October 4, 2015   John 9:30 – 10:8

Download discussion questions: John 9_30 – 10_8 seeing & shepherds

Circumstances prevented me from attending the group for several weeks.  The blog entries for these weeks are minimal to non-existent.  Since the inductive method used in the group is simple, reproducible, and transferable the group continued to have lively discussions.  The handout and discussion questions are available for those weeks and can be downloaded from the link above.

Email notes to the group facilitators:

• This is another passage where (I had not noticed before) the chapter division may be quite unfortunate.  As many sermons or discussions as I might have heard over the years about the man born blind, and especially about the Good Shepherd, I am positive I never heard any one try to show any possible connection between the passages.  That might be an interesting point of discussion – does this sound like one continuous description of Jesus answering the Pharisees’ question (“Are we blind?”)?  Or are these two separate stories?  And how might that affect the understanding of John 10?
• I wonder if Jesus switched metaphors because the audience was different.  The man born blind certainly understood seeing and not seeing. But the Pharisees reacted strongly to that image.  Weren’t they supposed to be the leaders, the “shepherds” of God’s people?  So Jesus starts talking about sheep and shepherds and good ones and bad ones.  They still didn’t get the point (10:6).
• Another question I have but didn’t include in the handout – why did Jesus give such a (it seems) convoluted answer to the man in v. 37?  Wouldn’t that be a great opportunity for another “I am” statement? Just curious.
• I would expect most of the discussion will be on the first part (to the end of John 9) and about the transition to John 10.  Where the discussion might go is always unpredictable (you may have noticed) but I would think that most of the discussion about the shepherd and the sheep would be better next week with more of John 10 included.  I wanted to put the beginning of chapter 10 here to see the possible flow from John 9.