Seeing our Blindness

March 30^th, 2014       “Seeing our Blindness”    Rev. Heather Jepsen

John 9:1-41

          Our texts for this Lenten season are rich with story.  We began with the temptation of Christ in the wilderness and then we encountered Nicodemus the wonderer who came to Jesus at night.  Last week we thought together about the woman at the well and her experience of Jesus as living water.  And this week we have another powerful story; the healing of a man born blind.

          Our story begins simply enough; Jesus is walking along the road with his disciples when they spy a blind man.  The disciples are not interested in helping or healing the man, they simply want to ask a theological question.  “Who sinned?” they wonder.  Is it this man’s fault he was born blind or does the blame belong with his parents?  Jesus shoves that question aside, saying instead that this is an opportunity to show the glory of God.  The man has not asked to be healed and yet, much in the manner of other healers in his day, Jesus spits on the ground to make a concoction of mud which he spreads upon the poor man’s face.  Jesus then sends the man to wash off the mud and gain his sight.

          The man follows Jesus’ instruction and miraculously he is now able to see.  This should be an occasion for joy and celebration, but that couldn’t be farther from what happens.  The man returns to his community and the people are dumbfounded.  Surely this cannot be the same man they say.  Some even argue that he is literally someone else.  It as if throughout his life they only saw his blindness and never really saw him.  Now that he is no longer blind they don’t recognize him anymore.  Finally the townspeople ask him how it is that he can see and he tells them what Jesus has done for him.  Unable to locate Jesus to confirm the miracle, the townsfolk bring the man to the Pharisees.

          The man is hauled out before the council of Pharisees and now we find out that this healing has occurred on the Sabbath.  The Pharisees ask how the blind man was healed and he again testifies to his encounter with Jesus.  The Pharisees are trapped in a bind.  According to the belief system they follow, one mustn’t do any work on the Sabbath.  Even to heal someone on the day of rest is prohibited by the laws of God and is an act of sin.  And yet, clearly this man’s sight has been restored and only someone who is from God could perform such an act.  As a ruling community they are divided.  Is this an act of God or the trick of a sinner?  Again they question the once blind man who now says that Jesus must be a prophet.

          The Pharisees feel like they don’t have enough information to make a decision so now they call in the blind man’s parents.  “Is this your son,” they ask “how is that he can see now?”  The parents of the blind man are savvy, and they know that to proclaim faith in Jesus means they will be kicked out of the church community.  “He’s an adult, ask him yourself” they say. 

          So the Pharisees again call the blind man before them, demanding that he admit that Jesus is a sinner for healing on the Sabbath.  Understandably the blind man is now annoyed.  He responds to their requests with questions and jibes, “perhaps the Pharisees want to know so much so they can be disciples of this man Jesus as well” he wonders aloud.  Finally he resorts to logic, “No one can open the eyes of the blind except one from God, so clearly this man was from God.”  Frustrated the Pharisees reply, “You were born in sin blind man and now you are trying to teach us?” and they kick him out of the worshipping community.

          Alone and rejected on what should have been the happiest day of his life, the blind man once again encounters Jesus.  Jesus asks him if he knows the Son of Man and eager for truth the blind man urges him to show him such a person.  Jesus declares that he is the one and the blind man immediately falls down to worship.  Jesus then gives the punch line to the story, for while the man can now see, his healing has highlighted the blindness of others.  Pharisees standing nearby ask Jesus about this and he makes it clear that they, in their treatment of the blind man, are the ones who remain blind and trapped in sin.   

          This is a rich story and there are countless themes I could speak on this morning but today I simply want to point out a few things.  First of all, don’t you think it’s strange that when the people talk about why the man is blind they are eager to find the work of God as punishment of sin and yet no one wants to believe that his healing was from God?  The early theme that the disciples bring up runs throughout the story, “who sinned that this man was born blind.”  Everyone wants to find someone to blame.  There has to be someone who is a sinner here and that is why God has made this bad thing happen.  Is the man a sinner, or were his parents?  Is Jesus a sinner or are the Pharisees? 

          So often in our lives when bad things happen we immediately ask why.  “Why God, is this happening to me?  What did I do wrong?”  We sometimes look at other people who suffer and try find reasons in our minds for why they suffer.  “He eats too much, she drinks too much, she parties too hard, he sleeps around, if only they were a better Christian and went to church then God wouldn’t punish them like this.”  Just like the disciples, when we see calamity strike sometimes we are tempted to wonder, “Who sinned?”

          And yet, when blessings occur in people’s lives, we often say it was simply fate rather than attributing the act to God.  Especially when good things happen to people we feel are undeserving.  In Jesus’ day, a man born blind was assumed to be cursed by God; he was an outcast and a sinner.  For a blessing to have happened to such a one, without his even asking or showing faith, was a shock.  It’s no wonder people were upset and confused.  In our own lives, we all know people who seem to receive blessings even though they do not seem to be good people.  How do we respond to this?  Often just like everyone in this story.  “That blessing can’t be from God, it must be something else” we say to ourselves.  And yet, who are we to judge who God will bless and who God won’t?

          Another interesting thing about this story is that Jesus is largely absent.  He appears at the beginning of the story to heal the blind man, but once he sends him off to wash Jesus disappears.  It is not until the very end of the story, when the blind man has been rejected by his community, his family, and his church that Jesus finally reappears.  This whole story is centered on an argument about who Jesus is, and while people argue, Jesus is nowhere to be found. 

          Studying this story this week I just couldn’t get over this.  While everyone is busy arguing about who Jesus is, he is absent from their midst.  And yet, when people stop arguing, and are willing to let Jesus show them who he is, suddenly he is on the scene again.  In heated conversations within and between churches, how often do we argue about the person of Christ or what his will might be?  People come to the table with their minds already made up about who Jesus is, and from that position they argue only their point of view.  In this story, the writer of the gospel of John seems to be telling us that when we do this, when we argue about Jesus, then Jesus is not among us.  But when we are ready to listen, when we open ourselves up to the possibility of new thinking and new understanding, then Jesus is there.  When the blind man is willing to listen and learn about the Son of Man, then Jesus appears to teach him.

          The final theme I want to pluck from this rich text is the counter play between blindness and sight.  The story of course, is about physical blindness, but the writer of the gospel makes it clear that this story is about spiritual blindness as well.  At the beginning of the story, the blind man is healed, not because of faith but simply as a work of God.  Upon his healing, the man has no sudden faith response; he simply states that the man called Jesus is the one who healed him.  But as he tells his story, the blind man begins to see more and more just who Jesus is.  In his encounter with the Pharisees the man then claims that Jesus is a prophet and finally that Jesus is clearly a man of God.  It is through sharing his story with others, testifying to his experience with Christ, that the blind man’s eyes are opened spiritually.  His faith has grown so much that in his final encounter, when he finds Jesus to be the Son of Man, he falls to the ground to worship him.

          By contrast, the other characters in the story, though they can physically see, remain in a state of spiritual blindness.  The townspeople can’t believe that such a man was healed and so they refuse to seek out the Christ.  The blind man’s parents are so afraid of being cast out of their church community that they too refuse to seek out the one who has healed their son.  And the Pharisees, so convinced of their righteousness in the law, cannot see that one from God might heal on the Sabbath.  As they continue to argue with the blind man they continue to delve deeper into a spiritual blindness, such that they finally drive him out of their own church community. 

          At the end of the narrative, Jesus says that he “came into this world so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.”  This is a great example of the often cryptic sayings of Jesus that appear in the gospel of John.  And yet, as we examine the story, we can get a sense of what Jesus is talking about.  He has come into the world to open our eyes about who God is.  If we are not willing to open our eyes, then Jesus has come to show us just how blind we are.  Every time we feel we have the single right understanding of who Jesus is, we would be wise to remember this story.

          As a worshipping community we are now halfway through our journey of Lent.  This has been a time for us to wonder together about who God is and who we are in relationship to God.  This morning’s lesson calls us to once again examine ourselves.  Are we too quick to judge who around us is worthy of God’s blessing and who is not?  Are we so busy arguing about who Jesus is that we have driven him from our midst?  Are we so sure that we have a handle on what Christ came to do, that we are blinded to the real Christ standing before us?  Our story this morning reminds us that Christ can be found only among those who are willing to open their eyes to his presence.  As we continue our journey to the cross, may we be willing to see the person of Christ in a new light each and every day.  Amen.