Seeing Things

Fourth Sunday in Lent – Year A

March 30, 2014

John 9:1-41 (The Message)

Walking down the street, Jesus saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked, "Rabbi, who sinned: this man or his parents, causing him to be born blind?" Jesus said, "You're asking the wrong question. You're looking for someone to blame. There is no such cause-effect here. Look instead for what God can do. We need to be energetically at work for the One who sent me here, working while the sun shines. When night falls, the workday is over. For as long as I am in the world, there is plenty of light. I am the world's Light." He said this and then spit in the dust, made a clay paste with the saliva, rubbed the paste on the blind man's eyes, and said, "Go, wash at the Pool of Siloam" (Siloam means "Sent"). The man went and washed - and saw. Soon the town was buzzing. His relatives and those who year after year had seen him as a blind man begging were saying, "Why, isn't this the man we knew, who sat here and begged?" Others said, "It's him all right!" But others objected, "It's not the same man at all. It just looks like him." He said, "It's me, the very one." They said, "How did your eyes get opened?" "A man named Jesus made a paste and rubbed it on my eyes and told me, 'Go to Siloam and wash.' I did what he said. When I washed, I saw." "So where is he?" "I don't know."

They marched the man to the Pharisees. This day when Jesus made the paste and healed his blindness was the Sabbath. The Pharisees grilled him again on how he had come to see. He said, "He put a clay paste on my eyes, and I washed, and now I see." Some of the Pharisees said, "Obviously, this man can't be from God. He doesn't keep the Sabbath." Others countered, "How can a bad man do miraculous, God-revealing things like this?" There was a split in their ranks. They came back at the blind man, "You're the expert. He opened your eyes. What do you say about him?" He said, "He is a prophet."

The Jews didn't believe it, didn't believe the man was blind to begin with. So they called the parents of the man now bright-eyed with sight. They asked them, "Is this your son, the one you say was born blind? So how is it that he now sees?" His parents said, "We know he is our son, and we know he was born blind. But we don't know how he came to see - haven't a clue about who opened his eyes. Why don't you ask him? He's a grown man and can speak for himself." (His parents were talking like this because they were intimidated by the Jewish leaders, who had already decided that anyone who took a stand that this was the Messiah would be kicked out of the meeting place. That's why his parents said, "Ask him. He's a grown man.")

They called the man back a second time - the man who had been blind - and told him, "Give credit to God. We know this man is an impostor." He replied, "I know nothing about that one way or the other. But I know one thing for sure: I was blind . . . I now see." They said, "What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?" "I've told you over and over and you haven't listened. Why do you want to hear it again? Are you so eager to become his disciples?" With that they jumped all over him. "You might be a disciple of that man, but we're disciples of Moses. We know for sure that God spoke to Moses, but we have no idea where this man even comes from." The man replied, "This is amazing! You claim to know nothing about him, but the fact is, he opened my eyes! It's well known that God isn't at the beck and call of sinners, but listens carefully to anyone who lives in reverence and does his will. That someone opened the eyes of a man born blind has never been heard of – ever. If this man didn't come from God, he wouldn't be able to do anything." They said, "You're nothing but dirt! How dare you take that tone with us!" Then they threw him out in the street.

Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and went and found him. He asked him, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" The man said, "Point him out to me, sir, so that I can believe in him." Jesus said, "You're looking right at him. Don't you recognize my voice?" "Master, I believe," the man said, and worshiped him. Jesus then said, "I came into the world to bring everything into the clear light of day, making all the distinctions clear, so that those who have never seen will see, and those who have made a great pretense of seeing will be exposed as blind." Some Pharisees overheard him and said, "Does that mean you're calling us blind?" Jesus said, "If you were really blind, you would be blameless, but since you claim to see everything so well, you're accountable for every fault and failure."

One of the things I've always enjoyed is optical illusions. I find it fascinating how the ways in which our eyes and brain function together, the ways in which we interpret the things we see can be influenced in such a way that we can see things that aren't there, not see things that are there, and see multiple things within a single image. Our eyes are without question one of the most amazing things that God has made about our bodies. Even if we are color-blind we can see a huge amount of variation in hues of colors, seeing literally thousands of different colors. We can tell the difference between different shades of the same color. Our eyes are so adaptive we can see in bright sunlight, and in almost complete darkness. Scientists are amazed with how our eyes and brain are able to take what we see and tell us so much – how fast something is moving, how far away it is from us. Without that amazing ability of our eyes playing catch would be impossible.

Yet, as amazing as our eyes are there are times when I feel like I'm blind. I wander around the house looking for something when it's right there on the table in front of me. I can't see the pain or discomfort in those around me. I fail to notice that a friend has changed their hair style, that they painted a room in their house. I don't know how many times I've spent hours looking for something I thought was hidden that was sitting out in the open. As amazing as our eyes are, we sometimes simply can't see.

Our text from John this morning is all about how sometimes we can be blind to things that are right in front of us. One of the primary themes in John's gospel is light and darkness. We normally think of this in terms of those that have seen the truth, having been enlightened, and those that are still blind to the truth of God being in the darkness. Jesus is the light of the world, and those who do not see that continue to live in darkness. The faithful people are in the light, while others are not. Yet, in our text we discover that it is the religious, faithful folk that are described as being blind, as not being able to see the light, not able to see what is right in front of their faces. And it is literally someone who is blind, who was viewed as cursed by God, seen as excluded from faith that sees.

Jesus encounters a man who was born blind, a person who has depended on others his entire life. There were no social agencies in Palestine to help those who were blind, or deaf, or physically less able than others. People were forced to beg in order to survive, and life was rarely much more than survival. This was not a life that was blessed, it was a life viewed by many as cursed.

There was a common belief that anyone who suffered some sort of tragedy did so because of some failing on their part – do good be blessed, do bad be cursed. If someone was born with a condition such as blindness, or deafness, or a physical deformity, they were paying the price for the wrong doing of someone in their family. Jesus' own disciples seem to think this way as they ask Jesus, “who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:2) Jesus however doesn't believe this. In fact he rejects it completely. Life is not about some big cosmic Karmic scale where our good is rewarded and our failings are punished by blessings and curses. Funny how that's something we still hear in many churches today Jesus though, he says that tragedy and misfortune in the world around us are not to be seen as curses lived out on others, but as opportunities to live out our faith in the works of God, opportunities for kindness and mercy, generosity and compassion.

This false belief about being cursed by being born blind isn't the only thing that the religious authorities seem blinded by; they also are more than a little upset that Jesus chose to bring sight to the man on the Sabbath. Jesus, by bringing healing and wholeness to a man born blind on the Sabbath day has obviously done work, and work was not allowed on the Sabbath, and since he had broken the Sabbath laws, Jesus himself must be a sinner himself – no better than the man born blind. For the religious authorities, a life lived out properly in faith was one lived according to a long list of very specific rules and expectations, to not follow any of these rules was to put yourself outside of God's blessings and thus a sinner. Jesus hadn't followed their rules down to the letter, he hadn't kept the Sabbath suitably holy, he therefore must be a sinner.

Here we find the man who was born blind seeing more clearly than those who believed they could see. The religious authorities come to the man who had been blind, asking, pressing, demanding for some way in which they could show that Jesus had not healed him, that he had not been made to see. If Jesus had done this, what would it mean? Finally in exasperation they cry, “Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner!” As a sinner, Jesus could not have done what he did. Then this man, this man who had been born blind, this man who likely lived on the streets, this man who had likely never been in a school or synagogue, this man who had been shoved aside again and again by those around him, shows he can see more clearly than they, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I do not know. But, I do know that now I can see!”

When bad things happen to us, when misfortune enters into our lives it's easy to lose heart, to get down, to say to ourselves, “What did I do to deserve this?” The reality is that life is often full of misfortune and pain, that life is not always wonderful. Being a person of faith, believing in the words and actions of Jesus is not some magic formula that frees us from bad things happening to us. The reality is, as Jesus reminds us in another passage, “God causes the rain to fall on both the just and the unjust.” (Matthew 5:45) The promise of God is not that we will have lives without difficulty, but that in the difficulty we will not be alone. Faith is knowing that we will never be abandoned by God.

But that doesn't seem like it's enough for some people. There are lots of ways we try and make ourselves feel better, especially as people of faith. We look to ourselves, and others, we pass judgment., we declare other people as sinners while we sit on our holy mountain confident that we are in the right. We are God's children after all. We know what is right and what is wrong, we have the Bible, we have our teachings, we know. How often have we heard, or perhaps even said words similar to those of the religious authorities, “You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?”

Being able to declare that God is on our side is a pretty powerful argument. “Look at our deep faith, look at how we live, look at the ways in which God has blessed us, you know we're right. Can't you see how wrong you are? Can't you see how God is using all sorts of things to punish those who go against God's will? Don't you know that earthquakes, and fires, and floods, and disease, and death are all acts from God to show displeasure? Don't you know that God only listens to the good people, and punishes those that are sinners?”

Yet, if God doesn't listen to sinners, if God only listens to “perfect”, “good” people then we are all in trouble. When it comes to sin, when it comes to labeling who's blessed and who's not, who's a sinner and who's not, perhaps the right thing to do is to heed the wisdom of not being confident in our answers, of allowing God to be the active party and not us.

Our text comes to an end with Jesus making a statement about his purpose in coming, about his mission among us,”I came into the world … , so that those who have never seen will see, and those who have made a great pretense of seeing will be exposed as blind.” (John 9:39 – The Message) There are many different ways we can read the stories in the Bible, there are often many facets to how we can understand the words of Jesus. But I think the message of this text is clear: this story is in Bible to teach us all a lesson. This story is about taking off our blinders, taking off our pious belief that we are in the right, that we are the holy and righteous ones, the ones who God has blessed, that we know who the righteous and unrighteous people are. That we can declare who is the sinner and who is not. This text is a word to wake us up to the grace and mercy and compassion of God.

Jesus' words of warning are for those who make a pretense, a show, of knowing the right and wrong, of declaring they can see. We must be aware, we ourselves must see, that it is not the “sinners” who go around making a pretense, a show, of being holy and pious, of being righteous and of God. No it's the religious folk. It's the pastors and church members, the deacons and elders, the evangelists and missionaries of this world that are the one's making a great show, a pretense, out of their faith, their belief, their religion. It's often us that are the one's going around labeling other people as “sinners.”

The reality of the situation, the reason behind why we do and say the things we do is the same as that of the religious authorities that challenged Jesus and the man who had been born blind. All the religious pretense and show, all the assumptions and declaration, all the words of judgment and prejudice tend to be a front for seeking to justify and validate ourselves, ways of seeking to ensure our inclusion among the righteous ones. And we do so, not only at our own expense, but at the expense of others. Our own confidence in being right blinds us to being able to see what is obvious, what is right there in front of us. Our own self-righteousness, keeps us from being able to see those around us, not as “sinners”, but as beloved fellow children of God. Our desire to be as good as we can in God's eyes, may keep us from seeing other people with the eyes of God; eyes that see with mercy, compassion, and love.

Open our eyes O God; be our vision. Help us to be blind to the things that we need not see, and help us to see the things we have been blind to. Amen.