Text: John 9:1-41 (RSV)
A Man Born Blind Receives Sight
9 As he passed by, he saw a man blind from his birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be made manifest in him. 4 We must work the works of him who sent me, while it is day; night comes, when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 6 As he said this, he spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle and anointed the man’s eyes with the clay, 7 saying to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Silo′am” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing. 8 The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar, said, “Is not this the man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some said, “It is he”; others said, “No, but he is like him.” He said, “I am the man.” 10 They said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” 11 He answered, “The man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Silo′am and wash’; so I went and washed and received my sight.” 12 They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”
The Pharisees Investigate the Healing
13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. 14 Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. 15 The Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, “He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” 16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” There was a division among them. 17 So they again said to the blind man, “What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.”
18 The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight, 19 and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” 20 His parents answered, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; 21 but how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age, he will speak for himself.” 22 His parents said this because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if any one should confess him to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue. 23 Therefore his parents said, “He is of age, ask him.”
24 So for the second time they called the man who had been blind, and said to him, “Give God the praise; we know that this man is a sinner.” 25 He answered, “Whether he is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I know, that though I was blind, now I see.” 26 They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” 27 He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you too want to become his disciples?” 28 And they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. 29 We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” 30 The man answered, “Why, this is a marvel! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if any one is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. 32 Never since the world began has it been heard that any one opened the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” 34 They answered him, “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” And they cast him out.
Spiritual Blindness
35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of man?”[a] 36 He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” 37 Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who speaks to you.” 38 He said, “Lord, I believe”; and he worshiped him. 39 Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.” 40 Some of the Pharisees near him heard this, and they said to him, “Are we also blind?” 41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.
In the Name of God, the Holy and Undivided Trinity. Amen.
Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now am found
Was blind, but now I see.
Just as in that spiritual, it is the grace that Jesus shows this blind man that makes all the difference.
It’s ironic, but true: The only person who sees clearly, who sees the truth, in today’s lesson is the man who was born blind. Seeing is not always believing.
Jesus and his disciples meet this man as they’re leaving the temple, where Jesus has had a series of sharp run-ins with the authorities there. It gets so heated that those assembled there pick up stones to throw at him, and so they’re forced to leave. And, as they do so, they pass this blind man out on the street.
It’s important to note here that this man does not ask to be given his sight. Unlike all other examples in the Gospels, where others approach Jesus and ask him for help, or for the healing of others, this is the only instance where Jesus of his own accord performs a miracle.
The Gospels were not written to be verbatim reports of what Jesus did, so there may have something about that man or that particular situation that struck Jesus and moved him to heal him. We don’t know how old this man is. We never learn his name. He has come down to us as The Man Born Blind or the Blind Beggar. All we know is that he has been blind from birth. Darkness is all he has ever known. He’s never seen his parents, or siblings, if he has any. He doesn’t know what the world looks like – he doesn’t even know what he looks like. Because of his condition, he has spent his entire life as a beggar there at the entrance to the temple.
A significant point of this lesson that we might overlook is this: As they walk by, the disciples look at this man, and ask Jesus, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” There is no indication whatsoever that their hearts are stirred to pity or compassion. Instead, they look at him as if he were some kind of lab experiment. We can’t exactly blame the disciples for this attitude, though – that was the common idea of the day. If something bad happened to you, you somehow deserved it. In the case of this man, since he was blind from birth – though how the disciples knew this is not made clear – it must have been his parents who somehow failed to toe the line, which resulted in his affliction. We like to think that this kind of attitude is outmoded, but any time one of us might utter the words (as I have myself) “what did I do to deserve this?” we’re right back where they were then. Bad attitudes, like bad habits, die hard.
Sometimes, of course, if something bad happens to us, it is our fault – our actions do have consequences. We have that fender bender because we ignored the light. We find we’re overdrawn because we didn’t take the few minutes required to balance the checkbook. We miss an important appointment because we didn’t check our calendar.
But this isn’t one of those times. Every time I read this, I still feel the same way – that this reaction on the part of the disciples is more than a little cold.
Cold or not, this is no chance encounter. Jesus performs this healing to make a very important point. As Jesus says to his disciples, this is an occasion “that the works of God might be made manifest in him.” Jesus doesn’t even try to delve into the man’s past; that’s beside the point. He takes a little dirt, mixes it with his own spit, rubs it over the man’s eyes, and tells him to go wash in the ancient and famous Pool of Siloam. Which the man does, and he finds himself able to see for the first time in his life.
Imagine for a second what that must have been like. One minute, everything is dark – actually, “dark” had as little meaning as “light” – he had no frame of reference, no concept of “light” or “dark.” Then the next minute, he experiences a flood of light, and color, and shapes and textures. It was probably overwhelming!
But all John tells us about this experience is that the man “came back seeing,” because, for John, the point of the story is not so much the miracle itself as it is the reaction people had to it. That’s the real story. And it’s not pretty.
You would think that people – after the initial shock had worn off of seeing a man who’d been blind all his life suddenly running around with perfect vision – would have been happy, that they would have celebrated, that they would have even given glory to God for this spectacular, unforeseen, and glorious event.
But you would be wrong.
Here’s what actually happened.
First, the man’s “neighbors” – presumably the ones who’d been around him every single day – suddenly looked at this man, and developed a sort of amnesia. They actually asked themselves, “Is this really the guy? We’re suddenly not sure.” He assured them, “I am the man.”
Secondly, they hauled him off to the authorities for a hearing! Why? Because this healing had occurred on the Sabbath. A rule had been broken!
Think about this for a minute. No rejoicing here. No heartfelt thanks for this miracle. None of that. Instead, there was suspicion and anger.
I really feel for this man. Mere minutes before, he was just one more blind beggar leaning up against the wall of the temple. Now here he stands in front of the authorities, being grilled by hostile men who previously wouldn’t have given him the time day. “How did you get your sight?” “Who did this?” “What was his name?” “How do you know him?” It’s like something out of a spy movie.
The poor man can only stammer: “The man called Jesus … put clay on my eyes and I washed, and I see.” He could he possibly know how he got his sight outside of what he experienced? He obviously hadn’t seen the man who healed him – he was blind at the time! Even when he returned after washing in the Pool of Siloam, there’s no reference to his seeing Jesus. So the authorities are asking the wrong man.
But they’re not satisfied, these Pharisees. They haul his parents into their inquiry. They need ANSWERS, and maybe they’ll get them now. The parents prove to be another disappointment. “Yes, that’s our son, but how he got his sight back, or who did it, we have no idea. Anyway, he’s old enough to answer for himself – so ask him!”
And they do. The Pharisees call the man back and the grilling begins again: “Give God the praise; we know that this man is a sinner.” The poor man answers, “Whether he is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I know, that though I was blind, now I see.” “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” “I already told you!” Finally, this formerly blind beggar shows them up by telling them that this man is far from being the sinner they think he is, because “If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”
This really strikes a nerve; the end result is that the Pharisees just get so frustrated and angry that they send the man away. They can’t change his story, and the more they question him, the more his responses show them up.
But the story doesn’t end there. Jesus seeks him out, reveals who he is, and the man becomes a disciple then and there.
Then we read the key phrase: “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.” And some Pharisees who heard say this got very uptight – “What are you saying? Are you saying that we’re blind?” Jesus answers that they have convicted themselves with their own words and attitude.
So, what does it all mean? First, those Pharisees thought they had all the answers. They had Moses, after all! Not only that, but they had hundreds of years of tradition that they followed, just as their forebears had. No upstart from nowhere was going to tell them about God!
Over the centuries, the Law of Moses had hardened, had become inflexible. There were no exceptions. Concepts like kindness and mercy had been squeezed out of it, like juice from a grape, leaving only the dry skin. These Pharisees got all hot and bothered by this miracle performed by Jesus, not so much because of what he did – which they couldn’t explain and which was just so far beyond their comprehension – but because he had done it on the Sabbath, when no work of any sort was to be done. Even showing the grace and mercy of God was forbidden. Even performing a miracle that changed the life of a man from darkness and suffering to light and hope was out of bounds.
The Pharisees were stuck. Stuck in their traditions. Stuck in their past. Stuck in their spiritual blindness.
The lesson for us today is to try to find those blind spots in our own thinking; those inflexible rules that no longer help us, but get in our way; those attitudes we have that prevent us from accepting the grace and mercy of Christ, and worse, that prevent us from showing others that grace and mercy – and put them aside.
As we come to the end of our journey through Lent 2017, let us come out of our own darkness and fully into the light!
In the Name of God, the Holy and Undivided Trinity. Amen.