Lent 4
March 26, 2017
John 9:1-41
“Blind but Seeing”
Many of us have trouble
with our eyes. If you're around long enough you may need a pair of
reading glasses. And while medical advances and the use of laser
surgery have made many advances, disease and dysfunction of the eye
is something no one wants to see.
But most of us have never
been blind. And most of us never will be. Maybe you can imagine it by
being blind-folded. Or as you fumble around in the middle of the
night. But true blindness – not being able to see at all – we may
have a slight chance of it by accident or disease, but at least we
weren't born blind, like the man in our Gospel reading. Or were we?
I don't have to tell you
that physical blindness is an apt metaphor for being spiritually
blind. In fact, in the last few weeks we've heard of Nicodemus, who
was blind to some basic teachings of the kingdom, and the woman at
the well, whose eyes were also opened by Jesus. Now the man born
blind, whom Jesus heals. But as we ponder blindness and sight, sin
and forgiveness today, let's also remember that spiritually speaking,
we too are blind from birth. Like the lyrics to that favorite hymn,
“I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see”.
The disciples saw the man
who was born blind, and they wanted to know why such a thing would
happen. They assumed that his blindness was a punishment for a
particular sin. But they weren't sure whether he himself, or his
parents were to blame. When Jesus says, “it was not this man who
sinned or his parents” he doesn't mean to suggest that the blind
man or his parents were perfect and holy. Jesus is trying to correct
their reasoning that bad things happen to bad people (and therefore
since I am relatively healthy, I must be relatively good). Baloney.
We are all sinners alike, subject to the sometimes fickle effects of
sin and death in our world. Throughout the New Testament Jesus
repudiates this kind of “you must have deserved that” gloating
from pride-filled observers.
Perhaps the disciples were
blind to their own blindness. Perhaps they were so focused on this
man and wondering what his sin was that they couldn't recall their
own. Indeed, Jesus tells us to watch out for logs in our eyes.
But if the disciples had a
log in their eye, the Pharisees must have had whole trees. They too,
ironically, were blind to the truth. They couldn't see how someone
who broke their man-made rules of Sabbath could possibly be one sent
from God.
So they interrogate the
formerly-blind man. One day soon, they would put the Lord himself on
trial. In both cases they were blind to the evidence before them.
This Jesus was no mere man, no sinner (like them), but he was and is
the Son of God. They were blind. And only later would some of them
see.
It is part and parcel of
our sinful nature to be blind. To not see. To get things wrong.
Turned around. Backwards, even.
We make ourselves God, and
try to make God answer to us. We tell ourselves that God somehow owes
us, and we live in denial that we owe him everything and more. We
think we please him with our good works, rather than trust that
Christ has pleased God with his good work for us.
We have a keen sense of
justice when we are wronged, but are quite lax and flexible with the
law applied to ourselves. We selectively apply the rules of
politeness, kindness, and regard for our neighbor. We know our
neighbor's sins all too well, especially those sins against us. But
when we sin, we are quick with excuses and rationalizations.
We think we know, when we
are ignorant. We think we hear, when we are really deaf. We think we
see, when we are truly blind.
The Pharisees were no
different. Oh, their pride. “You were steeped in sin at birth, and
you would teach us!” We are the teachers of Israel! We are the
children of Abraham! We are the disciples of Moses! We are the ones
who keep the 613 laws! We are the clean, and you are the unclean. We
give to the temple treasury (didn't you hear the trumpets?) We aren't
like those sinners – those prostitutes and tax collectors, those
lepers and outcasts. We're not steeped in sin like this man born
blind. And we would never do work on the Sabbath, like that sinner,
Jesus.
And so such spiritual
chest-thumping goes. But it is madness, and blindness. And it is us.
We are all the man born
blind. We are all conceived and steeped in sin. We are all children
of our father, Adam. We are sinners who sin, who can see only own
spiritual navels, curved in on ourselves, who cannot see God. We are
all the pharisees, blind to our blindness, but convinced we see it
all, know it all. We think the good people prosper, or deserve to.
And that the bad people suffer, and deserve to. And of course, we are
the good.
It is part and parcel of
our sinful nature to get things wrong. Turned around. Backwards,
even.
But God's way is
different. Mysterious to us. But it is far better, in fact, it is
divine.
One seminary professor,
Dr. David Scaer, puts it this way:
“...The divine economy
is different from ours. You cannot come to a conclusion about the
morality and sanctity of any person by the amount of suffering he has
experienced. The suffering sinner turns out to be God’s saint and
the hawkers of holiness are rejected by God…Human suffering is not
only an opportunity for God to show that He is and remains the
creator; human suffering is the place where God shows His glory.
Jesus dies so that through the resurrection God might finally
demonstrate to the world who He really is. The Son of Man is lifted
up so that all men may be drawn to him, not in the magnificence of
creation, but in the glory of the suffering of the cross…God
approaches us through what we find reprehensible.”
It is in Jesus that all of
this senselessness makes divine sense.
So Jesus is the light.
Jesus came to take the darkness away. He makes night into day. He
makes blind men see.
No one has seen God except
He who came from God. But in Jesus Christ, we do see God. No one
comes to the Father but by Jesus. But Jesus is the perfect image of
the Father, the exact representation of God, for He is one with the
Father, and He is True God from eternity.
Jesus came into the
darkness, born under the law, to redeem us under the law. In the dark
Judean night, the Light dawned. And on a dark, but good Friday, when
the sun was blotted out and the Lord of Life hung on a cross,
dying... salvation came to light. It was finished, then and there,
for all, forever.
And so this one “Sent by
God”, sends the blind man to the pool of Siloam, which means, “Sent
by God”. No matter that it was the Sabbath, for Jesus is Lord of
the Sabbath. Jesus is the Sabbath-rest of God, who gives us rest from
our sins. He who washed the blindness away for that man, also washes
us clean and new in Holy Baptism. And the scales fall from our
spiritual eyes, as faith comes, and we see and believe.
The little pharisee in our
heart finds it hard to believe. But the eyes of faith see it plainly.
The Old Adam in us fights against it. But Christian baptism drowns
that one daily, in repentance and faith. And so it goes – and so it
goes, as the old and the new continue to struggle and muddle through
this life, growing in faith toward God and love toward neighbor, but
always in Christ, always looking to his light, the only way we can
see.
You have seen him, but
with the eyes of faith. You see him in his word. You see him at the
font. You see him on the altar, under bread and wine. You see him who
speaks to you, and faith says, “I believe.” So turn your eyes
away from your neighbor's sin, and forgive freely. And turn to see
your own sin, yes, but fix your eyes on Jesus, who takes that sin to
the cross. In him, we see forgiveness, life, salvation, and the peace
of God which passes all understanding. May it guard and keep your
hearts and minds in Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
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