Once again the people picked up stones to kill him. 

             Jesus said, “At my Father’s direction I have done many good works. For which one are you going to stone me?”

                         They replied, “We’re stoning you not for any good work, but for blasphemy! You, a mere man, claim to be God.”
Jesus replied, “I have already told you, and you don’t believe me.  The proof is the work I do in my Father’s name.    But you don’t believe me because you are not my sheep.    My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.    I give them eternal life, and they will never perish.   

              No one can snatch them away from me,  for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else.   No one can snatch them from the Father’s hand.   The Father and I are one.”
It was now winter, and Jesus was in Jerusalem at the time of Hanukkah, the Festival of Dedication.    He was in the Temple, walking through the section known as Solomon’s Colonnade.    

             The people surrounded him and asked, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”
When he said these things, the people were again divided in their opinions about him.  Some said, “He’s demon possessed and out of his mind.  Why listen to a man like that?”   

            Others said, “This doesn’t sound like a man possessed by a demon! Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”
 “The Father loves me because I sacrifice my life so I may take it back again.   No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For this is what my Father has commanded.”
"I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me,  just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice my life for the sheep.   

               I have other sheep, too, that are not in this sheepfold. I must bring them also. They will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock with one shepherd."
"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep.   A hired hand will run when he sees a wolf coming. He will abandon the sheep because they don’t belong to him and he isn’t their shepherd. And so the wolf attacks them and scatters the flock.   The hired hand runs away because he’s working only for the money and doesn’t really care about the sheep."
Those who heard Jesus use this illustration (of the Good Shepherd) didn’t understand what he meant, so he explained it to them: "I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep.   All who came before me were thieves and robbers. 

           But the true sheep did not listen to them.  Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved.  They will come and go freely and will find good pastures.  The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life."
“I tell you the truth, anyone who sneaks over the wall of a sheepfold, rather than going through the gate, must surely be a thief and a robber!   But the one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 

              The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 

                          After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice.   They won’t follow a stranger; they will run from him because they don’t know his voice.”
Then Jesus told him, “I entered this world to render judgment—to give sight to the blind and to show those who think they see that they are blind.”

           Some Pharisees who were standing nearby heard him and asked, “Are you saying we’re blind?”

                       “If you were blind, you wouldn’t be guilty,” Jesus replied. “But you remain guilty because you claim you can see.


When Jesus heard what had happened, he found the man and asked, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

              The man answered, “Who is he, sir? I want to believe in him.”

                           “You have seen him,” Jesus said, “and he is speaking to you!”

                                         “Yes, Lord, I believe!” the man said. And he worshiped Jesus.
“Why, that’s very strange!” the man replied. “He healed my eyes, and yet you don’t know where he comes from? 

               We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but he is ready to hear those who worship him and do his will.   Ever since the world began, no one has been able to open the eyes of someone born blind.   If this man were not from God, he couldn’t have done it.”

                                “You were born a total sinner!” they answered. “Are you trying to teach us?” And they threw him out of the synagogue.
“But what did he do?” they asked. “How did he heal you?”

            “Look!” the man exclaimed.  “I told you once. Didn’t you listen?  Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?”

                        Then they cursed him and said, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses!   We know God spoke to Moses, but we don’t even know where this man comes from.”
So for the second time they called in the man who had been blind and told him, “God should get the glory for this, because we know this man Jesus is a sinner.”

                 “I don’t know whether he is a sinner,” the man replied. “But I know this: I was blind, and now I can see!”
His parents replied, “We know this is our son and that he was born blind, but we don’t know how he can see or who healed him. Ask him. He is old enough to speak for himself.” 

               His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who had announced that anyone saying Jesus was the Messiah would be expelled from the synagogue.  That’s why they said, “He is old enough. Ask him.”
The Jewish leaders still refused to believe the man had been blind and could now see, so they called in his parents. 

              They asked them, “Is this your son? Was he born blind? If so, how can he now see?”
Then the Pharisees again questioned the man who had been blind and demanded, “What’s your opinion about this man who healed you?” 

          The man replied, “I think he must be a prophet.”
Some of the Pharisees said, “This man Jesus is not from God, for he is working on the Sabbath.” Others said, “But how could an ordinary sinner do such miraculous signs?” 

            So there was a deep division of opinion among them.
“Where is he now?” they asked.

          “I don’t know,” he replied.

                     Then they took the man who had been blind to the Pharisees, because it was on the Sabbath that Jesus had made the mud and healed him.   The Pharisees asked the man all about it.  So he told them, “He put the mud over my eyes, and when I washed it away, I could see!”
His neighbors and others who knew him as a blind beggar asked each other, “Isn’t this the man who used to sit and beg?” 

          Some said he was, and others said, “No, he just looks like him!”

                  But the beggar kept saying, “Yes, I am the same one!”

                            They asked, “Who healed you? What happened?”

                                        He told them, “The man they call Jesus made mud and spread it over my eyes and told me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam and wash yourself.’ So I went and washed, and now I can see!”
Then he (Jesus) spit on the ground, made mud with the saliva, and spread the mud over the blind man’s eyes.  

            He told him, “Go wash yourself in the pool of Siloam” (Siloam means “sent”). So the man went and washed and came back seeing!
As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth.   “Rabbi,” his disciples asked him, “why was this man born blind?   Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?”

               “It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him.   

                       We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent us.   The night is coming, and then no one can work.   But while I am here in the world, I am the light of the world.”
 The people said, “You aren’t even fifty years old. How can you say you have seen Abraham?”

                Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, before Abraham was even born, I Am!” 

                       At that point they picked up stones to throw at him. But Jesus was hidden from them and left the Temple.
Jesus answered, “If I want glory for myself, it doesn’t count. But it is my Father who will glorify me.  You say, ‘He is our God,  but you don’t even know him.  I know him.  If I said otherwise, I would be as great a liar as you!  But I do know him and obey him.  Your father Abraham rejoiced as he looked forward to my coming.  He saw it and was glad.”
Romans 15:3

The people said, “Now we know you are possessed by a demon. Even Abraham and the prophets died, but you say,  ‘Anyone who obeys my teaching will never die!’  Are you greater than our father Abraham?  He died, and so did the prophets.  Who do you think you are?”
 “No,” Jesus said, “I have no demon in me. For I honor my Father and you dishonor me.   And though I have no wish to glorify myself, God is going to glorify me.  He is the true judge.   I tell you the truth, anyone who obeys my teaching will never die!”
Which of you can truthfully accuse me of sin? And since I am telling you the truth, why don’t you believe me? 

            Anyone who belongs to God listens gladly to the words of God. But you don’t listen because you don’t belong to God.”

                        The people retorted, “You Samaritan devil! Didn’t we say all along that you were possessed by a demon?”