“I Was Blind, But Now I See”

Fourth Sunday in Lent A 2008

John 9:1-41

              Ralph Smith, the former campus pastor at Wartburg Seminary tells an interesting story about how one sees, or doesn’t see the world around us.  He writes:  Late one quiet autumn afternoon I sat on a deserted stretch of beach on the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland.  I went there on occasion to listen to the water and to watch the sun set.  This particular night I heard a car driving through the woods near the beach, about fifty yards away from me.  At first I was angry that someone intruded on my private moment of reflection.  So I watched, irritated, as a middle-aged man and woman got out of the car.  The man went to the trunk and lifted out a wheelchair.  Then the two of them positioned themselves by the back door and lifted out a young man, perhaps 18-20 years old.  He was severely crippled and they had to strap him in the chair.  I never saw him move any part of his body by his own power.  They wheeled him through the trees toward an outcropping of rock overlooking the beach.  I wondered what they were trying to do, why they were going through such trouble.  Finally they stopped, and as the sun set and the sky glowed red, and orange and yellow as only sunsets can make it do, the mother carefully, gently, slowly lifted the boy’s head, held it straight and turned it forward, so that he could watch the sunset.

              He went on to say: Every question I have ever had about God, every doubt I have entertained, every theological sentence I have ever read or written or heard, all are somehow embraced, swallowed up by that one, simple moment on the beach:

• beauty was there, creation and wonder
• pain was there too, helplessness, and tears
• love, compassion, and self-giving
• pride, selfishness, seclusion
• my world, their world, God’s world all wrapped up together.

              The ability to see is indeed a gift of God.  Sometimes we see things clearly, other times we miss it all together.  It’s easy to take seeing for granted until we no longer have it.  For those whose eyesight is diminished, or for those who have no eyesight at all, they understand it as a gift more fully.  The surprising thing is that for those who cannot see physically, they are often able to see things in this world that we with eyesight may not be able to see.  The difference in whether we see or not depends on how open we are to receiving it as the gift it is meant to be.

              Chapter 9 of the Gospel of John is a story about a man who was born blind.  He had never been able to see the things or people around him.  Because he couldn’t see, he had to resort to begging in order to stay alive, asking people who walked by him for money so he could eat. He lived in darkness all of his life, that is until he met Jesus.  Rejecting the idea from his disciples that this man was blind because of sin, Jesus took the opportunity to glorify God by giving to this blind man his eyesight.  You would think that this miracle of healing would bring about all kinds of joy and happiness, but instead it stirred up all kinds of commotion and conflict.

              First, it was his neighbors who questioned the man.  They asked, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?”  Some thought it was, while others said it is a man who looks like him.  When the beggar said, “I am the man,” they then asked “Then how were your eyes opened?”  He said the man named Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes and told me to go wash in the pool of Siloam.  Perplexed and unconvinced, they brought the man born blind to the Pharisees.  They also question him, asking how he received his sight.  The man again recites simply what he knows and what he experienced.  Pushed a little further and asked about Jesus, the man says, “He is a prophet.”

              Through the questioning, the man begins to see and understand, little by little, that this Jesus is not an ordinary person, but a man sent by God.  He begins to recognize the power of Jesus to heal, his ability to transform life for those oppressed by sin and society.  As the one who was born blind, he begins to see something the others are not able to see.  The Pharisees refuse to listen to the man’s story, going so far as to question whether or not the man was actually blind, asking his parents to verify his blindness.  Afraid of what might happen to them, the parents tell the Pharisees that their son is old enough to answer for himself.

              The Pharisees questioned the man again, telling him to “Give glory to God!  We know that this man, Jesus, is a sinner.”  But the man once again holds to his story and simply tells the Pharisees the fact that he cannot deny.  “I do not know whether he is a sinner.  One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”  “If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”  Upon that, the Pharisees condemn him for trying to teach them, driving him out of the synagogue.  The question that continues to seek an answer is who is it that can see and who is blind?

              Upon hearing that the man was cast out of the synagogue, Jesus finds the man and enters into an important conversation.  Jesus asks him, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”  And asking who the Son of Man is, Jesus replies, “You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.”  The man responds, “’Lord, I believe.’  And he worshipped him.”        

              That question is the crucial one.  “Do you believe?”  Your answer will determine whether or not you can see or remain blind.  Are you able to see Jesus as the way of salvation, as the way of forgiveness and life?  Jesus entered into the darkness of this world, doing battle with the darkness of sin and evil, dying on the cross and being raised from the dead.  Through his death, Jesus forgives the sins of the world, your sins, my sins, and through his resurrection from the dead Jesus creates life, new life, shining light upon all the darkness of our lives and of this world.  There is no place the light of Jesus does not shine.  There is no darkness to dark for Jesus.

              The gift of sight is explained by Martin Luther in his meaning to the third article, “I believe that I cannot by my own understanding or effort believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him.  But the Holy Spirit has called me through the Gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, and sanctified and kept me in the one true faith.”

Those who do not see in our story are not the physically blind, but the spiritually blind, like the Pharisees who trusted in themselves and failed to see Jesus in all of his glory.  The gift of sight for the blind man is given in order for us and all the world to see and respond to Jesus’ claim, “I am the light of the world.”  Jesus opens our eyes to seeing the world in a new way.  Jesus gives sight to those who live in darkness.  Jesus shines light upon the truth about God.  In Jesus, God loves you.  God forgives us.  God gives to you a new life.  God is with you always.  With the gift of new eyes we see Jesus in the bread we eat and the wine we drink, in the water we splash upon the heads of the newly baptized, in the community of believes who go out from this place to serve the poor and the needs of others.  Jesus asks us all, “Do you believe?”  Yes, Lord, I believe.  “I was blind, but now I see.”   Amen.