“His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews. For the Jews had already determined that anyone who confessed Jesus as the Christ would be put out of the synagogue” (John 9:22, BSB).

This verse comes from the story of Jesus healing the blind man, a man who was born blind; I once was blind, but now I see. The Pharisees are struggling with this big miracle. They don’t want to believe that the man was born blind. They ask for his parents to verify the story. The parents tell the Pharisees that he was born blind, but that they didn’t know anything else. They say, “Our son is of age, ask him.” That’s where our verse comes in. They said that because they were afraid of the Jews. Why? What does the verse say? The Jews were kicking out of the synagogue anyone who confessed Jesus as the Christ.

Jesus was challenging the Jewish leaders. He was challenging their system. He was challenging what it meant to be righteous and obey God. He was challenging what it meant to be a believer. While the earlier believers do go and teach in the synagogues, a natural place where people are gathered who are interested in the things of God, they also met together in the homes. They moved out from under the authority of the Jewish leaders. Peter questions their authority after being filled with the Holy Spirit boldness, asking, “Is it right for us to obey God or man?”

The blind man’s parents needed to be put out. God wanted them removed from under the authority of the Pharisees. God wanted them serving Him, not the man-made laws of the Pharisees. God wanted them to rebel against what was obviously not right, to submit to what was clearly the hand of God.

We don’t need to fear the thing we fear. God is perfect in all of His ways. God is only good! If you are His, He is on your side and working for you, for your good, for His glory. We don’t need to hide and maneuver and manipulate situations to avoid the thing we’re sure we need to avoid.

We can submit to whatever God is working out. We don’t need to fear. We need to trust. We NEVER need to fear.