Rules and Excommunication

John 9 carries with it many lessons. Human nature is woven throughout these Jesus-scenes. Of course, human nature is rooted in the divine nature in which we are called to participate (2 Peter 1), but a flawed human nature, one tainted by sin. This man was healed. This was the fact of the matter. He had been blind from birth and now he could see. He didn't hit his head on a rock or get struck by lightening. Jesus made mud, put it on his eyes, told him to wash and he could see. The Pharisees were divided on the matter (9:16). There are always "some" and the "others." The "some" focused on the rule, i.e. Sabbath rules, and the "others" focused on the miracle which is not normally performed by sinners, i.e. rule-breakers. So what do you do when you cannot agree? Ask someone else, and gang up on him if you don't like his answer. So the "formerly known as blind man" decided to call Jesus a prophet. Sounds safe enough. He didn't say Messiah or God. The Jews didn't like the answer so they move on to the parents, questioning them. They play it safe too. They confirm that the man is their son and was born blind. But, as to his seeing, they toss the hot potato back to their son since he is of age. The reason they do this is because of another rule made up by the Jews (9:22), i.e. that anyone confessing Jesus to be the Messiah would be excommunicated from the synagogue. There were three levels of disfellowshipping (don't look for this in spell check). Level one involved a period of one month where the excommunicate could not bathe, shave or get closer than six feet from a good Jew (of course if I didn't bathe for a month no one could get closer than six feet). They could attend the sacred rites. Level two involved all this plus not attending the sacred assemblies or having any communication with a good Jew. Level three was a perpetual exclusion, civil and religious, from the life of the community. The parents feared this because to be excluded here is to be excluded there, as in "up there."

One of the things that struck me is that for all the contortions of the Jewish leaders in questioning "the formerly known as blind man," his parents, and the neighbors, and eventually Jesus Himself, the one thing they never did was question their rules. Healing on the Sabbath was clearly a violation of the rules as they prescribed them. It would be like a pharmacist prescribing medication that was keeping or making everyone sick and instead of questioning the medicine, they questioned whether folks were taking it properly. Jewish leaders, once a rule was in place, never questioned whether they might have written a bad rule. Pride prevented them from questioning their own rules. The thought that they might be wrong was unthinkable. There is no worse fate for a religious leader than to be wrong. Isn't a leader's credibility dependent on being right, not just about some or most things, but about everything? They thought so. Since they could not, would not question their rule, they looked for someone else to focus on, i.e. "the formerly known as blind man," his parents, the neighbors, and Jesus. And, when a man-made rule has been formulated and broken, then what do you do? You make another rule to enforce the first. Where does it end? There is no end to rule making (in government we call rules "regulations"). The more we make the more we need to qualify, quantify, and sanctify the first rule.

The problem with rules is that miracles do not conform to rules. In fact the nature of a miracle is it is about breaking rules, the rules of nature. A rule maker hates miracles. How can you regulate something that doesn't by its very nature conform to set boundaries? It would be like Pharaoh complaining to Moses that it is not fair for him to be causing all these plagues. For those who remember Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, there are even rules in knife fights. Miracles do not fight fair. Rule makers hate changed lives and clear evidence that God has superseded their rules. How dare He do so? I have a suggestion. When a miracle is present, before you look further, look first at your rule to see if maybe, just maybe, it needs to be rescinded.