John 9:18-23, Fear of the Parents

18 The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight 19 and asked them, "Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?" 20 His parents answered, "We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. 21 But how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself." 22 (His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.) 23 Therefore his parents said, "He is of age; ask him."

The skeptical Pharisees decided to ask the man’s parents. The parents agree to the miracle of their son being born blind and now seeing, but they will not speak about Jesus. They are intimidated and will not agree to his identity or knowing of him. They claim not to know exactly what happened to their son. (They encourage the Pharisees to ask their son because he is of age. “Of age” implies he is older than 13 and of the age to make his own living as a beggar and answer the Pharisees’ questions on behalf of himself.)

And then we find out the real reason they will not talk about Jesus: the people are under threat. If they say that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, they will be excommunicated from the synagogue, losing their ability to worship in community and losing their place in society. We see here that Jesus has already stirred up great division and the authorities will do anything to keep him from gaining more ground and additional followers.

Has there been a time in your life when you denied who Jesus was or would not stand up for your faith in him? Consider what happened and ask the Lord to help you to acknowledge him in the future as your Lord and Savior in a winsome way.