Healing the blind
why Jesus seems obsessed with blindness
John 9:1-41
As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. 4 We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 6 When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes, 7 saying to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see. 8 The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some were saying, “It is he.” Others were saying, “No, but it is someone like him.” He kept saying, “I am he.” 10 But they kept asking him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” 11 He answered, “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.” 12 They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”
13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. 14 Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. 15 Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight. He said to them, “He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see.” 16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not observe the Sabbath.” Others said, “How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?” And they were divided. 17 So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened.” He said, “He is a prophet.”
18 The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight 19 and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” 20 His parents answered, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind, 21 but we do not know how it is that now he sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” 22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. 23 Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”
24 So for the second time they called the man who had been blind, and they said to him, “Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner.” 25 He answered, “I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” 26 They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” 27 He answered them, “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?” 28 Then they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. 29 We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” 30 The man answered, “Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will. 32 Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” 34 They answered him, “You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?” And they drove him out.
35 Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” 36 He answered, “And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him.” 37 Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.” 38 He said, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshiped him. 39 Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see may see and those who do see may become blind.” 40 Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard this and said to him, “Surely we are not blind, are we?” 41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.
[Photo by lonely blue on Unsplash]
You may have noticed as you read the Gospel accounts of the life of Jesus that the book of John stands out from the rest and indeed if you know a little bit about the Bible you probably know that while the other three are called the synoptic gospels because they seem to see Jesus through the same lens, John sees with different eyes.
Clement of Alexandria (2nd century) said that while the other Gospels set forth “physical things,” John wrote a “spiritual Gospel.” John Calvin (16th century) said that while the Synoptic Gospels reveal the body of Jesus, the Gospel of John reveals the soul of Jesus. A number of people would claim this book of John as their favorite book in the Bible and I think the opening prologue which starts out by echoing Genesis, “In the beginning was the Word…” is some of the most beautiful prose I have ever read.
Ninety percent of the material found in John’s Gospel is unique and finds no parallel in the other accounts. The story we heard last week about the woman at the well and today’s story about the healing of the man blind from birth are preserved ONLY in John’s Gospel. Of course, there are at least three other stories of how Jesus healed the blind contained in the other Gospels. But while those are usually short, succinct, straight forward healing stories, this one stands out for its length and complexity.
There are so many great lessons in this story that I would like to take some time to examine each one in depth.
At the time of this healing, Jesus and his disciples are in Jerusalem for the Festival of the Booths and he has just come from teaching in the Temple, where he saved a woman from being stoned to death for adultery by saying, “let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone” (John 8:7). As he walks out of the Temple, he encounters a man blind from birth. (vs. 1)
As they walk by, the disciples question whose sin caused this blindness (vs. 2). This is a prevalent understanding of sin found in Judaism and other religions. They believed that if you sinned you received your punishment in this life. This is a form of retributive justice. If you recall Job’s friends exhibit this sort of understanding by begging him to confess his sin so that he can be restored to health and wealth. But Job knew he did not sin and did not deserve the calamitous events that had befallen him. We, the readers know too because we are told from the beginning that Job is righteous and that Satan is testing him.
Retributive justice is how WE do things, that is HUMAN justice, not God’s justice. This is our best idea. Humans want a world that MAKES SENSE, where everyone gets what they deserve, good and bad – where everything is FAIR. God’s justice is not retributive, but redemptive. No one gets what they deserve, as Jesus taught in the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard.
The workers in the vineyard all get paid the SAME amount no matter how many hours they worked – how FAIR is that? For the ones who worked all day, LESS than fair and for those who worked only one hour, MORE than fair. Fairness is somewhere in the middle – an act of balancing resources with care. But our scale is not ACCURATE and we are reminded again and again to leave the judging up to God. On the other hand, God’s justice seems to be: give each what they NEED – since each worker has the same needs for living, shelter, food – each receives the same pay.
The first lesson Jesus teaches his disciples in this story is that you don’t always get what you deserve. This man did NOT sin, nor did his parents. On the contrary, this man was born blind so that Jesus could find him on that day and demonstrate the healing power of God. I find this an interesting take on why there is suffering in this world. Your troubles may be a HEALING WORD to someone else. Your suffering may hold LESSONS for other people.
At our care ministry seminar, we were taught that our life experiences give us wells of empathy to draw upon. As one who has suffered the loss of a parent and a husband, I can better understand those who now walk that same path and be a light for their way. Each unique experience gives me resources which I can then use to help others. It is the same for each of you. You have experienced things which have taught you valuable lessons and which can then assist you in guiding others.
The second thing I noticed in this lesson comes from the reluctance of the Pharisees to believe in this SIGN from God. Can you imagine a blind person coming to sight? It’s just not something that happens EVERY DAY and yet, here was this miracle performed in their own backyard and the Pharisees start conducting an INQUIRY like it’s some kind of crime!
They question the man about PARTICULARS of the healing and ask: who did this? Then they question his PARENTS because they don’t believe he was actually born blind and then they question him AGAIN about Jesus.
In the end they dismiss him as a miserable sinner and not worthy of their consideration, burying the evidence that God was at work in this man from Galilee. By dismissing the miracle, they can continue in their denial of God as evident in Jesus. We are told that they have made it a crime, that anyone who declared Jesus as Messiah would be put out of the synagogue (vs. 22).
It’s almost like they KNOW but REFUSE TO ADMIT that Jesus is the Messiah. They just are not ready for all that might mean for their lives and for their religion.
Did you ever wonder why Jesus heals so many blind people? I mean, how many blind people can there be? (3% of children in US) I don’t even KNOW any person who was born blind. Maybe there’s something metaphorical going on here?
Also, note the line, “I was blind, now I see” in verse 25 which is quoted in one of our favorite hymns.
Third lesson – Jesus reveals his true identity to the once blind man – meaning that we must have our eyes opened BEFORE we can believe. This is referring to spiritual blindness, or the inability to recognize Jesus as the Son of God – that is why the Pharisees are “blind.” There are other places where Jesus ties faith to healing. He tells the paralyzed man, your sins are forgiven, take up your mat and go home and to the hemorrhaging woman he says, your faith has made you well. Salvation, that healing of the soul, is inextricably tied to faith.
We are healed by faith and salvation equals wholeness.
You may ask, why do I need to be saved? I feel fine, my life is going well. I am perfectly fine without God.
But what we see in the life of Jesus is that he brings HEALING and WHOLENESS. The wholeness of being is linked to mind, body and spirit. When you focus on one aspect of yourself you may neglect another, but Jesus sees that ALL PARTS of your being are inextricably linked. Jesus may be mostly concerned with our SOULS, but he goes around healing people’s BODIES. He makes them whole. He restores SIGHT to the blind man, he restores MOBILITY to the paralytic and he restores the SKIN of the leper. The healings of Jesus are legendary – so much that he has earned the moniker – the Great Physician.
The restoration of ALL PARTS of being seem to be important. I am reminded of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. He theorized that BASIC needs must be met before HIGHER needs can even be considered. Food and shelter must be secured before one can think about safety and after that loving relationships, self-esteem and what he termed self-actualization.
I’ve come to believe that the FULLEST EXPRESSION of humanity lies in our identity in Christ. Christ came to give us life and life at its fullest. We can only find our true nature and fullness of being when we know God.
As Irenaeus states, “The Glory of God is the human being fully alive.”
God wants us to be the BEST that we can be. The same thing that all parents want for their children.
And lastly, Jesus ties SIN to BLINDNESS, hinting at the metaphorical meaning of this story and why curing blindness seems to be an important pastime for Jesus, saying, “For JUDGEMENT I came into this world, that those who do not see may see and that those who see may become blind” (vs. 39).
You will notice that Jesus in John’s gospel often speaks in riddles.
I was caught off guard by the term judgement here. Jesus speaks of sin as being blind to the revelations of God. And so that makes sense that he is always healing the blind. They are SPIRITUALLY blind. They fail to recognize the works of God in this world.
We also are SPIRITUALLY BLIND. I think we often fail to recognize God at work in the world and tend to attribute any good thing to good luck or the work of our own hands and this is SIN.
The blind man comes to FAITH through this story. Notice he first identifies the one who healed him as “the man called Jesus” (vs. 11). When the Pharisees question him the first time he calls Jesus “a prophet” (vs. 17) and the second time he tells the Pharisees that “if this man we not from God he could do nothing” (vs. 33) and at last when Jesus talks to him he declares (vs. 38) “I believe.”
His BLINDNESS cured, his FAITH restored. Wholeness of body - salvation granted.
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One way of understanding the work of Jesus on earth, including the crucifixion, is by seeing Jesus as a Moral Exemplar. Jesus is the most PERFECT human that ever walked the earth and set a standard of morality that we are to follow. And that is true, we often look to how Jesus behaved in certain situations and take lessons from that. Also, his willingness to go all the way to the cross and die for the love of us is an example we are to follow. He laid down his life for his friends, in love. This perfect love demonstrated an example for us to follow – we also are to lay down our lives for others in love.
I see this as a call to unselfishness. A call to see others as they truly are and to love them. And a call to service – our work should be to better humanity as a whole and not just our own situation.
Were You There?
The song Were You There invites us to imagine standing at the foot of the cross where Jesus hangs. Julian of Norwich received several visions of Jesus dying upon the cross when she lay seriously ill in 1373. She later recorded her visions in the book Revelations of Divine Love. What Julian took away from these visions is the deep love that God bears toward us, his children. This contemplation of the crucifixion builds empathy within us. Often we turn from that which is difficult to comprehend or that which brings up strong emotions in us. By keeping our eyes open to even the most difficult things we become less blind and increase our faith.
It’s funny that at the outset of the story the Pharisees accuse the man of sin because of his blindness and call Jesus a sinner because he heals the man on the Sabbath (a big no no)!
But in the end the PHARISEES are the ones revealed to be sinners because, even though they see, they keep their eyes shut and they refuse to recognize Jesus as the True Messiah.
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Prayer
Holy God who walked the earth all those years ago in Galilee, hear us as we pray. No longer do we wish to be blind, but to made whole through the work of Jesus. Our faith is small and our eyes shut to the truth, cure us of our spiritual blindness so that we may see you in all your glory on the cross demonstrating your perfect love for us. Cure us in love and set us to work loving others so that your kingdom may be established on earth. AMEN