“Who is Blind?”

(John 9:1-41)

As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth.  His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”  Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.  We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work.  As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”  When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes, saying to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent).  Then he went and washed and came back able to see.

The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?”  Some were saying, “It is he.”  Others were saying, “No, but it is someone like him.”  He kept saying, “I am the man.”  But they kept asking him, “Then how were your eyes opened?”  He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’  Then I went and washed and received my sight.”  They said to him, “Where is he?”  He said, “I do not know.”

They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind.  Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes.  Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight.  He said to them, “He put mud on my eyes.  Then I washed, and now I see.”  Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not observe the sabbath.”  But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?”  And they were divided.  So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him?  It was your eyes he opened.”  He said, “He is a prophet.”

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 and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind?  How then does he now see.  His parents answered, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but we do not know how it is that now he sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes.  Ask him, he is of age.  He will speak for himself.”  His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue.  Therefore his parents said, “He is of age, ask him.”

So for the second time they called the man who had been blind, and they said to him, “Give glory to God!  We know that this man is a sinner.”  He answered, “I do not know whether he is a sinner.  One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”  They said to him, “What did he do to you?  How did he open your eyes?”  He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen.  Why do you want to hear it again?  Do you also want to become his disciples?”  Then they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple. But we are disciples of Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.”  The man answered, “Here is an astonishing thing!  You do not know where he comes from, and yet, he opened my eyes.  We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will.  Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind.  If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”  They answered him, “You were born entirely in sin, and are you trying to teach us?”  And they drove him out.

Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he found him he said, “So you believe in the Son of Man?”  He answered, “And who is he, sir?  Tell me, so that I may believe in him.”  Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.”  He said, “Lord, I believe.”  And he worshiped him.  Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgement so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.”  Some of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him, “Surely we are not blind, are we?”  Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would not have sin.  But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.”

            A preacher could spend a month of Sundays looking at this story from different perspectives because it is so full and rich.  I’m sure you’ve gathered that, having listened to the reading of the story of the man who was blind from birth.  His blindness was healed by Jesus, but more importantly, he went from darkness to the light of Christ, and he was given new life in the process.  He was given sight. 

            The word sin is mentioned quite often in this story, but we need to understand that when Jesus used the word, he saw it differently than the disciples and the religious authorities did.  They understood sin as bad behavior.  For Jesus in the Gospel of John, sin is a rejection of God and Christ. 

            Through the course of the story, this man who was blind from birth became able to “see” who Jesus was.  Now, at the outset, the religious authorities accused the blind man of being sinful simply because he was blind.  Ancient folks did blame a physical ailment on the bad behavior of the person or of his parents. 

But the ones who should have been able to see, that is the religious authorities, the ones who had been trained in all manner of theological discourse, turn out to be the ones who were shown to be sinful, blind and dwelling in darkness.  That’s today’s lesson.

Now, the thing that struck me this time around in this story was how hard the religious authorities tried to push their own narrative.  They had heard about how the blind beggar had become able to see.  Their first thought, instead of “This is amazingly great,” was to put a lid on the “Jesus is wonderful” talk.  The miracle immediately became politicized. 

Now, folks, this may sound familiar to you because these days everything gets spun in a way that blames one’s political enemies and attempts to make the ones spinning the narrative sound like those in the know. 

I’m sorry to say, but this is what happens when egotistic, narcissistic people create sad situations to push their own agendas. This is what is going on with the religious folks in our story, right? 

…So, let’s go back to the text.  The religious authorities began to make their rounds, talking with everyone involved so that, supposedly, they could get this mystery cleared up.  But what they were really trying to do was to put the genie of Jesus’ healing the blind man back in the bottle.  They questioned the blind man.  In doing so, they realized that the healing had taken place on the sabbath, so they put together their news story that accused Jesus of incorrectly observing the sabbath.  This was offered as a reason for folks to not take Jesus seriously, to see him as an outlier, a sinner.

Then they went to the formerly blind man’s parents and began to grill them about it.  The parents were very cautious in what they told the religious leaders because they didn’t want to get kicked out of church—I mean—kicked out of the synagogue.

After that unsatisfying interview the Pharisees went back to the healed man and went over the same material again.  How did this happen?  What did Jesus do?  When did he do it?  How did he do it?  When our guy started to put it all together for them saying “God listens to those who worship him and obey his will,” he started sounding a bit like a religious leader himself (in a good way).  Meanwhile, the Pharisees began to get even more defensive saying, “You were born in sin and you’re trying to teach US!?” 

So, the worst fears of his parents came true.  They drove our formerly blind man out of his religious community—essentially his church family.  The religious leaders were working so hard to keep everyone under their thumbs and to push back against any insider who was saying and doing things a bit differently, that they had to silence the voice of a man who had learned who Jesus was.  They weren’t going to allow it! 

Unfortunately, this approach to church, to religion, has, at times, been familiar to us.

I’m glad that we are a Reconciling Congregation, which means we welcome everyone here, especially LGBTQ folks.  We made this decision before it was written into the Discipline.  Still, we need to renew and stand firm in our commitment to welcome all into our church family and to encourage those who are seeking a church that is open and affirming to join with us in continuing Jesus’ Gospel work.

So, here we are in today’s text, listening to Jesus stand up for an outsider who came to him for healing.  We have learned about blindness in a way that opens the conversation about who can see and not see.  We “see” (and I don’t use that term lightly) the way that Jesus went about his Gospel work.  He didn’t try to negotiate or stay on the good side of the religious leaders.  He worshiped God in Spirit and in Truth.  He spoke his truth, God’s truth, he sought to do God’s will, and he helped people–and he loved them—and he healed them.

…Folks, our Christianity was born as a rebel group.  Jesus saw how the religious leaders had become brittle and rigid, judgmental of the poor, the weak, the sick, the outsiders, those with no power or money.  The religious system of the time had aligned themselves with those in power and would not go against them.  They had become unbending in their practice of the faith so that anyone who possibly had broken a religious law got no grace at all.  The leaders had become so defensive when anyone questioned them that they drove them out.  And being driven out was way more serious than we can imagine. 

Picture being a widow in the temple.  If you’re tossed out, you have no way of living, really, because only the men had the power and could earn a living.  Picture if you are a family man and your blind son has seen the light, literally, through his relationship with our rebel Jesus, your way of taking care of your family would have been pulled out from under you because the Jewish leaders were in cahoots with the Romans, and the Romans controlled everything, including whether you lived or died.

Well, this institutional way of looking at life (that is, we act good and good things happen to us) is still pretty common for us comfortable folks, but it’s not all that helpful.  It comes from that motivational tool that tells us if we just work hard and do everything right in our lives, everything will always turn out well.  Most of us know that that is not necessarily true.  Bad things DO happen to good people sometimes, and good things do happen to bad people sometimes.  And we know that people get sick not because they have moral failings, but because illness happens.  Still, we can get caught up in that kind of thinking.  …But that’s not Jesus’ way, nor is it the Gospel writer John’s thinking.  Of course it’s not God’s way.

Our guy who was blind from birth happened to be “seen” by Jesus as he walked along.  Though he was in the middle of having a theological conversation with his disciples, Jesus took a minute to spit on the ground, make mud with his saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes.  Then he told him to go to the pool of Siloam to clean up.  Our blind guy went, he washed, and he was given sight!

But as John tells the story in such great detail, as only he can do, we begin to discover that this story is about more than this one man and his obedience.  It’s a story told so that, in the telling, others through the centuries might be able to see, to gain sight.  It’s a witness to Jesus as the Christ, so that WE can see that we can have Life through him, so that we can see that we can live in the Light of Christ, so that we can see how we can be transformed from dark, suspicious, judgmental, mean-spirited folks to those who have sight (whether or not our optical nerve and all its mechanism is working).  The blind man’s answer to all the religious authorities’ questioning was, “I once was blind, but now I see.”

Finally, Jesus’ words to the healed man after the religious authorities ran him out of town were “I came into this world so that those who do not see may see, and those who think they see may become blind.”  The religious authorities heard this and, still defending themselves, asked, “Surely we’re not blind?”  Jesus answered, “If you were blind, you would not have sin, but now you arrogantly say, ‘We see,’ so your sin remains.

The upshot is this: just about the time we think we have all this sin and God and life stuff figured out, we begin to want to tell everyone how clear our vision is.  We may want to instruct them and tell them that they need to think, believe and behave just like us.  We might want to get into discussions during which we will be telling people the way it is and show them just how well we can see.  Well, that’s just about the time when we are the most blind and have lost the ability to really see Jesus….

We all fall into this trap, but we can confess and acknowledge our blindness.  We can humbly claim Jesus as Lord and admit our own need for God’s love and forgiveness, …and in the process we can regain our sight.  I don’t need to ask who wants to be able to see because I know we all do.  I don’t need to ask who needs Jesus because I know we all do.  So, I say simply, let Jesus open your eyes to your need for his forgiveness and mercy.  Let your relationship with Jesus allow you to see.

As we begin to wind up our Lenten season, it’s a good time to realize and confess the ways in which we’ve been blind, and it’s a good time to turn our eyes upon Jesus who can heal our blindness.  Amen.