My story, Ahavah’s Golem, appeared this last February 2024 in ResAliens Zine Issue #11. Residential Aliens Magazine – expertly edited by Lyndon Perry – features “spiritually infused speculative fiction”. The story is now available on my web site. (If you are interested in reading all the stories in that issue, you will also find the link to the Amazon page.)

The end of chapter 9 of John’s gospel is not the end of that story. (The story of the man born blind.) It continues through John 10 verse 21. The chapter break is unfortunate because John 10:1 follows immediately that conversation between Jesus and the Pharisees about blindness. Almost scoffing, they said to Jesus, “So, we are blind too?” And Jesus’ reply was: “If you were, you wouldn’t be guilty. But since you say that you can see, your guilt remains.”

In the 9^th chapter of John’s gospel, Jesus heals a man who had been born blind. I love that story; especially because of the transformation of that young man who started that morning as a helpless beggar. At the beginning of the story, he is the passive subject of what sounds like an academic dilemma: “Who sinned? Whose fault was it that he was born blind?” But as the story progresses, he goes from passive subject to protagonist; from having no idea who Jesus is to deducing that He is a prophet sent by God, and boldly proclaiming so.

In the last part of this study of John 8, we left on a hopeful note: John 8:30 As he spoke these things many believed on him. Now, this is not anything new. All the way back in chapter 2, John told us: John 2:23 And when he was in Jerusalem, at the Passover, at the feast, many believed on his name, beholding his signs which he wrought. How firm was their belief back then?

We live in a world where it seems there is no easy win: The cure is often painful; the prize is won at great cost; no worthwhile venture is without risk. That is the way it is. Jesus acknowledged that in several parables. Before getting the field with the hidden treasure, the man had to sell all his goods. Before buying the priceless pearl, the merchant had to sell all his other jewels. To find the one lost sheep, the shepherd had to leave the other 99 alone, unguarded. Is it any easier with what Paul calls the “free gift of eternal life”?