Study Desk

(Now they were asking this in an attempt to trap him, so that they could bring charges against him.) Jesus bent down and wrote on the ground with his finger.

(Jesus spoke these words near the offering box while he was teaching in the temple courts. No one seized him because his time had not yet come.)

(They did not understand that he was telling them about his Father.)

You people are from your father the devil, and you want to do what your father desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not uphold the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies.

Yet you do not know him, but I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know him, and I obey his teaching.

His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who committed the sin that caused him to be born blind, this man or his parents?"

Jesus answered, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but he was born blind so that the acts of God may be revealed through what happens to him.

So the Pharisees asked him again how he had gained his sight. He replied, "He put mud on my eyes and I washed, and now I am able to see."

Now the Jewish religious leaders refused to believe that he had really been blind and had gained his sight until at last they summoned the parents of the man who had become able to see.

So his parents replied, "We know that this is our son and that he was born blind.

(His parents said these things because they were afraid of the Jewish religious leaders. For the Jewish leaders had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Christ would be put out of the synagogue.

For this reason his parents said, "He is a mature adult, ask him.")

He answered, "I told you already and you didn't listen. Why do you want to hear it again? You people don't want to become his disciples too, do you?"

They heaped insults on him, saying, "You are his disciple! We are disciples of Moses!

We know that God doesn't listen to sinners, but if anyone is devout and does his will, God listens to him.

The doorkeeper opens the door for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

When he has brought all his own sheep out, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they recognize his voice.

"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

Many of them were saying, "He is possessed by a demon and has lost his mind! Why do you listen to him?"

(Now it was Mary who anointed the Lord with perfumed oil and wiped his feet dry with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.)