Sunday, March 22, 2020

John 9:18-41

As we conclude the story of the man born blind and healed by Jesus, we find the man brought to his parents who testify that he is, in fact, their son. But they say little else for fear of reprisal. The religious leaders, however, are not giving up on this easily. They bring the man back in for questioning and demand of him to disavow his claims about Jesus because Jesus “is a sinner.”

The man gives the simplest, yet most profound response: “I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” He isn’t too much into theological debate. He is living by empirical evidence that his blindness, as he had known it from birth, had been healed. The man also has the wisdom of the streets where he had begged for daily scraps of bread each day, so when they wanted him to describe the scene again for them, he finally said, “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?” They could no longer stand it and banished him, saying, “You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?”

In the final scene of this story, Jesus finds the man who is driven back into the streets, and he answers the question asked in verse 2: “Who sinned?” The answer is that neither this man nor his parents sinned to make him blind, but the religious leaders, who claim that they “see” all they need to see, are in fact, the ones who sin. Jesus turns the tables to say that those who are blind are not the sinful ones … the sinful ones are those who claim to see while simultaneously punishing those who are invisible and who dare to be visible.

It takes courage to move from the place of invisibility into the light of grace … where all are seen … all are heard … all are known. In the light of grace do we then see Christ!

Open our eyes, Lord … we want to see Jesus! Then we will be whole. Amen.