The Epistemological Crisis of the Cross

Part 4, Wires Crossed in the Gospel of John

In this series, we've mainly focused on Paul and 1 Corinthians. But Paul's epistles aren't the only place were we see strong perceptual and epistemological themes in the New Testament. Perceptual and epistemological themes fill the gospels. 

Examples abound, but here's one from John 9. 

In this chapter Jesus heals a blind man, but he does so on the Sabbath. This causes consternation and confusion. Some of the Pharisees conclude, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” A back and forth ensues with the blind man and his family as the Pharisees try to get to the bottom of the paradox, a healing on the Sabbath. Eventually, because of the blind man's insistence that Jesus was acting as an agent of God, the Pharisees kick him out of the synagogue. Jesus hears about his excommunication and takes it as a good sign, a sign of faith in the man. So, Jesus finds him and asks, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" The man does.

At this point, Jesus takes the man's blindness and recovered sight to make comment about the religious leaders who expelled him from the synagogue:

Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”

Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?”

Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains."

There are moral words in this passage. Both "judgment" and "guilt" are mentioned. But the issue here is primarily perceptual. The judgment concerns vision. Jesus comes so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind. Obviously, this refers to the blind man and the Pharisees and their very different responses to the activity of Jesus. The blind man is the one who sees Jesus clearly. The Pharisees, who can see, are blind as they look upon Jesus. 

There's more. In the concluding line Jesus states that the Pharisees, because they claim to have spiritual sight while being blind to Jesus, stand under judgment. This goes to the point I made in yesterday's post, how we tend to frame the life of faith as a moral issue when a deeper and more primary perceptual issue is often at stake. The issue of guilt in John 9 is primarily about vision, seeing Jesus clearly. 

Phrased differently, what Jesus does in John 9, in healing on the Sabbath, which he appears to do intentionally, creates an epistemological crisis for the Pharisees. Jesus crosses their mental wires, short-circuiting what they took to be the truth about God, Torah, and the Messiah. When we get to the cross in the gospels this short-circuiting will reach its climax.