Phipps, and to the numerous church authorities who have defended Phipps repeatedly with utmost zeal. There is one item in the story we are pondering together that always makes me chuckle. The authorities, unable to refute Peter and John, are reduced to becoming abusive. Such irrefutable demonstration occurs over and over again in the gospel-incidents. In the gospel of John the man born blind is made to see through the touch of Jesus.
Conflict boils up.
Opponents of our Lord want to discredit him. They interrogate the parents of the man who has been granted sight. The parents are afraid of church-authorities who will also ostracise them from the community. Nervously they tell the interrogators that their son is an adult and can speak for himself. I was blind, and now I can see.