The gospel reading for the week was John 9:1-41.  This passage talks about a man who was blind from birth and Jesus puts mud in his eyes with specific instructions to wash his eyes.  The man can then see.

The neighbors not sure what they were experiencing had questions as to how this could have happened decide do bring the man to the Pharisees to ask them. The Pharisees were the elite religious leaders at the time but also had been considered representation by many people of Israel at the time.

It is not sure what the motivations of the Pharisees were, but their reaction looks to be highly defensive. The Torah, or the written Jewish writings did point to the coming of Christ.  It could be they considered their livelihood in jeopardy as they saw Jesus was having his own followers and were being ignored and possibly made irrelevant. Somewhat strange when you remember the Pharisees allowed oral tradition in their interpretations as compared to the Sadducees that strictly went by the written Torah.

The Pharisees first call Jesus a man not from God (perhaps I should credit them for being technically correct as Jesus is God) because he performed this miracle on the Sabbath.  Sabbath originated as the seventh day of the creation and God decided he needed to rest.  Jesus saw a need on the Sabbath and being God he felt he could work.

Next there is this desire to place blame on someone’s sin for this man being blind. First it was the parents.  As the Pharisees were also the binding legal council back then the man’s parents were fearful of questions and said the man was of age, leave us out of this.

The discussion then goes to who is the man following, Jesus or the Pharisees.  At this point it seems Jesus had more to offer, compassion.  The Pharisees kicked the man out.  The Pharisees said God does not listen to sinners, only those who worship him and obeys his will. Unfortunately for the Pharisees this is illogical as every one sins except Jesus.  If their logic held, it would be very quiet for God.

What we have in the Pharisees are people who are in charge of a people as they were pseudo government and started to see their ability to control to diminish.  They know if this character Jesus gains followers they lose.  Ironic as those who were in charge of their corner of the religious world could not see the truth in front of them then adjust.

I see two current examples similar to the Pharisees in today’s world.  Government institutions run by religious zealots and governments run by entrenched politicians.

In Iran we have had since 1979 revolution a country run by a family of religious clerics holding on to power by disposing of people with contrary ideas and forcing specific beliefs on the population causing intentional harm. This replaced a monarchical regime that also disposed of opposition to them.  These are both entrenched operatives just like the Pharisees who were not adapting.  Both of these scenarios bring a populace who feels they cannot catch a break as they have no skin in the game.

Governments run by entrenched politicians use similar tactics and are covered by the religion of their “expertise” in governance.  They create a system and enforce it that states that only they know what is best for you.  There are some things that show minimal results and maximum damage.  They claim that no one on the outside can do it any better and that they indeed are evil.  It is this comparison I make with certain political participants in the United States in the way they respond to president Donald Trump is very similar to how Jesus was treated by the Pharisees.  As Jesus was perceived as a threat to the lifestyle of the pharisees Trump is perceived as a threat to the life style of various politicians.

In both cases we clearly see the positive benefits to the fall of those in power. Through the unsuccessful defamation attempts by the Pharisees we see the rise of Christianity.  Through the successes of Trump broadcast by the hate of his opponents we see the exposure of a fraud ridden system and enough investigation reveals true crimes.

While fraud and corruption are not necessarily a possession of the Democratic party, they sure seem to have a lot of it.  The insane back peddling that the United States Political left is currently involved is being exposed. They complain about how much each bomb dropped on Iran costs while having billions of dollars tied up in fraud.

One thing John 9:1-41 showed us was to develop skills in interpreting the message. There was the obvious, then there was the why the obvious was happening.

Now, to clean up this mess!