Lego Mommy: John, Chapters 9 - 10

Part 9 of my "Lego Mommy" Series.

Chapter 9

• Verse 3: "Neither this man--blind from birth--nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life." This is horrifying. At least now I understand where Jesusianismists get their atrocious attitude toward suffering. What about all the billions of people who have suffered over the centuries, in whose lives "the work of God" was never displayed? Why did their suffering happen? How can a God of love and mercy allow so much suffering, then display its works in the lives of only a handful? And go ahead, say that the handful amounts to millions of people. Do some math: billions of people have suffered without any relief until their deaths. A billion is a thousand millions, so thousands of times as many people never got Yahweh up off its lazy ass.
• Verse 16: "How can a sinner do such miraculous signs?" and Verse 31: "We know that God does not listen to sinners." I really wish I had their rulebook, so I'd know on what information they based their belief that a person with the power to perform miracles would be hindered if he happened to be a sinner. I won't claim to know where they got this idea, but I'd bet that it's not in any of Yahweh's holy writ.
• Verses 35 - 37: Jesus says, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" The man replies, "Tell me [who he is], so that I may believe in him." Jesus says, "You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you." If Jesus is so fond of saying "I am" to show that he's Yahweh, why does he give this guy such an evasive answer? A likely explanation is that he was using "I am" for political purposes and debating points with the Jews, but he didn't need to win any points with the man on whom he supposedly performed a miracle. Another strike against the idea that his incantation, "I am" was intended to convey that he is Yahweh.
• Verse 39: "Jesus said, 'For judgment I have come into this world." Ooh, double-abrogation on Verse 15. He must be serious this time.
• Verse 39 again: "...now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains." So infinitely loving, infinitely merciful Yahweh infinitely punishes those who think too much of themselves?

Chapter 10

• Verse 1: "...the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber." I think he's talking about Moses here, because Moses taught the law rather than faith in Christ.
• Verse 8: Wow, not just Moses, but "all who came before me were thieves and robbers." Joshua, David, Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, John the Baptist?
• Verse 16: "I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also." Mormons quote this verse to prove that Jesus had to make a side trip to North America in order to witness to the aboriginals living here at the time. Frankly, I couldn't care less who he was talking about. What I want to know is what spiritual, edifying message is contained in these words. Why would Jesus tell us this except because we needed to know it, because it contained some deep truth?
• Verse 17: "The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life..." Wow, conditional love even for the Second Person of the Trinity? I guess we're all screwed.
• Verse 33 - 35: "...you, a mere man, claim to be God." I was confused about this charge at first. It sounded like one of those assertions based on some hypothetical book of rules concerning the supernatural realm. But Jesus refers to Psalm 82:6, using it to make two points, one explicit, the other implicit. The explicit point is here in John 10:35 where he says that those "to whom the word of God came" are gods. The implicit point is back in the Psalm itself: "I said, 'You are gods'; you are all sons of the Most High". So now I understand why the Jews concluded that Jesus was claiming to be God: not because he said "I Am" until he was blue in the face, but because he claimed to be the Son of God.
• Verse 36: "Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, 'I am God's Son'?" See, if Jesus were actually trying to convince people that he is Yahweh, then it seems that he would have said "God" rather than "God's Son".