5LentA20 John 9:1-41 3/21/20

We can look at the history of humankind as a history of lessons we didn’t learn. The Bible is one series of events after another that tell us how God’s people could’ve looked at their past, turned around, and spared themselves a lot of futility and pain and the consequences of short-sightedness and limited vision. They could’ve avoided centuries of hatred, homelessness, and death. But most of the time, they wouldn’t turn around to see better. That sounds a lot like today, doesn’t it?

The heart of today’s Gospel reading is really about preventable blindness. It centers on a miracle; a parable acted out. Jesus gives sight to a man who was blind from birth. Without question, this is a miracle, but nearly everybody misses the point of it. The disciples
want to know why he was blind in the first place. “Who sinned?” they ask, this man or another, that he was born blind?” The Pharisees want to know how an unauthorized nobody could heal anyone of anything.

Strangely enough, Jesus really doesn’t have a big part in this story. He just basically performs the healing without any drum rolls or spot lights. He disappears from the scene, leaving a poor guy who didn’t even ask for this in the first place with a better pair of eyes and a lot of unanswered questions and controversies. Can’t you picture this scene?

The disciples are off in one corner tied up in knots over somebody’s sin. The Pharisees surround this man who has no time to even learn what he’s seeing for the first time and bombard him with legal mumbo jumbo about healing on the Sabbath! Even his parents come forward and back away, scared stiff about how they’re going to look. They can’t see past their own status and safety issues to rejoice about this wonderful new life given to their son!

What does Jesus see in this man? He’s illiterate. He had been blind since birth, so he couldn’t read or write; no one would have bothered to teach him a trade. Begging was his only option. But somehow, this nameless beggar sees the truth right in front of him. He has an instinctive knowledge of God.

His faith may have been simple, but there was nothing to obstruct his view. He has spent his life using his blindness as a source of strength rather than a source of weakness and dependence. Jesus knows that this man is much closer to the kingdom of God than the learned Pharisees. The healed man is the only one who gets the point; he was blind and now, thanks to Jesus, he isn’t!

At this point, it would be very easy to look at the Pharisees from a distance, judge them, and walk away feeling superior. It would be easy, and it wouldn’t be right. Blindness comes in many forms, and we are by no means immune to it. The sequence of humankind’s response to brokenness in many forms isn’t complicated. There is blame. There is blindness. And eventually, there is blessing.

The disciples floundered around looking for causes for a congenital defect as if this would somehow make a difference to them or to him. The community can’t even recognize the man born blind, simply because he’s no longer sitting and begging by the side of the road! How many times do we choose to close our eyes to whatever we don’t want to recognize?

Blame is a lot easier than becoming agents of the healing and hope that God brings to any situation or human condition. Many of us deliberately choose preventable blindness instead of active discipleship. When we really see, really know, really feel, then it’s up to us to do the real, down in the mud work, to bring justice and healing into the world around us. If we don’t, then we’ll just keep stumbling around and messing up more of the world than we make better together.

Y’all, I know this is a scary time for all of us. Like you, I’ve been washing my hands, sharing some of my extra stuff with my neighbors, overdosing on the news, and trying not to go stir crazy! I long for the day when I can go to a fun place to eat with my friends and pick
up the junk food I crave! During my walks, I pray for you to be safe, well, and a lot less scared.

When Jesus was on the road and encountered the blind guy, he didn’t see a problem, a curse, a burden on society, or somebody who deserved the life he had been given. Jesus didn’t blame the patient for his physical condition. Jesus made a way for wholeness and healing to be possible. If we could see with God’s eyes, there would be a lot more mercy and a lot less fury. With God’s eyes, we also can’t avoid responsibility.

The journey of Lent helps us identify our blind spots and seek God’s healing and restoration. The same Savior who healed a man born blind stands ready to transform our lives, no matter what form it takes. During this season, we’re called to walk in better light, to anticipate and participate in God’s love.

If Jesus can take a little bit of mud and use it to change somebody’s life, then surely we can help create little miracles of loving care to keep kids from going hungry, families losing their homes when parents lose their jobs, pressuring those in power to do their jobs, and remembering how to be human when we’re scared.

I can’t guarantee that you’ll stay virus-free in this mess, but I can absolutely promise you that you are completely loved. God’s hands will not drop you. God’s heart will never be closed to you regardless of whatever is buried in your personal history. And God will never leave you when things go bump in the night.

May God bless, protect, encourage, and bring you peace. And if you need a friend to help you get through a crunch, just call me. I don’t care what time it may be! I know what it’s like when you need somebody to see you…and I know what’s it like when your inner world becomes new. A new day is coming and we’ll get there together! Take good care of you…

Courage, Peace and Amen!

Rev Bev