John 9:18-23 : The Jews therefore did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind, and had received his sight, until they called the parents of him who had received his sight, and asked them, “Is this your son, whom you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” His parents answered them, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but how he now sees, we don’t know; or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. He is of age. Ask him. He will speak for himself.” His parents said these things because they feared the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that if any man would confess him as Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue. Therefore his parents said, “He is of age. Ask him.”

Well, the Pharisees were, evidently, unwilling to accept the blind man’s assessment that Jesus was a prophet. By the way, it’s important to understand that, in the Bible, a prophet means one who speaks on behalf of God. It doesn’t always mean one who tells the future like we say it today. It is probably more accurate to say that the blind man declared that Jesus was a Preacher. The Pharisees, however, when faced with the option to treat Jesus as a Legitimate Preacher, decided to doubt that the man had been blind instead. This is typical of sinners. We will do anything to protect our own personal power rather than to admit that another holds a legitimate authority over us.

This intent to protect ourselves when we are probably wrong ends up dragging innocent people through court as we see here. This is one of the travesties of unjust courtrooms and powerful criminals. This man’s parents were summoned and forced to testify. Not only that, they were pressured to not tell the truth.

Evidently, everyone already knew that believing in Jesus publically was a crime, according to these judges. In order to not get yourself in trouble, you would have to hide your true feelings about Jesus if you believed in Him. This is definitely still a problem today. The current problem is in the science world for one. An effort that is currently underway in the United States to exclude anything but a naturalistic or godless explanation for the origin of the universe. Many legitimate scientists and science students are being discriminated against for daring to consider creation as an alternative to evolution. You can learn more about this in the DVD called “Expelled” by Ben Stein.

This man’s parents didn’t handle the situation very well in that they dished it off onto their son. Fortunately, God prepared the man for this day.