All of us have read things in the Bible that we do not understand. I don’t know if you’re like me, but one of those examples is found in John 9. In that chapter, the Lord heals a man who was born blind. The man is a wonderful example of boldness in his proclamation that Jesus is the Christ. When he stands before the Sanhedrin, he has no problem saying that Jesus was sent from God. He does so even though the Sanhedrin is full of powerful men who ridicule and threaten him.

But the man’s parents are another story. When the Sanhedrin grill them about what happened to their son, they are a picture of fear and timidity. They are a little reluctant even to acknowledge that the man is their son. They don’t want to talk about the fact that the son, who had been blind his whole life, can now see. These parents leave their son to answer any questions these leaders might have (9:20-21).

That is what I don’t understand. In that situation, I think I would be eager to tell the world what had happened to my son. It seems to me that the father and mother would have fought over which one would be chosen to tell these religious leaders the great news of what Jesus had done! I would expect the father to say, “I’ll tell them.” The wife would counter with, “No, I’ll tell them. I get to go first!”

Instead, they don’t even want to talk about it. It was the greatest day of their lives, and they were content to slip away into the shadows. They did not want to share the great news.

John tells us why the man’s parents responded as they did. The Sanhedrin had said that anybody who confessed that Jesus was the Christ would be excommunicated from the religious community. This would mean, in the opinion of the religious authorities, that the disapproval of God rested on their lives. The parents would become social outcasts among their neighbors.

I still think, however, that if that had happened to my son, I would have been too excited to contain the joy I felt. I hope that I would have realized, just as the man born blind had, that the threats of the Sanhedrin were nothing compared to miraculous power of Christ. The Sanhedrin said that Jesus was not sent from God. The man knew that made no sense. It’s hard to see how the parents didn’t come to the same conclusion.

Before I’m too hard on the parents, though, I need to look at the whole picture. When John introduces the blind man’s plight, he points out that the family lived in a time when all their acquaintances believed the son’s blindness was the result of their sin (9:1-2). They lived all those years thinking that God was already punishing them. Now, the religious leaders were saying that God was displeased with what had happened.

For decades, these parents were beaten down by the religious teachings of their culture. What would that be like? What impact would that have on a person’s psyche? How timid would that make you if you lived such a life? How eager would such a person be to find approval from those who had condemned them for so long?

When I think about it, I have a greater understanding of why the parents reacted as they did. I realize that I can be just like them. I can fear men. I can long for their approval and acceptance.

We, as believers, have been given the greatest news and miracle of all time. The Lord has given us eternal life as a free gift that can never be lost, simply by believing in Him for it. We might be tempted to be like the parents here. We may be hesitant to proclaim what has happened because of what others might say, do, or think.

That is an understandable human reaction. That is what the parents did. Let’s not follow their example.