Podcast Introduction Today we will read John 7-9. I’ll have some comments after the reading, and I’m calling today’s episode “Who Decides?”   Design: Steve Webb | Photo: Ludovic Migneault on Unsplash Comments on John 7-9 But no one had the courage to speak favorably about him in public, for they were afraid of getting in trouble with the Jewish leaders. John 7:13 NLT Many among the crowds at the Temple believed in him. “After all,” they said, “would you expect the Messiah to do more miraculous signs than this man has done?” When the Pharisees heard that the crowds were whispering such things, they and the leading priests sent Temple guards to arrest Jesus. John 7:31-32 NLT  So the crowd was divided about him. Some even wanted him arrested, but no one laid a hand on him. John 7: 43-44 NLT They asked his parents, “Is this your son, the one you say was born blind? Why can he see now?” His parents replied, “We know that he’s our son and that he was born blind. But we don’t know how he got his sight or who gave it to him. You’ll have to ask him. He’s old enough to answer for himself.” (His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews. The Jews had already agreed to put anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Christ out of the synagogue. That’s why his parents said, “You’ll have to ask him. He’s old enough.”) John 19-23 NLT So now I have a question for you. Do these passages sound familiar to you? Do they sound similar to anything that is happening today?  “Cancel culture” is not new, is it? The Pharisees were used to being in control of the public narrative. People were afraid to voice their opinions, if they differed from what the Pharisees taught. The people could see with their own eyes and hear with their own ears what Jesus did and what He taught, and some believed that He was who He said He was, but many were afraid to support Him, lest they be thrown out of the synagogue. But there was one in our reading today who had courage. They asked the man who had been born blind another question: “What do you say about the man who gave you sight?”