Paper 164 Overview: At the Feast of Dedication

Jesus traveled secretly to Jerusalem for the feast of dedication with Nathaniel and Thomas, despite the dangers posed by the hostile Sanhedrin. This crucial visit represented Jesus' strategic attempt to provide the Jewish religious leadership one final opportunity to receive his message before "his hour comes," indicating his impending crucifixion. Throughout this period, Jesus demonstrated remarkable spiritual authority and pedagogical brilliance through his engagement with sincere inquirers and antagonistic questioners alike, particularly evident in his recounting of the Good Samaritan parable and his deliberate healing of a man born blind on the Sabbath.

The narrative reveals Jesus' multifaceted approach to ministry during this perilous time, balancing private instruction to receptive Jewish leaders at Nicodemus' home with public teaching in Solomon's Porch. The healing of the blind beggar Josiah functions as both a compassionate act and a strategic challenge to the Sabbath legalism of the Pharisees. The subsequent interrogation of Josiah by the Sanhedrin, his courageous testimony despite limited understanding of Jesus' identity, and his eventual excommunication from the synagogue illustrate the intensifying conflict between Jesus' spiritual kingdom and institutional religious authority. This culminates in Josiah's full acceptance of Jesus as the Son of God, symbolizing the transition from physical to spiritual sight, and from religious exclusion to inclusion in the true fellowship of the kingdom.

Jesus, accompanied by Nathaniel and Thomas, secretly embarked on a journey to Jerusalem to attend the feast of dedication, a journey fraught with danger given the Sanhedrin's determination to apprehend him. The apostles remained unaware of Jesus' destination until they crossed the Jordan at the Bethany ford, at which point they strenuously objected to his plan, employing every manner of argument and warning to dissuade him from placing himself in such jeopardy. Jesus remained resolute, responding to their entreaties with the simple yet profound statement that he wished to "give these teachers in Israel another opportunity to see the light, before my hour comes"—indicating both his compassion toward his adversaries and his awareness of his approaching crucifixion.

The party continued toward Jerusalem despite the apostles' persistent expressions of fear and doubt, arriving at Jericho by late afternoon, where they lodged for the night. Their journey represents a pivotal moment in Jesus' ministry, revealing his willingness to confront danger in service of his mission and highlighting the tension between the apostles' understandable concern for Jesus' physical safety and Jesus' unwavering commitment to his spiritual purpose. This episode demonstrates Jesus' extraordinary courage in the face of mortal peril, a quality that would become increasingly important as his earthly ministry approached its climactic conclusion in Jerusalem.

During their evening in Jericho, Jesus engaged with a gathering of questioners, including a certain lawyer who attempted to entangle Jesus in a compromising disputation by asking what he should do to inherit eternal life. Jesus responded by redirecting the question to the lawyer's own understanding of scripture, prompting him to recite the commandments to love God with all one's being and to love one's neighbor as oneself. When Jesus affirmed this answer as correct, the lawyer, seeking to justify himself and potentially embarrass Jesus, posed the follow-up question: "But, Teacher, I should like you to tell me just who is my neighbor?" This question was particularly loaded in the context of Jewish tradition, which narrowly defined "neighbor" as "the children of one's people," explicitly excluding Gentiles and especially Samaritans, who were considered religious enemies.

Rather than directly challenging this exclusionary definition, Jesus responded with the parable of the Good Samaritan, describing how a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho was attacked by brigands, robbed, beaten, and left half-dead by the roadside. A priest and a Levite, representatives of the religious establishment, each passed by without offering assistance, while a Samaritan, moved by compassion, provided comprehensive care for the wounded man. When Jesus asked which of the three proved to be a neighbor, the lawyer was compelled to answer, "He who showed mercy," notably avoiding the word "Samaritan" in his response. Through this masterful pedagogical approach, Jesus challenged the ethnocentric boundaries of Jewish tradition without directly attacking them, forcing the lawyer to acknowledge the universal nature of true neighborliness as defined by compassionate action rather than ethnic or religious identity. This parable not only answered the lawyer's question but also established a foundational principle of Jesus' kingdom teaching: that authentic spiritual living transcends artificial social and religious divisions.

The centerpiece of Jesus' Jerusalem visit was an evening gathering at Nicodemus' home, where approximately twenty-five Jewish leaders who believed in Jesus' teaching assembled, including fourteen current or former members of the Sanhedrin. In this intellectually sophisticated environment, Jesus displayed extraordinary erudition and insight, amazing even his apostles with the breadth and depth of his discourse on both religious and secular matters. The reverence these learned men held for Jesus was evident, though they still sought to advise him on strategies to win over the remaining members of the Sanhedrin, advice Jesus listened to attentively while recognizing that none of their proposed approaches would succeed.

After this illuminating exchange, Jesus retired to the Mount of Olives with Nathaniel and Thomas, having not yet determined how he would bring his work once more to the Sanhedrin's attention. When the apostles suggested that these sympathetic Jewish leaders might accompany Jesus before the seventy, Jesus declined, stating: "No, my brethren, it would be to no purpose. You would multiply the wrath to be visited upon your own heads, but you would not in the least mitigate the hatred which they bear me." This response reveals Jesus' protective concern for his followers and his understanding that the opposition to his message was fundamentally spiritual rather than procedural, a reality that could not be addressed through political maneuvering or influential advocacy. As subsequent events would demonstrate, Jesus would choose a more direct and provocative method of confronting the religious establishment through a healing miracle that challenged their Sabbath regulations.

The following Sabbath morning, after breaking fast at Martha's home in Bethany, Jesus and his two apostles proceeded to Jerusalem where they encountered a beggar who had been born blind sitting near the temple. Jesus, contemplating how to bring his mission once more to the notice of the Sanhedrin, paused to consider this man, recognizing an opportunity to make a profound statement about his divine authority. When Nathaniel inquired about the cause of the man's blindness, reflecting the prevalent Jewish belief that such congenital conditions resulted from sin, Jesus clarified: "Neither did this man sin nor his parents that the works of God might be manifest in him." This statement directly challenged the karmic perspective of suffering that dominated Jewish religious thought, instead positioning human affliction within the context of divine purpose and opportunity for redemptive action.

Jesus then proceeded to create clay with his spittle, apply it to the man's eyes, and instruct him to wash in the pool of Siloam, actions deliberately chosen to maximize the symbolic and provocative nature of this healing. This methodology served multiple purposes: it provided tangible means to encourage the blind man's nascent faith, it created an undeniable public record of Jesus having performed work on the Sabbath (making clay), and it established this miracle as a direct challenge to Pharisaic Sabbath regulations. Jesus explicitly acknowledged that this healing was not primarily responsive to the man's faith but was performed "for a purpose of his own," specifically to precipitate a confrontation with the religious authorities. Furthermore, Jesus used this occasion to teach his followers about the legitimacy of employing material means in healing work, challenging a purely spiritual approach to human wellness. The fact that Josiah received his sight through this encounter transformed him from an anonymous beggar to a central figure in the unfolding drama between Jesus and the religious establishment.

By midafternoon, the news of Josiah's healing had generated such controversy that the Sanhedrin convened in direct violation of their own regulation forbidding meetings on the Sabbath, a circumstance Jesus had anticipated and even desired. Rather than summoning Jesus himself, they called for Josiah, who recounted his experience with remarkable simplicity: "This man came along, put clay upon my eyes, told me to go wash in Siloam, and I do now see." This testimony immediately polarized the Sanhedrin, with some declaring Jesus could not be from God because he violated Sabbath regulations, while others questioned how a sinner could perform such unprecedented miracles. When asked directly about Jesus, Josiah proclaimed him a prophet, a significant theological statement from someone who had only the most minimal encounter with Jesus.

The Sanhedrin's subsequent interrogation of Josiah's parents and their second examination of Josiah himself reveal the religious leaders' increasing desperation to discredit either the miracle or its performer. Josiah's parents confirmed his lifelong blindness but deflected questions about Jesus out of fear of excommunication, while Josiah himself displayed growing courage and theological insight during his second interrogation. When pressed to denounce Jesus as a sinner, Josiah responded with powerful simplicity: "Whether this man is a sinner, I know not; but one thing I do know—that, whereas I was blind, now I see." As the questioning intensified, Josiah's insights deepened remarkably, culminating in his observation that the Sanhedrin's inability to recognize the divine source of such an unprecedented miracle was the true marvel at hand. His declaration that "not since the beginning of the world have you ever heard of the opening of the eyes of one who was born blind" represented a profound theological argument that transcended his educational level and religious training. As a consequence of his increasingly bold testimony, Josiah was formally expelled from the synagogue, a severe social penalty that severed him from his religious community but paradoxically prepared him for full acceptance of Jesus and incorporation into the spiritual fellowship of the kingdom.

Throughout the duration of Josiah's trial before the Sanhedrin, Jesus was teaching in Solomon's Porch, strategically positioning himself near the temple in hopes of being summoned before the council where he could proclaim "the good news of the liberty and joy of divine sonship in the kingdom of God." This juxtaposition of Jesus openly teaching while the Sanhedrin deliberated in closed session highlights the growing chasm between the secretive machinations of institutional religion and the transparent proclamation of spiritual truth. Jesus' teaching in this public venue addressed profound spiritual concepts, including his declaration, "I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life." This statement was particularly poignant given his recent restoration of physical light to Josiah's eyes.

When Jesus later learned of Josiah's expulsion from the synagogue, he, along with Thomas and Nathaniel, sought him out for a momentous personal encounter. Finding Josiah, Jesus asked him, "Do you believe in the Son of God?" When Josiah inquired who the Son of God was, Jesus responded, "You have both seen and heard him, and it is he who now speaks to you," prompting Josiah's immediate confession of faith and act of worship. This progression from physical healing to spiritual acknowledgment completed the symbolic journey from darkness to light, from isolation to community, and religious exclusion to spiritual inclusion. The narrative concludes with the observation that while Josiah had been cast out of a Jewish synagogue, he was welcomed by "the Creator of a universe" into association with "the spiritual nobility of that day and generation." This transformation from marginalized beggar to committed disciple epitomizes the revolutionary nature of Jesus' ministry, which consistently elevated the socially rejected while challenging the religiously established.