation.

�� "You know, I had just been talking to Elam about that very thing,"Jonathan explains to some of the men soon after.� "He jumped the gun.� I was trying to work out more details.� Do more research."

�� "So it was your idea, Jonathan!� We should have known.� By the way, we are thinking of making you one of our elders."

�� "You are too kind.� I am not worthy of such an honor"

�� "Jonathan, you have been too humble for your own good all these years.� But don't think you haven't gone unappreciated."

�� "They did what?"� It is Judith several weeks later.�

�� "Abraham's family went to see our cousins and invited them to synagogue."

�� "I've just about had enough of Abraham's family and their meddling.� Holier-than-thou is all they are.� Did they tell all the dirt on our family?� It would be just like them to spread gossip about us.� Jonathan, you must do something about it"

�� The following week Jonathan sees Abraham in the market.� "Oh, Abraham!" he calls out.� Abraham admires Jonathan.� He has heard rumors about him, but was confident they were untrue.� Jonathan truly loves God.

�� "Would you come over here, please?"

�� Abraham is impressed.� They are going off alone.� Jonathan is about to confide in him.

�� "Abraham," Jonathan says.� "Stay away from our relatives."

�� "What?"

�� "Stay away from our relatives.� I'm warning you."

�� Abraham looks around to see who else heard.� No one else did.�

AD 25

�� "Elam!� How many times have I told you not to leave your cane stuck out in front of you?"

�� "Jonathan!� Are you hurt?"

�� Jonathan is not hurt, but he is angry.

�� "I'm sorry, Father.� I forgot."

�� "You forget everything!� You are worthless!� You're just a useless mouth to feed!"

�� "I'm afraid he's right," Judith adds in support.� "You promise not to again, don't you Elam?"

�� "I hate it when you protect me like that, Mother!� I don't need protecting!"

�� Elam grabs his staff, gets up, walks to his bedroom and slams the door.

�� "Come back here, Elam!� You do not slam the door on your parents!� Elam!� Come back here this instant!"

�� Nothing.

�� Jonathan rushes to his son's door and turns the latch.� It does not work.� He pounds on the door.

�� "Open this door, Elam!� Open it right now"

�� "Why?� So you can yell at me some more?"

�� "I'm still your father and you're going to obey me!� Elam!� Elam!"

�� "Son, your father just wants to talk to you.� Open the door."

�� "Stay out of it, Mother!"

�� Judith moves in front of her husband to try to talk through the door without shouting.� Jonathan pushes her back out of the way.� Judith loses her balance and falls to the floor.� She sits there.� She stares at her husband.� Jonathan stares back at her.� She gets back up.�

�� "Do you know what your father just did to me, Elam?� He knocked me over."

�� Not that again.� Elam has listened to their arguing for twenty years.� Everyone thinks they have this perfect marriage.� Elam knows better.� But, of course, he would never tell.

�� Silence.

�� "See what you did to your mother?� Now she's all upset.� It's your fault, Elam."

�� Silence.

�� "See what you're causing?" Jonathan continues.� "There are times when I wish you had never been born!"

�� There.� Jonathan has finally said it.

�� Elam's door slowly opens.� He stares.� Jonathan stares.� Judith stares.

�� "Fine, then.� I'm leaving."

�� Elam spends the night on the street.� Luckily there is no moon, and the few people who pass by never notice him.

�� Elam has had all night to think.� The next morning he knows what he must do.� He remembers the way.� He has been there a thousand times.�

�� Click.� Click.� Click.�

�� He makes his way through the streets by memory.� He finally arrives near the Temple.� He had taken a blanket with him when he had stormed out of his room the night before.� He sets the blanket down, sits on it, and begins to chant. [3]

�� "Alms....� Alms....� Alms for the poor."

�� So, Elam moves out of their home.� Once again, Jonathan and Judith are alone.� Now they can do more synagogue work.� God had made a terrible mistake with their son.� Now maybe they will have the peace and respect they so richly deserve.

August AD 29
Jerusalem, Judea

�� One would think things at home did become better.� But now Jonathan and Judith only have each other.

�� "If it weren't for you and all those expensive perfumes you buy, we could have given enough for the new synagogue to have a plaque in our name.."

�� "If it weren't for you and that temper of yours, we could have represented our synagogue at the Temple meeting last week."

�� But in public they smile.

�� Still Jonathan has become bitter.� He does less and less for the congregation.� He pushes the rules.� He is consistently late for Sabbath services, he insists elders are the only ones allowed to know how large the contribution is, he decides elders should wear blue on Sabbaths like the priests.� He misses some Sabbath services completely claiming he was on a journey.

�� Whenever Jonathan and Judith go to the Temple, they are careful to go alone and, when they see Elam begging, they pass by on the other side looking straight ahead, hoping no one will realize he is their son.� Or used to be.

�� People do know.� But no one says anything.

�� "Hey, Jonathan, someone says one day in the synagogue.� Have you heard Jesus speak yet?"

�� "No, and I don't intend to.� Furthermore, I'd advise you not to go getting any ideas.� He's dangerous.� He has done nothing but cause trouble."

�� "But," Jonathan's friend replies, "he's calling down the religious leaders for insisting we keep their creeds instead of the Law of Moses"

�� "I don't care what he does, as long as he stays away from me and my synagogue,"; Jonathan replies with righteous indignation.

�� "I just don't think our religion needs protecting from him.� Maybe our religion needs to listen to him and do a little changing."

�� "If I were you," Jonathan warns his friends, "I'd watch whose side I'm on.� You could get into trouble siding with the wrong people.� I for one will protect what I have worked for twenty years to build, no matter what it takes."

�� The following week at synagogue the rabbi reads the announcement.� It is somber.� It is a warning.

�� "We have the following mandate handed down to us by the Sanhedrin.� It reads as follows:�

�� " 'As your leaders, it is our duty to protect our religion at all costs.� That includes all heresies.� For the past two years, a new movement has been gaining a foothold in our religion.� This is the Jesus movement.� It must be stopped before it destroys our religion as we know it today.

�� " 'Therefore, it is hereby declared that anyone who associates himself or herself with the Jesus movement in any way, either directly or indirectly, will be immediately excommunicated from our religion.' " [4]

�� Gasping in the congregation.� Nods of approval.� Scowls.� Grins.� Tears.� Confusion.�

�� "It had to come to this," Judith states emphatically on their way home.� "They had no choice.� It had to be done.� For the sake of our religion.� Jesus must be destroyed before he destroys us.� and of course the Temple.� Good for them!� God bless them!� Our leaders are doing the right thing!"

�� A few weeks later there is a loud banging on the gate.� "Open the door!� Open the door"

�� It is early evening and both Jonathan and Judith are home.� They cannot imagine why Elam would be there.� He knows he is no longer welcome in their home.

�� "I can see, Father!� I can see!� Let me in!" [5]

�� Judith rushes to the gate and unlatches it.� Her son rushes in and picks his mother up, swinging her around.

�� "Careful!� You're going to run into something!"

�� "No I'm not!" Elam replies, putting his mother back down.� "I know that table is over there, those pots are over there, the mats are hung up over there....Father is over there."

�� Elam stops.� He stares at his father.� Jonathan stares back.� Neither moves.

�� "Father.� You are wearing a green tunic and your robe is brown.� The same color as a tree.� I learned what green and brown are today"

�� Jonathan still stands and stares.

�� "Father, it was Jesus.� Jesus healed me...."

�� "Jesus?" Jonathan replies at last.� "You've been associating with Jesus?� Don't you have any more sense than to hang around with that rebel?"

�� "But, Father...."

�� "This can't be!" Judith joins in.� "They'll excommunicate you!"

�� "I don't care, Mother.� He is so good.� I know he is from God.� No one could have made me see unless he was from God.� I am going to follow him.� I will follow him the rest of my life.� You must meet Jesus." [6]

�� "Never!" Jonathan shouts.� "Now out of my house!� I don't want to ever see you again."

�� The blindness.� Blind to their son.� Blind to their God.� So blind.� So very, very blind.

�� Judith latches the gate behind her son, then sits down and tries to figure out what to do to save them the disgrace of having their son excommunicated.

�� Though they have distanced themselves from Elam and all the new members of the congregation have no inkling he is their son, a realization hits her.� The synagogue will excommunicate them too.� Because Elam is their son!� They will blame them for Elam's heresy.

�� Jonathan prays aloud.� It has been years since he has prayed aloud except for the public benedictions expected of him as an elder of the synagogue.� He is still standing.� He looks up at the sky in the open courtyard and shouts.� He is angry.

�� "God!� We always wanted our son to see.� But not this way!� God, you are not fair!"

�� Judith is now in tears.� She sits and stares and scrolls through her scriptures.� She cannot find her answers.�

�� The next morning after Jonathan goes to work, Judith hurries through the streets to the little home Elam has been living in.� She knocks on the door and he answers.� He is pleased to see his mother there.

�� "I always wondered what you looked like, Mother.� I'm so glad I know now.� And Father.� Do I look like Father?� You always said I did.� Is that what I really look like?"

�� She does not answer.

�� "Elam, dear, I did not mean to blow up at you like that.� I am overjoyed that you finally have your sight.� But, well, did you have to get it at the risk of your soul?� What if you lose your soul over Jesus now?"

�� "You mean what if I lose the synagogue?"

�� "Well, yes."

�� "All I know is that Jesus made me whole.� I cannot lie.� If the synagogue questions me, I'm going to have to tell the truth."

�� "But the Temple will excommunicate you.� Then you'll have nothing."

�� "I'll have Jesus."

�� "But what if we're excommunicated too?� We will be destroyed and it will be your fault."

�� "Mother, you'll figure something out."

�� Confused and fighting off happiness with bitterness, Judith returns home.

�� As the sun slides down the horizon on Jonathan's and Judith's world, Jonathan arrives home.

�� Dinner is not ready.� She sits in the dark.

�� "We'll all be excommunicated," she says barely audible.� "Jonathan, I couldn't stand that."

�� "Let's just hold tight and see what happens, dear.� We won't let them do it.� We have been loyal too our religion too long.� They would never do that to us."

�� "We won't have any friends.� This is the headquarters of our religion.� We won't have any friends"

�� She sits in the dark and cries for a very long time.� She does not know how long.� Nor does she care.� She wishes time would just stand still.� Or go backwards to the time before Elam was healed.� Or back even farther before Elam was even born.� Back to when their world was still before them bright and shining.� She is angry at her own weakness.� She is acting like a loser.

�� Late that night there is a knock on the gate.� Jonathan answers it.� It is Elder Elisha.

�� "Hello, Elder Elisha.� Please come in."

�� "I heard your son was given his sight by Jesus," he says hesitantly.

�� "Well, yes, but...."

�� "Well, I just stopped by to confirm it.� I'm on my way to the Temple."

�� "There is a meeting at the Temple?� This late at night?� What's going on?"

�� Once more they sit in the dark.� After awhile a rock is thrown over their front gate.� Later another.� They do not try to retrieve them.� Then just fall into bed.� Hoping it will never again be daylight.� Praying they will never be discovered.�� How will they ever be able to face their synagogue.� They're losers.

�� The next morning, Jonathan notices two tablets in the courtyard.� They must have been the rocks they heard thrown the night before.� He is afraid to read them.� He is afraid not to.

�� "You're turning against the Temple."

�� The other tablet?

�� "Anti-God.� That's what you are!"

�� Jonathan does not go to work that day.� Later that morning there is a soft knock on the gate.� Jonathan answers it.� The woman walks over to Judith.

�� "I never thought I'd say this.� But I don't think we can be friends any more."

�� It is Judith's best friend.� The one who brought her friends over to give her some baby swaddlings and toys before Elam was born so many years before.

�� The now former friend leaves.� Judith sits again.� At first silent.� Then whimpering.� Then crying aloud.� Then hysterical.� They have lost control.� She cannot imagine ever facing them again.

�� "Jonathan!� I can't stand this.� The Temple is turning against us!"

�� That afternoon there is another knock on the gate.� Once again Jonathan answers.�

�� "Jonathan, we're sorry, but, well, we think you should stay away from the elder meetings for awhile.� Just a temporary measure, you understand." [7]

�� Another knock.�

�� "Judith, we have almost too many bandages for the doctor for now.� You may as well not come to our next meeting."

�� "And, Jonathan, it's probably better you not sit in the front of our meeting place when you come next Sabbath."

�� Elam comes by.� "Please, Mother.� Please, Father.� Open the gate.� Let me in."

�� After the pleas stop, Judith opens the gate.� He is still there, sitting over to the side.� She invites her son in.

�� "Elam, you've got to set things straight.� You've got to tell them you are not sure who healed you.� After all, you didn't see him."

�� "But he introduced himself to me outside the Temple.� I know it is him.� I recognized his voice."

�� "But your parents.� You can't drag us into this."

�� "I'll keep you protected.� I'll tell people you didn't know anything about it."

�� It is early evening.� Elam returns.� He calls through the gate.� Judith lets him in.� He stands at the gate.� He will keep his visit short.

�� "They took me before the Sanhedrin.� They asked for you, but I told them you didn't know anything about it.� I didn't tell you last night because I didn't want to upset you. �But I didn't incriminate you.� I love you both." [8]

�� His parents say nothing.� Elam leaves.

�� Jonathan gets out a dagger he uses around the house and sometimes at work.� He sits with the dagger.� He stares at the dagger.� He points this way and that.� He touches the tip to his throat and thinks.

�� The next morning Elam returns.� Even his mother no longer wants to let him in.� Every time he shows up, their lives are destroyed a little more.

�� "Well, they did it.� They called me back, had another hearing, and....� Well, I think you know what happened.� I'm sorry.� I'm sorry you have been ashamed of me all my life.� I am truly, truly sorry."

�� He leaves.

�� A few minutes later there is another knock.� Why can't people leave them alone?� Why can't people let them go into obscurity?

�� "Jonathan?� Judith?� This is a representative from the Sanhedrin."� Hurriedly Jonathan open the gate.� He cannot allow his neighbors to hear what is going on.

�� "I am glad you are both home.� We are sorry, but we are going to have to require that you appear before the Sanhedrin immediately about this Jesus problem." [9]

�� They know they must go.� They know they must face the music.� How will they handle it?

�� On their way with the representative, Judith prays.� "God, why did you have to allow Jesus to come into our lives and ruin everything?� Get rid of Jesus.� He is against everything we stand for."

�� As they climb the stairs to the second-floor council chambers, the two feel as though they are climbing to a pinnacle of no return.� Climbing into nothingness.

�� "Jonathan and Judith, we have a few brief questions for you."

�� "Is Elam ~ the man who claims he was born blind but was given his sight back by Jesus ~ your son?"

�� "Yes, sir, he is."

�� "Was he born blind?"

�� "Yes, sir, he was."

�� "Well then, tell us how he can see now if he was blind before?" [10]

�� "All we can tell you is that he is our son and he was born blind," Jonathan begins.� "But how he is able to see now, or who gave him sight, we do not know.� Ask him, not us.� He is a grown man.� He can speak for himself." [11]

�� "Is there anything else you have to say for yourselves."

�� "Sir," Judith begins, "we have loved our religion all our lives.� We have lived for our religion.� We have dedicated our lives to our religion. �We will remain loyal to our religion to our dying day.� That Jesus will not take us away from our loyalties to you, no matter what he says or does."

�� "Thank you.� You are dismissed."

�� Jonathan and Judith leave.� They hope no one they know recognizes them as they hurriedly walk down the corridor, across the courtyard, and out the gate of the Temple complex.

�� They go to synagogue the next week as usual.� They sit a little closer to the back.� But people do not greet them as usual.� Nor do they wish to sit next to them any more.

�� At the end there are some announcements.� They cringe.� They look down at the floor in shame.� They try to wish themselves out of sight.� Their son has been excommunicated.� How can they look any of their friends in the eye?

�� The service over, they hurry out the best they can, but there are others ahead of them.� They wait.� It is quiet around them.� Friends do not talk to them.

�� The following Sabbath, Jonathan and Judith walk in and sit proudly on the front bench - he on the men's side and she on the women's side.� Nonetheless, at the front.� At their regular places.� They smile broadly and proudly.� They turn around and greet former friends who are not sure what to make of it all.� The former friends are embarrassed.� That is as planned.� Jonathan and Judith are once more in charge.

�� The service over, Jonathan rises and says he has an announcement to make.� He must do what must be done.

�� "Our first loyalty, as all of you know, is to Jehovah God.� Our second loyalty is to you, our loving congregation." Jonathan does not blink.� He has it memorized.� He delivers it like a commander.

�� "As you know, Elam...." ~ he is careful not to use the word son.... "was excommunicated from the Temple and all synagogues.� We are, of course, ashamed of him along with the rest of you.� But we want you to rest assured that we will never betray you as he has.� You are our synagogue.� I personally have nurtured everyone of you here today, and guided you and directed you.� I am proud of the way you have turned out.� You accepted my guidance well."

�� Now that the groundwork has been laid, Jonathan launches the battering ram.� "The Temple excommunicated him.� You excommunicated him.� It is with regret that I now excommunicate him.� Elam is no longer my son."

�� Jesus, you ruined everything.� God, why did you have to let Elam and Jesus into our lives?

LIFE APPLICATION

1.�� Think of something you wanted to do with your life while still young.� Be a doctor?� A lawyer?� A teacher?� If your dream did not work out as planned, look at the things that dream prepared you for instead.� Perhaps, instead of a doctor you became a mechanic and can still fix things, and so on.�� What are the good things you could do with what you became.� Will you do them?

2.�� The blind man's parents were loyal to an organization instead of to God for whom it was organized.� Explain the difference in devotion to a congregation and devotion to God.

3.�� These parents refused to look at the evidence.� They were blind to the evidence.� They did not want to see and change their life.� What new facts about the Bible have you discovered from these readings that you find yourself not wanting to see?� How will you sit down and make yourself look at it honestly?� What kind of roll does ego play in such exercises?

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