John 9:1-13, 26-38
March 30, 2014
© 2014
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Healing the Blind Man
Edy Legrand
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During Lent the Gospel will be presented in worship as dramatic readings before the sermon.
John 9:1-13,26-38
Narrator: As [Jesus] walked along, he saw a man
blind from birth. 2His disciples
asked him,
Disciple: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his
parents, that he was born blind?”
Jesus: “Neither this man nor his parents
sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. 4We must work the works of him who sent me while it is
day; night is coming when no one can work. 5As long as I am
in the world, I am the light of the world.”
Narrator: 6When he had
said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the
mud on the man’s eyes,7saying to him,
Jesus: “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam”
Narrator: (which means Sent). Then he went and
washed and came back able to see. 8The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a
beggar began to ask,
Neighbor : “Is this not the man who used to sit and
beg?”
Narrator: 9Some were
saying,
Neighbor : “It is he.”
Narrator: Others were saying,
Neighbor : “No, but it is someone like him.”
Narrator: He kept saying,
Blind man: “I am the man.”
Narrator: 10But they kept
asking him,
Neighbor : “Then how were your eyes opened?”
Blind man: “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.”
Neighbor: “Where is he?”
Blind man: “I do not know.”
Narrator: 13They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly
been blind.
Pharisee: 26How did he open your eyes?”
Blind man: “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?”
Narrator: 28Then they
reviled him, saying,
Pharisee: “You are his disciple, but we are
disciples of Moses. 29We know that
God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes
from.”
Blind man: “Here is an astonishing thing! You do not
know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. 31We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does
listen to one who worships him and obeys his will. 32Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone
opened the eyes of a person born blind. 33If this man
were not from God, he could do nothing.”
Pharisee: “You were born entirely in sins, and
are you trying to teach us?”
Narrator: And they drove him out. 35Jesus heard
that they had driven him out, and when he found him, he said,
Jesus: “Do you believe in the Son of
Man?”
Blind man: “And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I
may believe in him.”
Jesus: “You have seen him, and the one
speaking with you is he.”
Blind man: “Lord, I believe.”
Narrator: And he worshiped him.
As I listen to the conversations around
Jesus’ healing the blind man, I am both annoyed with the disciples and want a
better answer to their question. Though the text doesn’t specifically say they
were in earshot of the blind man when the disciples asked Jesus whose sin
caused him to be born blind, it does give that feeling. I want to scold them,
“How could you be so insensitive; didn’t your mothers teach you to be more
polite than that?” But like the disciples, I also want an explanation of
inexplicable suffering. I want Jesus to make sense out of senseless calamities.
In this sermon I don’t want to give you simplistic answers to insoluble
problems, yet I do want your faith to be strengthened and your spirits
encouraged.
In my nine months with you, I have heard
again and again, “I don’t understand why God would let Lynne Norwood suffer the
way she did. She was such an example of faith, courage and love. She did so
much for this church and this community. Wouldn’t God have wanted her to keep
going? For her life to be cut short is not only unfair, it seems
counterproductive for God.” Theologically, it is true that God sees more than
we do and has purposes we can’t understand, but that does not satisfy our
questioning. We, at least, want to know what makes our suffering worthwhile and
meaningful.
The past couple of weeks we have struggled with
understanding what happened to Malaysian Airlines flight 370 and why. Instant
global communication regularly confronts us with catastrophes of such scope and
distance that we are helpless to respond meaningfully. For the disciples, the
blind man was in their path in Jerusalem. For us the people of Ukraine, Syria,
South Sudan are digitally abstracted, yet our human kin.
Jesus seemed to have been prompted to heal
the blind man by the disciples’ question. What if they hadn’t asked? The
Gospels record only 26 healings by Jesus. Some were crowds of people coming to
him, but most were individual. John 5:1-9 says many invalids: blind, lame, and
paralyzed lay at the Pool of Beth-zatha, but he healed only the seemingly
passive-dependent man who had been there making excuses for 38 years. After
Pentecost, the Apostles healed a lame man in Acts 3:2 and many others in 5:12. Jesus
must have walked by them when he was in Jerusalem. Why didn’t he heal them?
Jesus’ answer to his disciples’ question
heads them and us in a different direction than we expect.
At first glance, we are relieved to know that
we do not deserve all of our suffering because of our sin. To think that our
pain may bring glory to God sounds ennobling. However, the way our English
translations read, Jesus seemed to be saying God imposed blindness on this man
and his parents, just so Jesus could come along years later and heal him, which
just doesn’t seem fair.
The words translated “so that” (v. 3) can
mean cause, but they can also mean result. So, rather making the man blind so
Jesus could heal him later, God’s glory resulted from Jesus healing him. Either
is grammatically possible, and the commentators understandably prefer the
later.
In Jesus’ answer to the disciples’ question
he went on to say, “We must work the works of him who sent me.” (v. 4)
Rather than pondering an explanation, for Jesus the blind man was an
opportunity for compassionate action. He went on to repeat what he had said at
the Feast of Tabernacles (7:2, 14), “I am the light of the world.” (8:12)
fitting right in with healing the blind man and confronting the Pharisees about
their spiritual blindness. (9:40-41) You may remember that after 9-11, Fred
Rogers said that his mother had told him that to find the good when disaster
strikes, he should look for the helpers. I think Jesus was telling his
disciples and us, that when disaster strikes, we should look for ways to become
helpers.
The blind man did not ask Jesus to heal him.
He didn’t even seem to be aware of who Jesus was at first. Yet, he must have
heard the disciples’ insensitive question and wondered who this was that said
he was the light of the world and was putting mud on his eyes. His healing came
before he expressed faith. He got to faith by stages.
The text does not say Jesus said he would
receive sight when he washed, but he went and washed and came back seeing for
the first time in his life. As this healing was not a restoration to former
sight but seemingly the creation of sight, people could not believe it was the
same man. But he said, “Oh yes, I am the man.” (v. 9) When they asked how his
eyes were opened, he gave a Joe Friday, “just the facts” answer, “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.” (v. 11)
I don’t think the people thought they were
getting the man in trouble when they took him to the Pharisees. I think they
were going to their teachers to help them understand how something so amazing
could have happened. But the Pharisees were already suspicious of Jesus, and
this happened on Sabbath, so their questioning quickly became hostile. The man
is not intimidated. He got cheeky, chided them and said Jesus was from God. (v.
33)
When Jesus heard that he had been thrown out
of the synagogue, Jesus went and found him, but he didn’t either comfort or
commiserate. Jesus asked, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” (v. 35) Though
blindness had prevented the man from learning to read or reading Scripture, he
knew that “Son of Man” was a Messianic title. So with some excitement, he
asked, “Who is he so I can believe in him?” We might paraphrase Jesus answer to
the man who was seeing for the first day of his life this way, “You’re looking
at him!” Just like the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s Well, he immediately
recognized Jesus as Christ, the Son of God and confessed, “I believe.” Without
hesitation that awareness prompted him to worship Jesus.
The man did not ask Jesus, “Why did I have to
be blind for so long?” He probably appreciated that Jesus acted toward his
blindness with power and compassion. I can try to act with compassion when I
see people in pain rather than being paralyzed by trying to explain the
inexplicable. Compassionate action for people I know may be difficult but is
realistic. Whether locally or globally, being overwhelmed by need produces
compassion fatigue. Giving to the Salvation Army or Week of Compassion does
make a practical difference, but can feel distant and insignificant. Whether
the lost Malaysian airliner or the violence in Syria, some suffering seems
hopelessly intractable. Compassionate action is good and important, but we
still long for something more satisfying.
From many people in this congregation and
community, besides questioning why Lynne Norwood suffered, I have heard even
more of how much she gave to others through her suffering. Her courage, her
faith, her love, her determination have encouraged and inspired hundreds, maybe
thousands of people. The practical benefits to this congregation and community
are immeasurable. I would not dare to suggest her suffering was necessary for
those benefits to accrue, but I can affirm that in her suffering she
relentlessly drew on and pointed to Jesus.
Through the centuries Christians have launched
and sustained many of the world’s greatest humanitarian enterprises, but we
don’t have a monopoly of compassion. So whether a one-to-one personal helping
hand to a person in pain or a shared undertaking as a congregation or Christ
based group, drawing on Jesus is essential. Without his spiritual sustenance,
we will soon be overwhelmed and burnt out. While blatantly flaunting an effort
as Christian can be counterproductive and offensive, pointing to Jesus as our
incentive, leader and empowerment gives enduring purpose and offers hope.
True as these may be, they do not get to the
bottom of the mystery of suffering. From Apostolic days, the Church has seen
Jesus in Isaiah 53:3, “a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity.” I
rather like how KJV put it, “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” St.
John of the Cross wrote about his experience of being met by Jesus in “the dark
night of the soul.” Ignatius of Loyola wrote about the rhythm of “consolations
and desolations” intrinsic to the journey with Jesus. When we were living in
the Daybreak community, we were coached to look for the presence of Christ in
the pain of the mentally handicapped core members. For 21 years now, I have
tried to cultivate that as a personal spiritual discipline. When God brings
someone across my path who is suffering, I try to look for Jesus in them. I am
trying to recognize that here is someone who knows sorrow and is acquainted
with grief with whom Jesus identified. Can I identify with them? Can I see
Jesus when I look at them?
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